After the short ambush of the bandit gang, Zarba has ordered his summons to clean up the battlefield as they drag all of the dead bodies to the side of the road in a big pile of corpses as well as all of the items and stolen goods that they gather up on the other side of the road for Zarba to decide what he should do with them.
Not far away from the busy group of ranger knights, Zarba and Xin could be seen discussing something with each other beside the carriage.
"Yes, I think we can use the bodies as fuel for the illusion enchantment of the skeleton horse golems." Xin nodded her head with a small smile on her lavender-shaded lips as she absolutely refused to use the dead bandits as a sacrifice for the corpse tribute ritual; just the thought of those filthy bandits' mana getting inside her is enough for the half-elf to openly show her disgust on her face.
"How many do you think they can enchant the golems?" Zarba asks while he is looking at the bodies being piled up as he crosses his arms on his chest with a thoughtful expression.
"Well, I estimate around sixty or seventy golems for that amount of bodies." Xin answered him after thinking for a little bit and then looking up at her husband with an inquiring look. "It's enough for a single platoon of knights that we have deployed so far, so shall I do it, my husband?"
"Yeah, since we have the materials and the time, we might as well." Zarba hums in approval since Xin was going to use an external source of mana to enchant the golems, so it won't take long to get the enchantment done since she won't have to take the time to recover her mana after every dozen enchantments.
And with the obsidian skeleton horses being masked with magic, their travel speed will surely jump up a lot without having to stop to dismiss and resummon the golem horses every time they are about to run into people on the road, and with that speed, they'll probably cross the border of Kruger Province to the Croma Province tomorrow at dawn.
"Yes, yes, please leave it to your slave-wife, Xin, to take care of it." Xin giggles with her soft, melodic voice after she has Zarba's approval as she turns around and walks back inside the carriage to get the Mystica Magica staff with a slight sway of her hips.
After glancing at the swaying half-elf's shapely butt for a long moment, Zarba then turned his attention to the SSS' quest that was completed as the notifications filled up his vision.
÷×÷×÷
[ System Alert! ]
—Congratulations!
—You have cleared a quest!
—Quest: Eliminate the Big Brotherhood in the Rear gang!
—Objective: Completed!
—Reward: [Gayder Template] received!
—3 summon unit templates available!
[ Unit Template ]
—ID: Gayder
—Type: Infantry
—Class: Swordsman
—STR: B
—VIT: C+
—DEX: C+
—AGI: C+
—INT: D+
—Sword: Skilled
—Unarmed Combat: Skilled
—Dagger: Trained
—Crossbow: Trained
—Bow: Trained
—Shield: Trained
—Spear: Trained
—Evasion: Trained
—Horse Riding: Trained
—Leadership: Trained
—(More)...
—Evaluation: Uncommon-tier
÷×÷×÷
"Meh, not really useful other than being cannon fodder…" Zarba shook his head with only mild disappointment at his new unit template's evaluation since he kind of expected something like this because that guy is just a bandit boss of a small bandit gang after all.
"I'm expecting the template to have a sexual assault skill, though…" Zarba was more surprised by this, as the sexual skill is not showing up since it's the Gayder dude's signature skill, considering what he is mostly known for.
'Maybe it counts as an unarmed combat skill or something…?' Zarba thought with a shrug since it really doesn't matter.
"There's also the issue with the equipment of the unit…" Zarba wants to laugh at this since the bandits barely have anything worth mentioning and their boss is practically unarmored. Truly a mob unit.
'I'm so glad that I had trained very hard; otherwise, I'd not have such an awesome unit template to rely upon…' He shamelessly praises himself with a smirk. The fifteen years of hard work really pay off now that the SSS is activated, as Zarba basically has infinite numbers of elite soldiers to summon and throw at any threat without risking himself in a fight.
"Well, time to inspect the loot…" Zarba shrugged his shoulders again before he walked to the piles of items on the other side of the road.
From what he has seen, the bandits had collected quite a small fortune, as Zarba looked through the pile of mismatched coins from different kingdoms, silverware, trinkets, and jewelry with an indifferent expression on his face, and then he picked up an ornate silver fork to throw it up and down in his hand before he tossed it aside.
"Mostly useless junk and not really worth my time selling them either," he muttered, as most of these he doesn't really have any use for except the coins that might be slightly useful in their specific county. Zarba had brought a lot of gold coins with him when he left the capital, so the last thing he lacks is money.
