The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

6 Bandits provide good leveling experience

The seven bandits sat in their simple hideout, drinking the alcohol that they'd stolen from their victims today.

「Today's haul was pretty good, wasn't it?」

「Yeah, if we take it to the village everyone else will be happy as well.」

It looked as if they were farmers sharing a drink after finishing their work in the fields, but they were definitely bandits.

The proof of that was the fact that the wine that they were drinking was taken from merchants who had been too stingy to hire adventurers to escort them, along with their lives.

Their equipment was old; their leather armor had numerous patches where they had been previously repaired and their weapons consisted of handmade spears, woodcutting hatchets, bows and arrows – they were incredibly poorly equipped. In addition, they hadn't received any formal training; if you looked at it one way, their method of fighting came from experience in real battle and brawls. If you looked at it another way, they were just a group of people who merely swung their weapons around.

In fact, most of their jobs were Farmer, so they hadn't received training for battle. The reason that they were bandits was their poverty.

The young men from a village that had become poor for to various reasons had left the village to commit crimes. Such cases were not rare in Lambda.

「Well then, I suppose someone should stand watch so we can sleep.」

The bandits' base simply consisted of several tents put up in a meadow with long grass, in a spot where they had cleared some of the grass away. They did have a lookout tower, but they didn't seem to have any intentions of using it.

In fact, there was nothing in this meadow but wild deer, so they were safe as long as they kept a fire lit. The reason they still kept watch is because sometimes a stray Goblin came to attack.

But even such a Goblin would scream loudly as it approached them, so they had little motivation to stand guard.

That was why they had no way of knowing if any enemy were to approach them quietly, concealing the sound of their footsteps.

「Hic, I've drank a little too much – UOH?」

The bandit on watch who had apparently drank too much wine was snatched up by Bone Bear's paw that had risen up from the wall of grass and disappeared.

Muffled sounds came from inside the tents, but nobody came out. Instead, Bone Man, Bone Monkey and Bone Wolf with Bone Bird on his back emerged from the long grass.

And behind them was Vandalieu.

「There are six left. Finish them quickly.」

The air was filled with the sound of rattling bones.

The bandits never returned to their village.

For Vandalieu, finding the hiding place of bandits was easier the more atrocious their crimes were, as he could use the spirits of their dead victims as sources of information.

The victims who were attacked by their bandits and had not only their belongings taken, but also their lives. Their regret and hatred towards their assailants was fierce, and having bugs find the spirits was a simple task.

Even if the spirits were far away, he could use the【Spirit Communication】technique to summon them to hear what they had to say.

And then he would send out the Undead using the information he got from the spirits, and the hideouts would be found within a few days.