"Did you hear? Boss found a big fish recently and was planning on hitting it soon."
"How soon? It's been a while since I've had some fun."
"Psh, you're always the last one out and you're talking about having fun? If you don't contribute soon, I think that boss will kick you out."
It was easy for me to hear the conversation that the bandits were having with my sharp senses.
But it didn't seem like there was anything important that they were talking about.
It seemed that they were just an ordinary bunch of bandits based on the way that they were acting.
From what I could see, Shaka the Butcher was a named NPC, but that didn't mean that he surrounded himself with other named NPCs. Even if he was a named NPC, there were only so many named NPCs in this world.
At the same time, the difficulty of this promotion quest would be too hard if there were more than one named NPC involved.
So it made sense that he was the only one that was here.
I didn't bother listening any longer to the talk of the bandits as there was something that I was here to do.
They were at such a low level that they didn't even notice me as I walked past them.
But that was because I had something else covering me.
One never would have expected a Berserker like me to be able to use magic. The image that most people had of Berserkers was one that they were physical fighters that only knew how to rage and fight.
I admit that I would have been the same if not for a certain special skill that I possessed.
Because of the Shared Stats skill, I had access to the stats and skills that the other avatars possessed. That meant that I was able to use the magic that the other avatars learned.
During this time, Faust had learned quite a bit of magic from the books that he had gotten from the necromancers that he attacked.
The reason that Faust had been targeted by the necromancers in the first place was all because of his mana sensitivity.
That made him perfect to become a magician, but at the same time, it also made him perfect material to turn into a lich.
After being turned into a lich, he kept that mana sensitivity which made it easy for him to learn the spells that were recorded in these books.
While it did make him feel a bit complicated to learn magic this way, the more magic that he learned, the more that the rest of us benefited from it. So in the end, he continued to learn more and more magic spells from those books.
This illusion spell was one of those spells that he learned.
With this illusion spell, I was able to make it past most of the bandits and reach the inner area of their hideout.
All of them were just fooling around which showed how none of them were able to compare to the boss that they followed. They were just here because of how outstanding that boss was.
As for Shaka the Butcher, I knew exactly where he was since I could hear his voice.
This was a voice that was the same as the game, so I knew that it was him as soon as I heard it. At the same time, I was relieved hearing it since that meant that I knew exactly where he was once I heard it.
What I was focused on now was…
"Damn, it really is like in the game."
I couldn't help cursing to myself when I saw the cages that were in front of me.
Shaka the Butcher in the game was known as a cruel and merciless bandit. He was someone that did whatever he wanted as long as he could earn money from it.
That included…
"Shut the hell up! If you cry one more time, I'll cut off your tongue and make it so you can never make a sound again!"
As soon as they heard this, the women in the cages immediately started cowering and shaking.
The way that they acted made it clear that this wasn't just a simple threat.
It was clear that this had actually happened before which was why they were this scared.
Seeing that they were like this, the bandit that had yelled at them kicked the cage one more time before leaving.
"Don't be afraid, we'll be rescued soon."
That was what they said to each other, but really there was no hope in their eyes.
They knew that the moment that they had been captured, it was the end of the line for them.
After all, this was the wilderness.
This was a place that followed the rules of dog eat dog.
So there was very little chance that someone would go out of their way to rescue them. The only way that they would be saved is if someone attacked Shaka the Butcher and took him down.
But even they knew the fame that Shaka the Butcher had.
As soon as they heard his name, they knew that their fates were sealed.
I didn't make a move to help these women in the cages even though I was right there in the room with them.
I knew that I couldn't make a move or I would blow my cover.
Once I blew my cover, that would be it.
So I had to endure for now and figure out a way to get them out.
"It seems like I'll have to make a few changes to my plan." I said before I started moving around the room.
I didn't look at the women in the cages, I was just looking at the different parts of the room and memorizing everything that was here.
This was all needed for my plan.
I could only apologize to them in my mind for letting them suffer a bit longer.