Chapter 16: Loot

Blood rained down as Andric descended, a crimson curtain falling over the battlefield. Veremund was gone, his body shattered like glass. The rest of the bandits were no more. With the enemy vanquished, only the spoils remained.

The Erfdag bandits' campsite was wrecked beyond recognition. When Andric landed, he had to carefully choose a spot, finally settling on a fallen tree. From his vantage point, he could see hundreds of dead bodies scattered below. No blood, just the aftermath of suffocation, poison, or being crushed by the collapse.

Andric let the storm clouds above disperse. They had washed away a lot of the mud, but there was still plenty of cleanup ahead. Sorting through the bandits’ corpses was going to be a hassle without a few more spells.

Before diving into that, Andric decided to check out the mine he’d discovered. It wasn’t visible when he first scoped out the campsite, but it became apparent when he opened up the sinkhole. Veremund had gone in there, but he never came back with any news, which suggested the mine was clear of bandits or they had simply stayed out of the fray.

Andric floated over to the mine’s entrance and conjured a floating ball of light. It hovered above him, illuminating the dark tunnel without blinding him. With the path lit, Andric ventured inside.

The entrance to the mine sloped down sharply. Despite the entrance being sealed from rain, it was still humid inside. Andric used his light spell and occasionally cast more lights deep into the tunnel to see further ahead.

Eventually, the mine opened into a large cavern. The ceiling wasn’t much higher than the tunnel, but it was much wider. Thick wooden beams supported the ceiling, and mining tools were strewn about. Andric didn’t know much about mining, so he had no clue what they had been digging for. It didn’t seem important enough to grab his attention.

What did catch his eye were several metal crates piled up at the cavern’s back. Giant locks secured them, some crates with multiple locks. These crates were tough, even for Human or Novice realm martialists to open. But Andric’s magic could bypass their defenses. He cast a spell, and the lid of the first crate blew off.

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Inside was a mountain of silver coins. Andric reached in, feeling the metal, and confirmed it was real.

Then, with a loud bang, the crate exploded, sending coins flying and throwing Andric back several feet. He winced in pain, checking where his hands used to be.

‘They booby-trapped the crates,’ he realized, looking at his stubs.

Casting spells needed hands, but Andric wasn’t new to being handless. He could still cast spells from stumps, but it took more mana. He grimaced, numbed his pain with a spell, and then regrew his hands. The process was slow and tricky, requiring a lot of focus.

With his hands back, Andric turned his attention to the remaining crates. If they were all trapped, searching through them would be tough. But he had spells, so he broke the tops off each crate and dumped their contents.

He came across another trap after opening a couple more crates. This one had a slip of paper with ancient characters. Andric recognized it from his lessons as a talisman that triggers explosions. He carefully moved the talisman to another part of the cavern using a spell and decided to avoid the rest of the traps for now.

As he continued, Andric found eight more talismans, all identical and mostly in the easily accessible crates. The other crates held weapons, armor, books, and random items. The weapons and armor didn’t interest him much, but he spent some time examining the books and items. He had to leave many items behind as he didn’t know what they were and they were too bulky to carry.

The real prize was the books. He found hundreds of meditation and martial techniques. The Standing Tortoise Manual was among them, which was a surprise. Andric picked out four meditation techniques: the Resting Lion Manual, Dancing Eagle Manual, Charging Rhino Manual, and Heaven Shattering Record. The first three were similar to the Standing Tortoise Manual, while the last one was cryptic and profound.

For martial techniques, Andric chose six: Burning Palm Technique, Flaming Fist Technique, Silent Gallop Technique, Thundering Strike Technique, Boulder Crushing Sword Technique, and Bone Splitting Sword Technique. The fire-related techniques caught his eye, and the movement and sound-based ones intrigued him. He picked the sword techniques for their strength potential.

In addition to the techniques, Andric grabbed a book on Spirit Sense, one on formations, and a book of alchemy recipes. He left the remaining items and crates behind.

Counting the coins, Andric found over a thousand gold coins, but many were silver and copper. He discarded the lower-value coins and kept a manageable amount of gold.

The Erfdag bandits had clearly been robbing people for a long time. They had accumulated a fortune that made Andric wonder about their history. Despite the bandits being hidden away from the main road, they must have been attacked before. The large haul was unusual, given how well-hidden the campsite was.

With the loot packed, Andric sealed the mine entrance with a spell, covering it with rock and engraving a simple map. He hoped that, unless someone knew about the mine, it would remain untouched until he returned.

Looking at the wreckage, Andric felt a twisted satisfaction. Yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling of loss. Many of the bandits could have lived long lives if they hadn’t turned to banditry. They were all young, with the oldest barely hitting fifty.

He used his spells to search the bandit corpses for valuables, collecting weapons, armor, jewelry, and coins. He set aside the jewelry and coins, but one item really caught his eye. Among the debris, he found a cloth bag that had survived his spells.

“It’s a storage bag!” Andric exclaimed with excitement.

Storage bags were magical items used to carry things, worth thousands of gold coins. He’d learned about them but had never seen one in person. Andric infused the bag with spirit energy, and a list of its contents appeared in his mind. He could pull items out with his thoughts.

The bag was a low-grade storage device, meaning it only accepted items that fit through its entrance. Higher-grade storage devices allowed items to be absorbed just by touching them.

The bag contained weapons, armor, clothes, books, coins, and even some luxurious items like violet cushions. There was also a guard uniform from Einburg. Although Andric wasn’t fond of Einburg, he disliked the idea of townspeople being attacked by bandits.

He filled the storage bag with all the loot from the campsite and grabbed the remains of Veremund’s sword. He suspected Veremund kept using that particular sword for a reason.

After clearing everything, Andric emerged from the mine, ensuring the entrance was hidden. He left the campsite, and as nature began to reclaim the area, the once-feared bandit den was overgrown and forgotten.