“Now then.” Merlin spoke up, swinging the blood from his blade before sheathing it. “I would like to join your band of merry men.”

The two bandits were still on guard against him, even though his previous actions were pretty convincing, or at the very least brutal enough to leave an impression, his motive was still unclear.

“Why do ya wanna do that?” The other bandit remarked, it seemed Merlin had to convince them further.

“Well, to tell the truth, I need something from you.” Merlin took on a more downcast expression, the bandits didn’t seem to enjoy that answer, but kept listening as he continued speaking.

“I had a disagreement with the monastery a little while ago, and I’m desperate.” Merlin pulled out his infected hand, shining a torch on it to make sure the bandits saw the purple spots. He was a little surprised to see that the purple spots had started forming lines that seemed to start running up his veins.

One of the bandits looked visibly disgusted, the other took a step back, probably thinking it was contagious. Even with the typical low education level of a bandit, they generally understood that unnaturally coloured spots and marks on a body were bad.

“It’s not a contagious disease, it’s a curse.” Merlin reassured them they were safe, “A curse that needs holy water to cleanse, but the priest in charge said they had a limited supply and he didn’t want to waste it on poor scum like me, just in case.”

“What a joke. He’s telling me to go die, just in case they need to use up three bottles of holy water in a couple days.” He made sure to weave in a hint of anger and sadness in his tone, although he wasn’t the best of actors it should have been rather convincing. “I got told to wait until the priestess could look at me, but nobody knows exactly when she’s going to come back.”

“This curse, it was only a couple spots less than an hour ago, now look at it.” Merlin forced his arm closer so they could see it better, the two bandits pulled back, still either scared or disgusted by it. “It’s now spread to my wrist, It’ll kill me before she comes back…”

Merlin dropped to his knees, pretending to be distraught and helpless, “I need a bottle, and if they wont give it to me, I just need to take it by force.”

“And for that, you want to join us?” One of the bandits seemed convinced, but the smarter of the two still wasn’t buying it. “Do you want us to raid the monastery for you, what do we get out of that?”

“No. I need to do this myself.” Merlin’s tone became rather stern at this point, “I’ve just never stolen anything before, I wanted to learn how.”

The smarter bandit’s eyes narrowed, it seemed he still couldn’t trust him. It was unfortunate his charisma was rather low, he had to overact to get any sort of effect.

“It sounds like you’d be better off learning from a thief than a bandit.” The bandit’s voice had darkened. “Even if we could help you, what would we get out of it? You’d just be in it for you.”

Merlin bit his tongue, it seemed he still couldn’t get through to this bandit. Several thoughts ran through his head, one of which involved killing the smarter bandit and having the other one lead him, but he knew that wouldn’t work, the bandit would just become hostile, it was already a miracle they weren’t attacking him yet.

“If I do this and survive, I wouldn’t be able to go back to the life I’ve lived, I’d need somewhere to stay, people to work with.” Merlin started rambling, but he realised these excuses were still him using them. “I don’t have many connections in that town. The ones I do have don’t mean anything. I’d rather see it burn down, especially that hideous fat scumbag Lychester.”

Merlin noticed the bandit’s expression change, his suspicious glare turned into a more curious glare, and his mouth formed a small smirk. It was the last idea that he had, but it seemed to have paid off. Merlin remembered that the quest notification mentioned the Lychesters had some form of grudge against the bandits, specifically the bandit leader, he wondered if that went both ways.

“What about this scumbag Lychester?” The bandit’s smirk turned into more of a grin. With that, Merlin knew this was the angle he had to strike to get through to the bandit.

“That fat oaf, all he does is look down on everyone who enters his store. Everyone knows he’s always judging them, with those beady little eyes of his on that stupid pig head.” Merlin felt childish insulting the guy, but it seemed childish insults were the way to go to get through to this bandit. “That arrogant slimy mule, all he does is sell overpriced junk, he’s nothing but a glorified hoarder, how dare he look down on people who cant or don’t want to buy from him.”

“I just want to punch the arrogance out of his stupid head.” Merlin’s voice became somewhat coarse at this point, as if he was losing his voice. “I heard him, as I left his store, mocking me for only buying a torch. I’ll kill him.”

“You should have started off with that, I understand.” The smarter bandit knelt down next to him and rest his hand on Merlin’s shoulder, it seemed Merlin had finally convinced him. “Alright, I cant make any promises, but I’ll put in a good word for you with the boss. Don’t do anything stupid and you should be fine.”

The bandit gave him a sincere smile as he helped Merlin up. It seemed the Lychesters had wronged him, enough so that the mere act of someone slandering them was enough for him to trust that person.

One thing a lot of the players don’t learn about until later is that alongside the NPCs who each live their own lives, a lot of the enemies do too, more so the human ones anyway. It seemed that the backstory behind this particular bandit camp involved people being wronged by the Lychesters, he felt like there was something more to the story. There was no useless lore in New Genesis, his fifteen years as a lore hunter let him understand that fact.

Merlin brushed away the dirt that had clung to his hands and knees. He was led into the forest by the two bandits, the one he considered dumb had started talking with him like they were friends, and upon speaking with him further, it turned out he was just a child when he was kicked out of town.

His parents had been abused by the Lychesters, driven into debt that couldn’t be repaid, they heard about a camp being formed outside of town, full of those who had been abused by the town’s cruel nobility. After a few cruel winters and regular harassment from the town, the camp had no choice but to turn to crime to survive. They were classed as a bandit camp, and everyone within the camp, including those who didn’t take part in any of the criminal activities, were marked for death.

Merlin was now feeling torn, he originally intended to trick the bandits into leading him to the camp, only to betray them and get his quest over with. Unfortunately he started feeling resentment to the town after hearing this young boy speak. A measly thirty silver pieces and only four hundred experience points probably wouldn’t save the town from his wrath.

Merlin was toiling over his thoughts as he followed along, the two bandits were being overly kind to him, telling him when to dip under branches and preventing him from tripping over small bushes and roots.

Merlin’s opinion had been successfully swayed, although he would be willing to change his mind on the spot if he didn’t like what he saw when he reached the camp. Or if the leader of the camp, or the camp itself, happened to reject him.

The wind in the forest began picking up, the temperature drop was noticeable even for Merlin, it seemed the other two were also uncomfortable because of it.

Merlin also noticed that his torch’s flame was violently whipping around in the forest wind, threatening to extinguish itself. Merlin started awkwardly blocking the wind with his cloak in an attempt to prevent his torch’s flame from being blown out.

A few minutes later, Merlin noticed light a little deeper within the forest, it looked like fire, although it was relatively small, meaning it was probably a torch. He received a notification a few seconds after, somewhat confirming his observations.

「You have completed the quest, “Infiltrate the bandits”, rewards have been delivered.」

They hadn’t breached past the treeline yet, he was still hidden from the camp. The two bandits had completely lowered their guard, their weapons were sheathed and they had their backs turned to him, this was the perfect opportunity to deal with them.

The wind briefly stopped, only to pick up a few seconds later, this time carrying a faint scent of blood.