Chapter 37 - The Bandit Leader Subjugation - II

"Alright, I'll be off." Merlin gave the guards a nod before flicking his hood up.

He held the torch out in front of him, the faint torchlight barely illuminating the path only ten meters in front of him.

Merlin could feel his heart pounding as he took a step past the reach of the lantern's light. The hair on his arms stood on end, and an uncomfortable shiver ran up his spine. Believing he'd be attacked any moment now, he prepared himself to jump back into the lantern's light where he knew he'd be safe.

A few seconds passed and he had only taken two steps, it was obvious to see from an outsiders perspective that Merlin had his guard raised, clearly afraid of something hiding in the dark forest.

"Well, you haven't been attacked yet, so you're probably good." The talkative guard quipped.

Merlin slightly chuckled at the remark as the guard received another poke from his more stoic counterpart.

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks." Merlin shook off the feeling of anxiety that swamped his mind as he took a few more steps into the darkness, he still had his guard raised but at least he wasn't paralysed with fear.

Merlin made his way through the forest path once more. The faint torchlight was barely lighting up the surrounding treeline, the best he could see of his surroundings were mere silhouettes of trees. A gentle cold breeze slipped through the trees, fortunately Merlin's cloak protected him from the environment to a degree. The wind was still cold, but the torch provided some level of warmth to counter it.

As he continued on his journey, this time walking instead of running for his life, he started listening closer to the forest's sounds. The leaves rustling in the wind, the sound of crickets chirping around him, the crunchy sound of dirt under his boots as he traversed the well-trodden path. What startled him the most was the occasional flutter of wings, assumed to be a nocturnal predator that had just scored a meal.

Merlin stopped walking when he noticed four light sources in the distance, this seemed to be roughly the location where he had first interacted with the bandits, two of which had met a grizzly fate at the hands of the undead creature. He was a little confused as to why there were four lights, but perhaps more bandits came out at night, unfortunately he wasn't all knowing.

As he moved in closer, he could hear the clanging of metal against metal. It appeared some of the light sources belonged to a different party, one that was hostile to the bandits, whether that be players or NPCs of some sort, guards perhaps.

Merlin was now a short distance away, the ones fighting the bandits appeared to be players, he could see the general design of their clothing, but couldn't make out the details.

"Another one has come, we need to finish this up quickly." One of the players yelled out. Merlin noticed that this player's voice sounded somewhat familiar.

A couple of the bandits turned around, finally noticing Merlin standing a small distance away. One of the bandits was going to speak up when an arrow flew past his head, aimed directly at Merlin.

Barely noticing the glint of the arrow, even amongst the various sources of light, Merlin stepped out of the way, or he thought he had. In reality the arrow had curved slightly, allowing it to make contact, although it was only a slight graze.

There were various types of tracking arrows, but this was different, this was slight mid-air arrow correction, there was only one thing that did it this early in the game, although it was ultimately detrimental to a player's growth, combat assistance.

Merlin clicked his tongue, he didn't appreciate getting shot at, even by accident. A notification appeared before him that instantly improved his mood, and a plan quickly formulated in his mind.

「You have been attacked by player 'LordKyle'. Everyone within their party has been marked as an enemy, you may attack them without receiving penalties.」

Merlin dashed forward, the two remaining bandits took a defensive stance, but then were surprised as he simply ran past them without giving them a second thought. The player with the bow loaded another arrow, but by the time he was ready to shoot, Merlin was already in his face ready to strike and had started chanting a skill under his breath.

「Skill ⟪Sucker-punch⟫ Activated, your next unarmed attack has a 40% chance to trigger the stun effect for 3 seconds.」

Merlin sunk his fist into the player's face, effectively breaking his nose. A notification jingle played in his mind, informing him that the skill took effect. The player tripped over his own feet and fell on his back, he was now stunned for the next three seconds.

An evil grin appeared on Merlin's face, the faint torchlight cast shadows on his face that only served to amplify his maniacal expression. He turned to face the other two players, both of which only had starting equipment, it seemed only the one was lucky enough to get an item drop in the form of a crude goblin bow.

