A granny’s request

A few second after Jay stopped the man facing him from butting in to Daphne Stillwell's fight by punching a hole through his chest, said woman finished off her last opponent. The guard received her shield frontally to the head, knocking him out for a second and using that second, Daphne brought down her long sword.

The guard fell down with a deep cut in his shoulder and totally demolished armor. All over the chest-plate and the helm one could see indents mirroring parts of her shield.

Due to the unexpected outcome of Jay and Stillwell completely overwhelming the aggressors, the last guard tried to flee from the massacre.

He really was a fast one, the one originally trailing Jay he was, so he jumped over the small fence and ran up the slight slope to the turn of the road.

Once he would reach it, the guard thought to himself, he would take cover and the moment he was far away enough he would wait in hiding.

That was his last thought.

Jay had run the few yards to where the skewered bandit was still hanging from the spike and took up her bow.

With steady but not too slow steps he went after the fleeing guard until he reached the gate. Then he lifted the bow and pulled the string so hard, the wood even gave of unhealthy sounds.

After taking aim and letting the arrow fly, a swishing sound directly followed by an impacting and a splattering one followed in not even seconds.

The arrow had not only pierced the man's neck, it completely traveled through and was flying down the mountain by the time its victims world turned dark.

"You didn't need me in this fight one single tiny bit, right?" D.

"Oh, that...Sorry?" J.

"Then why hadn't you taken care of them right from the beginning? It's not like I was in danger, but why taking the risk?" D.

"Had you believed me if I told you you were in danger? How else could I have proved my strength to you?

The main reason though was to not leave traces. Had I taken care of them in Millshire or on the route I might have been seen." J.

"Thank you then… But what about that absurd strength of yours? Look, even the bow snapped!" D.

Looking down at where she was pointing, Jay saw it really had broken after he released the arrow.

No wonder it traveled this fast.

Walking up the road together with the aim of pulling the corpse on the path back to the small yard, Jay told her how he had lost his memories but kept on training like a madman since then.

He even mentioned Alexis and Mia to what the old woman got a little surprised, though more to the fact that those two monstrous women had been this close than to him knowing them.

With him, another crazy strong human was in the making, she thought to herself.

On their way back to her abode, Daphne went back to explaining the problem she was facing since a while. It was something that really mattered to their direct situation as well:

The bandits blocking off the route to traverse the mountains had kept watching her after she went along the path once in hope to free it. As their numbers were too great and she had no hopes to free it permanently, Stillwell had gone back to her house and been pondering about what to do from then on.

With Jay and his completely unfitting strength for his age, she thought it might work out if it's him, to completely free the Dagger Hills.

That was what the valley-like region within the mountains was called.

If Jay really wanted to keep him working for the kingdom and his strength a secret, he would have to check out if there had been bandits watching.

With a smirk on her face the granny told him he could as well clear the mountain route if he already was going there. Asking if that was a request from her, all she stated to that was that it should be no problem for him.

Without much choice, Jay accepted but jokingly told her she should think about a compensation for his work as he still was an Adventurer.

By the time they had finished talking, the two of them had pulled together all their victims. Like he always did, Jay had plundered them for their belongings and contrary to his expectation Stillwell was pretty much okay with it.

She even stated that it was normal on the battlefield, even more so for Adventurers or in poor regions, Daphne told she had also done it as well.

Counting the corpses she suddenly looked a bit baffled at Jay.

One of the guards was missing.

But Jay soothed her and explained he had hidden it as he would later take it with him for making up a story. It was the only guard killed by Stillwell, pretty much obvious due to the shield imprints, though contrary to what he had told, Jay had put it into his inventory.

He already had thought of a story but for it to work, Jay needed the corpse fresh.

While he summoned his horse again to set out for killing some more bandits, Daphne promised to take care of the nine dead men laying before her. She would bury them and use their bodies as fertilizers like she always did.

Jay only could grin to the old woman as she stated that without any remorse.

