Standing at the entrance of the town as I turned my head back, watching the lively town to go on as usual while I'm going on my first adventure to do my first bounty hunting, as I'm supposed to travel around two leagues, which it means that it's around six miles away from the town in north west.

Although, I suspect that gang camp wouldn't be set up so close to the town, as it takes two hours to cover six miles via walking unless you're in uneven terrain which takes longer. So which means that their camp would be located, maybe a few more leagues away from the reported location, usually at caves or crags as they provide a great hiding spot for a bandit camp.

Too bad that I don't have an easy way of finding them because the waypoint system seen in video games is not included in the system, so I have to find them the hard way by reading the map, understanding geography and knowing what to look for.

Welp, time to start my new adventure! I started to walk north-west by the road, noting birds were freely singing on their branches, calling for mates while squirrels were flurrying around. Again, watching nature in action is always beautiful, better than watching all people rushing for work followed by numerous cars dizzying around and all metal and concrete everywhere in my old life.

It really didn't take long for two hours to pass as I found the old spot where bounty paper reported that an caravan was attacked at that spot as I can see few evidence like broken poles and some dried blood on some rocks as I carefully combed the area for any possible evidence to find where the gang did go. By using my survival skill as it has tracking included in it, I was able to find a few faint footstep traces a few dozen meters away from the stricken caravan spot as I used my hands to push the bush leaves away.

By judging what footsteps are facing the direction, it appears that the gang went north, so time to follow the tracks. It's going to take a while as if the leader of the gang is smart, he'd be setting his camp in a half dozen league or more away from the area in a hidden spot where knights or patrolmen can't find it easily.

Hours passed and I kept finding some tracks like broken branches, footstep traces and disturbed leaves on the ground as I was sure that I walked around six leagues or so as my watch is telling me that it's nearly night. I have a feeling that gang camp is bit more farther away, so I'll need to find a good spot to set the camp and rest for tomorrow, so I walked around, looking for a decent crag or cave until I spotted a nice crag that would block my campfire so anyone can't find me. Although, I can't stop smoke emitting upwards, so I'll have to use a campfire during night time, so smoke can't be easily seen at night and the crag should block the light of the campfire nicely if I can place the campfire in the right way.

Wait a minute! I think I know a way to 'hide' the campfire is using old technique called Dakota Fire Hole where I can dig two holes then make one small tunnel to let smoke come through tunnel to other hole while I cover other hole with stuff, all I need is to get a good shovel from the store, so I activated my pipboy then went to shop section, saw a decent short shovel going for 10 bottle caps and it only weights at one pound and half, not bad. Bought it and it popped in the inventory where I took it out, holstering a shovel on my shoulder while I looked around for a good spot to set the camp along the crag.

Ah, perfect! I spotted a nice spot by left side of the crag where there is few thick trunks blocking most of the opposite view from the crag wall, makes it easier to hide my camp as my military camp kit is green camouflage, it will mesh well with thick trunks with mossy cover plus high foliages. If I place the basha tent along the fallen trunk with mossy cover, it will make it difficult for anyone to spot my tent.

Okay, time to set the tent first, so I took camping kit out from my inventory and set it down on the ground as I opened the duffle-like bag, revealing green cover fabric with pre-set poles built in followed by two long poles, six bungees and six pegs, just enough to set the tent in right way.

I laid the tent out then aligned the cover to allow for built in poles to snap together, turing the tent to be rigid, making it easier for me to set two poles to keep the tent upward then then used my short shovel to hammer the pegs to the dirt, keeping tent from flying off as I figured that I didn't need to use bungees as it's meant for tree method.

Whew, that part is done! Now to set the military cot… wait a minute, what if I store this tent in the inventory and use it again without having to go through methods to dismantle it then rebuild it at every time when I travel around? Only way to test the theory.

I bought my pipboy and activated the inventory scanner, taking the complete tent. Done! It's now in inventory as I took the military cot bag and cooking kit out, the complete tent now weighs far less and it looks like it works as I can see a complete tent in the inventory slot. Now let's test this theory out, so I took the complete tent out and aimed at the same spot as before and oh, it worked! The complete tent is there now but I'll need to re-hammer the pegs to the ground. Still, it's much better and will save some valuable time for me to set the camp quickly.

Now, to military cot, as I suspect that I can put complete cot in inventory space for quick take out and in too. So, I broke the military cot out from its bag, then started to unfurl the military cot by stretching it out in the opposite direction, then did it again sideways while taking folded legs out to settle down on the ground. Perfect, good bed to sleep in. Best part is that it comes with a nice wool blanket. Make it a cozy bed, heh.

Well, nearly done. All I need is to make a dakota fire hole then set the cooking kit then make something for dinner before going to bed.

I took my short shovel, cleared the small area away from the entrance of the basha tent, as I dug two holes two feet deep then dug the small tunnel to connect two holes together to allow air direction to come in to keep fire going plus letting smoke out. Soon as I am finished, I went out to find plenty of sticks and dry barks to add to the hole then I grabbed my flint tool that came with camping kit as I ignited the stick and dry bark turning to fire as I can see that luminescence is much reduced with this technique, makes it easier to hide myself in case.

