Chapter 70: Bandits

Chapter 70: Bandits

The caravan continued down the road as the crude blockade approached. Syl stood atop warily, looking around for any approaching hostiles. Roderick almost felt sorry for whatever brigands decided to ambush the merchants, as they likely had no idea what they were dealing with. Roderick had seen an impressive magic cast like this before, so he was no stranger to the wonders possible through enough mana and dedication, but never had he witnessed it used so casually. When they were within shouting range of the barricade, a lone man stood atop it and shouted at the group.

"Surrender your goods, and we'll let you live!" He demanded.

"Do I offer them surrender?" Syl whispered.

"You can, but they are dead either way. Banditry receives the death penalty, and they know that." Roderick answered.

She seemed to think for a brief moment before nodding and raising her hand. Multiple luminescent green magic darts formed and fired rapidly at the barrier.

"Shit! Fire at will, men!" The man screamed before one of the projectiles struck him.

From behind the barricade, arrows began to rain down, but all the projectiles harmlessly bounced off the bubble spell. Tarps began to lift off, with men hiding in the holes. Roderick overheard Syl muttering a complaint about her [Perception] skill not being high enough. Roderick was ready to intervene but halted when he saw a ball of water flying toward one of the holes. Despite its small size, when it collided, it erupted into a massive torrent of water, flinging the bandits across the ground, and one body even bounced off the bubble.

"Gods. So much water in such a tiny ball. No wonder she's tempting Dewi." Roderick chuckled.

Syl cast her spells with brutal efficiency, and Roderick was rapidly beginning to understand why Harris was so concerned. This was one elf who had seemingly never touched magic before. Imagine what a Grand Magus or Archwizard could do.

'I'm glad she's on our side.'

A few bandits reached one of the bubbles, but their attacks couldn't penetrate the magic defense. Roderick noted that they were barely above level five. Syl took out the ones near the bubbles with arrows from her enchanted bow. Roderick thought the dungeon must have sensed her former archery skills and rewarded her appropriately as the deadly bow took life after life with ease.

'I bet those archery skills took out the Forest King. I'd almost say it's scarier than her magic, with how she hasn't missed a vital point.' Roderick thought to himself.

"Come on, Syl, where's the fire magic?" Dewi shouted nonchalantly.

"I'm worried it might damage the bubbles!" Syl responded, finishing off the last melee combatant.

The remaining bandits were cowering behind the rapidly melting remains of their barricade.

"We surrender!" one of the men screamed, dropping to his knees.

Syl turned towards Roderick with a questioning look, but he shook his head.

'I'm glad she has a conscience, even if it is bandit scum. I hope nobody takes advantage of her goodwill.' Roderick thought.

He was also relieved that she took the quickest method to execute them, an arrow to a critical vital. Some adventurers liked to drag it out, which was unfortunately understandable when you'd witnessed some of their more gruesome crimes, and Syl could easily do that with her corrosion magic.

Once the last of the bandits were dealt with, Syl melted down the last of the barricade and then washed away any remaining acid from the path. Roderick was about to question why she was doing that when he realized it might have harmed the animals or even damaged the caravan.

'Well, she's certainly getting full marks.' He thought with a chuckle.

"Well. We gave her a junk bow, and she was recently a prisoner. Can't exactly blame her for not being her best." Evan pointed out.

"Kurt said she was looking into skill fusions like Attack Mastery." Whitney answered, "If they fused for a higher rank, it might explain the better performance."

"Ranged, Accuracy, Magic..." Dewi started counting off with his fingers, "Melee?"

"With how much Kurt was bragging about those water flails, no doubt," Whitney answered.

Dewi whistled, "Must be some nice bonuses all added together."

"So you've heard our thoughts. What about you, Roderick?" Evan asked.

Roderick sighed. He wasn't happy because his complaint sounded like nitpicking or attacking her character, but it was a truth in the harsh world, "My only concern is that she's too naive. When the bandits surrendered, she wanted to give them mercy. I worry that attitude will lead to her being taken advantage of, or worse, a knife to the back."

There was silence from the group while they pondered Roderick's words. The first to break the silence was Evan, "I agree. She's probably better off working solo jobs or auxiliary roles in bigger operations than joining a dedicated group."

"Yeah, I can imagine some asshole not sharing the loot with her, and she'd think it was normal. The guild automatically splits quest rewards, but any bonus loot or treasure is unmoderated." Whitney added with a hint of frustration, "Running solo would certainly let her put her stealth skills to use as well."

"And then she doesn't have to worry about collateral damage." Dewi said nonchalantly, "As much as I love you guys, not needing to worry about blast radiuses is so much fun."

That earned him a slap from Whitney, although mostly in jest. They continued to chat throughout the night. About their plans in Kaerlin and teasing Roderick about his upcoming wedding. Until Whitney excused herself to take a nap before her watch was due.

I woke up eager for my watch duty with Whitney. The day had felt like a bust, and I gained almost nothing from that encounter, so I hoped to salvage something with some [Perception] tutoring. All the bandits put together gave me one class level, and even my customized bubble spell hadn't leveled up my water magic. My single class level didn't even give me a revelation.

'Well, at least I proved it was possible to improve the spell. And at least the chat with Dewi was fruitful.'

Dewi had pointed out that another way to modify a spell was to split it into multiple projectiles. So far, my spell modifications have only conformed to the principle "bigger is better.". I would have thought multiple projectiles would have fallen under multicasting and Dewi admitted he also had the same thought until he reached [Fire Magic LV 6] and received the spell [Fireflies], which created hundreds of tiny little flames with a single casting.

"When I first got the spell, I had thought I got scammed." Dewi had admitted, "I mean, the previous level was [Fireball]! I was expecting something with more oomph, but then I realized I was being taught the building blocks of splitting a single spell into multiple projectiles."

He demonstrated this by forming five fire arrows in a single casting. I had tried to replicate it by forming two water orbs, but it was tricky even with me observing it firsthand. Dewi had hoped that by showing it to me early, I'd find some success before one of my learned spells installed the knowledge directly.

Likewise, he couldn't wrap his head around compression, as it baffled him, and even when I demonstrated it to him multiple times, he couldn't replicate it. He also said what I was doing seemed physically impossible, but it was happening right in front of him - so he couldn't deny it. He also theorized that, in reality, I was compressing the water mana and not the physical water.

'It's too bad I couldn't just tell him that I had gotten the inspiration from my old [Slime Density] trait.' I thought bitterly.

I did wonder if I'd ever feel comfortable enough revealing my actual race to someone. Would they believe me if I said I won't go evolution crazy? Maybe I could build up a positive reputation in the guild. Or the alternative is to get strong enough that revealing myself wouldn't put me at risk.

'Well, that's for future me to worry about.'