Chapter 52 The Town Of Hammerlin

“Miss, we can go without the food….” I heard the bald headed bandit say. I looked over at him and drew my sword. “Waa! Look at these tasty leaves. I can’t wait to eat them.”

Seeing the bandits all eat the leaves happily, I nodded my head in satisfaction. I turned around to go prepare a spot for me to make camp, only to see that the idiot was still standing there. Drenched from the rain staring at me. “Why haven’t you left yet?”

“I wanted to know why are you so strong?” Charles asked suddenly. To be honest, I also wanted to know why he was so strong. I mean, my stats were off the charts.

[Humanoid Form]

[Name]: Faith Cyrilia

[Age] 12

[Level] 42

[Race] Dragonic

[HP] 20000/20000

[MP] ∞

[Attack Power] 19600

[Magic Power] 19600

[Status Points] 495

[Strength] 1960

[Vitality] 2000

[Intelligence] 1960

[Mind] ∞

[Agility] 1960

[Skill Points] 11

[Skills]

[Appraisal (LVL 10(MAX))] [Military Command (LVL 10(MAX))] [Military Tactics (LVL 10(MAX))]

On top of my stats being off the charts, I still had status points I could use, which may give me an edge over the young man, but the thing was, was that I was a dragon, and he seemed to be human from what I could tell. “How about telling me how a human is able to be this strong at your age.”

“Because I am the hero!” Charles stated proudly, causing me to hold my head. Did he really think just because he said he was a hero that, that would explain his strength?

“No, really, how are you so strong? For me, I am a demi, so it’s only natural for me to be stronger. It’s just I have never met a human near my age that was just as strong as I am.” This was true. My family was mostly made up of half demis. While my mother was strong, she was only strong in magic. My father and brother were both strong due to their dragonkin blood. But even then, excluding my father, since I am not sure how strong he is exactly, I was still stronger than my brother. But here, a human boy who was around my age had strength equal to my own, and even then, I still do not know if he is holding back or not.

I watched as Charles crossed his arms in front of him and fell into thought. “I think it started the day I had a strange dream and some beautiful woman in white with large ti….”

“Get on with it!”

“Ahem….” Charles’ cheeks turned slightly red as he cleared his throat. “The woman said something about how this world needs a hero, so she was granting me the strength to become one. But I had to go out into the world and make people recognize me to become strong. Since then, I have been strong. Although I do remember this one time when I was around five that my mother asked me to pick some radishes, and I came back with a tree.”

I held my head. This kid was just born stupidly strong, and I emphasize the word stupidly. I mean, who mistakes a tree for a radish!? They look nowhere near the same! Plus, if he was able to pull a tree out of the ground at such a young age, what the hell was the story just now about some lady in white? Fantasy? Did he just toss one of his fantasies at me!?

“Ummm? Why are you making such a scary face?” Yes, I was glaring at the boy. I just wanted him to leave so I could finally sleep.

“You got your answer, so please go. I need to rest.” I waved him off, not wanting to waste any more words on him. The sky was already dark, and I wanted to get up at first light.

“Then I will be off. If you are ever in need, remember Charles, the hero of Gravos, will come running! Just call out my name, oh Hero of Gravos, save me, and I will appear. Good day, fair m…. Ouch hey! Don’t throw boulders at me!”

“Then shut up and go!”

“Alright, I will go!”

I watched as Charles walked away with slumped shoulders. I let out a sigh of relief seeing him go. At least now I could finally sleep. I walked over to where my bandits were and undid the barrier over my head, and created a small room made of dirt. It was not too big, just big enough for me to sit inside and lean up against the wall to close my eyes. But before entering, I rebuilt the dirt wall around the bandits’ heads to keep them out of sight. While my barrier would keep others out, it was not foolproof. That is why for good measure, I also set up a few landmine spells around the area.

Only when I was satisfied did I tell the bandits to get some sleep before retreating to my little dirt hut. After placing a small fireball in the center to keep the place warm, did I finally find a comfortable spot and sit down. I am not sure if it was because of how troublesome the day was or not, but my eyelids did not seem to be able to stay open, and I slowly fell into a slumber….

The next morning the rain had stopped, and the sun was high in the sky. To get rid of the bandits sooner, I decided to speed things up with the spell, accelerate. While the bandits screamed for mercy, I arrived at the next town by noon. But when I saw the town, I couldn’t help but feel that it felt more like a city. Tall buildings made of wood rose up over the huge stone walls that surrounded the town. The only entrance seemed to be the big gates to the city. “If I remember correctly, this place is called Hammerlin….”

I walked up to the gate with the tear filled bandits behind me. Of course, the guards quickly stopped me. “State your business.” A guard that looked to be in his mid forties called out. Although the way he said it sounded rude, he did not have any harsh tone behind his words.

“I came to claim a bounty on these bandits,” I said while pulling on the rope behind me. To my surprise, the bald headed bandit dropped to his knees and began confessing all his ins. “Sir, guard, please arrest us, we are no good bandits that rob and kill people. We even sell women and children off to slave traders. If I am not wrong, I even have a three silver bounty on my head.”

“I have a one silver bounty!”

“Mine is two!”

Was this some kind of contest to see who was worth more!? Was my treatment that bad that they would rather be sent to do hard labor than stay another second with me? I have a sudden urge to make them travel all the way to the capital with me! I will show them a thing or two. I mean, even the guard is giving me a strange look! “Maybe I should just wait until I get to the capital….”

“No, no! Miss, you do not need us dragging you down. You can just as easily get our bounties here in this town. Why would you want some dirty, disgusting men following you around?” I watched as the head bandit turned to his men behind him and shouted: “What are you all standing around for? Quickly come to the guard and give him your name! We all got some form of bounty on us! Quickly help the Miss here get paid.” The bald headed bandit seemed to have drunk too much caffeine as he ordered his men around. I was truly at a loss for words.

“So, will you be turning them in or not?” The guard next to me asked. I could tell he was unsure of what to do at this time.

I sighed and waved my hand. “Yeah. Take them.”

“Then please follow me to the headquarters.”

I nodded and handed my rope over to the guard. For some reason, the bandits all started cheering and happily followed after the guard as if they had just gotten away from a horrible monster. But I do not think I was that bad. I kept them safe. I fed them. I even kept the rain off their heads but yet they still seemed to be glad to be getting away from me. I let out a long sigh as I followed after the guard.

When I passed through the gates, I was met with the hustle and bustle you would expect from a large town. The streets were packed with people walking to and fro. The buildings were tall and made me crane my neck just to see the tops of them. The bases were made of stone, while the rest was wood and plaster, from what I could tell. Each building had six or seven floors. I was quite surprised at how big they were. What lined the streets were small stalls where vendors were selling their goods. I made a note to check them out later to see if anything interesting was being sold. “I guess I can consider this officially starting my journey….”