VRMMO: Am I The Strongest Yet?

The rising sun peeked over the horizon, casting a golden glow on the dusty, solid road. Alex, her black hair pulled back in many braids, steered the rickety carriage with a confident hand. Fear, worry, concern, anxiety… all that was a stranger to those heavenly blue eyes.

"Ahem. We've got company, everyone."

Behind her, amongst the worn cushions, her companions shifted. Elio looked from the open front, and Sera came back inside from the open back.

A comical cough escaped from one, a curious glance exchanged between the young girl and her mother.

Up ahead, a ramshackle barricade of scrap wood, metal, and stones blocked the path. Around ten figures, bandits by the looks of them, lounged with haughty looks, their faces covered in pleased smirks.

Alex, unfazed, pulled the carriage to a halt just a few feet from the barricade. Anyone else would have stopped a mile away from this barricade after noticing it, but not her. Right now, just like how the classic bandits had pleased smirks on their faces, she had a smile of excitement on hers.

"Can I have them?"

"They look fun, though. Can I try out some magic on them?"

"Nah. There doesn't seem to be any mages among them. Lemme have them, hehe."

The bandits stirred, eyeing the carriage with suspicion. One, a hulking brute with a wickedly curved blade strapped to his thigh, lumbered towards them.

Even to them, this was strange.

A carriage was almost stopping in front of their faces, and instead of trying to turn and run away, they were chatting among themselves?

They found it quite funny, actually.

"Well, well," he rasped, his voice gravelly from years of smoking. "What do we have here?"

He approached them, his height almost two meters, with arms as big as her thighs, his bicep veins pulsing with vigor as if they had been pumped already.

He was bald, his skin bronze. The sword was now in his hands, and the aura exuding from him was threatening.

But, as he stood before the attractive female driver, a rather faint blush bloomed on his clean face.

"Well…" Alex's lips curved into a wider smirk, a glint of comedy in her eyes.

"Not today," she said, her voice ringing with a confidence that belied the outnumbered situation. The bandits exchanged surprised glances. This wasn't the usual scared traveler they preyed on.

This was not like the group that they had just captured.

This was different.

-Dhum!

They suddenly heard a strange sound, and the towering giant of their group, their shield and protector giant, was suddenly thrown all the way to the back.

-Dherrrrr!

"Hello there, fun people."

She started with the first one, and then she vanished from her driver's seat.

-Dhum!

The giant had crashed a few meters before them, but in a blink of an eye, he started flying once again and was thrown right into their barricade!

-Bhum!

Three individuals of the group were hit by the giant body and crashed into the barricade along with him, and this was the moment when the bandits realized…

"We fucked up."

-Dhum!

-Dhank!

-Boom!

"Wow~. Is that how you fight, mommy~?"

The young girl enjoyed the show, even though it had only lasted for a few moments.

"Miu!"

The gecko liked the fight, while the little slime also wanted to join in on this fun thing.

But Elio kept it in his first grasp.

"No, little one. We don't have to kill them."

"Muuuu~."

"No. You are too strong. Perhaps next time, ok?"

Alex used her {Blink} and her hands.

She did not need to use any other skill, or even her sword or dagger, or even a twig to deal with these little, adorable bandits.

They were nothing in front of her anyway, so, this little meeting they had was only going to be a negative thing for them.

"Huuu~."

Alex finished them in no time, and then she tied them up with a string rope.

"That was some good exercise."

The sun was rising on the horizon. This was early morning.

The bandits that were just smirking at them and were somehow blocking this road with a strong looking barricade were now bruised and bleeding.

Some had also fallen unconscious from her beating.

All of them were alive, and handing them to the authorities would earn them rewards.

The soldiers that maintain this road should be here anytime now, the time was approaching as well, so they would arrive soon, and with that, the bandits would be dealt with.

"Just how weak were the people before us that you dealt with, hun?"

These bandits weren't that big a deal. They were pretty high level, but they neither had any special skills or even abilities to take down someone that had any kind of protection with them.

It was actually strange how they were able to deal with someone else…

"Who was it…?"

There should not be that many people traveling on this road this early in the morning. People mostly left the village to go to the town when they took this road.

It was also a one way that was rarely used so there were also not that many people around, so… who was it that they dealt with in this place?

And, why were they barricading this place in the first place?

How did the soldiers that should be patrolling this place not see it?

Actually, if they had barricaded this place not long ago and had captured someone as they were saying earlier, where was the person, loot, and the carriage that they looted?

"..."

{Blink}

Why were the bandits that should be screaming with high and mighty curses like the peacock before the rain not even saying anything at all?

This should not have been like this.

[{ "Elio, get ready with Miss Rin." }]

This wasn't right.

If anything, why did the bandits look so clean if they were bandits?

[{ "It's magic. Sera just noticed as well." }]

They should be disgusting, they should be wearing alcohol stained clothing, they should be smelling like bandits should.

{ "It is commendable you noticed this." }

This was not right. And she knew it.

-Ooooooooooooong! Continue your saga on empire

Natural magic, wind element, Preservation series, (tier-4) spell: (Illusion barrier).

Since the moment they started feeling that weird sensation, they had entered the magic barrier of a mage.

To be more specific…

"Greetings, friends from the other world."

Magic of a greedy mage tower master.