The next morning found us all gathered around Gorm's stew pot. We're trying to explain what happened in the cave to him, but his demeanor is definately shaken.

Between bites, he shakes his head, "Even if I had both arms, I don't think I could have been any help in there."

"Come on, Gorm," I chide him, "You could've been Tria bait!"

He stares hard at me, I can feel the daggers shooting from his eyes.

He breaks into a wide mirthful laugh, "Good one! Besides, why would it eat your skin and bones over my much larger, better seasoned body!"

"Hey!" He turned that around on me so well I had no response.

"I will tell the others the plan,” Gorm says. “Should we go back for the wagons since we have a more defensable location?"

Victoria points a dripping spoon at him, "Good idea. Elsbeth and Ardacen will escort a group back to the old site. We'll get everyone situated inside."

I add Elsbeth and Gorm to my party and we get ourselves prepared for the journey. Three large wagons with things the people were willing to part with were left behind for a couple of reasons. First, we didn't think they would fit in the cave and we didn't want such obvious signs of life sitting around. Second, as obvious signs of life, if scounts were sent to make certain of the location of Linqs, we wanted to keep their first strike further away from the main camp. Now, anything we could use to better prepare us is as good as gold.

With Elsbeth fully stocked with arrows and our bellies full,I lead a group of drivers and their horses back to the old camp. El and Gorm carry the rear. With my higher level, I expect less creatures are willing to play with us, but I try to take precautions. The drivers are all level one and are in some form or another, disabled. I add them to the party as well and I reach my limit of seven. We're several yards away from the cave entrance by now and I try to mentally communicate with Sonny.

"Hello, Sonny?"

Silence. Oh well, would've been cool to--

[Yawn! Good morning, Sir Ardacen. Goodness, you and the others are awake so early! I'll have to change my rythmn when we are to live together. What can I do for you?]

"Sorry, Sonny. I didn't mean to wake you. I just wanted to know if our communication worked out of the cave. Speaking of which, the others will be heading your way shortly. Can you let me know when they start rearranging?"

[Of course. And you are no bother to me. Would you like me to keep you up to date with their progress Y/N?]

"Its okay, it can be a suprise. I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

[Okay]

The trip to the wagons is uneventful. Like I thought, with my mask on no creature is reckless enough to cross our path. I used the peace to read more about the Friend spell. Apparently, my target will know afterwards that they were charmed. Willpower will be the main defense to it, but the effects would last for eight hours if it works. Then I notice something strange with my Wolf Sense. There are wisps of red coming from the direction of the wagons. It's a normal shade of red so it's not a bunch of fodder nor is it a boss. There are about five seperate trails that I can see and I stop the party. I sign letters in between the horse for El to see. She responds in kind. Gorm is looking at her for instructions which she gives in the form of military hand signals which are similar in function to ASL. Now I really need to know her backstory.

They suggest to me that we curve to the right and come back around on the wagons just in case and I agree. The trails shorten o both ends as we approach which tells me that they're moving toward the camp as well. I position Gorm and the drivers behind heavy foliage and El in a nearby tree where she can spot our hiding group and the wagons.

(Five people. Looking for us. Watching wagons) she signs without breaking eye contact with them. (Still)

I leader whisper her, "Us or them?"

(Them).

"Gorm, its the scouting party. You seem to know a little about the Guild. What should we do?" I crouch in low to him.

He whispers as best as he can with that voice of his, "They're there for the duration. If we were still there and we moved now, they would report back. We are fortunate to have left when we did."

"Man, they sure act fast. Any chance we can keep this civil?" His snort is almost enough to give away our position, but they didn't notice us. "El, can you tell if they have any travelers with them."

She signs back (All).

Sounds like a few Life Crystals coming my way.

************************

"Hey, Roger. What are we doing here again?" a gruff looking canine half faunus asks a short haired dark elf.

"Are you kidding me you friggin, mutt? We're making sure these cripples don't move without us knowing. And if they do…?" Roger trails his words in a condisending tone.

"Uh, we report them right?" the faunus asks while checking the edge of a handaxe, "I mean, why can't we just kill them now and be done with it? They're just a bunch of useless fops Lord Bertrand kicked out of Kes Rentas anyway. Who cares who kills them?"

Roger lets out a deep sigh, "Because, idiot, the Bandit class group needs something like this to graduate. It's just the way the guild works. We get quests. We complete quests. We get paid. We get XP."

"But what about the NPC's? What's in it for them?"

"Who cares about a bunch of brainless puppets? Listen, you wanna get paid, right?"

"Yeah?"

"In real money, right?"

"Yeah?"

Roger then grabs his friend by the collar, almost choking him, "Then you'll do as I say and we'll keep leveling this way! Quests give more XP than those stupid mobs and we have a smaller chance of dying and suffering the XP loss. Get it?"

"Yeah, yeah! I get it! I get it!" Roger releases the faunus and looks back over at the wagons from his hiding spot on the cliff top that curls over. "But Roger, what if there's other players? Do we kill them too?"

"Of course, you moron! That's the best part! Players drop Life Crystals which are huge amounts of free XP! That's how we're going to get the level milestons first! Why do you think we joined the Thieves Guild? To rob little old ladies?"

"Say, Roger. Where are the horses for the wagons…?"

*******************

We're not far and the two players were speaking loud enough for my Wolf Senses to hear everything I needed to hear. El explains her new arrow spells to me. One shocks a single target, with a chance to paralyze. The other explodes hitting multiple targets and she's pretty excited about checking out what it can do to this group of rookie thieves. I'm not going to lie, I am too. They're all bunched together above the camp's overhanging cliff where we couldn't see if we were below them. Everywhere else, they are sitting ducks.

