Death Mage with an SS-Rank Talent-Chapter 207

"So, how are we going to defeat these Red Mountain Bandits?" Diana posed a question to the other two as they sat down after their meals.

The meals were provided by the village. Though they were simple, they were good and the trio were satisfied, especially since they knew that the village was about to go through a food crisis soon.

"I have no idea. If they come directly at us, I am sure that we can beat them all, even their notorious leader, but if we have to go to them, that’s a different challenge. Unlike in novels, bandits are not all idiots, at least their leaders should be intelligent enough to have a second way out of the mountains if they want to escape", Aaron said.

Erika nodded her head, agreeing with the statement.

The world is not just facing problems from monsters and cults. Though they take the larger stage, bandits and other criminals are still present in the world.

No matter how one tried, they would always appear.

A hundred percent eradication is impossible, but they can reduce the numbers with changes to the society, but such changes are not accepted by others.

Many become bandits because they lacked the resources to survive, or they were wronged by someone stronger than them, and they couldn’t survive in their old life.

If society were where the powerful didn’t exploit the weak, then many bad things might disappear, as people do bad things to justify the bad things that happened to them. Doing so doesn’t make things right, but this is something that won’t vanish.

It is part of human nature. It was not easy to erase that part that easily, as almost one who was wronged would be a saint and forgive the other’s crimes. Such a scenario would only exist in stories, not in real life.

In a world where strength is paramount, the weak would seek out evil ways to get their revenge, even if in the process they become even more evil than the ones they seek revenge on.

This was a never-ending cycle.

Though many of these bandits are ones who were wronged in the first place, as they were hurting someone who didn’t deserve it, they needed to be eliminated.

Also, not everyone becomes a bandit because they were wronged and needed a way to become strong. Some do because they are greedy or envious of others’ wealth.

Banditry was almost similar to how cults operate, but bandits are small-time operatives, as they wouldn’t be directly attacking the Alliance. That’s the only difference between them, at least on the outside.

The cults are a different breed, and this is something only high-level officials are aware of. This is why most bandit clearing missions are assigned to the students from academies, rather than by the military, who could efficiently clear them out, when compared to the newbie students.

That and for experience on how to eliminate enemy bases.

---

Though the bandits are down in the evil line, and many bandit groups were eliminated throughout the years, they evolved.

They learned with every bandit that was killed, with every bandit group that was eliminated. Eliminating them nowadays is not as easy as it was at first.

When the bandits started out for the first time, they would be cautious, but with more wins over time, they would become quite arrogant, flaunting without caution. This attracted attention from powerful ones who stood on the side of justice.

They eliminated them easily.

Then the bandits started to move in the forests and live in the mountains, never to be seen on main roads. It became difficult for one to find these groups, but soon baits were placed to attract them and the bandits were eliminated.

Even the bases were found sooner or later, and that means it would be the end of the bandit group, as most would have burrowed into the mountains, with no escape.

The bases that were supposed to be their safe havens became their cages.

The bandits learned from previous bandits. They would always have multiple ways of escape. They would even change their locations every once in a while.

Some bandits would not even show their faces.

It was said that these bandits would live as part of civilians inside cities and towns. They would never sell something that can easily identify them, even in the black market, where many illegal goods are sold quite often.

It is the best place to sell goods that were obtained in an illegal manner, but some are very good at being invisible and tend to be that way.

Though Black Market is said to be anonymous, the best way to be anonymous is not to associate with the black market at all.

One way or another, the higher-ups would track the people associated with the black market. If they are seen selling something they are looking for, they would be imprisoned after they leave the black market.

So, some bandits, they old steal goods like resources, which are useful to sustain them or improve themselves. If there are any trinkets, they would melt them away and create new items from them. They would never touch any items that may stand out, and if they by chance do, they would rather throw them away or destroy them in order to keep themselves safe.

Some bandits would only act like thieves, stealing goods, but wouldn’t kill anyone. If they attack and kill, the bounty on them would be very high, which would attract attention to them, which would end only when they are dead, just like the situation that the Red Mountain Bandits are facing at the moment.

Even if they eliminate the first round of attackers, more would come, as eliminating those first round attackers would only increase the bounty attracting more to attack them.

In this world, banditry doesn’t mean stupidity. Many are clever and have ways to avoid the alliance or any other authorities that can come after them.

---

"So, how can we eliminate all the bandits?" Diana asked.

They discussed for a while, thinking about how to complete their mission, but they couldn’t come up with a proper plan with no holes in it.

"Okay, let’s rest for the night, we can make a better plan after we find their base and observe their movements", Aaron said, and the other nodded their heads.

The village chief was only able to give some basic information, lacking a lot of the information required for the raid. If they go in without a proper plan, either they would be the ones who would be eliminated, or the bandit leaders may escape, which is not they want to happen.

So, they decided to collect more information by themselves before making a move, and when they did, they wanted to eliminate all bandits, making sure that they wouldn’t leave any residual dangers.

For the night, they decided to rest and make a move early in the morning.

The village provided them with an unused house for their stay, which has one bedroom and a hall. Aaron chose to sleep in the hall, while the girls would be sleeping in the bedroom.

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