Mohai was in no hurry to appear, thus he allowed the six bandit goons to continue patrolling outside.
The location of the treasure boxes was within his sight. He was able to have a clear look at the situation outside the stone house through the seam of the window.
Every move ShadowWolf and his party members made entered Mohai's sight. With his game experience, he was able to secure lots of information based on ShadowWolf and the others' positions.
If he stepped out right away, he had a high chance of scaring ShadowWolf and his party away, but they would not just give up either. The temptation of seven treasure boxes was not something players at their level could ignore and they might even call for more backup.
Should that happen, Mohai would have to waste more time and things might get out of hand.
Mohai did not expect the seven treasure boxes to lure an endless number of players. After he carried out various tests on the Template Manager and tried out all its functions, he had other things to take care of that day.
Time was precious to him. He could not simply play hide and seek with the players in the hideout.
Mohai needed ShadowWolf and the others to help him open the treasure boxes and take the contents out. After he saw ShadowWolf's position and reaction, he felt even more confident about it.
"You two, go around the stone house and wait at that spot. Hide behind the trees and don't come out. If you see Adventurers coming at you, attack them, but don't use skills on them," Mohai ordered two Level 8 bandit goons.
The Level 2 Reincarnation Pool could only recruit 10 bandit goons a day. Mohai had recently recruited three more Level 8 bandit goons to replace the four dead ones, but he fell short due to the number restriction. Therefore, he only had 14 men under his command at the moment.
Nevertheless, one man barely made a difference to him.
"The bandit leader isn't out yet. Is he even in the hideout?"
Right after the first Thief was detected, ShadowWolf and the others were surprised, but other than attracting five more bandit goons, nothing else happened.
"It's possible. Didn't we run into a treasure box guarded by mobs but no Boss earlier?" added one of the Thieves in excitement.
The difficulty of opening a treasure box varied depending on the bandit leader's presence.
If there was a bandit leader around the treasure box, they would have to check the surroundings first before luring the bandit leader away. They had to stall the bandit leader with the terrain and unlock the treasure box before escaping from the bandit leader's aggro radius at the same time.
If they were unlucky, they would die in the process.
Earlier in the day, there was once when something went wrong and four of them had died at once.
Thankfully, the Monolith Stronghold was not far from Guggenheim and the four souls managed to run back to their bodies in time, thus they were able to continue as a party of 15.
If the bandit leader was around, he would charge at them furiously after detecting them, but now, the situation was rather quiet, hence leading them to think that the bandit leader was not around.
ShadowWolf was excited as he said, "Okay then, you guys go help Oda to lure the mobs away. We will take care of the treasure boxes. Square, stand further away just in case. If things go south, run."
The bandit leader might return at any moment, so ShadowWolf ought to settle this quickly. He started to command the party members around.
"Oda is dead!"
To ShadowWolf's surprise, Oda was killed after the bandit goons ganged up on him. He barely lasted for a minute.
"Be careful. These bandit goons seem to have higher Attack capabilities than the previous ones."
Oda's death did not scare ShadowWolf and the others away because he was originally the pathfinder of the party, cannon fodder, to be exact.
With the command, other than the Thief named Square, the 13 others charged towards the seven treasure boxes together with ShadowWolf.
After the group got closer to the treasure boxes, ShadowWolf and two other party members slowed down while the other ten continued forward.
Opening a treasure box required ten seconds, so three of them would be more than enough.
Without the powerful bandit leader around, the ten of them would not have any problem luring the goons away. If it was not for the bandit goons having higher Attack capabilities, six of them would have been enough.
After many successful attempts in other spots, the party of Thieves from The Richest was already experienced enough. The ten of them easily lured the six bandit goons away.
After the bandit goons were lured almost 10 meters away, ShadowWolf and the other two dashed towards the treasure boxes.
Stealing the treasure boxes was a highly aggressive act, so the six bandit goons quickly ran back when they saw ShadowWolf and two more Thieves opening the treasure boxes.
The 10 other Thieves immediately obstructed the bandit goons from returning.
ShadowWolf and the two other Thieves were nervous. If the bandit leader suddenly came out, their effort would fall short and several of them would die on the spot. If they were unlucky, they might even lose their equipment.
"It's opened! A piece of Level 10 Bronze equipment!"
"Hahaha, I got lucky this time! Black Iron equipment!"
