Author's note: WARNING! This chapter contains some graphic sexual descriptions, not suited for minors or people with a faint heart. Neither the author nor the MC do condone unconsensual sex or violence towards helpless captives, but bandits don't seem to care. The "Mature" tag is there for a reason!

Chapter 14: Into the Mine

The entrance to the mine looked dilapidated. Rocks were laying on the ground and a beam was half-blocking the entrance, with nothing but darkness behind it. It looked like the whole thing could collapse at any moment. On closer inspection though, Paul saw that the beam was deliberately put there and had not come down from the ceiling.

Paul stepped over the rubble, and the torch was illuminating the mineshaft. The shaft was about 2 meters high and wide, and leading into the hill at a small downwards angle. As soon as he stepped inside, the minimap showed the interior of the mine. Convenient.

The initial shaft went in a straight line for about 50 or 60 meters, and then branched at a T-intersection. To the left was a room with three yellow dots in them, but nothing else showed up on the radar in that direction. To the right were several shafts branching off the main shaft and a few rooms. The first one had two red dots in them, which were not moving. A bit deeper into the mine was another room with two red dots and a yellow one, then a third room with two red dots moving, which were sometimes moving across the room.

The last enemy appeared rather deep within the mine.

Paul stealthily moved into the mine, a few meters into it, he decided to kill the torch and continue with only [Night Vision].

He turned right at the intersection, he would check on the yellow dots to the left later. The main shaft had no illumination. The first room was a barrack, with bedrolls spread around on the floor. Two bandits were sleeping there, perhaps the guards on day shift. Paul did not want to take any risks and finished both off with *sneak attacks* and *fatal crits* before they could even wake up. Easy XP. Paul was getting very close to level 7 now.

So far the mine was shrouded in darkness, but down the main shaft Paul could see some lights coming out of two rooms with people inside. He waited in the barracks to refill his mana and observe the movements of the bandits within the mine. There were only 5 enemies remaining and Paul realized how lucky he had been. A few days ago there must have been around 15 enemies here, and his mission would have become terribly hard, or even impossible. All of the bandits stayed in the rooms they were in, so Paul went ahead after a couple of minutes.

He could hear male bandit moaning from behind a heavy curtain in the next room and some wet sounds that gave away what was going on there. He took a glance at the minimap, and confirmed that the two red dots in the room were very close to each other, with the yellow one a bit away. From the looks of it, two bandits were having sex in front of a prisoner. That was just weird, what a bunch of perverts.

Paul suppressed his welling up curiosity and decided to skip the room for now, instead heading towards the next room. He wanted to avoid having to fight 4 enemies at once, and the two in that room seemed pretty occupied at the moment.

The next room had no doors and Paul could see crates with equipment on top of them, a few shelves, large sacks and miscellaneous other items. It seemed to be the storeroom slash armoury.

From around the corner, he could hear a grinding noise and two voices.

“It’s really nice with fewer people around. Especially Zac and Jordan, they were always snoring so loudly that I nearly forgot how it felt to get a good night of sleep”

“I’m glad that there is less cooking to be done. Look forward to getting a bigger portion of meat tonight, there is lots left” the second voice belonged to a female. Paul thought about what to do. The red dots indicated that they would be hostile to him and probably attack on sight. He couldn’t really blame them, he would first attack a stranger in his house as well and ask questions later.

He could not determine their information without getting a direct look at them, so he had no idea how strong the enemies were, not that levels were an absolute measure. Paul decided to just go ahead and attack. If possible, he would capture them. It would be discrimination if he killed male bandits in their sleeps without regrets and then go out of his way to capture another one alive just because she happened to be a girl. Yes, that was right. Equal treatment for all of them.

Holding his spear with both hands, Paul stepped into the room. He was still wearing the black cloak, hood over his head. They should at least be hesitating for a few seconds.

Around the corner, he could see a several items lined up on a table. Daggers, short swords, a wooden shield and a few pieces of what appeared to be leather armour. A person with long, brown hair tied together into a ponytail was sitting on a stool, facing away from Paul and holding something on her knees. Opposite of her was a young man with short hair, also sitting on a stool, sharpening a short sword with a handheld whetstone.

