Complete Victory

After the rogue hit the ground, Drew ignored him and turned his attention to the nearest shield warrior.

Just as Drew had downed the rogue, the shield warrior charged into the range of the Frost Nova, but the magic's power had already dissipated.

Drew glanced at him casually and dismissed him, continuing to pelt the two ranged combatants with Arcane Missiles to disrupt their attacks.

The shield warrior felt utterly insulted.

Although his class was jokingly referred to as having only one percent attack power, he was certainly not someone to be ignored so easily.

The shield warrior let out a furious roar, and then—he fell into a pit.

Did you think Drew chose his standing position at random? This spot had been prepared long in advance.

Drew was standing right behind a trap, just waiting for someone to rush up and fall in.

Fortunately, Drew hadn't put any spikes or the like at the bottom of the trap; he had only poured in a few bottles of sleeping potion.

The shield warrior tumbled in, dizzy and disoriented, and in that state, he inhaled the fumes of the superior-quality sleeping potion.

And just like that, he lay in the pit and fell asleep. Only a moment into the battle, they had already lost two men.

Kuang Tu's rage meter hit its limit, practically overflowing.

He let out a shout and unleashed a leaping strike, having carefully checked that the spot where Drew stood was free of traps.

He jumped directly toward Drew's position, figuring that even if he missed, he would at least be able to hold his ground.

Seeing Kuang Tu's move, Drew stepped back, and thanks to the Potion of Lightness he had consumed, he drifted backward like an immortal.

While still in mid-air, he fired an Arcane Missile that struck the ground exactly where he had been standing.

Kuang Tu's powerful leaping strike slammed into the ground hit by the Arcane Missile, instantly triggering a small collapse.

Since the spot where Drew had been standing was on the edge of a high slope with a gradient of at least seventy degrees, Kuang Tu slid down the slope in a pathetic heap.

The slope obstructed the line of sight of the two ranged combatants behind him.

Kuang Tu faced Drew one-on-one, and fortunately, he was now within arm's reach.

Seeing Drew right before his eyes, Kuang Tu immediately swung his weapon to hack at him.

But he had forgotten how the opponent had run them ragged earlier. His axe swing didn't even touch Drew's shadow.

Kuang Tu missed his strike, looked up, and saw that Drew had already run far away.

What the hell? Just a short-legged mage? Even rogues don't run this fast.

And so, this high-attack, low-resistance berserker was toyed with by a mage who possessed movement speed exceeding a rogue and magic attack power far beyond his peers, all while receiving no support.

It was a miserable sight; Drew simply kited him, never letting Kuang Tu land a single hit.

By the time the two ranged combatants climbed up the slope, they only saw a battered Kuang Tu hugging his axe and weeping.

Then, seeing Drew's nimble movement speed, the two turned tail and ran.

The lackeys behind them saw their leaders fleeing, and the smart ones followed suit.

In the end, adhering to the principle of not pursuing enemies into a forest, Drew did not chase after those who had fled.

However, those guys were likely scared to tears this time and wouldn't dare come back even if their lives depended on it.

The next time they encountered them, it would surely be with the arrival of their group's high-level professional leader.

But that certainly wasn't happening now; the task at hand was to capture prisoners.

These people were on the wanted list, and catching them meant money.

In the end, they captured three intermediate professionals, zero primary professionals, and eleven apprentice-level professionals.

It seemed the apprentice-level ones weren't skilled enough to make the wanted list and weren't worth much. Perhaps they should be kept as laborers; after all, they were all mages here and couldn't handle manual labor.

These bandits were mostly physical classes, perfect for heavy lifting.

It was decided: those at the primary professional level and above would be sold, and the apprentices would be kept for labor.

They shackled everyone they had captured and fed them potions to suppress their strength.

They dragged them back to the small town like slaves. The townspeople, seeing Drew and his group leading a crowd of people into town, gathered around to watch the spectacle.

When they learned these were bandits from the Hurricane Bandit Group, they were all astonished.

They were even more shocked to learn that they had wiped out an entire battalion of the Hurricane Bandit Group.

It sounded like a fairy tale. However, seeing the captives, especially the conspicuous bald one, the residents began to believe it might be true. Later, when some skeptical folks ran to the site where Drew had defeated the majority of the bandits and brought back confirmation, the resulting shock was beyond words.

In the town, only the mayor knew they were going to deal with the Hurricane Bandits, but even he hadn't expected them to achieve such a feat.

Initially, knowing the strength of the Hurricane Bandits and comparing it to their own, the mayor had no confidence they could even repel them, and he felt particularly anxious.

Fortunately, Drew had repeatedly guaranteed he could handle it and expressed confidence that he could deal with even a high-level professional, though no such person had appeared yet.

The mayor had only held a sliver of hope that they could repel the bandits.

The result, however, was that Drew and his group had annihilated the entire gang—well, a few had escaped, but it was close enough.

This left the mayor deeply astonished; the outcome was completely disproportionate to their perceived strength.

The mayor didn't say much more, as it was truly thanks to Drew that the major problem of the Hurricane Bandit Group had been resolved.

As for the subsequent cleanup and handling of matters, the mayor took full responsibility.

For those apprentice-level bandits, Drew organized them into a construction crew.

He placed restrictions on each of them to prevent escape, then handed them over to the mayor to deal with.

Whether they would work on projects for the town itself or be contracted out to other places to earn money was left entirely to the mayor to manage.

Additionally, the mayor would handle contacting large towns regarding those who could be sold for profit.

He informed them that the threat of the Hurricane Bandits had vanished and that the trade routes could be reopened.

He also took the opportunity to find a merchant caravan to escort the captives over.

After all, to sell captives, there had to be someone willing to receive them; a small town the size of Lincoln Town certainly lacked such facilities.

Only in large market towns were there specialized Kingdom offices and garrison stations, institutions equivalent to police stations. They would verify the identities of the captives, and once verified, the bounty would be collected from them; the specific operations were all left to the mayor.

Three days later, Drew received the bounty, totaling four gold coins and twenty silver coins.

It wasn't much money, but the collection of the bounty signified that their identities had been confirmed.

It also meant that Drew and his group had indeed wiped out this faction of the Hurricane Bandits. This news spread rapidly throughout the surrounding area; regardless of anything else, Drew's strength and the strength of Lincoln Town were now recognized and feared by other small towns.

Drew's reputation among these small towns grew at a rapid pace. Those who had been watching his academy from the sidelines began to stir once again.

After all, the recognition of the headmaster's strength also represented the recognition of the academy's strength.