Mortis left the dirt road and advanced through the forest, following the shouts he had heard. Soon he reached the main road and noticed that bandits had surrounded three carriages, two ordinary ones and a magnificent carriage in the middle. Some soldiers were standing in front of the women in a protective circle, while other bandits were hiding in the shadows or camouflaged with magic.
Mortis decided to step into the spirit realm to get an overview. There he discovered six more bandits posted as guards. He asked the system about its goals and received a quest to kill all the bandits to protect the women.
Mortis was ready to do so and immediately went to work. As long as he didn't touch anyone, he remained invisible in the spirit realm. Mortis dispatched each bandit with ease, killing them with his scythe.
He ducked down to remain invisible after hiding the first body under a bush. He then ran to the next enemy and repeated the process until he had eliminated all the bandits. Unfortunately, the soldiers could not be saved.
When the leader of the bandits began to reveal his intentions towards the women, Mortis decided to intervene. He jumped into the scene and with a quick whirl cut all the bandits to pieces. The leader and the three other survivors stepped back.
Even though they were hit, they survived the sneak attack. But the shock was seared into their faces. Morti didn't care and immediately took a swing with his scythe at one of the common bandits, wanting to focus on the leader now.
He effortlessly killed two more who were waiting to be cut down by him. Now there were only two enemies left. The leader shook off the shock and attacked. When the second bandit saw his leader struggling, he too attacked. Morti kept jumping backward in small leaps to avoid the blows. The two opponents tried to rush at him, but had no chance as Morti held the two blades sideways in front of them, stabbing at them like spears.
When he was a few meters away from the women, he used the "scythe whirl" three times in quick succession. Even if he hit only one of them, the damage he would do after some time would be significant. The leader was littered with cuts, while the other simply toppled backwards dead as he took the final blow.
Full of despair, the leader yelled for his comrades who were lurking in the shadows. Mortis just smiled and said, "The other six in the shadows were the first whose souls I snatched. You are the last, but don't worry, I won't kill you right away.
After all, you still have to tell me where your hiding place is." The leader wanted to take his legs in his hands and run away, but Mortis had expected it. He placed his blade further down and pulled his legs away. Full of panic, the bandit held his sword in front of him as he lay on his back, yelling, "Don't come any closer!" But Mortis did not care.He took a swing and severed his arms. "Shit, he's losing too much blood," Mortis thought as he saw the leader doubled over in pain. "Does anyone have a healing potion? I need to ask him a few more questions," he asked the women who were still sitting in a heap. A woman in maid's clothing came running and gave him a red potion. But it was too late, the leader was dead and his soul was already absorbed by Mortis. Lvl up. Spend six SP on 4 LP and 2 stamina. Quest completed. The potion is stored in your ring. Special quest fulfilled: Make sure none of the women die or anything happens to them. Reward: high Charisma potion. This is also stored in your ring. Mortis returned the potion to the servant and put the leader's sword in his belt. He searched the leader's pockets, but found nothing of importance except 2 gold coins. Therefore, he went to the other corpses to rob them.
The women were irritated by Mortis' behavior. He did not care about them, but was only interested in the corpses and their loot.
After he had searched all the corpses on the main street and had already found 11 gold and some weapons, the servant tried to address him. However, Mortis raised a hand in a gesture of silence and made his way to the other 6 corpses.
There he found 6 gold coins, 4 healing potions and 1 stamina potion, which according to the system only replenishes stamina for a short time in order to continue fighting or running.
Mortis was standing behind a bush and really wanted to drink the Charisma potion. The system knew exactly what he wanted, and that pleased him. So he drank the potion.
His face ached as he felt his bones change and his face take on a new shape.
"Congratulations, you have reached Charisma 40. You belong to the attractive people. Your face is now symmetrical and striking. You are a real eye-catcher for women," the system said.
Mortis laughed inside and was ready to talk to the women. He hoped they would treat him better now and he would get more information from them.
He took the bandit's shirt in front of him and cleaned his face and gun.
As he was almost jumping for joy, the system warned him, "Be careful, 6 of the women are level 50 and might try to surprise you.""Thank you, my pretty, you can always be counted on," Mortis replied to the system.
He walked up to the women, but left enough distance so it wouldn't be awkward for them. The maid wondered if this young man was so handsome before.
She was also the one who stood in front of Mortis, thanking him and shaking his hand. "I thank you, adventurers, for saving us. On behalf of Linda of Bayreuth, I thank you," she said.
Mortis smiled and replied, "You don't need to thank me, as you wouldn't have needed my help at all. But it was a good training with nice reward. I wish you a smooth onward journey."
He turned and walked towards Bamberg, having given up asking for anything when he heard that they were much stronger than he was.
"A strange figure," said the one guard to the Countess's daughter. The latter just nodded. "He didn't want to say anything or give his name to increase his fame in the Adventurer's Guild. Really strange."
"Maybe he's not an adventurer, but a nobleman who travels. His outfit looked noble and he was really handsome," the maid said.
"But only his trousers and chest plate were of good quality. He was also missing many things, but the weapon he has is rarely used," the guard explained.
"isn't it a simple scythe that farmers usually use?" the maid asked.
"No, it is a scythe for fighting. A few use it, but rather rarely, as there is no proper class for it. Spearmen can equip it and use their skills with it, but since they tend to use stabs, the scythe doesn't do them much good," the guard explained.
"But he does have skills. I clearly saw him emitting black mist," the maid remarked.
"You're right about that. I think we'll see him again," the guard said.
Mortis Level 17 Strength: 26 (+3) Agility: 36 (+12) Intelligence: 4 Vitality: 14 Stamina: 20 Mana: 30 Charisma: 40