The young man looked up at Paul with a puzzled expression “Who are you?”

The woman turned her head towards Paul, and Paul swung the blunt end of his spear to the back of her head if all of his strength. Smack!

You hit Elisabeth for 10 damage.

Elisabeth is [dazed].

The young woman let out a small cry and fell off the stool and onto the ground.

The man stood up and wielded the sword he was sharpening a moment ago. From the looks of it, he wasn’t wearing any armour.

Paul still had his spear raised from the swing earlier, so he stabbed the blunt end of the spear into the centre of the man’s chest.

You hit Brian for 5 damage.

“Urgh” the bandit stumbled a few steps backwards, kicking away the stool he was sitting on and nearly losing his balance. Paul took a step towards him and stabbed his spear against his head in a similar attack.

The bandit fell backwards and hit his head against a crate.

You hit Brian for 10 damage.

Brian is [dazed].

Brian took 20 damage from environment.

Brian is [bleeding].

Brian is [unconscious].

Brian is bleeding for 2 damage.

The bandit had lost half of his health and lay rested against the crate, blood slowly trickling down his neck.

Paul took a look at the girl now. She was holding both her hands against the back of her head and moaning in pain from the blow earlier. Paul could have easily taken her out. While wondering what to do with her, she looked up at him.

“What the-“ she started speaking.

“Don’t make a sound. If you make a wrong move, I will kill you. Nod if you understand” Paul quickly turned around his spear and pointed the tip close to her face.

Elizabeth is [confused].

Elizabeth is [scared].

She meekly nodded and her red dot turned yellow on the radar.

[Elizabeth

Human

Level 6]

She had the [confused] and [scared] debuff, but was no longer [dazed]. Paul took a quick look around the room. The leather armour and a rag she was holding earlier were laying on the ground next to her. Her buddy Brian was still out. The minimap showed that the other enemies in the mine were still behaving as before, so no one seemed to have noticed.

“Keep your hands on your head, else you will regret it” Paul picked up the rag. It was oily and smelled, the girl had used it to polish and maintain the armour. There was some thin rope on a nearby shelf, and Paul picked grabbed it as well.

“Sit up, keep your hands on your head” Paul grabbed her by the elbow and lifted her of the ground. Elizabeth listened so far. She looked up at him with teary eyes. Paul was not sure if it was from the blow, or fear, or a mix of both.

He held the rag in front of her face “Open your mouth. If you listen, I won’t hurt you” Paul immediately felt bad about his phrasing, but the female bandit obeyed. He shoved the rag into her mouth, then used the rope to first tie the girl’s hands behind her back, then cut off a separate piece of rope and wrapped it around her face, so she couldn’t spit out the rag anymore.

“Take care not to swallow the cloth, you will suffocate”

He also tied the girl’s knees feet together. She was now only [scared] and a few tears had run down her cheeks. While Paul was tying her up, memories of Japanese pay-sites and nights with some of the more pricey prostitutes came to mind, but Paul shook off those thoughts. There was a lot of rope to work with and Paul made good use of his experience with tying up (willing) girls, but stopped himself before it got too erotic.

He added [Find brothel in Prozor] to his to-do list, then tied up the still unconscious Brian as well. He wrapped a bandage around the guy’s head to stop the bleeding and used a large piece of cloth to gag him instead of sticking it into his mouth. He didn’t want to kill the guy after going through the trouble of tying him up.

“If I hear a sound coming from this room, I will come back and kill you both” Paul told the girl. He removed all sharp objects from within reach and put them on the far end of the table, to not give his captives any ideas.

He decided to go back to the room he had passed by earlier, to finish off the two bandits in there. After arresting two of them now, he would not feel too bad over just kill those two, but he decided to try to avoid it anyway.

