101 Hey, It's Another One

"How did Miss Aster know?" Lisa gasped as I dragged the two unconscious Wrunches into a pile and disarmed them.

"I didn't," I lied. "But I saw him try to attack me so I retaliated. I think we can safely assume that these people are not Mercenaries on an escort mission."

"Ehehehe~ I guess so! But Miss Aster is really strong! Did I mention that I'm a bottom? Because I'm definitely a bottom for you~"

I coughed before gesturing to the cave, "So… Umm… I think we can also safely assume the cave has been taken over by bandits… Do you need the mushrooms today or should we go back and report to The Guild?"

Lisa tilted her head at me, "Ummm… Is Miss Aster confident of taking on the bandits with just the two of us?"

"If the bandits inside are as strong as these two, then I should be able to handle them no problem. Why?"

Their stats were in the low hundreds after all so this shouldn't be a big problem for me.

"Oh! In that case, let's go! The knights pay a bounty for bandits you know? You could earn quite a lot by delivering them to the city and you would get recognition too!"

Ok, that got my attention a little, especially the recognition part. I do want a bit of a name for myself as it would make it easier for me to do things without relying on my family name.

Just by looking at the principal, I could see how much weight my family name bore and I'd like to not rely on it too much if I could help it.

They do say there's a difference between a power given to you and a power earned yourself and I very much prefer the latter.

I turned to Lisa, "Could I ask that you watch over these two bandits while I clear out the cave in that case?"

She gasped, "Ehhh?! We're not going in together? I was sure I would be fighting by my future partner's side!"

I was planning to use my shadow summons to clear out the cave but I don't want her to know I have more magic skills than I told her…

I needed to give her an excuse…

"Hmm… Don't you think it'll be problematic if these two woke up and went off to attack us from behind or worse, find more of their friends to attack us? That's why I need you to watch over them for me!"

"Ohhhh! As expected of Miss Aster! I didn't think of that at all! In that case, let me handle that!!"

Alright, that settles things here.

"Just to check, how deep is this cave?" I asked.

Lisa tapped her chin with a finger, "Umm… It's about the size of a small mansion I guess? It's not really that big, honestly."

"Unn… Then I guess I should be able to clean this place up in less than an hour. Wait for me!"

I dashed into the cave, switching my steel sword out for a mace made of light to both provide illumination and also as a higher quality weapon.

Almost immediately, I came across another two Wrunches that were walking towards the entrance, presumably to relieve the two guards standing outside.

They were surprised to see me and were immediately on guard by drawing their weapons.

"Halt right there! Who are you?!"

"Oh hello! I'm new to the group! My name is Jeff!"

The one on the left quickly lowered his weapon, "Oh, why didn't you say so? Hello there Jeff, I'm--"

"She's lying you moron!!" His buddy shouted, but the distraction was enough for me to appear in front of him and smash my mace under his chin, knocking him out.

I'm not sure if there's a requirement for the bandits to be alive to get the rewards but just to be safe I'll just take them all alive with me. How? I'll figure it out later.

The other Wrunch bandit tried to raise his weapon again but I turned and smashed my mace to the side of his face, also sending him off to the dream world.

Not wasting time, I intend to start rushing past them, forgoing all stealth as I wanted to do this as quickly as possible since I was a little worried about leaving Lina outside.

No, I'm not afraid of something happening to her since I did leave a few of my summons there too, I'm more worried that she would decide that she got bored and come in and find me anyway. So let's just--

"Woaaah! As expected of Miss Aster! You knocked them out in one blow! And you know Lumenmancy too?! I knew you were a genius!!"

I looked to my side to see Lina staring up at me with sparkles in her eyes.

What the… I barely left her there for five minutes…

"Umm… Lina? What happened to the two Wrunches outside?"

"Eh? Miss Aster told me to take care of those two bandits to prevent them from attacking us or looking for help right? So I took care of them!"

Wait… She couldn't have, right? With that knife of hers…

"Did you… Did you kill them?"

