We walked through the rock tunnel and soon reached the other side where we of course found two dead bandits with holes in their heads and blood leaking out onto the sand. I drained the lifeforce out of them turning them to dust that also covered up the blood already missing.

“I don’t ever think I’m gonna get over how freaky that is.” Mordy said as he watched me do this.

“You say that but you will with enough time, it’s just too new to you at the moment. Same’s true with Lil’s powers.” I said with a chuckle.

“He’s right, it’s kinda like being on a battlefield. At first every little thing will set you on edge but after some time you’ll barely even notice it.” Roland said seriously with a look that said he was talking from experience.

The mine itself looked just as rundown and abandoned as you’d expect with the metal sheets that made up the buildings you could see being rusted and discolored. In the distance you could see one or two bandits with various types of guns lazily walking around in a patrolling loop that didn’t even include the entrance we were at.-

“Is that a fucking vendor machine?” I asked incredulously as I looked through the open doorway of the closest building.

We walked up to the doorway and lo and mother fucking behold there were two vendor machines all lit up and working properly. The first was an ammo vendor belonging to Marcus while the second was yet another medical machine owned by Zed.

“How do we keep finding these things in places infested with bandits?” Mordy asked just as confused as me.

“I have no idea but whatever the case it works out in our favor so I’m not going to question it.” Roland said and none of us could really argue there.

We were spotted by one of the patrolling bandits when we left the building who yelled.

“WE GOT MERCS OVER HERE!”

The loudmouth didn’t get to raise his gun before I put a round in his throat signaling the start of the fight as more and more bandits who were just hanging out in the nearby buildings rushed out at us. We split up immediately to make a smaller target of ourselves before going to work on the bandits.-

Bullets were flying everywhere as the bandits got shot up and returned fire with Brick putting on extra pressure with his mad rush at them swinging his fists. Ladon was hiding behind a stack of cement bags for it’s own safety since even if it could technically help it was a huge target at the moment and thus more a liability than an asset. That said it was smart enough to realize this and get out of the way until we dealt with these enemies. We made short work of these bandits as there was only about thirty of them and once one of them died that number dropped.-

Once everyone not on my side was dead I extended my powers to look for interesting traits as well as to collect the lifeforce. 

[Mechanical engineering expertise(degrading)-Common grade]- 700 units, [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]- 700 units 

These two traits were surprisingly enough found in the process though most of these bandits had the same traits more or less. I could even understand the “degrading” aspect of these traits as it meant that at one point it was something they did all the time but had been neglected to such a degree that the muscle memory was fading.-

Regardless of that however both of these traits degraded or otherwise were extremely useful for me so I grabbed them alongside the roughly twenty five thousand lifeforce. As the bodies vanished into dust we spread out to look over every inch of this area to check for goodies like a swarm of locust. I felt that the bandits were sorta stupid as they had a gate blocking the way forward but built fucking stairs that went right over the wall and gate to the other side.-

“Got a chest over here!” Mordy called soon after and we gathered up in the sort of empty storage shed he was in.

The chest was a standard metal chest with a couple screw latches that you turned to open it up. We of course opened the thing up and two lights shot up but none of us were excited about it as they were merely white and blue. A common quality Tediore assault rifle and a rare grade fire elemental S&S munitions sniper sat in the chest. To be fair the sniper wasn’t a bad gun at all but none of us got an upgrade from it so it was sorta useless to us.-

“You guys mind if I put the sniper in my armory? I’ll buy it outright if it helps.” I offered and they were fine with that.

I checked the going rate on a gun of this make and model before shelling out the 1800 dollars to be split between the others. As I had said it was a good gun but not an upgrade for us so I just planned to put it in my armory for later. As for the money it was hardly worth mentioning given the wealth I had stored up from my deal with the old man.-

It wasn’t enough to buy a planet or anything outrageous like that but I had enough money to buy a stretch of land as big as Australia if I emptied out my piggy bank. Not that I had any intention of telling my new friends that though as it would kinda ruin half the fun of collecting loot. Anyways with the loot figured out we went up the stairs to pass the gate which also raised us high enough to see most of the mine.-

There was a minecart track over head along with a fuel pipe for the ore extractor that was blazing flames and black smoke out the top of the smoke stack even now. On the ground there was a whole ass village sized bandit encampment that was crawling with bandits. I saw something in the distance however that made me pause.

“They have a big fucking turret!” I hissed in surprise.

“WHAT!?” I got group exclamations at that as none of us had expected this kind of firepower being in the hands of bandits.

I pointed out the turret on the other side of the encampment that had a dude in the seat who was looking for anyone who didn’t belong.

“How are we supposed to deal with that?” Roland asked seriously.

“One of three ways I see here.” I said getting everyone’s attention back to me. “First someone plays decoy while the others sneak around the side and take out the gunner. Second Lil uses her powers to get over there and shanks the gunner in the throat before hightailing it outa there. The third is that I grab the turret with THAT ability before throwing it. ” I said seriously.

“You can do that?” Lil asked surprised.

“I could grab things a whole hell of a lot bigger than that if I needed to but it’s pricy.” I said not clarifying what I was talking about to keep the one spying on us guessing.

If I am being honest I would rather keep my phase locking abilities a secret as knowledge was power and without a full understanding of what I can and cannot do whoever was spying on us would not be able to effectively plan around me. They could certainly plan around everyone else here as everything you needed to know about them they had already showed off.-

“If I take out the guy on the turret what’s stopping someone else from hopping on it?” Lil asked curiously.

“Just pop a shot into the loading mechanism of the turret before you leave and it’ll be jammed to hell and back and unable to fire until it’s taken apart and repaired.” I said casually.

“How do you know that” Roland asked skeptical.

“I recognize the brand of that turret, Mulciber Mk 2 anti personal mounted gatling turret. The company that makes them typically uses them for it’s prisons and on war encampments. Corporate military stuff was part of my education.” I said with a shrug.

“Is there anything you weren’t taught?” Mordy asked jokingly.

“Not really, the old man was extremely thorough much to my dismay.” I said with a shudder at the memory.

Everyone just looked at me speechlessly before deciding they honestly didn’t want to know and moved back to the immediate issue with the turret.

“So I Phasewalk over there, kill the guy on the thing, shoot the loading mechanism and THEN come back?” Lil asked and I nodded.

“Yep that about covers it.” I said with a grin.

___________________________________________

https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro

_______________________________________________

Alexander Drake

Lifeforce: 236,021

Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Omega body-Rare grade]x4, [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade]x4, [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade], [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X2, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [True omnivore-Rare grade], [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Hyperflexibility-Rare grade], [Strong circulation-Epic grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade]

Stored traits:[Mechanical engineering expertise(degrading)-Common grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep