Chapter 191: Bandit Occupation
After a night's rest, they continued their travel, though they began to move more cautiously, as the bandits would get stronger the deeper they went into the duchy.
Unfortunately, the Hidden Ancient Mansion couldn't be used as a storage ring. If it could, he could easily put the rest of the group and fly directly to the Kilrun Capital City. Sadly, it was not an option so they had to do things the hard way and walked all the way there.
Still, it's not like they didn't gain anything during their travel. After all, Kilrun Duchy is far richer in terms of natural resources compared to any baronies in the Birak Kingdom. With that said, they were able to gain a lot of resources for their cultivation.
During the first week of traveling in the territory of Kilrun Duchy, they didn't stumble into any strong bandits, most of them only reaching the Genesis Condensing, with several strong groups having members at the Genesis Foundation.
All in all, the opponents his group could handle, though he created some barriers around his siblings and stopped the bandits from fleeing and causing them trouble later down the line. However, as they got closer to the major settlements of the Duchy, things began to get harder down the line.
While the bandit groups still had members at the Genesis Formations, some even at the Genesis Gathering, they now had people at the Genesis Core, some bandits are even at the Genesis Source.
With this assortment of foes, he began to enter the battlefield, slaying the higher-rank bandits while preventing the others from running away the moment the battle went awry for them.
After all, he didn't want the reputation of 'bandit killer', no matter how much they deserved it. After all, while the bandits are not the friendly type, not even to each other as they will take the chance to attack another bandit group to score some quick loot if there are forces or people that come close to threatening them, they are not against to form an alliance to destroy the threat.
Getting to a settlement, one that has a lot of guards and is safe is the plan. He does hope there is nothing that will stop them though with how the Duchy is, he didn't have much hope for it.
-x-
As they saw the huge wall of a town, they were relieved, as they now had reached what could be considered a safe stopping point. That relief was broken when they spotted the flag on the walls.
"How could this happen?" Lisha said frantically. No one could blame her. After all, the town had just been taken over by a bandit group.
"What should we do now?" Miriam asked Ryker, who looked at the town before sighing.
"Let's get away from here first. I don't trust those bandits to run a town without looting the people coming into the town," he replied before leading them away from the town.
-x-
They decided to settle in a cave not too far away from the town, all of them still shaken.
"How could a bandit group capture a town?" Shuri asked. After all, such a thing was unprecedented inside the Mariz Barony, the closest thing that came to an occupation would be the destruction of Era's hometown.
"Unfortunately, this kind of thing is regular inside this Duchy," Ryker answered bitterly. He had heard it from the other Genesis Source experts from Mariz Barony before. They had told him tales of how bandits would often attack and conquer a town.
What they did should not be explained but they never destroy the town. In a way, they view it as a target that would always be there, after all, it was far easier to occupy an already-built settlement than building a new one from scratch.
This kind of thing is often referred to as Bandits Occupation with the constant target being called Bandit Town. The only reason why people even move into such a town is because it is much safer than most minor settlements.
The phenomena had been known to him but he never thought it would cause him this kind of inconvenience.
From them
"Why didn't the duchy send an army to take it back?" Shuri asked again, this time, Mashia was the one to answer.
"Because the bandit just took over," when the rest looked at her, she shrugged, "Dragon's nose, remember?"
"Oh, right," Mashia had been with them so long yet rarely showing her dragon form had made the others forget she was one.
"As I was saying, the fight likely had just ended about six or so hours before we got close to the city. So, the duchy would likely only just start preparing to send their forces to conquer the city back,"
Hearing this, they looked at each other, wondering what should they do. Should they stay in the cave for who knows how long until the bandits are driven away
Or should they find another route, one where one of the towns they planning to stop at will not be occupied by bandits.
They looked at Ryker, who tried to think of the best solution to their predicament. Finally, he came up with the best plan so far, "Let's observe them some more first. See if we could enter the town or not. If we can, I'm going to enter the town myself and scout.
If we can't, we going to stay here until the Duchy forces kick them out for good," the others thought about it some more before voicing their agreement. After all, it was the best one they could come up with.
With Ryker's strength, he could easily escape if they ever cornered him.
-x-
Ryker walked towards the gate, wearing a black cloak. When he got to the gate, he was stopped by two guards or bandits that wore guard's clothing would be more accurate.
"Halt, if you want to enter, you have to give us everything you have," the 'guard' said. Without a word, he threw a large pouch of gold to the 'guard' who was surprised by the man being so obedient.
However, with the top being paid, they had no reason to not allow him to enter the town so they make way for Ryker. Already inside the town, he began to wonder what his next move was.
After realizing he didn't have any idea of the situation inside the town, he decided to observe it, seeing how much was affected by the bandit's presence.
With a plan and goal at hand, he began to walk to the easiest place to gain any information, the tavern.
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