I immediately grabbed the cooking kit and put an iron grill square over the hole then added a small tin pan for me to add meats and vegetables in to make a quick dinner as I grabbed two mutton chops, two heads of wild mushrooms, few carrot sticks and half onion. I quickly chopped it up and it is ready for the tin pan… wait a minute! I forgot something, I need to get a few spices and two sticks of butter, so off to store again. There! Got a basic spice kit and two sticks of butter for 5 bottle caps in total.

Grabbed salt, pepper and herb to add on the mutton chop for taste flavor while I threw a quarter cut of a butter stick on the tin pan, waiting for it to melt then add the spiced mutton chop in. Soon as the butter melted off, I put the mutton chop while I started to work on chopping the vegetables apart with my dirk whistling a cheery tune.

Sizzling, ah, looks like the side of the mutton chop is done, time to flip it as I grabbed it with a tin fork then flipped it, revealing a nice brownish texture. Oh, time for vegetables to be thrown in for a nice extra flavor, as meat juices with butter will make it taste much better, indeed.

Ten minutes later, the dinner is ready, time to eat! I savagely tore through the mutton chop as I was pretty starving after a hard day's work today for walking around, tracking the bad guys down then setting the camp up. I perked up as I heard the notification of the quest being done as I can see my monetary balance went up by 100 bottle caps followed by hearing notification for survival skill leveling up a few times. I belched, patting on my belly, feeling happy as clam, so I cleaned the cooking kit up then stored it inventory then went back to the tent to sleep with my pistol with me, better to be prepared in case, so I made the fire to go out then zipped the sides of the basha tent to close to fully hide from the sight as I added foliage and mossy on the basha tent earlier.

I woke up as soon as I heard the birds chirping as I could see faint light going through my tent as I opened the zipper and I could see the sun was barely getting up from the horizon, must be early morning. I checked my watch, so it's a little over 6 in the morning. Not bad, so time to set the fire up then make a quick breakfast then do my business in the bush then get the camp up and start my day to find the gang.

30 minutes later, I'm done, as I had a good breakfast consisting of crispy bacon, two eggs and sliced loaves of bread with cheese on top then did my business at the bush. Thank god for toilet papers I got from the store, they weighed nothing, so I bought two rolls.

Now, if I remember right, the tracks still point at the north but I am noticing that tracks are getting a bit more fresher at this area, so it means that gang camp is fairly close, so I'll have to tread very carefully, so time to grab my hunting rifle.

Shouldering the hunting rifle with leather belt, I carefully walked along the tracks, as it took me three hours until I was able to hear the faint sounds from somewhere in the north, I slowed my pacing down to avoid making any noises as I took my hunting rifle out and used the scope to scout ahead. There! I can see a slight outline of the camps near the cavern, perfect, I found them. Now let's see what defenses and how many people are present. I heard the notification of Sneak skill being leveled once. Nice.

Carefully scanning the area with scope, it appears that gang camp only has five tents layered in random order with a large campfire in the middle as I can see five people sitting on the bench, drinking freely and eating their food. I zoomed in on the figure at the front, noticing his obvious appearance based on what I see from the drawing of that man in the bounty paper.
Good god, he's fucking ugly as hell, he has rotten teeth, hawk like noise, wild brown hair like wilding and pallor skin as if he's sick or something. He's dabbled in his boiled leather jerkin and shoulders followed by fur pants and boots followed by his hanging mace from his belt. Others have similar armor as him with different weapons.

Okay, time to take that leader out then kill that archer first then rest of them should be easy pickings. I carefully tweaked the scope then hefted the crosshair on the leader's chest for best chance of shot as it's wide and open enough to hit accurately as the distance isn't very far, around three hundred yards at most. I calmly cocked the bolt, chambering the ammo, ready to shoot.

I slowly pressed my finger to the trigger then I gave it a firm tug as the rifle roared in thunder, propelling the hot lead across three hundred yards in mere instant as the leader's chest erupted in bloody spurts as the leader tilted over, dead as other members stood up, screaming as I cocked the bolt again then swerved my scope to the archer who is trying to grab his bow, I pressed the trigger once again.

Archer howled in pain as the hot bullet ripped through his lung, going down as choking in blood. I once again cocked the bolt and turned the scope again as three members were looking around widely, searching for the interloper to kill. I didn't give them the chance as I landed another hit, hitting another member in the neck as he tried to stop the bleeding in the heck with hands pressing it to no avail.

Two more members tried to run, screaming about cowardice and some shit. I quietly scoffed at this. Then I pressed the trigger again, hitting the guy in his belly as he went down, screaming in pain. That leaves with one member left.

Last member decided that it wasn't worth it, he tried to run but I did not allow him to leave quickly as I tried to aim his erratic body as he keeps moving around like a crazy nutjob, making it hard for me to hit as my chances of hitting gets lower at farther distance, so I pressed the trigger again, sending last bullet. Oh, he went down, as it looks like I hit his hip. He won't be moving anytime soon, as having a shattered hip is a nasty injury. Oh, I hear my Guns skill level up by a few times, neat.

