Chapter 3: Judgement
Unconscious bandits were tied around rope which was guarded by Nero while the others buried their friend's severed head. The bandits had earlier ambushed the group near the border of Jiganda jungle, so their vanguard had stayed behind to hold them off long enough so the group could escape. Everybody knew the risks of an adventurer, still tears kept pouring down their cheeks, as they couldn't accept the fate their friend had met. Somewhere deep down they hoped that their friend had somehow survived, but when the bandits threw the head at their feet, they were forced to face the reality.
After they were done with burying their friend, Nero could sense the bloodlust coming from the adventurers. There was no way he could prevent them from seeking justice after witnessing such a horrible scene. Bandits who had no remorse and were driven by their selfish desires had it coming.
Nero stepped away from the bandits and sat next to the campfire.
''You won't try stop us from killing the bandits?'' Rico asked from Nero.
''It is not my place to stop you guys from seeking justice.'' Nero answered while pouring more coffee to his cup. ''However, you will lose a part of yourself when you murder someone. You'll become the very thing you despise so much.'' He added.
Rico looked disappointed from the answer he received, he was angry and wanted justice. Rico stood in front of the bandits leader and rose his sword as high as he could, ready to chop his head off. Bandits leader was begging for his life and pissing his pants when he saw the sword which was about to chop his head off any second now. The words Nero said came taunting his decision ''You'll become the very thing''. He let out a mighty battle cry and swung the sword with all his might to the direction of the bandit, but the sword struck to the ground.
''What are you doing? Are you going to let them go after everything they had done?'' Leroy came asking from Rico who had hesitated to chop off the head of a bandit.
''Of course not! I just can't bring myself to end their lives.'' Rico said with frustrated voice.
Sofia, Bull and Gerald grabbed Rico from the shoulder and gave him the warm smile indicating that they still acknowledged him as their leader, even though he could not end the lives of bandits.
''Are you guys gone mad?'' Leroy yelled at them and grabbed the sword from Rico's hand to himself. ''When something needs to be done, you better do it yourself.'' But even Leroy was unable to swing the sword at the defenseless bandits. ''Fuck you! Fuck you all, you spineless pieces of shits!'' Leroy yelled at the bandits while felling to the ground on his knees crying.
Nero looked at the adventurers who were unable to end the lives of the bandits and said ''I'm proud of you guys, you did the right thing.''. After he said that he cast a spell which created a huge transparent pyramid like structure around the bandits and a smaller room appeared in front of the pyramid while pair of scales appeared to the top of the smaller room. Everyone was baffled by the weird magic Nero cast, even the bandits.
''What kind of spell is that?'' Rico asked from Nero. ''This spell is a medium tier judgement spell, when person is trapped inside the spell and they try to leave the spell, the scales on top of the smaller room will judge the soul of a person. If someone has a rotten soul and tries to leave the pyramid, they will die. So in other words, the judge of their fate will be themselves.'' Nero explained.
''What kind of bullshit is this?'' Yelled the leader of the bandits and kicked one of his underlings to the smaller room. The underling tried quickly return back inside the pyramid, but the barrier prevented him. Scales on top of the smaller room started weighing, right scale was black, while the left scale was white. Small orbs started to appear from thin air and drop to the scales, only few small white orbs appeared on the left scale, while the right scale was filling up with black orbs weighing the scale all the way down. Suddenly the scale stopped weighing and a hole started to emerge from a ground. Underling tried to escape the hole to the corners of the room and suddenly the hole stopped growing. Then bunch of hands started to appear from the hole and grabbed the underling dragging him in to the depths of hole and the hole closed.
Every bandit went silent after seeing what happened to their friend. Bandit leader was staring at Nero with a furious face, with a face that wanted to kill him from the bottom of his heart.
''I would be careful with your thoughts, that guy was lucky, it could have been much much worse.'' Nero told to the leader of the bandits. ''You will pay for this!'' Said the leader of bandits.
''Amazing, i have never seen anything like this before. Medium tier magic you said? From the looks of it, this seems to be closer to the god tier magic. To be able to cast such powerful magic that even the 3 star platinum rank magicians have difficulties to pull off'' Sofia said while inspecting the spell from every direction.
''What are these ranks you keep mentioning?'' Nero asked curiously.
Adventurers looked at each other thinking if this guy was messing with them.
''You try to tell me that you have never heard of ranks before?'' Leroy asked with a smug look on his face and putting his arm around Nero's neck. ''In that case, let me educate you a little bit. When someone decides to become an adventurer, they join a guild where they can complete certain rank quests and missions. Your rank is based on your power level and ability to complete these quests and missions. There are five ranks, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and lastly legend. Each rank is divided by individuals experience known as rookie, advanced and expert, which is expressed as stars.''
''I can't believe you don't know what ranks are even though you are so powerful, ranks are well known around the world. Have you been living in a forest or something?'' Rico asked from Nero.
''It must have somehow slipped under my radar'' Nero answered while being embarrassed by his ignorance, how could he have not noticed something like that.
''Anyway, you have done so much already, it is the least thing we could do by taking you to the city of Yowald.'' Rico said and others agreed.
They packed everything and headed towards the city of Yowald, leaving the bandits behind to be judged by the spell Nero had cast.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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