Ten seconds flew by in the blink of an eye, and with their party members buying time for ShadowWolf and the two Thieves, the trio was able to open a treasure box each. Similar to their previous attempts, these treasure boxes had a high chance of providing decent equipment.
"I got a piece of material…Let's back off for now. We have too much aggro on ourselves!"
The bandit leader was certainly not around. ShadowWolf heaved a breath of relief and called his party members back.
Because the three of them looted the treasure boxes, they got all the aggro from the bandit goons. If they did not escape the aggro radius, the bandit goons would never stop hunting them down.
Thankfully, with the help of the ten other party members, ShadowWolf and the two Thieves escaped the aggro radius and ran back to Square's side.
"Heads up, Square."
The three of them passed all the items to Square for safekeeping. Be it luring the mob or opening treasure boxes, there was a high possibility of dying, so the party agreed to transfer all the equipment they had to Square for the time being.
Square's set of equipment was the best among all of them. He always walked in the center, surrounded by his party members, and never participated in battles. If things went south, he would cast [Stealth] and run away. He had the safest position in the group.
"Not bad. After we open all of the treasure boxes, we will return to the city. Today's loot is good enough. Getting too deep will be dangerous," Square announced after he received the items from ShadowWolf. His eyes gleamed as the items poured in.
In his bag, he already had a dozen pieces of decent equipment and items.
"Square's right. Players don't have direct teleportation back to the city yet. After this run, let's go back first before we move on to the next," ShadowWolf agreed to Square's suggestion.
The ten other Thieves lured the six bandit goons away once again. Then, ShadowWolf and the two Thieves signaled Square before heading to the remaining treasure boxes.
After the first successful run, ShadowWolf was not as nervous as before even though the bandit goons still came back for them.
It was fine since they still had time!
"I got it!" one of the Thieves cried out in excitement.
"Careful!"
"The bandit leader is out!"
However, when the three of them opened the treasure boxes and took the contents, several figures charged out from the stone house a little further away from the treasure boxes.
Not only was the bandit leader there, but there were also five more bandit goons with him.
What? Did the bandit leader and the five bandit goons watch us from the stone house while we opened the treasure boxes?!
ShadowWolf found it difficult to believe, and for the first time, he felt danger.
"Square, run! Leave us!"
That was a bandit leader who reeked of danger and had 11 bandit goons. This might be the very place where the whole party got wiped out, but if Square could escape, the loss would be minimized!
"We will hold them back. Don't let the monsters get close to Square! After he draws enough distance, only then will we escape. Every escape counts," said ShadowWolf in a heavy tone.
Judging from the monster's response, it was impossible for all of them to escape unscathed, but covering Square's escape would not be a problem. After that, whether they could save their own skin was up to their own luck.
The bandit leader's aggro radius was the largest and also the quickest. Therefore, ShadowWolf showed special attention to him.
The ten other party members managed to take a step back while ShadowWolf and three more Thieves stepped up to buy them some time. ShadowWolf had multiple encounters with the bandit leader. After all, it was safe to say he was a veteran in dealing with bandit leaders.
However, when he noticed the bandit leader glancing at him and the gaze felt wrong, a strong uneasiness rose in his heart.
In the next moment, the uneasiness materialized when the bandit leader appeared in front of him with astounding speed and swung a punch at him.
ShadowWolf was not slow either. He tried to dodge it right away, but it was futile as he was still hit by the punch.
While he was dazed in bewilderment, he received a notification from the system: a piece of equipment had been taken away!
This bandit leader came up to me without any sign and robbed me of one of my best equipment? That's wrong. Something is very wrong!
"Square! Run! Don't look back!" shouted ShadowWolf.
Was this bandit leader a monster that a player was supposed to kill?
ShadowWolf had been through several games, but he had never seen anything like this. Even almost-invincible super Bosses did not make him feel like this!
"B-brother ShadowWolf, a bandit goon has caught up with me!" Square's pitiful voice stunned ShadowWolf.
How is this possible?
ShadowWolf forced himself to turn around and saw Square in [Stealth] mode, but there was a bandit goon trailing him. Square wanted to run, but the bandit goon punched him without a weapon, inflicting some damage on him and forcing him out of [Stealth] mode.
No weapon? Wait! The bandit leader doesn't have a weapon as well!
Other than that, those bandit goons who were equipped with weapons quickly disarmed themselves.
An even stronger trepidation rose within ShadowWolf.