In her invisible and intangible state Sage was not hindered by walls or bandits. After rushing out on her own she passed by three more caves before she reached her destination.
The cave she entered was different from the previous ones. It was larger than those caves. There were more lamps here and it was luxuriously decorated with expensive looking linens. There were beds on one side of the cave that looked far more comfortable than the straw beds in the other sleeping rooms.
A wide stream ran in the middle of the cave, separating this side of the cave from the other.
One the other side of the cave, a distance off from the stream, was a giant cage holding close to twenty women. These women were in a deplorable state; torn dresses, bruises on the face and arms, the tell-tale signs of abuse. At the moment they were pressed on one side of the cage, whimpering as they clambered to get away from a large man with a double sided battle-axe.
The man wore a sneer as he raised his axe, stepping over the fresh corpses of three women as he did so. This caused the women to shift further back into the cage even though there was no space to move, their screams turning hysterical as he got closer. With fear and tears in their eyes, they desperately clung onto each other. Some of them had their eyes closed muttering prayers of deliverance.
Their actions seemed to amuse the bandits in the room.
These bandits numbered around a dozen. Their clothes were in better condition than those of the bandits in the other caves, so were their weapons. They were probably the elites of the bunch Sage guessed. She was almost certain the huge bandit with the battle-axe was their leader.
When she first entered one of these bandits had been busy buckling his belt as he got up from his comfy bed. When he was done he reached for his sword, which was lodging in the corpse of a naked woman next to his bed, and ripped it out. He was currently facing towards the cave entrance, waiting for the intruders to pass through.
Sage only gave him a passing glance as she dashed towards the large man partaking in the slaughter of the hostages. In this moment her eyes momentarily left her target and checked out the other bandits.
These might have been the elites of the gang, however, they were weak in her eyes. Apart from the man orchestrating a slaughter, their physiques were all Grade 5. As for the bandit leader, he was Grade 4.
Their mana was not anything impressive either. These bandits all had H mana aptitudes with the exception of one, who had an F aptitude. Surprisingly, this person was a woman.
She stood at around one hundred and seventy centimetres with dark skin and reddish-brown hair. The bandit life must have taken a toll on her because she certainly was not pretty. She held a dagger in her hand as she guarded the cage door, watching the slaughter with the same elated expression as the other bandits. Her mana was Orange, an indication of her 2nd Order achievement.
Just then the bandit leader got within range of the women, causing their terrified screams to become even louder. The man did not seem to care though as he swung his axe down, hacking one of them from shoulder to hip.
Blood drenched the screaming women and their cries got even more intense. In their fear they cowered even further into the cage. Sage could tell that they wanted to escape to the other side with the door, but the bandit woman was there. From the expression on their faces, it was obvious they feared her more than they did the man who was intent on massacring them.
The bandit leader raised his axe once more, causing the cornered women to reach a new pitch.
At this moment Sage decided she had seen enough.
She {Blink}ed inside the cage, behind the bandit leader. Without wasting time she cast [Incineration] on him. This caused her spectral state to dispel.
Black flames erupted on the bandit leader, causing him to drop his axe and scream. His agony only lasted for a second though, after which he was reduced to ash.
Sage had already forgotten about him. She charged towards her next target, the bandit woman.
In the midst of this a thought crossed her mind. The bandit leader was the first person she had ever killed; in this world and her previous one. Having come to this world, she had known it was just a matter of time before it happened. However, she had always imagined that her first kill would cause her to have some earth-shattering emotion.
She had been wrong. Right now she felt no different than when she killed the birds she ate by throwing stones at them.
Coming back to the present, she arrived in front of the bandit woman in an instant. Raising her hand, she palmed her face and shoved hard, sending her tumbling half a dozen metres away.
Then she turned to the incoming bandits.
These bastards had been surprised when she first appeared. But they had quickly recovered and now charged her.
