The reaction of the Bandit Boss was expected as he felt the infernal pain coursing throughout his whole body as each second pa.s.sed by, screaming with the utmost of terrifying agony as if he was being burned alive intensely like the demons of h.e.l.las greeting him with their maniacal evil smiles on their unholy faces.

"AHH!!! MAKE IT STOP!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!" The Bandit Boss, for all his bravado that he displayed earlier, succ.u.mbed in the end to the intense affliction of deep torment as his fearful eyes were watered with tears while saliva involuntarily flowed out from his mouth, showcasing an appearance of a man having his will broken without a shred of mercy from his interrogator.

After a few moments, Gray withdrew the ritual of his spell as he steadily brought the bandit's soul back into his body as the elf still needed the human alive for the information.

As a result, the Bandit Boss was beyond relieved at the nefarious spell seemingly ending as his pain ended gradually. He was witnessed panting profusely with sweat all over his entire body as he stared at his brutal elf captor like Xaz'vernok himself has come personally for him from the infernal depths of h.e.l.las in an elven persona.

"We can do this all day, you know," Gray spoke menacingly with a dark serious tone while staring at his bandit captive with malevolent eyes. "Now are you going to talk? Or do you prefer having your soul pulled out repeatedly as you wallow on the ground like a pathetic dog whining in his chains."

"F-fine!!" The Bandit Boss agreed with Gray's conditions as he s.h.i.+vered in agitation while catching up with his fast rhythm of the breath. "I'll tell you everything I know, just spare me from that foul sorcery!!"

"See? We both can actually get along if you are willing to cooperate." Gray's expression instantly s.h.i.+fted to that of a playful smile as he sat down on the ground with his legs crossed to meet eye level with the man. "You may take your time in regaling me with the details of your exploits in banditry. After all, I'm not much in a hurry to get out here, hehe."

After Gray gave the bandit time to recover from being scarred by the grueling taxation of the ritual, the man finally begun telling the elf his intentions as to why he and his bandit subordinates are doing in these parts.

"It all started around a month and a half ago when my men and I were camping somewhere around the outskirts of Flocaster." The Bandit Boss commenced his tale. "A hooded man appeared from out of nowhere and offered us a huge amount of gold for our services."

"A man huh, so you're not the brains of this operation. This is truly alarming." Gray rubbed his chin with a grim look. "Were you able to get a good look on his face?"

"No." The bandit replied in disagreement. "He never revealed his real ident.i.ty but it matters not to us since we are getting the gold in the end."

"I see." Gray nodded in response, slightly annoyed that he was not able to find the mastermind's ident.i.ty. But at least he's making progress in his questioning with the bandit. "Anything else that you can tell me about him? His voice? Race? His height? Build? Actuation? Accent? The way he displays himself in your dealings? Tell me everything about your observations about him."

"Well, for one his voice is not that deep, so perhaps a young man in his twenties. His height is average, around 170 centimeters more or less. I'm not sure about his race but perhaps he's a human or an elf as what little I saw on his face." The bandit willingly answered Gray. "We can tell that he's extremely rich based on the gold that he gave us, a n.o.ble maybe? Hmm… wait."

"What is it," Gray said as he antic.i.p.ated more of what the bandit is about to say to him.

"He seemed to possess an intellectual vibe by the way he speaks, and whenever he visited us to perform his experiments, he would sometimes play some beautiful music unlike any other with his lute while performing the sick deed." The bandit replied with the best of what he remembered regarding the hooded man.

"Music? Experiment?" Gray frowned at the words, most especially the second one as he definitely felt something not right about it. "What in the Divines do you mean?"

"Gray!!"

As the bandit was about to answer, Gray was interrupted with a light tap on his back. Turning to his behind, he saw Isamu greeting him with a deep frown on his face.

"Isamu." Gray acknowledged the cat-folk with a welcoming look. "I suppose you and Selena are done with the investigation around the encampment, correct?"

"Yes." Isamu nodded while still retaining his negative expression. "And we found some… disturbing things."

"Disturbing?" Gray tilted his head in confusion as his brows narrowed suspiciously. "How disturbing exactly?"

"It's best that you see it with your own eyes," Isamu suggested as he gestured Gray to follow him.