Paul quietly approached the room. There were still unmistakable noises coming out from behind the heavy curtain, and Paul quietly shoved it to the side to take a better look. At that moment a male voice spoke out, and Paul was startled because he thought it was directed at him.

“Ahhh, I can’t get enough of your bitch pussy. Princess over there is good, too, but there is nothing better than beating an annoying bitch into submission. Ain’t that right, Slave?”

There was only angry moaning coming as a response. Paul stuck his head through the gap in the curtain and a mix of cold sweat, urine and other smells assaulted his nose.

A rather large and somewhat chubby guy was kneeling on the ground, with what looked like a woman in a doggy-style position in front of him. Paul could only see the lower part of the person on the receiving end of the scene. The guy was violently thrusting himself inside the girl, while holding onto her hips.

On the far end of the room there was a slender woman, laying on a narrow table. Her arms and legs were bound together with the rope running underneath the table, effectively exposing every part of her naked body. The light the single lamp in the room gave off wasn’t enough to make out many details, but the girl looked definitely pretty, or would have if she wasn’t staring vacantly off in space with dead eyes.

The image of the dead bandit Justice came to Paul’s mind. This was not sexy at all. Paul would proudly accept the label of a pervert with a sadistic streak, but rape was major turn-off and unacceptable to him.

Paul immediately lost any intention to spare the bandits. He slipped into the room, knife in hand, and unceremoniously slit the fat and naked bandit’s throat from behind. He fell to the floor, clutching his hands around his throat, trying to hold in the blood he was now rapidly losing.

You slashed Moody for 30 damage *sneak attack*

Moody is [bleeding].

Moody is bleeding for 15 damage.

While the cut itself didn’t cause that much damage, the bleeding was tremendously effective. Paul decided to let the bandit just bleed to death. He would be a goner very soon. Paul involuntarily smiled when he saw the well-below-average sized member of the guy on the floor. He turned his attention towards the woman that had the bandit’s attention before.

She was marked as a red dot, but clearly was a prisoner here. Here feet were tied together, and her knees were spread apart by what looked like an oversized pair of handcuffs with a straight rod between them, a spreader bar. Those guys sure had elaborate bondage gear available.

Her hands were tied behind her back and her upper body was pressed down onto the floor.

Even in the dim light, Paul could make out a lot of bruises and thin lines all over her lower body and back. The restraints looked definitely painful and were not applied professionally.

What struck Paul the most though, was the bushy and long tail coming out of the girls back. It was mostly grey, with dark accents. Walking around the woman, Paul found the hair on her head to have the same colour, with two pointy ears sticking out on top of her head.

The girl was gagged and blindfolded, the teeth visible over the gag were pointy, like a canine’s. She was making a low, growling noise while slightly squirming in her restraint. A wolf girl!

[Kana

Wolf-Kin

Level 11]

Her health was a bit lowered, but only by around ten percent.

Paul first took off the blindfold. One of her eyes was bruised and lid was slightly swollen, but her yellowish-green eyes were staring at Paul with murderous intent and reflecting the light. Definitely scary. Her radar indicator was still red, so Paul decided to talk to her before removing any of her restraints.

“Hey, I’m not one of the bad guys, so please calm down. I will remove your gag now, so please don’t bite me, OK?” The girl was still looking hostile, but Paul decided to go ahead and carefully untied the cloth gagging her. He then unfastened the shackles on the spreader bar and removed it. She had stopped growling, but was still considered an enemy according to the radar. With now only her feet and hands tied, Paul helped her sit up.

“Listen, it is not safe yet, so I can’t let you run around on your own.” Paul took out his woollen cloak and covered the girl up with it. He stole a quick glance at the front part of her body, and saw that it was in no better shape than what he had seen earlier. His eyes lingered for a second on her large and extremely shapely breasts, but he immediately pulled himself together and looked her in the eyes.

“I will come back here in a few minutes, please be patient until then. We will get you and your friend over there out of here soon”

The wolf girl kept silent, but seemed to agree. Paul’s motivation for not untying her right now was only the red indicator, he definitely wanted to avoid a fight with her.

