The Bloodstained Bag of Holding

This time, the character panel came with a quick-access item bar in addition to the equipment system. It could not hold much—just three slots.

Two slots held Healing Potions. The last held Gold Pieces.

No one could steal the Gold Pieces while they were there, and that put Pan Long most at ease.

Unfortunately, he still did not have enough. He was a fair way from his modest goal of buying a Bag of Holding.

So, of course, he needed to earn more money.

"The Bloody Coachman" had become a name almost everyone in Beregost knew.

Nineteen the first time, eleven the second, and nine the third.

That made thirty-nine bandits in all. Thirty-six were heads alone; the three bandit leaders came back as intact corpses.

They brought Pan Long two thousand five hundred Gold Pieces, including the resale value of their weapons and equipment. They also made his name ring throughout Beregost.

Even a professional adventuring party could not be certain of beating a band of robbers. Yet Pan Long had won every time, cut off their heads, and brought them back dripping with blood.

Settling accounts by severed heads did not fit local custom. People here usually took scalps. The process was actually bloodier than beheading, but at least the "trophies" they brought back looked somewhat less gruesome.

At the very least, they were much smaller.

Pan Long had no intention of changing his ways. As a Northerner, he was used to counting deeds by severed heads.

The career Northerners coveted most was serving on the Golden City Defense Line—or, more precisely, serving there as an officer. And in the armies of Great Xia, the usual way to tally merit was by counting severed heads.

Whether you killed a demon beast, a Demon, a bandit, or even a