After parting ways with Astrid, I headed north toward the bandit camp near Whiterun. If I cleared the place out, I might earn an easier path into the city—and more importantly, it was the perfect grinding spot to raise several of my skills.
When I arrived, I saw that the front courtyard was heavily guarded. Too many eyes. Too many weapons. Not ideal for a frontal assault.
So I waited for nightfall.
When darkness finally settled over the plains, I swapped my armor for something quieter. Leather boots, cloth under-layer, and a dagger—silent and perfect for sneak criticals. My heart pounded with the familiar thrill of stealth gameplay, except this time… it was real.
Alright, Alex. One at a time. No mistakes.
One by one, I eliminated them. Silent steps. Quick strikes. Bodies collapsing without a sound. With each takedown, my Sneak skill surged upward. But I couldn’t celebrate—I knew this camp held a Bandit Chief, and he was a lot tougher than the rest. If I didn’t level up soon, I’d be dead meat.
Inside the camp I found several traps—pressure plates, swinging logs, falling boulders. Perfect. I could use these.
Deeper in, I spotted a lone bandit mining iron ore. I opened my inventory—god, the dimensional inventory system was such a blessing—and pulled out a bow.
One arrow. Straight to the skull.
Sneak skill up. Archery skill up.
I looted the body and unlocked the next room. Ahead were two more enemies: one heavily armored with a battleaxe, the other wearing robes—a mage. I had to take out the mage first. They’re always annoying.
But then—
The Bandit Chief noticed me.
“Hey! You intruder! You dare enter my domain!?”
I taunted back, “Hey, ogre-face! Catch me if you can!”
“Bastard!”
I lured him toward the entrance where the trap mechanisms were located.
“Don’t you run from me!!”
At the perfect moment, I triggered the trap. Boulders crashed down, smashing everything beneath them. I barely managed to dodge outside. The dust settled… and the chief was in critical condition.
I nocked an arrow and fired one clean shot to his head.
“Fiuuuh… That was exhausting.”
I dragged the bodies outside. This camp could serve as a temporary base while I continued grinding. While looting the mage, I found a spellbook—Soul Trap.
Lucky. Very lucky. That spell was essential for quickly leveling Conjuration.
After clearing the area, I searched for the one spellbook that only appears in this place—Transmute. A spell that turns iron ore into silver, and silver into gold. A must-have for leveling Smithing.
I slept, leveled up, and checked my level skills:
Sneak: 26
Archery: 18
One-Handed: 16
Three level-ups in total. I dumped all my points into Magicka—I needed it to spam Soul Trap later.
Soul Trap required 100 Magicka per cast. After leveling three times, my Magicka reached 130. With a robe that boosted Magicka by 30 and a bandit garment giving another 50, I reached 210—enough for two casts.
So I cast Soul Trap on corpses.
Twice.
And my Conjuration level shot up by four.
What the hell… This is broken. And I love it.
I repeated the process until I maxed Conjuration at level 100. It took five days. By then, my main level had risen to 17. I allocated points into Health, Stamina, and Magicka.
Thankfully, the bandits had killed a mammoth earlier, so I didn’t starve. And thanks to the inventory system, food never spoiled.
Honestly, I had no idea how long this would take for a normal person. But with a system backing me up? I didn’t know the true difficulty curve anymore.
After that, I mined every iron vein in the location, transmuted them into gold, and crafted gold rings.
Transmute leveled my Alteration.
Crafting leveled my Smithing.
All in all, it took about a day due to the limited supply of ore.
Now my level had reached 18. I added more points to Health and checked my status:
Magicka: 200
HP: 150
Stamina: 120
…Not bad. Not bad at all.
Maybe it was finally time for me to head to Whiterun.
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