in a forest 2 days travel from Marlton a group of bandits were camping out, the group consisted of close to 50 mercenaries turned bandits, most of them were around silver rank when they turned to banditry, as for the reason it was simple at sliver, which was the 3rd rank from the bottom the death rate in mercenaries spikes this is because of most requests turn more dangerous the higher the rank. Silver is considered the first "filter" in the mercenaries world as was every 3rd rank after silver. The group of bandits were part of the "lower" silver rank and were unified by a former gold rank merc, Now the problem with killing former-merc bandits were that while they were bandits they were also former merc"s so they still had their training and they also posted sentries and generally kept alert, they also didn"t use drugs too often, one would not find themselves in a situation were an entire group of former merc bandit were drunk and unable to fight as would normally happen with normal bandits so they were generally harder to kill then regular run of the mill bandits"anything unusual happen?"
"well there was this one thing..."
like clockwork the sentries were switched one by one, the sentries that just got off duty gathered around the campfire and talked
"you don"t mean you saw it too?"
"what are you guys talking about?"
""a wisp""
"really?"
"yeah it was this pair of blue orbs that floated in the air shortly before disappearing again"
"isn"t it just a wild animal?"
"with blue eyes?"
"....I see your point but still, my guess is it"s just some sort of animal or magic beast"
"might be..."
"what are you guys talking about?"
"oh, boss"
"boss hear this, these guys say they saw a wisp"
the bald boss gave a frown and mumbled
"a wisp?"
the underlings kept quiet as they could see their boss was thinking, after some time the boss" eyes lit up and he pointed at two of his underlings
"you and you go check up on the sentries"
"sure boss, but why?"
"because we might be under attack"
"okay boss we"ll go right now!"
the two underlings ran off meanwhile the boss commanded some of his other underlings to wake the ones that were sleeping, all this were reflected in a pair of blue cat eyes that watched from nearby...
the attack the bandits were expecting never came but when they dropped their guard a few hours later the sentries were silently taken out, one of them managed to see a flash of a elf before he was stabbed in the neck with a sword, while another was stabbed in the heart from behind with a dagger and a third was was. .h.i.t with a darkness glue ball in the face and suffocated while rolling around on the ground, but alas soon someone discovered they were under attack and yelled out before a arrow stuck his heart
"dammit, I was just a little late..."
Chloe lowered her bow with a sour look on her face it wasn"t until Mars patted her on the shoulder that her face lit up again
"don"t mind it Chloe we have them on the back foot.... Victoria go ahead and run wild"
"okay..."
as soon as Victoria answered she disappeared almost like she melted into the shadows around her
"WHO DARES TO ATTACK MY TROOPS!"
"oh and there"s the boss, I"ll be right back"
Mars drew his sword right before he disappeared from view then the boss" head was sent flying and Mars reappeared again
"and that"s that... let"s clean up the rest"
"the boss is dead!"
"run for it!"
the remaining bandits scattered like bugs in sunlight and was easily cleaned up by the rest of the group, Varvei walked over to Mars, she was wearing some leather armor and carried her long spear over her shoulder
"well that was easy... Thanks to you Mars"
"i only did my part"
Jack also walked over he was wearing his half plate armor and had a large grin on his face
"Mars you are even faster then last time we sparred"
Mars gave a smile
"of cause I have been training"
the request was over in just 5 days, 4 days for travel and just one day for locating and destroying the bandit group
"the completion of the request have been confirmed, congratulations Mars you have ranked up to silver"
"thank you"
the girls also ranked up to steel and the group headed over to the local restaurant to celebrate, the usual private room was a little cramped but in a good way, the celebration lasted long into the night and like last time it ended with Mars carrying Jack that was blackout drunk
"sorry for the trouble Mars"
"I don"t mind Lina, besides I can"t make you carry him by yourself"
Mars cheeked Jack to see if he really was asleep by poking his nose a couple of times before he asked Lina
"have you made any progress with this hunk of meat?"
Lina gave a wry smile and shock her head
"no I have not... I even tried a couple rather aggressive things, but nothings is working... I"m starting to doubt his s.e.xual orientation.... or maybe he just doesn"t like me..."
seeing Lina so down Mars gave her a pat on the shoulder
"I think the problem is that you"re too close, he has started to see you as a family member instead of a friend.... I think the only way is to just say it directly to him"
"that"s easy for you to say..."
"yes that"s why i said it"
"you... fine I"ll try it sometimes... maybe"
"good luck with that"
soon they arrived at the inn were Jack and Lina was staying and Mars placed the sleeping Jack down on the bed
"well then... see you around Lina and good luck"
"thanks Mars"
Mars left the small inn room behind and walked back to the restaurant were the girls were waiting and opened a portal to back home and after some... "nightly exercise" with the girls Mars fell asleep...
the next morning Mars wasted no time and after eating a healthly breakfast Mars opened a portal to king"s city and after asking around for a bit Mars and the girls arrived at the guild, being the guild in the capital of Destra it was almost twice the size of the one in Marlton and bustle with activity, naturally the request board was also huge, Mars stood in front of the request board for a long time until he finally spotted a request from a merchant that was headed to the wasteland to trade with a caravan, Mars reached out and took the last slip on the request form and walked towards the counter
"hey it"s gone!"
"dammit we must have just missed it!"
"hey, you brat stop right there!"
Mars ignored the one that called out to him and walked towards the counter, until a hand grabbed him by the shoulder
"I said wait!"
Mars gave a sigh and turned around with a annoyed look on his face
"I"m no brat"
"I don"t care, now hand over that request slip to us"
"....why? I got it first"
"just hand it over... or else you"ll get hurt"
Mars" casual smile widened slightly
"oh so I"ll get hurt I"m SO scared... the only thing that will hurt is my knuckles is you don"t remove your hand"
"Bart you really don"t know what"s good for you---"
"anything wrong Mars?"
"no I"m fine Varvei"
Mars gave a light sigh before he with lightning fast movements grabbed the man"s arm and twisted it around
*CRACK*
"AAAAGGGGHHHH---"
"shut up"
*SMACK*
then Mars punched him in the throat making him choke on his scream, naturally this upset his friends
"you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
"get him!"
Mars gave another sigh before he activated [Instant movement] and then "lightly" rammed into one of the other men sending him flying before he sent a solid punch to the last man"s jaw knocking him out cold, Mars then gave a sigh and suddenly realized that most of the people in the guild was looking at him and it had also turned silent all of a sudden
"..."
Mars gave a awkward smile but suddenly one of the people that was looking at him began to clap this was followed by the other merc"s and before Mars knew it most of the people in the guild was applauding him
"did you see that? that was amazing!"
"man he"s fast that kid"
"good job kid!"
Mars scratched the back of his head in mild embarra.s.sment and quickly moved towards the reception were he handed over the request slip to a receptionist that gave Mars a near perfect business smile
"one moment please"
the receptionist then opened a book and quickly flipped though it until she found the corresponding request
"yes here it is.... a trade caravan heading to the wasteland, how many people will be in your group?"
"4, one silver and 3 steel"s"
"okay... the meeting place is the western gate tomorrow at 9"