With Zoom and Analyze, I see that they're all level 5n except for the dark elf who is 6n, so I don't want the drivers or Gorm to get involved. Elsbeth is at 6n and I'm a boss character compared to them, so I'm confident that the two of us can take them. I only have 96/96HP and 4 Defense, but with 39 Agility, I should be untouchable.

"Okay, El. Here's the plan. I'll Stealth close enough for my Assassinate skill's range and you fire the Flameburst Shot right into the middle of their formation. I'll wipe out a few of the players first and then see if we can easily capture the rest. If not, at least one. Think any of them can handle two of your special arrows?"

She shakes her head.

"Most of my abilities are geared for a quick death, too. Maybe I can summon some rope, tie one up?" She smiles and I reset my Wolf Sense so it doesn't phase out in the middle of the battle, waiting the very short moment for it to refill.

In recent combat, it seemed like I was moving a bit faster than my enemies. It felt like I was always a half step ahead of whatever they were trying to do. Even a stalker's swinging arm seemed predictable. Spindle's dual sword strikes couldn't land a hit on me, except for the little trick with her thread.

So when the moment finally comes for us to spring our trap on the bunch of lowbies, they appear to me as statues frozen in place, waiting to be broken. Elsbeth's spell goes off perfectly, a precise arrow to one of the thieves that culminates in a localized fiery explosion dealing over 40 damage to the target and 20 fire to everyone else.

Now, its my turn. My appearance among them is barely noticed before two heads roll in the dirt. The rope appears quickly and silently, wrapping around one of them and keeping him out of the fight. Actually, to call it a fight would be a misuse of the word. There is very little conflict between two members of opposing sides. By now, one of the bandits throws her hands up in surrender and she is easily restrained. The last remaining thief of the raiding party is trying to draw his shortsword, but in my eyes he is moving in slow motion. I activate Shadow Toxin as an experiment and I punch the thief in the face with a normal fist. After a brief moment, black veins throb across the man's visible skin. Unfortunately for him, all three abilities activate and he dies a slow gruesome death in front of his comrades. I use that moment to placate the others,

"Shut up. Or you'll be next."

All three of the other bodies evaporate, leaving behind three Life Crystals and three loot sacks.

"Who… who are you?" the woman asks, terror very evident in her voice. I scoop up everything into the bracelet.

"Can't you read?" I growl while pointing where my name would be for others to see.

"Read what?" the other one's tone is still very insolent, "All we see are a bunch of question marks. Who the hell are you?"

The female chimes in, "Like, yeah, everyone's supposed to be using their real names!"

Its on my face, but I try to analyze my mask. I never saw a description regarding its innate abilities, just the stat increases and the hidden ability for completing the set.

>Scan[Legendary, +3 Agi, +1 Str, ???

[A cursed object, cannot be fully removed.

[Analyze level too low to discern full description]

Must be because it's rank is Legendary and I can only read up to Apprentice. Wait. Cursed? No wonder I never fully took it off, just kind of slid it over the top or on the side. It must be stuck to me.

Anyway…

"Anyway, who sent you idiots?" as if I didn't already know. I'm getting ready to cast Friend on one of them if they don't talk.

The female, mostly human with gold and silver feathers poking out from behind her ears and soft down above her chest, speaks first.

"The Thieves Guild. This was, like, supposed to be one of our lessons. Look, buddy, I don't wanna die like that, alright?"

The male, a dwarf with black hair and short black beard is struggling against the restraints, "You idiot! What'd you go and tell him for? How the hell are we supposed to explain all this to Guild Master Ratka?"

I use a sharpened fingertip to mark his cheek and bring it under his chin, "Sounds like you're not gonna play nice. If that's so, and we have nothing else to talk about, then grit your teeth."

"Screw y--"

But the poison spreading from his cheek starts to kill him before he can finish and I let him die. I could already sense the contempt coming off of him and he had no intention of cooperating.

I gather the Life Crystal and turn to the female, Rachel, now that I care to check. She didn't even flinch when her comrade died next to her.

"So, like, what are you gonna do to me?"

Her eyes dilate and her heart rate and breathing accelerate. At first I think its fear, but my sniffer is telling me something else.

"Come on, we barely know each other…" I exclaim, taking a step back.

"What?" she defends herself, a little embarrassed, "We can do whatever we want here, right? Like, live out fantasies with no repercussions, right? It's just a game. Don't be a nerd!"

I motion for the others to join us, "Listen here, pigeon lady," she interrupts with an irritated low voice.

"I am NOT part pigeon! I'm part eagle!"

"Whatever. Rachel, is it? Look, Rachel. I'm going to ask my friends if we're going too keep you around or not, so just sit tight, okay?"

She pouts, but nods her head.

We get the drivers set up and lead them in the direction of the cave. Using a piece of cloth I blindfold Rachel. She's still bound when I stand her up and spin her multiple times in different directions. She's unsteady on her feet, "What the hell?"

"You're coming with us for now, but we can't let you know where we're going yet." Gorm picks her up and throws her over his shoulder while I stow his spear in my ring.

[Ardacen, Lady Dawn and the others have arrived and are currently working on clearing and planning]

"Thank you, Sonny. We have the wagons hitched and are coming back now. Everyone is fine, and we are plus one captured thief."

[Understood. Be safe, Sir]