Zarba turns to look at the crates and barrels next, and then he walks towards them before his boot kicks open one of the crates filled with food supplies: dried meat, fruits, and a few moldy wheels of cheese. Seeing that it is just food inside, Zarba continues to open the other crate, which is also filled with different kinds of food, such as grains and wheat flour.
"Only food, huh…" Zarba mumbles before he takes a look at the barrels next, which turn out to be just water, ale, or wine.
'What do I do with these?' Zarba scratches his head. He can't just leave them here like this, and he also doesn't want to take them with him either, as that would make him stand out more than he already does.
"Maybe I can leave them in the nearby village or something…" Zarba muttered as he thought it the only reasonable idea he had. He hates to waste all of the food and drinks, so he might as well donate them anonymously to some village that will need these more than him.
If they don't want them because they are suspicious, then too bad, as they will still have to deal with it!
Zarba nodded his head with a profound expression before he walked away like he didn't just plan to dump his problem on other people.
÷×÷×÷
In the evening at the shady alley somewhere in the lower district of the Barbarita city where the Bastari castle is, there's a large white tent covered in patches of cute mismatched colored fabrics standing wedged between a suspicious bookstore and a shabby antique store with a signboard that has the faded text that reads "Helga Fortune Teller (50% off!!)" placed in front of the entrance.
Seraphina, who has finally managed to sneak out of her home, quickly walks inside the alley in a black cloak and with a small pouch in her hand. She goes straight towards the tent, and as she slips inside the tent, the scent of incense, various exotic flowers, and faint roasted chicken greets her nose.
Inside the dimly lit tent filled with various items and odd objects, there's Helga, a fair-skinned young woman with full pink lips, freckles, long black hair, and long bangs covering her eyes. Seraphina's "definitely a fortune teller and not a witch" friend is sitting behind a table with a red silk cover, a plate of roasted chicken, a crystal ball, and two lit candles as she is dressed in a white robe with low cut, an ornate head veil, gold earrings, and an intricately designed gold necklace.
"Hey, you, don't just come in as you please!" Helga snapped at Seraphina, who got inside her tent without permission, her voice muffled by a chicken drumstick in her mouth as she scrambled to hide a plate of half-eaten roasted chicken on the table with embarrassment.
'I will definitely throw a hex at you if you don't have a good explanation for this!' She thought while gathering the mana in her right hand after she hid her chicken under the table.
"Just where do you think you—" Her complaint died when she recognized the rude person who invaded her tent as her friend Seraphina, who seemed to be quite anxious for some reason. "Is that you, Sera? What's wrong?"
Seraphina moved near the table and put down the pouch on top of it with a worried face. "Please find him for me…!"
Her voice trembled, not from fear, but urgency as she explained what was going on to Helga. "Prince Zarba. My father wants him dead. He's put a bounty out and sent assassins..."
Helga dispersed the mana in her hand as she pushed her bangs aside, revealing sharp, intelligent green eyes that scanned Seraphina's face. The usual bubbly bimbo she knew was gone; this was a desperate and determined woman.
"Bounty on the prince's head? The Karo's Duke is also sending assassins as well? Well, go figure, I guess?" She snorted, unimpressed by nobility's little games. Her fingers then snatched the pouch from the table. Carefully, she extracted a single dark strand. "The prince's hair, I presume. Your obsession with him is something else, Sera… and simple kinds of tracking spells might alert him of someone looking at him or might simply just fail since I doubt the crown prince of the empire will be defenseless against such a thing…"
Seraphina leaned forward, her hands holding Helga's hand on top of the table, strategically ignoring the obsession comment from Helga. "Please do what you can, Helga. Just find him. I must know where he is so I can warn him before anyone else finds him!"
"Fine…" Helga sighed, the theatrics dropping a little. She pinched the strand between thumb and forefinger while considering which spell to use.
"Alright. Let's see if the clairvoyant spell can do the trick. If it fails, then we can try another indirect method instead. I only knew a couple spells for this, so don't blame me if all of them happen to fail!" Helga warned as Seraphina nodded her head with a hopeful expression before Helga reached towards the crystal ball as she began casting a spell as a pale blue magic circle materialized around the crystal ball…