18: Highwaymen
1181 Words
It was early morning, the birds weren't even awake yet. Kit was running yet again, completing the daily quest. He previously did the physical workout which strained his body, but luckily, the system restored his body fatigue like he never did physical workout in the first place.
News has it that the vice captain of the Knights is coming back to the kingdom. Everyone was surprised. The vice-captain was sent out for a special mission by the King, on which he'll be gone for almost a year. Surprisingly, he came back just after 9 months.
[Daily Quest: Complete]
The system message popped up, he looked at the rewards tab and he was rewarded with skill points again. This time it was 30 points. Kit distributed those points equally like how he'd allocated his previous points.
[Name: Kit
Level: 3
Job: None
Title: None
HP: 125/125
MP 15/15
Strength: 25
Agility: 20
Vitality: 20
Intelligence: 20
Alertness: 20
Available skill points: 0
Daily Quests: Completed. ]
The system restored his fatigue again and he went home to wash his body and get ready for work.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"You three are travelling to Easthallow Village. The village chief has requested help from us, the knights," Cromwell said. He gave a letter to Kit. He continued explaining the matter.
Kit received the letter and opened it. The contents are about the current pest problems, mainly the highwaymen pillaging the farmland and taking away their livestock.
"I'm counting on you three," Cromwell said.
"Yes!" The three saluted and left Cromwell's office.
They rode outside the kingdom using a paid carriage. Since they haven't moved up to the ranks, they haven't received their own horses.
"Travelling is boriiiiing.." Lance said as he sat on the carriage seat. He's looking at the scenery outside the kingdom
"It's only a short drive, don't worry." Kit said to him. Kit also looked out the carriage window and admired the scenery, the blue skies and the fresh breeze or wind gently tickling his face.
*-*-*-*-*-*
They arrived at the village. It's quite a small village but with big farmland, they jumped down from the carriage and equipped their equipment.
They entered the village and the villagers saw them, and were delighted.
"It's the knights!"
"C'mon, let's greet them!"
"Call the village chief!"
The villagers greeted the three in a warm manner, well, maybe too warm. The ladies were humping on Lance, the children were admiring Grant's body build.
"Don't worry Kit, the elderly people are looking at you." Lance said teasingly. Kit punched his shoulder.
"Camelot Knights! Good thing you're here!" An elderly man with a beard came out, holding his walking stick and being delighted as well.
"Yes, we were sent here on a mission," Kit said, and asked more about the current problem.
They were guided to the farmland where those highwaymen previously attacked, the crops which they worked on so hard is pillaged by those highwaymen. It's the harvest season and they took the fully grown crops.
"As you can see, half of the crops which our farmers worked hard on are harvested, gone..." The village chief said in a grim tone. Half of the wheat fields are gone, the vegetable fields are also harvested. But luckily those highwaymen didn't burn down the fields. It seems like they are planning on stealing the crops again.
"You can leave it to us!" Kit said in a joyful tone, he wants to lighten the village chief's mood.
The three of them looked around. Grant looked around the field. Lance went around the village to scout for anything suspicious, and Kit asked the villagers about the incident.
They spent the whole morning looking around only to find nothing.
"Hey Kit, have you found something?" Lance asked, since he didn't find any traces around the village, he was looking hopeless.
"The villagers said they didn't hear anything on the night it happened. How about you, Grant? Have you found something?" Kit looked at Grant who's looking at the nearby forest.
"I found a couple of footprints leading to the forest. They might be our guys." He said. They didn't look at the forest because their main priority right now was the village. Their second clue was the forest.
"Alright, we'll scout the forest." Kit stood up where he's been sitting and got ready, as well as Lance and Grant.
"Are you going to the forest? Please be careful, there are powerful monsters there. And a lot of traps." The village chief said.
"Don't worry, we're only scouting the forest", Lance said. They departed at once, following the footprints that the highwaymen had left. The footprints were not that visible if one's perception is poor, but Grant has excellent eyesight and perception. They eventually arrived in the forest. It was a forest with thick trees. They entered the forest following the footprints and started scouting around.
"Be careful!" Grant pulled Kit back because of something on the ground.
"A bear trap..." Kit grumbled, the area around was full of traps. The bear traps are everywhere.
"There are bear traps everywhere, let's scout the area." Kit said. They continued their trail, avoiding the traps. From bear traps to pits. Eventually, they reached an open area.
"So far we've only encountered traps and no highwaymen." Lance said. The footprints that led them to the open area stopped there too.
Then Grant noticed something on top of the trees from afar.
"There's someone watching us." He whispered to the two. Kit and Lance were both on high alert after Grant told them.
The person watching them suddenly ran away. The three followed along, the person was jumping from tree to tree like a monkey. He's so agile.
"He's getting away!" Lance exclaimed. Kit was able to keep up because of his stats, the agility stat.
'Great!' Kit was a bit excited.
After running for 5 minutes into the rows of trees again, they saw a cave from afar and saw the person they were after going in.
"That might be their hideout. We don't know how many there are but we shouldn't do anything reckless," Kit said.
"Then what should we do? Should we report what we found to the captain?" Lance said. Grant was nodding,
"Yes, we should gather as much information as we can before departing." Kit looked around the area, they were hiding behind a bush.
"My~ What do we have here~? A couple of lost boys?" A man appeared out of nowhere, he was a skinny man with a fancy coat, something a noble would wear.
"Shit... we've been discovered."
"I didn't hear any footsteps..."
"What do we do now?"
The three went into a defensive stance, observing what the man is going to do.
"You are trespassing in a private property you know~!" The man said, he raised his hands and something came out. Magic
"A mage!" Lance exclaimed.
"Say goodbye~!" The man conjured a fireball within a small period of time.
Kit trembled, but he still unsheathed his sword and took a defensive stance.
"What should we do now?"
- Writer
