Aidan, naturally, questioned why the bandits were doing banditry in the first place. With something like the system in place, he expected that anyone with some decent level of backing could make it big by resolutely leveling themselves and gaining power that way.
Though he did know that there would be plenty of assholes out there that would gladly make others suffer for the sake of power. Considering that people could gain experience by even killing each other, it was natural that they would resort to doing easy methods such as tackling and killing unsuspecting travelers.
One such case was the gangs that existed in Forontia. Red Riot in general would gladly attack others and steal valuable magical items, gaining not just levels from the kills but also precious items for profit. However, Aidan expected that bandits would at least be powerful enough to handle attacking travelers, but he was surprised to find them so lacking.
They all barely reach level 20, with the lead being squarely at level 25. Even Haley could take down one of them with an arrow to the chest, and he was certain Van could take a number of them down without Aidan’s help.
Perhaps he should have, as that would at least give Van some decent experience. He could have also just attacked the group before they could arrive with his floating swords, but he didn’t know whether they were truly bandits, or just people looking for them for something important.
It wasn’t the latter, but he didn’t feel comfortable just killing people needlessly without knowing what they were after.
But after interrogating them to find out where their base was and seeing what they held in there, Aidan’s mercy was tapped out. Inside a derelict cave, completely filthy from the men constantly using it as their base, was a small group of women who looked like they had lost all will to live. There were also valuables there, with the women beside them like they were items for sale. All of them were less than level 10, barely able to defend themselves even if they were able to escape from here.
That was enough for Aidan and Van to deal with the bandits one by one, taking their lives without caring for their pleas and begging. In Aidan’s eyes, if they were willing to kidnap and enslave people, they should be ready to give up their lives in return. Of course, he asked Nina if they were needed to kept around, but her look of absolute indifference told him that it was pointless to consider.
“They’re not even worth keeping around to scrape the scum off my shoes. Get rid of them.”
Just like that, their lives were for naught, with even Haley not caring about their lives being snuffed out as she cared for the women within the cave.
Hearing their story, they learned that they once belonged to a caravan that traveled around the southern borders until they were met with the very same bandits that they took care of. All the men of the caravan were slaughtered, and the women were kidnapped and taken in to sell them at a later date. Though considering their horrid state, the bandits didn’t seem to care enough about keeping them nice and clean.
Thankfully it was only a short while, and none of the bandits had put a hand on them yet. Nina offered solace and a place for them to stay in her city, promising them as governor that they would find a home to stay in. That was when it was decided for Aidan to step in.
He gathered the women around him, and promised them that he would take them somewhere safe before activating Area Field, bringing them all within his sphere of influence. He knew for certain that his Teleport skill could work, considering that the teleportation he studied from could easily bring many people along from the fifth to the first floor of the dungeon.
But just to be safe, he used Magic Boost and Focus to ensure a stable connection between his current location and his intended target, this time being at a wider range than before. The women were easily worried, but Nina promised them with sweet words that someone named Yin would take care of them.
With that, Aidan activated Teleport, and transported himself along with the women to his room back in Forontia.
Needless to say, it turned into an utter shitshow for the women. They screamed, yelled out in terror, each one clamoring to themselves and shouting words of pleas and mercy. Aidan tried to calm them down before the door opened up to reveal Yin who came in frantically, her eyes wide at the sight.
“I… see that you brought guests,” Yin said, looking over at each of the women who were currently kneeling and shivering in fear.
“Please help me!” Aidan pleaded, unable to do a thing without making it worse for the girls.
…..
It took a bit of time, but Yin managed to convince the women that they were safe. That Aidan was known as a Hero of Forontia to the masses, and that they were currently in a well-protected city. Once promises for their current living situation were established, the women all thanked Aidan profusely to the point of making him feel awkward about it.
It was clear that Nina planned for these women to work for her, and therefore work for Yin, in exchange for a place to stay and food to eat. Though from an outsider’s perspective, that was the best choice of action as the women had no money or any belongings, only wearing raggedy clothes that’d seen better days.
For the next three hours, Aidan helped Yin get the girls accustomed to the place, and once the cooldown was up, he thanked Yin for the save and for the help before teleporting back to where the group was.
“Teleportation successful,” Aidan said, giving a thumbs up. “None of them seem to have any side-effects, and Yin is taking care of them all.”
“Perfect,” Nina said, her tone eager. “You have already made my life a lot easier with that Teleport spell of yours.”
“Does that mean you can bring us back to Forontia whenever we want now?” Haley asked, prompting Aidan to nod.
“Looks like it, though it’s better to take it easy on how many I can bring. There were only four, but I’m betting bringing ten or so might be troublesome.”
Especially since when he cast Teleport, the initial cost of the spell suddenly spiked, almost taking his entire mana pool with him. In his current state, bringing along more than five would make the spell fizzle out and clearly harm him, something that he wished not to occur at all as having near zero mana was the very definition of suffering.
“Just so I have better context… are you planning on making them work in the Red District?” Van hesitantly asked, turning his question to Nina.
“Only if they choose to do so,” Nina said, obviously knowing what Van was implying. “I have no intention of forcing any woman with decent looks to whore herself out. Though that’s not to say I can’t make it enticing for them to join if they feel that the benefits are worth it. In the end, everyone needs a place to work, and if they should join because they wish to, they would only be better courtesans rather than unwilling dead fishes in bed.”
“That’s… more than I thought I was gonna get,” Van admitted. “But I’m glad.”
“Haley,” Nina changed the topic. “Have you found anything worthwhile inside with your talent?”
“Other than some chests filled with gold, nothing much else,” Haley said, shaking her head. “Unless you count the dozens of barrels filled with alcohol to bring in.”
“Probably swill made for swines like them,” Nina harshly commented. “Not worth it. Bandits don’t know anything about a good drink, only getting anything that would give them a buzz.”
“I kinda expected it, but you really don’t like bandits, huh?” Haley asked.
“Does anyone?” Nina sincerely asked. “They don’t even bother making plans, only targeting any unsuspecting people on the road and hoping, nay, begging for them to have something on hand to get them rich. They aren’t even confident in diving into dungeons and handling monsters. They’re the worst of the bunch that uses up most of our resources in society, worse than actual pests.”
Okay, don’t mention bandits in front of Nina. Got it.
Aidan had this thought, though he honestly felt the same, even if it wasn’t so adequately worded like Nina’s.
Soon enough they took pretty much everything they considered valuable into their spatial bags before eventually going on the road again in their carriage. Since then, a few more days passed, easily passing through the forest while dealing with any annoyances on their way with ease.
They did run into some monsters, but Aidan made things easier with his casting, allowing both Van and Haley to get some exercise and experience points. All the while, Aidan waited patiently, but was starting to get a little antsy.
He really wanted to get at least two levels to reach level 50, but even after killing the bandits and some of the monsters that made their way, he only ever managed to get just one level.
Level Up! From Level 48, you became Level 49!
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
He wasn’t able to pass the threshold. Nina made it clear to him that the last level required for the Class Upgrade would naturally take longer than usual, considering the implications behind it.
So Aidan mulled it over while riding on top of the carriage, looking over at the passing sky above him. The scenery was nice, and he managed to get rid of his boredom by sometimes entering into Soul Meditation to peer at the places around him as they traveled. It was a little weird to do this while he was traveling on a caravan, sometimes losing his real body when he went off for a while and getting himself to panic. Thankfully it was easy enough to find it just by using Sense Vibrations, his own body giving off a powerful homing frequency that instantly called to him.
It was one of these flights where he finally spotted something that might put him over the edge. Off in the distance, near the wide river that split the ground between the east and west of the southern border, he spotted what looked like a large creature resting on the riverbank.
It was an amphibian, appearing closer to a frog than anything, that reached the size of a bus. Its large, green and black colored body nearly blew up in size as the frog croaked like any other frog. At the same time, he spotted what looked like broken pieces of body parts of monsters around its vicinity, clearly seeing that it had just defeated a group of monsters that had attacked it, or perhaps it had ambushed them for a meal.
The reason why he was paying attention wasn’t just due to the fact that it could raise his level, especially after scanning it.
Deep-Forest Tree Frog, Level 42.
A fairly powerful creature, enough to be considered a boss around these parts if he could guess. But the real reason why he paid attention to it was because they were closing in on that same river, and it was possible that the frog could intervene and make them a snack.
Clearly, Aidan had no other choice but to make an appearance and do something about it. But he knew that in his current state, only a few possible ideas could be made.
He returned to his body, lifting himself up and turning his head towards the direction where he saw the frog. He pulled out a resource ball from his bag, and started to use Craft.
He had an idea he wanted to try, and using whatever materials he had on hand, he created a sword that could possibly counter the frog. After his latest magic training lessons given by Nicky and Yin, he realized that people and monsters often had primary and secondary affinities that they belong to.
