Chapter 15: Squad Name
"Captain, how about we name our squad Flying Dragons!" Koro gave his suggestion with much enthuciasm, but ultimately got rejected lazily.
"No way, it's too flashy for us, and that name has already been taken." Daru said while swaying his palm lazily in front of him.
"We'll be known as... Wolfsbane." Daru said.
"Captain? What does wolfsbane mean? Are we keeping dogs away?" Koro asked looking quite confused why the captain chose this name, he had never heard of such a word before, and he was not alone. Of course, Kazi knew what it was.
"Well, it's not a plant that's native to these parts, but its very poisonous and toxic and can kill easily. At least, that's what the info says." Daru explained.
"Uhh, oh, I see." Koro didn't seem to agree with that name still, the thing was that he was not alone on this. "Captain, how about Dragon Tooth? What about this one?"
This time, his teammates supported his decision.
"Yes, captain, Dragon Tooth sounds good."
"Yes..."
Kazi and Linx were the only ones that remained quiet throughout the entire thing, something Daru noticed.
"You seem to like dragons... and I can see why. Fine Dragon Tooth it is. From now, we shall be known as team Dragon Tooth or DT squad." Now, the second name sounded even better than the original dragon tooth, and the team members would soon adopt to using it instead of the initial dragon tooth.
"Alright, for the mission." Daru got serious once again as he explained the mission with both hands back at his waist, both thumbs fastened to his belt.
The states between his serious self and carefree self were so narrow that one could even miss it. It was left for the sensitive ones to pick up.
"For some time now, there has been looting going on along the travel routes and even secret merchant routes. So far, various travellers have been looted and two killed, while two merchant caravans have been looted. We don't know how the bandits got the information on when and where the caravans will be and at what time, since this is supposed to be secret information. We haven't been able to get information on the bandits as those we capture would rather die than talk, but soon enough they start singing, so we got one of the bandits to spill some information to us. The heads of the bandit organisation are actually strong sutori who have defected from their tak, as to what tak that is, the bandit confirmed it to be tak Jalem. The heads managed to unify the various bandit groups in the region under one umbrella and situated their headquarters around the borders of Atar and Jalem. Our mission is to find the three heads and capture them alive. We will meet with another squad on the way before heading for the mission proper."
"But, captain, why is such a mission given to newbies like us? We are only third class sutori after all." Koro stated, and the rest agreed, well, Linx and Kazi didn't show any indication that they agreed or not.
"It wasn't. Now, If you don't have weapons and such, step forward."
Everyone was taken aback by his first statement and did not follow up with the second one well. How can he take them on such a serious and important mission even when it wasn't even authorised by the tak?
'Such a thing was possible? I doubt, though.'
"Well, if you all have weapons, we can..." Daru was about to progress when three of the sutori before him came forward. These were Roko, Ann and Lanira.
It wasn't that they didn't bring anything at all, but rather didn't bring enough or complete.
Daru took out a wooden seal from his shirt and casually threw it on the ground beside him. It was marked with various strange markings that seemed ancient and arcane, but Kazi immediately recognised it once he saw the markings.
'So this is a Storage seal. Hmm...'
The very next moment after it touched ground, a bunch of equipments appeared from thin air and instantly became a pile of weapons and different such equipments that stacked as high as Daru who was around 6'1ft.
'This has to be a very expensive one to be able to hold so much.' Kazi thought to himself.
The three walked forward after receiving a nod from Daru giving his approval. The only problem was that now they had an extensive variety of choices, and they who had not come with a particular taste in mind became girls out to shop for clothes, they wanted everything that looked fancy or useful.
"Alright, that's enough." Daru simply held out his hand and the circular wooden seal came to him from within the heap of metal. Holding the seal towards the heap, everything disappeared in an instant, and everyone could assume that it all went back into his wooden seal.
"Now that we are ready, let's head out." Daru said. Though some were worried since they hadn't informed anybody they'd be going on a mission and would be gone for several days, Daru quickly assured them not to worry and that it had been taken care of.
After all that, they set off for the mission. Kazi was the only one with a sword, honestly, it made travelling difficult as he had to carry the weight around, 'but I guess this can be a form of weighted training for me.' He thought to himself. Actually, since this was a different world, he did think of trying the weighted training that was popularised by many shows back in his previous world. If it worked, it would really help in providing him with an element of surprise. During battle, speed mattered a lot.
. . . 3 days later . . .
After three days of journeying, they finally got to their first destination where they would rendezvous with a different team and then both teams would continue on.
The travel was supposed to take less time, but some of the team members, namely Ann, Lanira, and even Linx couldn't keep up running for so long, so a lot of stops were made for them to rest.
Normally, when travelling such a long distance, some kind of third party means are employed. For example, a mount might be used, and not just any regular mount, but one that was appropriate for sutori to use, which meant that it would be at least faster than a third class sutori running at full speed. Apart from mounts, there are also different things like flying boards and such, but these things are treasures, so most of the time, sutori would travel on foot, just like the good old days. There are some lucky ones that can fly, but those are geniuses.
No matter how Kazi looked at it, the people of this world had used their mystical powers in a completely one track direction for the most part by focusing it on fighting and anything related. There were some science stuff, but that was reserved for the rich and whoever could operate those things.