Sage was unimpressed by their actions. Raising a finger, she cast the 3rd Order spell [Chain Lightning]. Black lightning shot out of her finger and struck the leading bandit. Then, using him as a springboard, it leapt to the one trailing him. The process repeated itself several times until they all dropped dead.
There was still one bandit alive. He was the one she had found zipping up his pants when she had first entered. When his friends were charging her he had been about to join them, but before he could they were struck down. He was fortunate enough to have been out of the range of her spell.
Witnessing the demise of his comrades made him come to a halt, taking some time to figure out the direction his life should be gong. Not a moment later he was charging in the opposite direction, out of the cave.
She did not stop him. It was not like he could get away. The mercenaries would take care of him.
She walked over to the bandit woman, who seemed to have passed out due to her push. Sage bent down, grabbed her neck and twisted it to the side. She heard it snap and felt the life leave her body.
Throughout all of this she still felt nothing.
Maybe it's because I'm undead, she thought. Or is it because I'm secretly a messed-up person. Heaven knows the only reason I didn't murder anyone back on Earth was because I didn't how I would have gotten away with it.
That was probably the same reason that most people on Earth put up with those they hated instead of stabbing them in the back, otherwise, if there was no penalty for murder the homicide rate would most likely increase exponentially.
Casting off these thoughts, she looked at the women in the cage. They were still shuddering in the corner, fear clear in their eyes as they fell upon her, taking in her features, particularly her face. Their cries had died but their whimpers remained. When they caught sight of her staring back they looked the other way, trying to stifle their whimpers but only managing to make them louder.
Sage scoffed and returned her attention the dead bandit woman, particularly her clothes. A woollen shirt and jersey with leather pants and boots; they seemed to be of some quality. Although, judging by the woman's height, they were a little big for her, she wanted them. Compared to the oversized robes she had torn in some places to gain the sympathy of the mercenaries, these clothes were more suitable to wear.
However, she would not swap out her clothes here. Marcus and his band were close, she could hear the sounds of fighting in the next room.
Swinging the bandit's corpse on her right shoulder, she turned to the hostages still cowering in the cage.
"When the mercenaries get here tell them I enjoyed their company," she smiled, not caring how it affected her stitched up features.
After this she cast [Dimension Door].
She heard some of the women gasp as the space parted, creating a door about three metres high and two metres wide. She stepped through this door, appearing in the forest where the mercenaries' belongings were.
There was a reason why Sage, who could already teleport using {Blink}, decided to learn [Dimension Door]. {Blink} was faster, but to utilise it one had to see where they were going. Also, the distance could not exceed a hundred metres. As for the [Dimension Door], as long as you have been to a place and it was within one kilometre it was no trouble opening a door to the place.
She rummaged through the Quartet's packs and came out with Arletta's magic books, Zachary's holy book and four coin purses. Putting them all in a single bag, she slung it over her left shoulder. Then she cast [Dimension Door] again and stepped through.
Her destination this time was the river. Here she unslung the bag and corpse from her shoulders. Then she proceeded to undress the woman and wash her clothes in the river. After that she dried them using Zero Order magic [Burning Touch]. Then she got out of her robes and put the clothes on.
As she had suspected, they were a little big for her. The jersey's sleeves covered her arms to the tips of her fingers and she had to fold the pants so they did not drag on the ground. The pants were also a little big for her, but she remedied that by ripping off part of her discarded robes, creating a makeshift belt to hold them in place.
Unfortunately the boots were too big for her, so she had to continue on barefoot. It did not bother her much though.
When she was done she threw the robes on the corpse and set them alight with the 2nd Order spell [Firebolt].
Just then she heard a scream in the distance.
Different from the panicked cries of the hostages, this one was angry. It sounded like it belonged to Kylee. Sage could almost picture her face as she rummaged through their packs searching for their missing coin purses. The image brought a smile to her lips.
That's what you get for trusting the word of a stranger.
She was a con artist, a swindler. Getting close to her marks and robbing them, that was what she did best.