In a short time, the fifteen bandits were tied up in a row against the trunk of a large solitary tree in the grassland. Donovan used strong rope to ensure they couldn't escape even if the magic effect wore off.
Keyzier stood before one of the bandit group members, staring at him with a cold gaze far different from his cheerfulness earlier that morning.
"You cunning brat! Coward!" shouted the bandit in anger, spitting at Keyzier's shoes.
"I have no desire to hear your words about bravery!" Keyzier replied flatly. "Now, just tell me where your headquarters is! I know you have a storage place for your loot, right?"
However, the bandits were stubborn criminals. Not a single one of the bandit gang opened their mouths to say where their headquarters was located. They chose to remain silent, convinced that these brats wouldn't dare kill them.
"So, that is your answer?" Keyzier muttered.
Without warning, Keyzier dragged one of the subordinate bandits tied at the end of the line. He aimed his hand at the bandit's legs.
"Fireball."
Not a large fireball, but concentrated fire that slowly burned both of the bandit's legs.
"AAAAAAHHH!" A heartbreaking scream broke the silence of the grassland. The smell of burnt flesh began to waft through the air. The bandit thrashed in pain, his eyes bulging until the blood vessels burst.
Donovan and Novalia looked away, but they didn't stop Keyzier. They knew dealing with trash of society like this required a certain ruthlessness.
When the bandit nearly fainted from shock, Keyzier extinguished the fire.
"Heal!"
Green light enveloped the charred legs. Blistered skin grew back, burnt flesh became whole again. The pain vanished, but the psychological trauma had just begun.
"Now, your legs are healed." Keyzier said in a terrifyingly friendly tone. "Want to try again?"
Taking turns, every bandit who refused to speak was immediately tortured and then healed repeatedly. Keyzier toyed with the limits of their pain.
"Let's see how long you can endure this torture! I have plenty of mana to heal you all day long."
Horror gripped the bandit gang. They realized they were facing a devil. One of the bandits, unable to withstand the fear of his turn, tried to bite off his own tongue to commit suicide. Blood poured profusely from his mouth.
Keyzier noticed it quickly. "Oh, it's not that easy."
He immediately grabbed the bandit's jaw and cast high-level healing magic. The severed tongue reconnected in seconds.
"I won't let you die!" Keyzier whispered in the bandit's ear. "Even by ending your own lives with suicide, I will drag you back from hell to continue this interrogation."
Unable to withstand the relentless physical and mental torture, the bandit gang's spirit finally broke. The bandit leader cried, begging for mercy.
"Enough! Please, stop it! I'll talk! The cave! Our headquarters is in the cave behind that rocky hill!" he screamed hysterically.
Accompanied by one of the bandits whose eyes were vacant from trauma as a guide, Keyzier headed to the hiding place in question.
After walking for about fifteen minutes through dense bushes, a cave mouth hidden behind vines was visible in the distance. It was a perfect and classic hiding place.
Keyzier stopped for a moment, looking at the cave while shaking his head.
"Out of so many places, why do you bandits always choose caves as headquarters?" Keyzier asked rhetorically, as if criticizing their taste in property. "Do you all have some strange hobby like that?"
The bandit acting as a guide only trembled, not daring to answer.
"Well... suit yourselves. Thank you for your cooperation and sleep tight..."
Thwack!
Without warning, Keyzier struck the back of the bandit's neck with the side of his hand.
The bandit collapsed unconscious instantly. Keyzier then dragged the limp body and tied it firmly to a large tree near the cave mouth, ensuring he wouldn't run or warn his friends inside.
In front of the cave mouth, two bandits were standing guard while chatting casually, unaware that the grim reaper was already standing behind them.
With his assassin skill, Keyzier moved as fast as lightning.
Slash! Slash!
Two precise slashes to the neck ended the lives of both guards before they could let out a scream. Their bodies collapsed slowly, caught by Keyzier to avoid making noise, then dragged into the bushes.
Keyzier stepped into the damp cave. After walking a few meters, he faced a fork in the road. The cave branched into three, each passage dark and offering no clues.
Keyzier scratched his head, which didn't itch. "Ah... I should have brought Donovan and Novalia! If they were here, we could have split up to explore these three caves."
Without wasting time guessing, Keyzier entered the first passage on the left. He walked quickly and warily, but after fifty meters, his steps were halted by a solid rock wall. Dead end.
"Tch, what a waste of time!" he muttered in annoyance.
He turned back and tried entering the second passage, the one in the middle. Unlike the silent first passage, here he heard the sound of soft snoring. Keyzier sharpened his vision in the darkness. In a somewhat spacious natural room, he found two bandits sleeping on wooden chairs in front of a rusted iron door.
Keyzier's curiosity peaked. Guards inside a cave usually indicated something valuable. Without mercy, Keyzier dashed forward and killed both bandits in an instant with quick stabs to the heart.
He kicked the iron door open. His eyes instantly widened.
"Bingo!"
How surprised he was when he arrived at the end of that cave. The room was filled with open wooden chests, revealing piles of gold coins, silver, jewelry, silk fabrics, and various other valuables. All of it was the loot warehouse of the "Wolf's Fang" bandit group collected over years.
Keyzier was very enthusiastic. A wide smile blossomed on his face. Without hesitation, he opened his dimensional storage bag and started sweeping up the piles of money.
"This is the security service fee... this is the suppression tax... and this is the occupational hazard bonus!" he muttered cheerfully while scooping handful after handful of gold coins into his storage dimension space. He took a considerable amount of money. After feeling it was enough, he exited the second passage and headed for the third cave.
The third passage was the widest. From a distance, torchlight flickered and the sound of coarse laughter echoed. This was the center of the bandit gang.
Keyzier peeked from behind a stalagmite. Inside the large cave hall, dozens of bandits were partying, drinking, and gambling. At the end of the room sat a large-bodied man with a burn scar on his face.
Keyzier had no intention of wasting time with complex strategies. He raised his hand, gathering mana in large amounts.
"Explosion Fireball!"
Without thinking twice, Keyzier immediately threw a giant fireball into the middle of the bandit crowd.
BOOM!
The sound of the explosion rang out loudly inside the cave, bringing down several stalactites and throwing bandit bodies into the air. Screams of pain and panic instantly replaced the sound of laughter.
"Attack! There's an intruder!" shouted the bandit leader while drawing his sword.