Chapter 77 Reasons

Aion equipped his hand axes and then prepared to fight. If that guy was the leader, then he probably had a lot of treasure… and he also knew where Aion could find the other bandits and their treasure… Aion could only think of the treasure, so he noticed that he was getting sidetracked from the real mission.

The enemy dashed at Aion, and despite the irregularities of the terrain, he was quite fast… still, not faster than Aion. He blocked the nails with his axes, and everyone around frowned when they heard the sound of metal echoing around, and Aion wasn't pushed backward.

All of a sudden, the nails began to grow again, and the points almost pierced Aion's eyes, but then he kicked the stomach of the enemy and forced him to move away.

"He is the tricky type… I can't get carried away just because I defeated that stupid asshole…" Aion thought.

When the nails guy recovered, he grunted in annoyance… despite the fact that a simple charge wouldn't work on Aion, he did the same thing again, and when Aion blocked the nails, he opened his mouth, and then his teeth began to grow. He could even do something like that…

Regardless, fighting against a human being that used his teeth as a weapon pissed Aion off. In the same moment, he used Rage and then activated Inner Force to the limits, and then kicked the stomach of the enemy again. He was sent flying to the nearest hill and his body sunk deep in… the play was over.

"I was planning to get back in fighting shape using this opportunity, but this kind of fighting style is annoying…" Aion said and then saw the other bandits trying to run away. "Don't move! If you do, you all will die! Surrender now, and I will treat you fairly."

Aion's angry shout paralyzed everyone around. Defeating their boss that fast was a sign of the difference in strength. Despite the fact that they knew that they would be put in a cell, the bandits didn't feel like risking their lives. So, they dropped to their knees and waited for Aion to put the handcuffs on them as well. As for their boss, preventing them from moving will be hard since he probably can damage the handcuffs with his nails.

In the end, Aion just sealed the guy in a huge block of earth magic, and then he went to search for the hideout. He found a good amount of treasure there as well… Aion wondered if all bandits were all that stupid. If he were then, he would live in a normal place and invest their small fortune. One can't be a bandit once they reach old age… if they reach.

"Hey, where are the others working for you?" Aion asked while he was waking up the mutated man. "Tell me where I can find them."

Although he woke up and realized his condition, the boss of the group didn't say anything… that sure was annoying, but Aion was satisfied for the time being. In the end, he healed the bandits and made them carry the block of earth and the boss for a while.

Since the first group was reaching their limits, Aion had to give them food and water once they stopped at camp. It was originally their food anyway. Regardless, Aion assumed that aside from being the leader of the group, the bandits were part of the kingdom and decided to become bandits for whatever reason. While that changed nothing and didn't justify their actions, it was better to know that than not know it.

"As for the boss, he is probably someone on the run… he is stronger than the average person, but since he is leading a group of bandits in another kingdom, he probably pissed someone important on the Rosberg kingdom," Aion thought.

In any case, that night again, he killed time by using the bard class, and when he started to get sleepy, he trained with the sword. It was quite the odd combination, a group of prisoners and a musician guard.

Overnight, Aion also realized that the monster that people assumed had killed and captured their cattle was the nails guy. His nails were sharp enough to pass as monster claws… he probably killed more animals than he had to in order to scare everyone.

"I guess the people here are either dumb or plain incompetent," Aion thought.

Regardless, Aion returned to the town around mid-morning of the next day. The guards frowned when they saw a suspicious cloaked figure approaching with some prisoners, but then Aion revealed his face, and then they opened the path.

The people of the town saw him crossing the streets with the prisoners with interest. Truth to be told, Aion disliked that much attention, but it was necessary for his plans. Eventually, he reached the small prison of the town, and he finally found the Captain of the guards.

"Give them food and water three times a day and don't do anything else to them," Aion said.

"Yes, my lord," the Captain of the guards said.

Aion didn't wait for him to introduce himself and just headed home. Fortunately, it looked like everything had been fine while he was gone… his plan worked, and no one noticed that he had left the town in the middle of the night.

"Aion? You returned a lot sooner than expected," Artemisia said.

"Yeah… I found some of the bandits, but guarding them and sleeping at the same time didn't seem like a good idea," Aion said after a long sigh of relief. "It seems that most of them are people from here that decided to rebel against the kingdom, but they didn't have any plan in mind aside from stealing from random people. My guess is that their leader is from Rosberg kingdom… Anyway, it looks like the previous lord left a lot of problems behind."