After pleading, crying and begging to spare their lives, up to the moment where even the bandit's ears became numb, the bandit decided to at least hear out their words by taking them to their leader.
Everyone was tied up and was treated like a prisoner until a decision was made.
Alex wasn't in panic and was enjoying the situation. For a modern guy like him coming to a fantasy world similar to the novel, was a fun experience and it was something new.
But it can't be said the same for the bandits who were going to have a horrible nightmare by inviting a tiger to their wolf pack.
Alex's goal was to dig out information about these bandits who appeared out of nowhere and if they seemed useless, he would just wipe them out from the root.
Alex had found many unusual things in his report about them.
First, they only remain in the area surrounding the mines. They generally don't robe or look to raid others unless they appear near this area.
The second was about the ores. What were they doing by forming a base here and if iron is still mined here then where did the mined iron go?
Moreover, they have tracked people who were smuggling things out of Nevan and which trails start from this vary place.
What surprised Alex was the quality of the weapons. The quality of the weapons was quite good and comparable to theirs.
A bandit using weapons of high quality in an inhabitable place like this is quite suspicious.
Alex observed the route while signalling his man to stand carefully.
Most of these bandits were normal men and Alex could see only nine awakened among the ones who came to raid them so he was sure that the chunk of power was concentrated at the base.
Alex and his men were taken down through a ragged down small town which had a small number of shabby-looking people with hollow and sunken eyes.
The small town seemed to be a town where mostly miners and their family inhabitants stayed.
Alex wondered whether the bandit group was part of townsfolk who united under a banner to spread their fame by doing the notorious deed.
Finally, under a small cliff which formed a rocky ravine, all of them stood.
The leader of the squad called Alex to meet the leader of a bandit where else his men would be separated from him and would be in prison until things cleared up.
Alex nodded and followed the man's words, behaving like a meek coward.
While Alex passes through, he could see many bandits staring at him with an amusing look and starting to mock him.
"Look at this man. He is trembling just seeing us while from his dress he looks like a soldier."
"Tsk.Tsk." Another man, clicking his tongue, said, "Real men like us are hard to find."
Their mockery fell on deaf ears in Alex's ears as Alex was busy getting a layout of this underground place under a cliff.
This underground hideout seemed to be used as a mine before but now was used as housing for these bandits
"Aghhh!
" Woohoo...Woooo"
Alex's footsteps halted when he heard the cry which seemed to belong to children.
Alex activated his mana sensor and looked at the rocky wall in front of him and his eyeball widened.
Besides the wall seems to be hundreds of people who seemed to be imprisoned.
They were divided into three categories.
Small children, women and men.
Though Alex couldn't see their face and get a clear hint of their age because of the wall, only one thing came to his mind which was slavery.
As if a piece of a puzzle merged, Alex got a hint about why this person never left the place.
Alex stopped before a metal door while the man went inside to talk with the leader.
Alex frowned and his expression became worse as he felt the power of the leader.
Disciple rank.
'What the hell is a disciple ranked warrior doing here in this kind of broken place.'Alex thought as he started to rack his mind.
Taking down a disciple ranked warrior was not going to be easy for him.
Clink!
Alex entered inside following two men leading him.
The door was closed and locked from inside as if it was going to be a torture session for him.
Inside the darkroom, a small lantern was lit which cleared away the darkness.
As Alex stepped closer, he saw a man with a brown moustache and a huge scar on his left eye sitting on a chair smoking a cigar.
He looked at Alex and his gaze ran down on him. He checked his strength and was unable to feel mana and ordered his man to untie Alex.
When others voiced out, he laughed loudly"You are saying this greenhorn will play a trick to kill me, then let me you this mid is 100 years too early to even touch a single strand of my hair."
"He hasn't even awakened mana."
"Hey, kid. Tell me what you are doing here."
"If you lie, you will repent being born in this world." The man spoke in a sharp tone.
Alex's voice faltered and with trembling legs, he asked"Who are you all?"
The man's lips twitched and he spoke"Have you not heard of the mountain bandit in this area?"
"What! No, I have never heard of bandits. Moreover, I am not from this state." Alex spoke with a small ruffling voice.
"Then from which state are you?"
"I am a State of Brigade. I have invented a new treasure hunting tool and my friend from Brigade said that he had a few friends near the iron mines here. So, we came here since the security of Nevan is already in a mess. We didn't encounter any trouble until here until your group."Alex spoke.
The man frowned and his facial expressions stiffened a little which didn't go unnoticed by Alex.
" Which friend are you talking about?"The man asked.
"I can't say his name but I only know that he buys slaves from somewhere and had a partnership with them," Alex said.
The man fell into deep thought and Alex took this opportunity to ask.
"Mister, if I am not overstepping my boundary, can I ask you something?"