The Nine Lords Of Order - Chapter 17

Soon the whole camp was filled with screams.

‘Louis looks like the quiet and friendly type, but he is also has his violent side’ Mars couldn’t help but think and then joined the slaughter. Everyone here was weaker than Mars and Louis, so dealing with them was not too difficult. If the bandits attacked collectively they wouldn’t have other choice but to flee, but the heavy mist was a heavy restriction which did not allowed the bandits to work collectively.

They had to kill as many as the could before the bandits managed to stabilize the situation.

Swoosh! Suddenly a fierce gale of wind dispersed all the mist.

“Who dares to ambush us! Show yourself coward!”

An infuriated voice echoed through the whole encampment. Soon four figures appeared standing on top of a giant rock. Once they saw the bodies from the burly man and the red clothed man their faces turned ugly. There were at least seventy other men who had been killed. However the assassins had already fled from the scene.

“Regroup you idiots! Everyone on defensive positions!” A stereotypical bandit with a scar on his left eye yelled when he saw the bandits who were still panicking over the ambush.

“We only took a few moments to arrive here and there are already so many dead people. Considering the fact that Oxon and Red died so fast, the enemy probably has a combatant whose strength is close to mine. However, the wounds on the corpses only hold two attributes, this means only two people attacked. Every dead man is missing their their path gems. Path gems lose all their worth when removed forcefully, so they are probably being used as proof for the completion of a bounty. We definitely became the target for a bounty or quest from a big power, probably Ascension City.” A bald man spoke with a frown on his face. He was the actual leader of this group. They were planning to initiate an expedition today, but from the looks of things, it was time for them to change hunting grounds. They had gathered too much attention recently and now they were paying the price.

“Boss, what do we do now? The bounty hunters disappeared but they will probably comeback.” Another bandit asked a bit worried.

“This hideout has already been compromised. So we can expect more bounty hunters to come. If we leave with the whole group, then we are only waiting to get continuously ambushed on the road.” The bald man spoke his thoughts with a frown on his face.

“Pick all your stuff. We are leaving this place. Disperse the group. If we stay here, our enemies will resort to guerrilla tactics. Even if we kill them, more bounty hunters will eventually come.” After awhile the bald man finally made the final decision.

“But boss! It took us years to gather this group! Are we going to sacrifice it just like that?” The scar faced man was not content with the decision and retorted.

“Fool! Are you willing to sacrifice your life instead? The more time we remain here, the more dangerous it becomes!” Snorting the bald man faced suddenly raised his voice, “Listen up! We have probably been targeted by big power, most likely Ascension City! Pick all your stuff and flee in every direction! Now!”

The bandits were shocked for a second before panicking again.

“Ascencion city targeted us?”

“Heavens! We’re dead!”

Mars and the others who were hiding nearby were also shocked by the decision from the bandit leader.

“He is quite decisive The bandit leaders will use the chaos to escape. However we should only worry about getting as many merit points as we can.” Louis spoke his thoughts.

“Um, although we will not get as many points as we expected, the mission became a lot easier now that they decided to disperse. ” Mars agreed with Louis. However he had the feeling he would meet these bandits again.

In the following days Mars and company slaughtered another hundred bandits, later it became too difficult to find them since they fled in all directions. They couldn’t find the bandit leaders either. Their group only consisted of three people, the fact that they could slay a hundred more people was already very outstanding.

After a few more days passed without much success, they decided to return to Ascension City. The quest could not be considered to have been completed with the greatest success, but the amount of merit points they could exchange wasn’t too bad either. They had obtained 151 rank 1 path gems, thirty rank 2 path gems and two rank 3 path gems. They could exchange all of this for 1455 merit points. By the time they came back, two weeks had passed

Each of them needed one million merit points to ascend This task might be harder than they had initially expected. There were three of them, so they only got less than 500 merit points each. That amount was equal to less than a thousandth of what they required for ascending. However things might get easier once they reached rank 3 and could accept even harder quests.

In the following days Mars and company proceeded to make all their preparations for the trip to the Lightning Valley. All the expenses for the trip used half of their current merit points which made their hearts twist with pain.

Several parties had already gone to seek fortune in the Lightning Valley. Quite a number of these parties consisted on groups which totalled hundreds, but later came back with only tens remaining.

However, where there is misfortune, you can often find fortune. Due to the fierce lightning storms many natural treasures had surfaced in the Lightning Valley and there were quite a few people who became rich after returning from the valley.

Lightning type users were being were being sought more than ever. No matter how weak a lightning attribute users was, expedition groups would still take them in. However the searches did not yield with many results even within this huge city. After all, Lightning was an attribute which was very rare, even in this place where experts were common thing.

When Mars saw how big the offers were for recruiting lighting users he thought of joining a group many times. However he managed to resist the urge. He had other plans which required him to go at his own pace.

After all the preparations were done, Mars and his group finally set out towards the Lightning Valley. The Lightning Valley was actually one of the few lightning attribute areas in the whole continent. Nobody really knew why lightning was so concentrated in this place. Many speculated that it was because there was a lightning attribute treasure hidden deep within the valley. Others said that it was because a very powerful lightning demon beast lived there.

However the Lightning Valley had existed for tens of thousands of years and nobody had found anything conclusive. Even beings beyond rank 7 would struggle on the deepest parts of the valley. Testimony of how dangerous this place was.

After a couple days of traveling, Mars and company could already see an endless sea of black clouds expanding in the distance. Once they got closer they could feel a very oppressive aura coming out from this place.

In the Lightning Valley there was no such thing as day. Dark clouds covered the sun and the only light in the valley came from the continuous lightning. The fierce roars of thunder would leave anyone’s heart palpitating with dread.

Both Ena’s and Louis’ face were already somewhat pale. They were starting to think coming here was a very bad idea. However Mars couldn’t feel any of the oppressive aura, he just felt great! It was as if this place was his home! His eyes had been shining for awhile as he looked at all the lightning storms.

For him, the lighting bolts were like the soldiers from his army and the roars of thunder were his drums of war!

He turned his head and smiled towards Ena. “Don’t worry, with me here, no harm will come to you. In fact, once we leave this place our strength will be much greater! I already thought of a method to increase your strength”

Ena who was quite nervous calmed down after listen to Mars and proceeded to hug his arm.

Soon they started to walk towards the valley. As soon as they got close, lightning bolts started to target them, however Mars just waved his hands and he began functioning as a lighting rod. Every lightning heading in their direction was redirected by him.

However just as they were going to walk into the valley they heard a sudden voice from behind.

“Friends wait! Why don’t you come with us?”

“Ah shit!”