Good time to get up and grab my pistol to check the camp out. I calmly put my rifle back to the inventory and unhatched my 10mm pistol then unsheathe my sword in case someone surprises me with close range combat. I walked to the camp slowly, keeping my eyes open and guard up, as I used my sword to open the tents to make sure there's no hidden surprises. To my relief, there are no more surprises.

A member that I shot in his belly, screamed at me in incomprehensible insults, telling me that he'd rip my entrails out and make me to eat it, causing me to roll my eyes then I promptly shot his head off with my pistol in cold blood to put him out of his misery. Sighing at this carnage, time to check around.

Remembering that I need to get the head of the leader for the proof, so I bought a large leather pouch from the store then grabbed the leader's corpse to put his head over the log stool. Ugh, I'm going to not like this at all, it feels like I'm mutilating a corpse as I put my pistol away then held the sword in two hands, putting my arms up above my head, aiming to chop through the neck.

I swung true as the blade effortlessly cleaved through skin, meat and bone as the head lopped off to the ground, rolling around then stopped at the edge of the campfire, fixing me with his glassy eyes. I grimaced at this sight as I walked to the head and grabbed it by hair then crammed it to the leather pouch then dumped it to the inventory to keep it fresh. Yuck, I think I'm going to be sick. Urrk.

Oh, I can hear the quest being dinged up as completion, as I know that I won't get that reward til I bring the leader's head back to the bounty hall. Now one more quest left - search around for loot. Who knows if I will find anything? Time to check those bodies first, they might have weapons and whatnot that would be valuable to sell at the marketplaces or stores for quick buck.

I checked the headless leader's corpse, I grabbed his iron mace, dirk and a small pouch revealing to be 20 silver stags and a smattering amount of copper pennies. Not bad, it'll fetch decent prices as those weapons seem to be well used but well taken care of.

I walked to the archer's corpse first, found his hunting bow with a quarrel of iron arrows followed by his dirk. No pouch but I can see a few basic jewelry on his fingers, likely stolen from a caravan nearby, it looks like it's mainly made out of silver mainly. It'll fetch a nice price if I can find the right buyers.

Another two corpses, all they had were short iron swords and dirk. No pouches.

Now, on the last one, I'm pretty sure he is dying or is already dead as a bullet in his hip can be life threatening, depending where I hit. So I briskly walked like a few dozen meters away, I could see him crawling away, dragging his useless legs and smearing blood on the ground from me as he groaned in pain. Sigh, best to put him down in misery as I grabbed my gun and shot him in the back, dropping him dead. Well time to drag his body to the camp then check the body for loot. I grabbed his legs then grunted to pull his dead body to the camp.

As soon as I'm done dragging the body, I searched his body, found that he was carrying a wooden club with iron spikes embedded followed by a small pouch carrying finger bones. What the hell? Okaaay.

I figured that there could be a chest or something in the leader's tent, so I went to a large tent and it turns out that I was right, there is a nice chest sitting by a crude bed. Hmm, it has an iron lock hatch and my lockpicking skill is practically nonexistent, so I grabbed my gun and shot the latch off then put my gun away. I rubbed my hands, hoping for good loot as I opened the chest.

Huh, not bad, I can see a few nice gems, a few rolls of high quality silk, silver goblets, plates and chalices. A Myrish eye? That's a fairly rare and expensive telescope, it would fetch a nice price too Ooh, there's twenty gold dragons and a few hundred silver stags too? Not bad!

My day just got better with this neat find as I can hear my quest for loot being done as 100 bottle caps are added to my balance. Now, time to drag the chest to the open so I can use my pipboy to scan all items then sell them to the store since it would be way too suspicious if I sell multiple gems, silver stuff, jewelry and sword at the marketplace.

Now in the smoldering campfire, I went to my pipboy and tweaked the setting to scan what content I want to take to sell to the store, so I scanned the entire area, reducing all collected items on the ground, opened chest's contents, clothes on the corpses, tents and scattered objects to lights going to the pipboy itself, leaving entire area empty aside from still smoldering campfire and multiple naked corpse behind. Let's see how much I can get this with bottle caps.

Whoah! Holy shit! I just made nice cool 2,750 bottle caps for this find. Let's convert 15 gold dragons too, totaling it up to 7,169 bottle caps. I whooped in excitement, what a great day! With that much money, I could buy a few perks later or get that training perks to level my attributes up as I know I need to level my perception and agility soon. Maybe one more point to strength or charisma?

I eventually calmed down and looked at the corpses. Should I bury them or let them rot outside and leave it to wild animals to eat it? You know what? I'll leave them outside since they're criminals, they don't deserve a burial. Time to head back for the town, as the day is still young as I'm like little more than eight leagues away, so it would take me most of day to arrive at the town, I can make it to rest at the tavern then on morrow, I can go to the bounty hall to drop the proof off and get my money.