It was past high noon as Jay reached the beach after he rode down the mountain path. Right where the path led along the mountain before it led down a slope towards the beach was an even smaller path leading to the right up and towards the other side of the big mountain.

It was no wonder he hadn't seen it as it was hidden behind a rock formation if one looked there from the other side.

A bit up the steep slope he reached a plateau between the mountain range. While to the south the peaks and mountaintops towered over the meadow, the ones to the left looked tiny and more like hills from there.

Right in front of Jay, the meadow turned into a slope and remembered him of skiing slopes in summer. Only some sparse trees and rocks were visible on it, so after a swift check on his surroundings he began searching for tracks and trails the bandits had left behind.

Not long after he spotted some and followed them on horseback. The tracks led up the slope at the left side and while jay was following them for a short while, he could look over the mountains edge to his left in between.

The view was astounding as he could even look until Millshire in some distance down the mountain. Towards the ocean though it was blocked by another mountaintop, the highest one on the left side until then.

It was then when Jay looked around again after he pulled his eyes from the far view, that he spotted smoke a bit up the slope. Dismissing his horse and hiding, he closed in on the place. It was a camp of twelve bandits that kept more lingering about than being on lookout.

As he was close enough he could eavesdrop on two men talking about the group that was normally watching the retired soldier who kept butting in and helping the refugees flee, making their work even harder.

They mentioned them getting recruited to end the damn woman once and for all.

Jay instantly knew they were talking about Daphne, so it seemed to him like the group watching her was the one they killed. That was one problem less, but to make sure he wanted to take care of all the bandits left.

It was free Experience Points after all...

The two men talking were the first to turn into XP after Jay snuck up on them and while grabbing the smaller one from behind, pressing him onto his chest while holding the man's mouth shut, he stabbed the other man directly through his heart.

Letting go of the sword for a moment, Jay twisted the smaller mans neck and barely managed to pull out his sword again when both men fell simultaneously forward.

The rest of the camp fell in a similar way, even the two middle aged women chatting about something, died silently without anyone else noticing.

It had been all together twelve bandits that got killed close to soundless and Jay managed to not get a single drop of blood on him.

Without even searching the camp for anything of worth, Jay summoned his horse again and rode on.

The meadow got more narrow from then on and went a slope down.

Thanks to the multiple footprints from there on, Jay was sure to be on track while riding south-east.

It was not long after that his keen senses picked up noises coming from a small cave to the right. It looked like a small natural one embedded in the rocky surface of the mountain to his right.

Deciding to check it out as even some of the footprints led there, Jay again dismounted and walked over.

The man who should probably have been on lookout looked totally drunk and absolutely shabby even for a bandit. He never woke up again from his slumber as Jay swiftly broke his neck.

From inside the cave shone dim flickering light so he carefully went inside to check it out. In the low cave sat three evenly shabby looking bandits around a crate used as makeshift table and were playing cards, while two other ones were sleeping at the side of the cave.

Another bandit was coming towards Jay who was hiding behind a corner.

The man walked totally tipsy signaling they all must be drunk. Knocking the man out with a chop, Jay pulled him to the entrance and went back inside.

Opening his Attack with two thrown knives the bandit he just knocked out had on him, Jay got rid of two more in one go. Though the knives were of poor quality, thrown with his skill and power it was an easy instant kill for those weak bandits.

The rest was a few swings of his sword and all bandits of this group were down.

But Jay saw something he wished he hadn't again. In the corner of the Cave lay a woman. It was no question she was dead from how she lay there, nude and in a twisted position, but he had no idea if she had been a victim or a bandit as well.

What ever had happened to her in and after life, he didn't want to think about.

Leaving the cave as only the drunken bandit at the entrance was left, Jay threw a fireball behind him and incinerated the whole cave. There had been nothing of worth to loot either way, but burning it all helped him get rid of thoughts about them.

All that was left was to question the last bandit as that group had been simply too weak.

