Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 2 - Chapter 26

"Hey, uh, about the whole becoming a bandit thing Tillmann mentioned. What's that all about?"

Yua's ears flicked, but she didn't answer. She was too busy pinching her nose shut after opening one of the crates of food. Apparently, they hadn't been checking to see if their food rotted.

This left Elane to answer as she effortlessly flipped Tillmann's bed over to check beneath it.

"It's simple. You steal something, you become a Thief. But if you commit an act of unjustifiable murder after becoming a Thief, you then become a Bandit."

"Okay, but isn't that just another tag? Nobody would notice as long as their careful."

"That's true, but it's also more serious than that," she said, squatting to check the recently disturbed dirt. I quickly told her that Tillmann must have filled the hole I left when I snuck in and she let it be. "You become a Thief, and anyone can request the guild to capture you, or they can enslave and sell you. But Bandits can be killed on sight and nobody would bat an eye."

"A life for a life, then?"

"Exactly. Anyone can take down a bandit if they want, but it's usually left to the guild or any knights in the area."

That explained why Tillmann was so merciful at first. If you could call that mercy. He was just saving his own ass by not pulling the trigger himself. And Silvano was going to run off somewhere where nobody would ever realize his misdeeds, so getting his hands dirty didn't matter.

Nodding to myself, content in how I no longer needed to skirt around my lack of basic knowledge, I went to help Elane in her search so Yua could blow off some steam by ripping through the crates. Or rather, I'd spotted the large chest at the foot of where Tillmann's bed had been.

Material Destruction removed the chest's lock in its entirety. I'd missed my chance last night, but now we'd earned our end-of-dungeon loot!

Expecting to see loads of shiny, expensive things of inscrutable origins such as piles of gold, jewels, enchanted goods and more, I threw the lid open and...

"Wow, really...?"

"What?"

Leaning over my shoulder, Elane peered into the chest and shrugged.

Inside the chest was... nothing but metal-working tools. Tongs, chisels, wet stones and hammers galore. All of it was shockingly well-maintained considering how much use they saw, but still. The thing was packed, just not with anything fun.

"What'd you expect," Elane asked with a flippant wave of her hand that made her chest bounce. "He was here to earn coin. Not hide it."

"True..."

As disappointing as this was, I stored all the tools in my item box anyway. I may not need them, but the steel they were made of could be scrapped and reused for Material Destruction.

I closed the lid and Elane smirked at my obvious disappointment, but then an idea widened her eyes.

"Hold on. If I'm remembering right..."

Shoving her face inside the chest for a closer look, she poked around until she found whatever it was she was looking for. With a brief "there it is," she tugged on a small string I'd missed and the bottom of the chest popped open.

"A false bottom?"

"Yup. Fool kept his passphrase the same, so I figured his hiding spot would be the same. And look at this."