Merlin pounced towards the nearest player, besides the one he just stunned, he drew his gladius, and as his torch got close enough to light up the player's features, Merlin realised who this was.

"Oh hey, it's the goblin's pincushion." He let out a mocking remark before slashing at the player's throat with his gladius.

This person was one of the three who followed Merlin into the Lycoa forest, specifically the first player to fall victim to a goblin, the player who died almost instantly by being pelted with several arrows after stepping into the goblin camp.

The player was about to respond, but before he could do so he received another quick strike across the throat, followed by a killing blow. Merlin's blade cleaved through the player as the corpse dropped to the ground. The player standing behind him screamed when he saw Merlin's eyes lock on to him, he knew he was next. Merlin started chanting as he pounced on that player.

「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack does an extra 5% damage, and has a 10% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」

The player preemptively attempted to block Merlin's blade. Unfortunately for the player, Merlin's attack was surprisingly more powerful than he expected, almost disarming the man. He then attempted to swing his blade at Merlin, however it was obvious that the combat assistance had taken over, and Merlin was already familiar with all its moves.

With little effort, Merlin knocked the player's blade away with his shield before stabbing the player in the chest, piercing his heart. In one quick movement Merlin ripped the blade out before slicing the player's throat, then delivering one more attack to finish him off.

At this point the stun on the player LordKyle had run out, he tried scrambling to his feet quickly. Merlin started walking towards him, his sword still dripping with the blood of LordKyle's friends.

"Get back! Don't you know who my father is?" He screamed, quickly swapping to his sword, thinking it would help him in any way.

"You're seriously going to start throwing family power around in a game are you?" Merlin slid his hood off, completely revealing his identity, although it was kind of obvious already. "Kinda pathetic, honestly."

Merlin knocked the sword out of his hands, sending it sliding across the forest floor. His next move was to stab his gladius into Kyle's leg, pinning him in place before turning to the two bandits he had ignored up until this point, just to ask them a question, "Do you want to rob him or something, or can I finish this?"

The two bandits had been looking on in awe as someone unrelated to them massacred their victims, and then strangely enough turned to them without any hostility in his voice, asking if they'd like to rob them. What an odd situation.

"Why did you help us?" One of the bandits couldn't help but ask.

"Truthfully, because they hit me first." Merlin was pretty blunt with his answer, but he had an idea and amended it to the sentence, "But also, I'd like to join your ranks."

This surprised both the bandits and LordKyle, who was still writhing around in pain. A quest window appeared before Merlin, which was somewhat unexpected.

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[Uncommon Quest]

Infiltrate the bandits.

Befriend or otherwise convince the bandits that you would like to join them and have them lead you to their headquarters.

Find the bandit camp with the help of the bandits.

• Reward: 1 Charisma

└───────────────────

"I'll deal with this, and then we can talk." Merlin gave them a friendly smile before turning back to the layer, his friendly smile returning to the demonic expression he wore previously.

"Now, lets have some fun" Merlin's laughter sent shivers down the player's spine.

"My father could sink your family's company!" He was still rambling off empty threats, it seemed he didn't have any power or at least confidence in any power outside of his father's grasp. Merlin honestly thought the guy was too pathetic to mock, but he had to set an example.

Merlin leaked in very closely, whispering something into his ear. "This is what happens when you parade around like a fool without realising who you're talking to."

"You really don't want to compare fathers. Mine could have yours buried with a single phone call." Merlin sighed, the player continued being a pain, so Merlin decided to kill him, at least after one quip. "Here's a tip, spend your weekday googling my name, see what comes up."

Although he kept a reasonable low profile, as the chairman's son, his life was already available on the internet for all to see, they had also attempted to acquire information on those he spent time with. due to some pressure from his father Merlin only dealt with the occasional stalker, better known as paparazzi, while his friends were safe.

Merlin ripped his sword out of him before bringing it down on him once more, a few strikes later and he was gone, yet unfortunately for Merlin, the bow hadn't dropped.