Alexander observed and analyzed the situation for a bit longer to confirm he hadn't missed anything. And upon doing so, he realized that the group defending the convoy was a mix of Demis and humans, while the bandits were a group of humans.

  "That should make things easier," thought Alexander while adjusting his grip on his weapons. "After all, humans should be more fragile."

  The one at the front of the defense group, holding a large sword, was clearly the leader and the strongest of the group. He was a demi that looked like a mix between a human and a lion.

  "It seems they won't hold out much longer," Alexander analyzed upon seeing that the defenders' support seemed to have no more mana to keep healing them, and that the hidden archer fired another arrow at the defenders' leader.

  Seeing the bandits lower their guard, thinking they had already won, he saw his chance and began explaining his plan to Ocean.

  "I don't know how much she understood of the plan, but at least it seems she understood which human is her target," thought Alexander. "Now I just need to recover some of the Tier I spells I lost."

  Ding!

  [You learned the Tier I spell |Water Barrier|]

  [You learned the Tier I spell |Water Blade|]

  Alexander then used |Sneak| and passed by the first bandit, who was Ocean's target. Upon arriving behind the second, who was the one giving the orders, he used |Magical Body Strengthening| and |Ambush| to plunge his dagger right into his heart.

  The force behind the blow was so brutal that the bandit's heart basically exploded out the front of his body. But Alexander didn't stop there.

  [1 x {Human Lv. 20} Slain – You received 2100 XP points]

  Upon entering combat, he lost his invisibility and "materialized" beside the bandits' leader, who was already dead. But the surprise factor still allowed him to raise the [Wooden Staff from the Mana Tree] and fire |Water Blade| at the archer in the tree.

  Alexander knew a Tier I spell wouldn't become stronger because of the staff, but the staff still helped him channel his mana faster and fire a large, fast curved blade made of water.

  The archer was the first to react when his leader fell dead and retaliated with an arrow. But, unfortunately for him, firing that arrow provided the necessary time for the spell |Water Blade| to hit him from chest to neck, knocking him head-first from the tree onto the uneven and stony ground.

  [1 x {Human Lv. 19} Slain – You received 1850 XP points]

  Feeling there was some kind of energy in the arrow shot at him, Alexander used |Water Barrier|.

  Following the spell's control, his mana spread through the environment in the form of a dome and materialized a mass of water with two dense layers circulating its water, one moving vertically and the other moving horizontally, which stopped the arrow.

  Taking advantage of the bandits' confusion, Alexander advanced to the bandit fighting the defense group's leader, who couldn't turn, and killed him the same way he killed their leader.

  [1 x {Human Lv. 19} Slain – You received 1900 XP points]

  Unfortunately for Alexander, the bandits' confusion didn't last forever and they soon began to run towards him.

  The first was the bandit behind him, but before he could take more than a few steps, Ocean ambushed him with a strong bite to the neck area and dragged him away.

  The still-alive bandits were horrified to see their situation worsen so much. In a short time, 4 of them were killed, including their leader, and even a beast, obviously rare, due to its unusual color, appeared.

  Upon looking at their dead leader and becoming aware of their situation, which became increasingly unfavorable, the bandits grabbed anything possibly valuable they found and began to flee.

  Alexander didn't bother pursuing them, because the greater the number of fugitives, the more he could claim innocence about any disappearances.

  Turning to the group defending the carriage, Alexander found them looking at him with some… hostility?

  The atmosphere immediately became tense and Alexander prepared to fight, which made the atmosphere even heavier.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Feeling the situation was going from bad to worse, a feline Demi placed himself in front of his leader, lowered his daggers, and tried to ease the mood: "Thank you for helping. My name is Victor and these are my adventurer companions."

  "No need to thank me," said Alexander. "It just happened that Ocean heard the noise of the fight f-."

  "Ocean? What Ocean?" Victor interrupted, as he became apprehensive for not seeing the companion Alexander spoke of.

  "It seems she stopped to ambush another bandit," Alexander explained upon thinking a bit and seeing her information. "But she's already coming back."

  "I see," said Victor, trying to project confidence. But before he had a chance to seem secure, a blue wolf emerged from the forest and ran in his direction.

  Scared, Victor returned to his group, which went back into formation, even with everyone still tired and/or injured. Fortunately for them, the "wolf" was clearly Ocean, who stopped when she reached her leader.

  "Look at you, girl. You're all dirty," Alexander reprimanded her, joking with her. "You should have just blown him up."

  "…" Victor's Group.

  Not knowing exactly how to react to this interaction, the group defending the caravan opted to remain silent. They just pushed Victor back to get more information.

  "What companions," thought Victor while cursing each of them mentally.

  "So…" Victor attempted.

  "Yes. This is Ocean," Alexander replied.

  "Beautiful familiar. Seems very strong and intelligent," Victor praised, trying to become familiar with the duo. But, contrary to what he expected, his comment only made the other party's expression sink.

  Perceiving he was making the mood awkward again, Alexander apologized: "I'm sorry, you are right from a general point of view… But for me she is more than just a familiar, she is family."