"Very well." Gray agreed with the cat-folk. "But we'll be taking this bandit with us. He'll elaborate us further regarding what you saw."

And with that, Gray pulled the bandit up as he dragged him by the s.h.i.+rt while following Isamu into the deeper parts of the cave. After about five minutes, the three finally arrived at their designated location as Gray was presented with a hidden entrance of another part of the cave leading to a small s.p.a.ce inside.

Entering the cavern room, Gray's eyes widen with extreme surprise at the monstrous exhibit that tainted his both eyes.

The area can simply be defined as similar to a torture chamber, with blood all over the cavern rooms in a chaotic manner and multiple chains that are attached everywhere, no doubt housing the many victims that were used for nefarious intentions.

There are no signs of any crystal corpses being laid on the ground as it was unquestionably already disposed of by whoever is responsible for this transgression.

At the right corner of the room is a table containing a set of laboratory equipment, something that Gray is quite familiar with. He then approached the instruments.

"An Alchemy workstation." The elf eyed the apparatuses with a deep calculating grimace while searching around for additional clues. His endeavors were a failure however as he could not find anything. "Tsk, an Alchemist would usually leave some notes detailing the progress of his experiments. This guy is craftier than I thought would be."

Gray then faced the bandit with a cold look. "It appears that your boss has been performing some abominable experiments with the use of different concoctions to your victims. Tell me, how did you manage such despicable measures? Speak, or I'll resort to the suffering that you experienced earlier."

"W-we kidnapped anyone who's of the Warrior cla.s.s, most preferably lone Guild Warriors traveling around these parts. Our benefactor then uses them to test out his various potions in them." The Bandit Boss immediately answered out of fear, not wanting to undergo that horrifying ordeal of the elf's magic ever again.

"You did what?!!!"

Upon hearing the bandit's abhorrent answer, Isamu out of rage suddenly pulled him by the neckline of his s.h.i.+rt and held no back in punching the man repeatedly on his deforming face.

Gray understood the cat-folk's justifiable anger and did not stop his friend's actions of maiming the bandit boss as he saw fit. As a matter of fact, the elf felt the same sentiment as Isamu as he now wanted nothing more than to give the bandit the most painful death that he deserved.

But such things are unimportant for now as something came up inside his mind.

"Why only Warriors?" Gray said as he looked at the bandit's now battered face.

"I… I don't know." Despite the state of deformity being a.s.sumed on his face, the bandit still was able to answer Gray's question. "Our benefactor never stated his specific reasons for us."

"Hmm, so that's why you set up your base here at the outskirts of Chadena," Gray responded in realization to the bandit's statement. "How long have you been doing this?"

"We settled here around twenty days ago." The bandit replied.

"And how many have you kidnapped, so far?!!" Isamu intervened as his fist readies to deliver another punch to the bandit's face.

"S-seven."

That was all Isamu needed to hear as he gave the strongest punch that he could muster directly at the bandit, knocking him out cold to the ground.

"Isamu," Gray called out loudly for the cat-folk's attention. "Where's Selena?"

Isamu merely said nothing as he pointed his right hand at where the Sentinel girl is.

Gray looked at where Isamu pointed as he indeed saw his soul-sister at the corner of the room tending to an unconscious battered black-haired young man who is half-naked with ragged pants, exposing his multiple scars all over his entire upper body.

Unconscious Man

Level 16

Health: 1,835 / 2,101

Stamina: 415 / 902

Mana: 300 / 300

Approaching the both of them, Gray made his presence known to Selena as the girl nodded in acknowledgment at her brother.

'Who is he?' The elf telepathically initiated the conversation with the girl.

'Isamu seemed to have recognized him as a fellow Guild Warrior who goes by the name of Hans.' Selena responded in the same manner with a worrying tone. 'Luckily, we were able to administer health potions for him just in time, ridding him of the multiple wounds that he garnered when we first saw him.'

'I see.' Gray answered with a smile. 'Excellent work, sis.'

Selena again nodded in return as her attention went back to the unconscious man.

After a few minutes, Hans woke up thankfully as he clutches his head in his feeling of nausea. With the man's vision being cleared, his expression turned pale as he immediately panicked out of the horror that he has been forced for days.

"Shh, it's alright," Gray a.s.sured the man in an attempt to comfort him. "We're all friends here. Those bandits won't be giving you any trouble anymore."

