Rise of the Eromancer

"You can't do this!"

"We're already doing it."

The bus manager pleaded to the robbers, but the only thing they did was kick him out of the bus; his face being introduced to the hard ground of the wasteland.

"And the rest of you, try not to do anything funny! Stronger explorers than all of you combined have tried fighting back against us, and they have all met this wasteland as their graves!"

"Wow, is that the line you were practicing last night?"

"Pretty cool, right?"

The robbers truly did not seem to see Rhys and the other explorers on the bus as threats, as they just started jeering and joking. And even as the explorers started stepping out of the bus and passing by them, the only thing they did was look at the bus and inspect it.

And surprisingly, even as Rhys stepped out, the robbers did not seem to care at all; something he did not expect as everyone just seemed to care so much that he was a Lowborn. No, he was treated like everybody else on that bus.

"Everyone of you, get on your knees and don't move!"

And as Rhys and the others were made to kneel, he could not help but just smile from the fact that these robbers were probably the most organized set of people he had ever met since he left the Underworld Corps. The aspiring explorers back in the Explorer Test could not even compare.

"Moose, their license."

There were probably more than 12 of them there — and the one who was actually with them on the bus seemed to be the leader of their gang, as he ordered one of the men to search them. Rhys was waiting to see if someone from the 7 Explorers he was with would do something, but all they really did was close their eyes and whisper to themselves, praying.

"You hit the nail on this one, Scar," the one searching for them, Moose, could not help but laugh as he started checking the license of everyone there, "Most of these are just Level 1 Explorers. I swear, these people never learn: never buy a cheap Hole in the middle of nowhere, boys and girls. We—what the, this guy's an Explorer! I thought he was a porter or something."

"Really?" The robbers started gathering behind Rhys as they checked his silence, "Woah, he just became an explorer this month, Now I kinda feel bad. Should we let him live?"

"W… what!? I thought you were going to let us live!? This…"

And almost immediately, the bus manager and the driver stood up and started running away — quickly followed by the other Explorers without even saying as much as a word; they all just started running away.

"Stupid, learn to keep your mouth shut!" Their leader, Scar, quickly grabbed one of the… rocket launchers that his men were holding and pointed it at the running people, "This was supposed to be a clean jo—"

"Sorry."

"What the…?" Scar took his eye off the scope as he saw a face covered with a lot of hair, only to see Rhys suddenly standing in front of him; his chest, planted right on the muzzle, "You didn't run away with the re—"

"I apologize, I might not be commissioned by the Underworld Corps, but I still am part of it," Rhys let out a small but deep sigh as he grabbed the muzzle of the rocket launcher and moved it away, "Carrying firearms with the intent of doing harm to innocent civilians is… against the law."

"..Look at this guy," Scar turned to look at his men and laughed, also causing them to burst out in a fit of laughter as they started hitting each other in jest.

"Look, kid…" Scar shook his head, "...We get it, you were part of the military and became an Explorer. What, are you going to arrest us or something?"

"..." Rhys did not really say anything and just looked at each other the robbers one by one before finally shaking his head and letting out another sigh,

"No. The punishment for doing something like this outside the Safety Zone is death."

"Wh—" Scar was going to say something, but completely forgot what as he watched as Rhys very casually crumpled the muzzle of the rocket launcher he was holding. The others also stopped laughing too… when they saw Scar's head just suddenly dropping to the ground and rolling toward them, and all they heard was a whistle.

"I do find it ironic," Rhys gently pushed Scar's headless body, before looking at the bandits, "Ever since I got out of the Underworld Corps, I've been killing more men than monsters."

"G… get him!"

The robbers all pointed their rifles at Rhys, and when three of them started summoning fires from their hands; Rhys could not help but slightly blink, as he had completely forgotten that these people should have special abilities… but they were using guns instead.

Some Explorers actually do the same, as their abilities, albeit more powerful than most modern weapons, put a large toll on their body, and thus they reserve it when they truly need it — a concept completely foreign to Rhys, as one of his abilities allow him to have unlimited stamina and energy.

"Kill him, he's just one—"

And before any fighting between Rhys and the robbers could happen, several shadows started looming over their heads; followed by a whistling laugh that seemed to cause their ears and necks to tingle.

All of them looked up, only to see several women flying in the air. Well, not exactly women, as their arms were wings that spanned longer than a sedan, and their legs were filled with feathers, and a sharp set of talons as their feet.

"Harpies!"

The robbers quickly changed their attention to the flying werebeasts above them, completely ignoring Rhys as they started shooting at the harpies with reckless abandon. They shot some of them down, as Rhys watched one fall right in front of him; its head twisted the wrong way but still very much moving.

More and more started to fall — but then, all of a sudden, one of the harpies that seemed to be falling from their death suddenly stretched its wings to the side; stopping just a meter away from dropping on the ground.

And without even any warning, it cleaved one of the robber's heads in multiple pieces with its sharp talons. And then, the harpies, who they thought were already dead on the ground, started flapping their wings and just started mauling down the unsuspecting men. And just within that short span of time, more than a dozen bandits were torn into pieces right in front of Rhys.

Rhys knew there were monsters just roaming around the Danger Zone, but why…

…does it seem like the Surface was actually more chaotic than the Underworld?

One moment, they were peacefully on their way to a Hole to explore, and then they were stopped by brigands, and then those brigands were now being mauled and eaten right in front of him.

And now, with them finally noticing Rhys as he took a step back, the harpies' bobbing heads all instantly turned toward him; like chickens.

Is the life of an Explorer truly this colorful… or do the Fates truly just like fucking with him?