By the time he stood up, the bleeding bandit had taken his last breath.

Moody is bleeding for 15 damage.

Moody has died.

You have gained 80 XP.

At the same time a [Level Up] message popped up. Paul decided to spend the points later, there was only one enemy remaining, most likely the leader. Before he left the room, he cut loose the other girl’s restraints and put her down next to the wolf girl. She didn’t give much of a reaction, but looked at him with vacant eyes. Paul decided to cover her up with the black cloak he was currently wearing, although he felt bad because it was covered in crusted blood, even if it wasn’t visible.

On his way deeper into the mine, Paul took a quick glance into the room with his “prisoners”.

Brian was still knocked out and Elizabeth was sitting on the floor, head hanging low. She didn’t even notice Paul.

He then took a closer look at his target on the minimap. The last bandit was at the end of one of the narrower mineshafts, in what seemed to be a room or cave.

Paul grabbed his spear and silently snuck down the dark corridor.

At the end of it there was another heavy curtain, with faint light shining out from underneath it. The enemy was on the far end of the room behind it. Paul carefully approached the curtain and tried to look underneath it. He had to lay down on the floor and carefully lift up the curtain to take a peek into the room. There were several large burning candles spread across the room, and Paul could make out a bookshelf and a bed on one side. A person in a dark robe was sitting at a table, facing away from him.

[Rosalie the Bandit-Witch

Human

Level 14]

Paul sat up again. He had a bad feeling about this. He had not yet encountered a magic wielder, so he did not know what to expect. According to his vast gaming experience, casters were weak against physical attacks, but he did not want to take any chances and decided to stay as far away from that woman as he could.

He lay down his spear and silently readied his bow. It seemed like a valid approach to him. Bow drawn, he stepped into the room and nearly let go of the arrow in surprise.

The woman who had been sitting at her desk a few seconds ago, was standing now and facing him, arm extended towards his direction. She seemed to be whispering something.

Paul quickly took aim and shot the arrow towards her.

Rosalie hit you with a spell.

You are [charmed].

You hit Rosalie for 30 damage. *crit*

Rosalie is [bleeding].

Rosalie is bleeding for 5 damage.

The arrow had hit the woman in the chest and she fell on her knees while crying out in pain.

“Nooo!” Paul realized his mistake too late. He had attacked the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and she was crying out in pain because of him. Paul quickly rushed over to her, dropping his bow to the floor.

“I’m so sorry!” Paul muttered while bowing down towards the woman. The arrow had penetrated deep into her chest, close to the heart. Rosalie was looking at him with angry, beautiful eyes.

It seemed like she was trying to say something to him, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she started coughing and blood was dribbling out of her mouth.

Paul felt tears running down his face. Rosalie was cringing in pain and clutching her chest, and Paul helped her gently to lay down on the floor. He would do everything he could to safe her, even if it cost his own life.

“Please let me help you” Paul bent over and pulled out the arrow from her chest.

Rosalie has taken 5 damage.

Rosalie is bleeding for 8 damage.

The bleeding intensified.

“*cough*…ass…hole…” Rosalie was speaking with her angel-like voice to him. Paul pressed his hands on the wound and pushed to keep the blood from flowing out of his beloved’s body.

Rosalie is bleeding for 8 damage.

Paul could see the life fading from her. Rosalie’s face with the cute, crooked nose lovely scar over her crimson lips was quickly drained of its colour. Her adorable, wrinkly eyes were losing focus.

Rosalie is [unconscious].

Rosalie is bleeding for 8 damage.

Rosalie has died.

You have gained 100 XP.

You are no longer [charmed].

Paul snapped back to normal and realized what he was doing. That was definitely weird. The woman he was looking down upon was a really ugly hag. Paul had obviously been extremely lucky. He wiped off the blood of his hands with the robe the woman was wearing as best as he could, then sat back and took a look across the room. Due to the candles and the lamp on the table it was better lit that the rest of the dark mine. There were a few books on the shelf, a wooden closet and a medium sized chest next to the simple bed.