  This answer quite surprised the group, even more so because it seemed very sincere. But before Victor could say anything else, Alexander continued: "But now is not the time to talk about that. Your companions are still injured."

  "You're right," replied Victor.

  "Do you want my help or just want me to leave so you can handle this yourselves?" asked Alexander.

  Victor instinctively wanted to say something, but managed to swallow his own words and turned to ask permission from the leonine demi, who nodded.

  "I would be very grateful if you helped us," replied Victor.

  "Wait a moment," said Alexander. "I'll just get my things I left up there to help you."

  Upon returning to his observation point at the top of the elevation, from where it was possible to see those below without most of his body being seen, he removed the bag he had made in the grove from the [Ring of the Thief God] and filled it with some skins, dried meat, silver and gold from the dungeons and, obviously, potions. Everything a "traveler" needed.

  Returning to the carriage, Alexander noticed there was one more woman, but didn't pay much attention to it. He just placed his bag on the ground and asked the injured to form a line.

  After using |Invigorate| to clean most of the wounds, Alexander turned to Victor: "Inside my things there are some red potions that will help. You can open and take them."

  "Give the flashiest bottle to your leader and distribute the rest to the most injured," he explained.

  Victor immediately understood the nature of these potions and wasn't the least bit embarrassed. He opened Alexander's bag, took out the potions, and passed them to his companions.

  With almost all the work done, Alexander noticed a young human woman trying to remove an arrow from her shoulder in a completely wrong way. He then went to her, took the arrow from her hand, held the area where it was lodged, and pulled it out with firmness and precision.

  The young woman, who didn't expect such brutality, screamed in pain, making everyone turn, and reprimanded Alexander, hurt: "Couldn't you have been a bit gentler?"

  “If arrows aren’t removed firmly, they cause more damage and may even break inside the body,” he replied while using |Invigorate| on the wound. “However, if you expect gentleness from me, then don’t seek me out in the middle of treatment.”

  The young woman was stunned by his response, as she didn't expect a response like that.

  Realizing that everyone around her looked at her with half-smiles, she turned completely red, stomped the ground angrily, and went in the opposite direction from him.

  "That's all I can do for you, Victor," said Alexander while sitting beside his bag and taking a [Mana Potion] to drink.

  "Don't worry. You've already helped a lot," replied Victor. "Mary can handle the rest as soon as she recovers a bit."

  "By the way, let me introduce you to my group," said Victor, animatedly, while taking Alexander to their leader.

  "Thank you for the help," said the group's leader. "My name is Leon."

  "No need to thank me. I was told it's good to help those who need help when possible," replied Alexander. "Something about good things coming back to those who do them… Or today is for another, but tomorrow is for you… Something like that."

  "By the way, I'm Alexander Ocean, and this here is Ocean," said Alexander, introducing them while using |Invigorate| to make Ocean more presentable.

  Upon hearing his introduction, Leon furrowed his brow and asked: "Are you a noble?"

  "No?" Alexander replied, clearly finding the question strange.

  Leon then looked him up and down and explained: "You have a family name. Most people who have a family name are, or descend from, a noble family."

  "Having a surname is quite common where I come from," Alexander replied smoothly. "Obviously there are some 'nobles,' but they are very few compared to all those who have surnames."

  Leon nodded to signal he understood, but still found it very strange. At the very least, Alexander shouldn't be from this place.

  After introducing his leader to Alexander, Victor introduced him to the other members. The young woman Alexander embarrassed was a light mage named Mary; the man with shield and sword was named Brynn; the young human who was a fire warlock was named Marcon; and the last was a red demi who uses two blades and was named Argon.

  They were adventurers who accepted an escort request at the adventurer's guild. Apparently, everything went well during most of the trip, until they were ambushed by the thieves.

  Alexander obtained some important information from their story, but what he was waiting for was to speak with Argon.

  "Forgive me for being so direct and asking like this, but could you tell me what kind of demi you are?" Alexander asked Argon. "I've never seen someone like you before."

  Argon opened a rotten smile and sighed, as if he had heard this question many times before, but didn't complain. "I am a Trolljan. You would be surprised to see there are some who are even redder."

  "Interesting… Very interesting," replied Alexander, who opened a smile that seemed to want to go from ear to ear. "Thank you for the information."

  While Alexander tried to obtain more information from the group about this place, the human woman who had appeared before came to meet him. And upon seeing the woman approaching, the group retreated a bit so she could speak.

  "I am Cristina Hylan, from the Black Moon company, the client of the escort request at the adventurer's guild," Cristina introduced herself. "Are you willing to help in my escort to Phoenix City?"

  "As you can see, we may need some extra strength until they fully recover," she explained.

  "Nice to meet you, Cristina," Alexander replied courteously, but without showing any subservience to the young woman. "Can I think a bit about this? I don't even know where Phoenix City is."

  "Of course… But know that Phoenix City isn't far," said Cristina. "If all goes well, we should arrive tomorrow."