"Eh? Of course not! I just tied them both up with my rope! What kind of alchemist am I to come out onto the field without some trusty rope?"

Oh, ok. Good… I was really worried she was the kind of person who would just kill someone with a smile on her face… At least she's not the deranged type of person.

While I was busy thinking that, Lisa had already tied up the two Wrunches I had knocked out with incredible speed. Except…

"Umm… Where did you learn how to tie like that?" I asked.

"Eh? Grandma taught me this was the best way to restrain someone. Is something wrong?"

"Umm… Not at all… I'm just surprised that you're so proficient with it."

"Ehehe~ Grandma was a good teacher!"

Grandma… Why did you teach your granddaughter how to tie someone up in a turtle shell bondage?

I'm starting to question just how you brought this girl up…

Ugh… Then again, considering my own upbringing, I suppose I'm not in any position to talk anyway.

"I'm all done, Miss Aster! Let's go get those bandits and teach them who's boss for stealing our mushrooms!"

I couldn't help but chortle at her choice of words.

"Ehehe… Yes, let's go take back our… Haha… Our mushrooms from those bandits!"

"Yeah! Bandit subjugation with my future lover! This is the best day ever!"

I discarded my idea of letting loose my summons inside the cave to wreak havoc and advanced through its tunnels steadily with Lisa following me.

Thankfully, there were no diverging tunnels in this cave system so we don't need to worry about ambushes or needing to divert our course.

We came across a few Wrunches along the way but each of them were easily beaten by me since the disparity of stats was simply too high for them to overcome.

All the while, I had Lisa cheering me on from behind and then tying them all up in various weird poses with her rope skills.

Eventually, we got to the end of the cave where a Wrunch a head taller than everyone else was seated at a beaten down table with three other Wrunches surrounding him.

The bigger Wrunch growled, "So the two of you are the Mercenaries hired to take care of me huh… And here I thought I had covered my tracks perfectly for sure… So who was it that hired you all to get rid of me? Those bastards from the mines? Or maybe the noble from the capital?"

I tilted my head at him, "Err… No, we're just here for the cave mushrooms and you just happened to be in the way."

The four Wrunches blinked at me, needing several seconds to comprehend what I just said.

"Cave… Mushrooms?" The boss muttered.

Lisa nodded, "Yeah! I'm an alchemist and I need the mushrooms in this cave for my potion making! You guys came in and occupied the cave I gather my mushrooms from!"

"You came here and started ruining everything because of some mushrooms?!"

I raised my finger, "To be fair, we were attacked by your guards at the entrance first. We even told them we're here to pick up mushrooms too."

"Tsk… So how about this… We let you pick up the… Mushrooms… And you leave us alone?"

"Huh… I thought you would just try to fight us or something? Don't you outnumber us?"

He clucked his tongue at me, "I am not stupid. You went through all of my men with just the two of you, I doubt I would stand a chance even if we were to fight now."

"And… If I were to refuse and choose to bring you in for your bounty instead?"

"Tsk… Then I would ask if you would be satisfied with just turning me in and leaving my brothers alone?"

Oh? A bandit with actual morals? That's surprising to say the least.

"Could I ask why?"

"You're only interested in the bounty right? The rest of my brothers don't have a bounty so you won't get much from them. You only need--"

"No, no," I interrupted him. "Why are you willing to turn yourself in like that?"

"Because my brothers deserve a second chance in life instead of being slaves."

I checked his stats with [Screened].

[Name: Andrew Smith

Title: Off-Worlder Transmigrator, Slave Liberator, Leader of Jaw Bandits

Race: Wrunch

Stats:

488 Strength

120 Dexterity

250 Endurance

180 Magic

Skills:

Smithing (Tier 3), Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2), Axe Proficiency (Tier 2)), Hunting (Tier 2), Assassination (Tier 1)

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 3), Astromancy (Tier 3), Iatromancy (Tier 4)]

Ok, first of all, wow another Off-Worlder.

Second of all… You can have multiple titles?!