Waking him up with a soft slap not to kill him, the man looked around flabbergasted.

The questioning was the same as always and after a couple of broken fingers, Jay learned they had been a group of outcasts.

As they were to weak for the main group or to be tasked separately, the few bandits had been stationed there to look out for trespassers.

Jay inquired about those trespassers a bit more but as it led nowhere he released the drunken man from his pain, and his life...

Summoning his horse again and saddling up, Jay rode for a while without even encountering any more bandits. The tracks were all over so he knew there had been people traveling along there, most probably bandits, but he didn't see any more hints or even camps.

His only encounter was a brown bear that came attacking him the moment it spotted Jay. That happened after Jay had traveled a few miles on.

With fresh bear steaks in his inventory, Jay soon arrived at a wide space from where three path led to different directions.

To the west and behind him was the there only about twenty yards wide slope he had come down from.

To the east led a similar wide slope up and around the mountain Jay was facing.

To his right, leading straight towards the south was the widest path.

Looking to that direction, Jay could even see the wide plains of the southern region through the gaps of some mountains. As some of the footprints and tracks led to there from both other paths, Jay was sure it was the route mentioned by Daphne.

Deciding to still take the other path, Jay rode to the east and up the slope.

With no encounters and a mount unperturbed by bad footing, Jay had circled the big mountain in no time. From there the path narrowed down even more and went along the back of a mountain.

Looking back after a while, Jay saw he had reached nearly half the height of the mountain he had circled. Only as he reached the peak of the mountain he was climbing, he noticed where he was going to.

From this peak he saw the biggest mountain of the whole mountain range right to the front of him, but still in quite some distance.

At about half its height and only a bit lower than the place he was at, Jay saw the bandit camp he so thoroughly took care of, but only after he used [Far Sight].

It was there the path he was traveling on led.

Checking on the path leading there with his skill still active, Jay found no suspicious spots or any humans at all.

Only on a small plane next to the mountain he was on did he see some wolves, but nothing worth traveling down there.

After jumping from his horse and climbing the last few steps to the true peak, Jay looked towards the north and over most of Westfield. Done taking in the sight one last time, he jumped down to his horse and saddled up again.

Following that he traveled back the way he came from as he was pretty sure no group of bandits would stay on this path.

Back at the big crossing he took to the left and towards the south.

The wide path went down a slight slope and took a turn to the right. What lay behind there was out of reach so Jay didn't wait any longer and rode down to there.

He hadn't even reached the point that had been out of sight from the meadow when Jay noticed movement to the side.

Instantly dismissing his mount he took out a bow he had found as he was still some distance from where he had seen something. Taking aim and concentrating, he activated [Far Sight] again and found a female archer at the ready, pointing her arrow onto himself and waiting for him to get within her reach.

With a smirk on his face he let his arrow fly.

Following a cracking sound, a swift buzzing and finally a silent impact in some distance, Jay saw the woman fall backwards with an arrow sticking to her right eye.

He had identified her as a bandit from her red bandana and the simple armor she wore.

While she hadn't looked like a beauty from what he saw through his skill, Jay would have liked to check on her first.

But the situation hadn't been up for that so he simply took care of her and waited for her companion to arrive.

He had seen the man rush over the moment he let go of the arrow and even walked his way.

Waiting until the bandit was within reach, Jay slashed at him with the bow he still had in his hand and knocked the man to the ground.

The same cracking sound as when he fired the arrow resounded from the bow again, and as it collided with the man and knocked him down, it completely broke.

Jay simply fetched the second half as well and stabbed the not too pointy ends into the bandit on the ground.

Taking both their items of worth and of course the bow as replacement, Jay went back to travel down the slope again.

This time, he didn't summon his horse and kept running to react faster when he found the next team of bandits.

There was bound to be more than one group in position for ambushes and secure this passage to their main base. As he hadn't found any bandits on the passage east, they had to lay in wait on this route.