"Are… are you sure?" Hans in his still alarmed state asked him with wary.

"Yes." Gray nodded with a serious look. "We're here to save you. Isamu, a fellow guild member of yours, is here with us too."

"Oh, he's awake." Isamu made his approach after being satisfied at beating up the bandit and looked at the man. "Never thought I'd see you here of all places, Hans. How in Agveyr's blade did you end up in this s.h.i.+tty mess?"

"Paul and I… We were just coming back from our contract of escorting a caravan back from Flocaster days ago," Hans explained his distressing situation while hugging himself in an effort to calm himself down from the trauma. "Then all of a sudden, some bandits ambushed us and we were outnumbered heavily. They took us as their prisoners and brought us here into the cave. As we were chained up here in this very room, a hooded man came in and perform various alchemical experiments while playing that lute of his, starting with Paul. Poor Paul, he was overdosed with a lot of potions by that vile b.a.s.t.a.r.d and he never survived the ordeal. Lucky for me, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d seemed to have run out of ingredients and told the Bandit Boss to remain guard here as he will be collecting it in his home back at Flocaster."

"Flocaster, huh." Gray rubbed his chin as he nodded approvingly at the important information that was provided to them. "Well, at least we know where our culprit lives."

"That sick sc.u.m!!" Isamu clenched his fist in unadulterated anger. "He'll pay for the atrocity that he has done!!!"

"Can you stand?" Gray offered his a.s.sistance to Hans, reaching out his hand.

"With me being all healed up, Yes I can." Hans nodded in appreciation as he stood up from his spot. "I believe you all have my thanks for treating my injuries. Those bandit rascals also took pleasure in torturing me whenever they feel like it."

"Right," Gray answered as his attention s.h.i.+fted to the unconscious Bandit Boss laying on the ground. "And speaking of bandit rascal, one still remains."

Gray then picked up the bandit's body as he began his skill of u003cArcanaphiliau003e, draining the Mana Essence out from the bandit's mouth and killing him in the process.

Isamu and Selena remained stoic throughout the duration as they perfectly knew of Gray's Arcane abilities while Hans could not help but stare at bafflement at witnessing such unnatural phenomenon of the bandit's flesh slowly being dried out.

Of course, Hans knew better than to be a judgmental, ungrateful fool as he's perfectly aware of Gray's kind behavior to him despite meeting for the first time. Besides, the elf is here with Isamu, so he's definitely a good person.

"Ah, now that hits the spot." Gray succ.u.mbed to the delicious Arcane Energy that he obtained from the now-dead Bandit Boss. He also marveled at the new message that was presented to him by the System.

+200 Permanent Bonus to Mana!!

'Wow, a simple ten times increase from your average human.' Gray blinked in delightful surprise at the notification. 'But wait, since the man that I absorbed was a boss, shouldn't I be receiving a special skill out of this?'

u003cDevourer of Supremacyu003e Activated!!

u003cGuile of Banditryu003e (Pa.s.sive) - The Arcanist is capable of a.s.suming the demeanor of a bandit, granting him a permanent 30% bonus to Intimidation as long as he is far away from any towns or villages. While looting corpses, you are capable as well of finding even more gold than usual, granting 20% additional bonus to gold.

'Oh, there it is.' Gray thought with excitement as he read the description of his new skill. 'Well, well, this is an interesting skill. Although I'm not a bandit, I'm sure it's definitely going to be useful in certain situations that I may find myself in the future.'

After feeding on the Bandit Boss, Gray faced his companions and Hans. "Well, now that we know the motives and the town of residence of the man behind all this, let's head on back to Chadena and convey the information that we found out to the guild."

The three nodded in response as all of them made their exit from the hidden room, finding themselves back to the center of the clearing that made up of the main bandit encampment.

While the four of them are walking, they suddenly felt a tremor from the earth itself as the ground begun to shake in an intense magnitude, threatening the surrounding vicinity of the cave to fall apart.

"What in the blazes?!" Gray gritted his teeth as he and his companions struggled to maintain their balance amidst the earthquake.

As Gray stare down to the ground, his eyes widen with absolute shock at witnessing a huge Magic Circle being formed as it grew bigger at the spot where they currently stand.