ItsQuarters

Discord!

The bandits were too easy to deal with, at least the ones outside the entrance to the mountain-hold. Svinna had taken sneaking up on the first few bandits and, with a stranglehold around their necks, brought their minds under her dominion with Conquer the Mind. No sense in letting bodies go to waste yes? Well, some had to go to waste, she could only cast it a handful of times, but for her efforts she'd gotten four more warriors.

After that, using the bandits to get the jump on the other sentries was easily enough. The bottom rung of the pecking order never expects to be betrayed, after all. 

She smirked as she led her men into the cave, and it was there she was stopped by the other bandits in the cave. 

"What do you have there, Karl?" One of the bandits said to the enthralled men. "A pretty little thing, isn't she? With more pretties behind her." Svinna finally turned and looked at the man, curling her lip in disgust. 

The man was bald, with a scar that lead from the crown of his skull all the way down his face and culminating in bits of his lip missing, exposing his teeth. He was a short, rail thin fellow who looked diseased. And his lecherous, greedy eyes sparked her Fury. 

Svinna spoke.

"Kill them all." 

Her aura empowering her troops, slaves of the mind they may be, they charged forward, the foray drawing attention of the others. Svinna was level three, so all her troops within forty-eight feet have their fighting efficacy boosted by ten percent, and all opposing troops within that same range are decreased by the same amount. 

It was a slaughter, to say the least. Svinna and Freydis weren't sitting in their heels, either, and while Svinna isn't empowered by her own Aura skill, Freydis was, and the spear-maiden made good use of the boost. The two well tipped the tide of battle every time numbers  were against them. 

The best part about all this, though, was that Svinna didn't need to be the one landing a killing blow. Any of her thralls that killed someone immediately contributed experience to her. It didn't take much longer. Now the numbers game was hers to win, the three strongest bandits being merely toyed with by the mother and daughter pair and their new force. The two captive women were behind the lot. One swooning more often than the other. 

The bandit leader in particular was the worst off of all the remaining enemies, every move he made to break the encirclement by his own men was met with a shallow cut here and there. If looks could kill, He'd have already ripped Svinna's heart from her chest. Especially when looking at the smug, satisfied look on her face. 

Eventually, when they couldn't fight back much longer, Svinna sighed wistfully. "Well, this isn't fun anymore. Go ahead and kill them." She said sweetly with a smile, walking away from the scene to look for the hoard. 

You might be asking, why not ask the bandits where to find the hoard, and the answer is simple. 

These were bandits! Untrustworthy folks who make a living preying on others. Without any Mana to cast Conquer the Mind, these people were simply better off dead. 

Yes, Svinna has done the same thing the bandits have done, but Svinna is a hypocrit, and happily so, at that! 

Svinna waited at the central chamber of the cave for her men to come back, humming as she did. One notification later, she looked up to her new status page to see that she had leveled up to level four. In addition to her old skills she was offered one new one. 

Svinna couldn't help the manic grin that spread across her face.

This! 

This is how she snowballs! 

This is how she gets overpowered. Slowly building an army over decades of time? To hell with that! She'll just take someone else's army and fight the next guy!

Immediately accepting the skill, she stands up and activates the skill, a glowing, golden flag appearing in her hands. 

"This mountain..."

She raises the flag in both hands before slamming the haft of it into the ground, a wave of gold flowing across the earth. 

"...IS MINE!!!"