Chapter 91: The Inner Trouble About Killing

POV Eliza

I was still lost in thought when I realized it was getting dark. I had to pull myself together and carry on, because Lynn was waiting to be rescued. I slapped myself on both cheeks and took a deep breath. The bandit's body was still lying next to me. Even though I was reluctant to do so, I searched him for clues. I find a letter, which I read through straight away, as well as valuables.

“D, you can pick up the next load. There are two extras. J.”

The bandit was probably the bearer of the message. I should hand the letter in to the guild. With the two abbreviated names, it might be possible to track down the people behind it. I took the sword and the money. The rest was useless to me. I then made my way back towards the cave entrance to my shelter. Here I lay in wait again. As long as I concentrated on freeing Lynn, I didn't need to think too much. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, so my guilt plagued me for the next few hours.

Nothing more happened that evening, nor in the hours that followed. I had to sleep and therefore hope that they didn't leave the cave at the moment. Exhaustion made me fall asleep immediately. In the morning I woke up because I heard noises. I heard voices coming from the direction of the cave, but because of the distance I couldn't understand what they were saying. I saw two bandits heading towards the hill with water hoses and buckets. They were probably going to fetch water. Depending on how far away the water source was, I could attack them without the others noticing.

The two water fetchers were not heavily armed, so I assumed I could defeat them. I was determined to take on all the dangers if it meant I could save Lynn. I hoped she was still alive and just a prisoner. Maybe she was one of the extras mentioned in the letter. That would mean there was another prisoner. I wolfed down some food and drank some water while I followed the two of them. I needed to keep my strength up for what I was about to do.

After about half an hour, I heard a soft murmur of water. We were approaching a stream or something similar. As we were still in the middle of the forest, so I couldn't see the water, but I had cover due to the trees. I planned to ambush the bandits while they were drawing water. This time, however, I had to make sure that neither of them ran away. I was going to use one of the dark magic spells I had recently learned. It increased the victim's bad characteristic traits such as envy, anger or greed. If I cast it on both of them in turn, it might stop them from running away and fighting each other instead.

While they were both drawing water from the stream, I crept up behind them and cast the spell on the first one. He then began to loudly express his displeasure and complain about the food, the poor hygiene, his hard straw bed and so on. And that the boss had forbidden him to play with the prisoner and how much he would like to use her for certain services. Was he talking about Lynn? Well wait, you were the first. You will not lay your filthy fingers on my friend Lynn, I swore to myself.

After I had cast the spell on the second one, he complained about the first one and an argument broke out. The two would not attack each other, my skill in dark magic was too low for that. But the spell had potential, at a higher rank and with the right person it would force a behavior on him that he had otherwise suppressed.

While they argued and were distracted, I buffed myself and cast Acceleration. Then I opened the fight with an Air Bolt. The spell dealt light damage. I desperately needed the upgrade to air magic. I then charged towards the first one and attacked directly. I felt a fighting spirit rise up in me that I hadn't felt for a while and was unusually aggressive. The two were just as surprised as the first bandit and took some time to get their bearings and draw their weapons. In that time, I had already defeated the first one. Apparently my level was higher than his, luckily. Then I turned my attention to the second one. I ignored his swearing and concentrated on the fight. Since he wielded a slow heavy club, he couldn't hit me before I killed him.

This fight had done much less mental damage to me than the first fight. I was amazed myself at how quickly I adapted to fighting people. My desire to fight, which I still feel, certainly contributed to this. Thanks to the easy successes so far, my motivation to free Lynn today if possible had increased significantly. I was unsure whether they would harm Lynn if I waited longer and the bandits realized that their comrades had not returned.

During my first fight with the messenger, I mentally couldn't, but now I checked my status to see if I had gotten EXP from the defeated bandits. I was amazed at the amount. It was much more than I had expected. I had gotten over 15000 EXP from the three bandits. That was over 20% of all the EXP I had collected in years. In comparison, the monsters I had defeated so far had given much less. That was not good. I had a very bad feeling about the whole thing. If humans gave so much EXP, I had to be careful not to get too used to killing them. Otherwise, I would be no better than known mass murderers from Earth. No EXP was worth me becoming a mass murderer, though. I wonder if there were a lot more mass murderers in this world? That sounded worrying.

But I didn't have time to think about it for long. I had to save Lynn. I hid the two bodies after I'd searched them and removed the traces of the fight as best I could. That way they wouldn't be discovered so quickly. However, I hoped that there would be a search party if they didn't come back. If I could defeat them unnoticed, I would have defeated half of the bandits at best. I quickly returned to the cave entrance and continued to watch the bandits. After half an hour they became restless and armed themselves. However, they did not leave the cave but remained at the entrance. I continued to watch and after another half hour a group of three left the cave. I had the feeling that, contrary to my plan, I had better not follow them but wait and see.

The remaining bandits stayed in the cave and entrenched themselves by placing crates in the entrance. I couldn't get into the cave even if I wanted to, so I had to wait for them to come out on their own. It was getting dark by the time the party of three returned. After a brief exchange of words, they took up position in front of the cave. It took another two hours before the bandits finally started to move. It was now almost completely dark, at least for the bandits. The sky was cloudy and overcast, so there was very little light. Still, it was enough for me. The crates were pushed aside and a total of 10 people left the cave. There were two smaller people in the middle of the group. I recognized one of them. It was Lynn. I didn't know the other person, but she was also tied up. One of the bandits was obviously the leader. He was tall and strong and had a drawn sword in his hand. He was giving instructions to the others. The rest of the bandits were a ragtag bunch. Only three others had their weapons at the ready, while the others were heavily laden. They were carrying heavy sacks, presumably stolen goods. The leader walked in the middle with the two prisoners.

Two of the bandits had lit lamps and were shining light on the group. I thought hard about how I could defeat the bandits without endangering Lynn. Based on my previous experience with the three bandits I had already defeated, I assumed that the others were similarly dangerous. The only exception was the leader. He seemed much more experienced. Once again, I cursed the fact that I hadn't increased Appraisal. I had the necessary EXP by now, but without the upgrade to advanced they were of no use to me. So I could only rely on the element of surprise.

My spontaneous plan was to attack them a little way from the cave and start with the lamps. Then I had the great advantage of darkness and could make full use of my night vision. The bandits started moving east. They followed the scout. I circled the bandits and waited for them in cover. As soon as the foremost lamp was in range, I fired an Air Bolt at it. The lamp burst in the bandit's hand and the burning oil splashed onto him. He screamed and dropped the lamp.

“Attack. We are under attack.” <Leader>