With an overwhelming victory, the soldier's morale was high. Not only did they suffer no injuries they managed to capture 3 prisoners who were currently leading them to their camp.
The party was riding on high, well all of them except Victor. Although he tried to hide it, a sullen expression crept onto his face. During the skirmish, he could not find the courage to pull the trigger of his musket. The thought of taking a life was a serious and scary thing. The other soldiers didn't seem to notice, however Corporal Junot was aware.
"You are 17 years old Lord, taking a man's life is a weight that no teenager should experience. You will be ready one day, I know it," Corporal Junot whispered to Victor, comforting him.
All Victor could do was give the corporal a half smile. In truth, Victor appreciated the comment, but couldn't express his gratitude properly. It was the first time Victor saw death and had people shoot at him. Victor could only compose himself and prepare for what was to come at the bandit's camp.
The journey to the bandit camp was a decent march away from the original skirmish site. During the march, the bandits were interviewed about how many remained at the camp, who was in charge and any other crucial detail that could help formulate a solid plan of attack.
Positioned behind some bushes and trees the soldiers scouted the camp.
The camp was crudely defended with some half-assed trenches and a shabby-looking watch tower. Thanks to the information from the prisoners there were only 7 left in the camp including the leader who was a former mercenary sharp-shooter.
Speed and precision were the formula for success. With that in mind Victor and Corporal Junot devised a plan. They split their forces into squads, under the commands of Victor and the corporal. They'd emulate the pincer attack that the bandits used on the merchant convoy. To make sure their prisoners didn't escape they tied them to a tree and gagged them so they couldn't alert their fellow bandits. Once they were taken care of the 2 squads moved to position.
With a hand signal the attack began. Converging on the camp slowly the soldiers waited until they were almost spotted until they fired. The guard in the watch tower was staring down at the camp paying no mind to the soldiers breaching the perimeter and when he turned around a bullet was lodged into his skull.
The noise of the musket echoed through the camp and alerted the remaining occupants. In quick succession 5 of the 7 bandits were taken care of with no real opposition from them. Problems started to arise when the leader began returning fire.
As a former mercenary sharp shooter, he was a far better soldier than his rag-tag bunch of bandits. His reloading speed was quick and his accuracy was deadly. The soldiers under Victor were lucky to have found cover and entered a deadlock battle. The remaining enemies managed to suppress a few of the soldiers, however they were encircled.
Yard by yard the soldiers advanced due to the cover-fiver by their comrades. With both sides running low on ammunition it was a war of attrition. The rate of fire decreased each side saved their ammunition. Fortunately, the soldiers managed to surround the remaining enemies and force a surrender.
They could do nothing in the face of 10 muskets pointed at them. They ended up joining their fellow prisoners and now the five of them were tied to trees. After dealing with the bandits the soldiers ransacked the camp of any supplies and valuables. While the soldiers were doing that Victor claimed the rewards from completing the optional quest.
1000 Store Points, a Military Outpost Starter Kit and 20 gold coins were now sent to Victor's inventory. Apart from the quest rewards his soldiers managed to collect 10 gold coins, a year's worth of food and about 5 gold coins worth of tradeable goods
What started out as a shaky expedition has now turned into an extremely fruitful one. With no further need to linger, they set the camp ablaze and made their way back to the military outpost.
Originally a 3-day march was turned into 4 with the addition of prisoners and a fair amount of supplies being carted alongside them.
After a long tiresome journey, the party finally returned to the military outpost after 11 days of being away. The 2nd company soldiers helped unload all supplies and detain the prisoners in a secure cage. The 1st company soldiers were finally granted rest after 4 days of constant marching.
In the officer's tent, Victor rested, his body and mind weren't accustomed to such an arduous and full-on journey yet. It hadn't even been two weeks since Victor's body transformation so it was understandable for his body to be exhausted.
While relaxing in bed Victor decided to redeem his Military Outpost Starter Kit. The kit included 2 years' worth of food to feed at least 200 soldiers, 10 porters, 6 horses and 3 carts and the necessary materials to construct 2 watch towers and 4 50-man barracks.
This was extremely useful to the development of Victor's first battalion. With this in mind, he used both the Military Outpost Starter Kit and the 100-man Infantry Unit summon. The Military Outpost Starter Kit was all sorted and due to arrive the next day. Now it was time to deal with the 100-man Infantry Unit summon.
Similar to his 10-man Bodyguard Unit summon a green screen appeared in front of him with pictured options. There were 6 options this time instead of 4. There were French Voltigeurs, French Chasseurs, Hungarian Fusiliers, Russian Jaegers, German Fusiliers and Polish Line Infantry.
With so many intriguing choices Victor was left contemplating such an important decision. These soldiers would become essential to his short-term plans so having a good Mulling on it a little Victor finally came to a decision.
Victor's finger drifted as he made his choice.
"I shall choose you."