One such example was Aidan himself. His affinity was, by all accounts, harmony, a concept that was hard to explain and even harder to fully understand. Because of how deeply complex it is, it made sense that it would be his only affinity his body was acclimated to. For human beings, they could often lean in towards the basic elements, or perhaps become outliers that used mana that was slightly more advanced than your typical fire or water affinities.
Monsters fall into this category as well, and after closely studying the soul of the frog monster, Aidan recognized that its affinity was close to water and earth. The nature affinity might also be involved, but it was generally leaning towards water and earth specifically.
What was fascinating about this was that humans come in all types of varieties, with their initial affinities a mystery to them. There are places where one could identify which affinity they are most likely to be talented in, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t try and learn spells that lay outside of their natural affinity. However, for monsters, they all fall into the same affinity as their species specialized in no matter what, unless they were born completely different than their species usually dictate, making them off-shoots or variants.
All in all, Aidan was trying to see if he could make a specific sword using materials that he still had on hand, including some rare gems and stones that contain inner magical energy inside. In this case, he tried to see if he could somehow counter the affinities that the frog exhibited. With some careful crafting in his little orb for a few minutes, he created a sword which he pulled out, scanning it to see what it could do.
Water-piercing Hook Sword (Rare)
A sword created specifically by the crafter to counter enemies of a certain type. This sword is primarily used against those of water-type nature, specifically designed to target rough scales and leathery hide rather than standard flesh and blood. Due to this, the sword is easily breakable against other types of creatures, even if their defensive properties are lower than that of the standard water types.
Aidan could tell immediately that he made a really shitty sword. He noticed that the integrity of the sword was gritty at best, and could barely hold it together even against simple creatures like the horned wolves he faced before. Strangely, it carried a Rare tag on it despite how weak it was against everyday foes, so perhaps he made this sword out to be like a glass-cannon, something so weak that it could break at a single tap, but powerful enough to destroy anything it touches. It just had to survive long enough to destroy its target first.
Which was precisely what Aidan planned on doing. It also carried a part of himself throughout the crafting process when he cast Infuse on it, so he lifted the sword into the air and ordered it to go after the frog.
Through his senses, he flew the sword over to where the frog was and had it hanging in the air a few kilometers into the sky. It was to make sure that the frog wouldn’t know what hit it, and he still had some plans on improving the sword even more.
He used Craft to generate the air around the sword, creating something of a super weak tempest to keep it steady while ready to launch it at any moment. He also used Magic Boost and Magic Focus to obviously enhance its potency, and for an added touch, he formulated his Rend spell to be at the very tip of the sword, the same strategy he used against the Matriarch to destroy the core within.
He felt a bit weak after casting so much mana thanks to his weakened state, but a little drink from his Soul Mending water helped him out. For an added measure, he cast Infuse into the crafted air, charging even more power than before.
It was already starting to look like a small storm was gathering up in the air, so before the frog could figure out that the storm was intended for it, Aidan launched the sword with every fiber of his being, intending on piercing the frog once and for all.
The frog, perhaps sensing it thanks to its high level, quickly tried to get away, but the speed of the sword was too much for it to handle. The sword pierced right through the top layer of the frog, the force from the flight forcing it deeper into the body and nearly crushing the entire beast altogether.
The frog let out a piercing cry as blood flew out like an explosive gas tank from the strike, but Aidan didn’t let up. He could already tell that the sword was starting to break thanks to the powerful blast of air that sent it downwards, so he dragged the sword out of the frog through sheer willpower before stabbing it over and over again.
The frog tried to fight back, but against a super small target that kept using itself as a weapon, it was hard to counter, especially since its large bulk made it difficult to fight back. Aidan only felt sorry for the creature as the sword kept making mincemeat out of it, before eventually…
You have slain Deep Forest Tree Frog, Level 42.
You have gained a decent amount of experience points.
…..
Level Up! From Level 49, you became Level 50!
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
Along with the death of the frog and the level up, his newly created sword also broke apart, as though its very purpose had been fulfilled. He thanked the sword, knowing full well that while its existence was short-lived, it had done its duty. That was something not many people could pull off, if he said so himself.
But more importantly, it was finally time. The time for him to achieve what he had been looking forward to this whole time.
Due to reaching level 50, you have been granted the opportunity to change your current status. You have two choices available: Take on another class, or improve your current class. Which do you choose?
It was finally time to make his choice.
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