New Mission
Lance awoke early the next morning, got dressed and headed to the mess hall to ask for some raw meat off cuts. He was determined to make Sub part of his crew and he figured the best way to do that was through his stomach. He managed to convince the Chef on duty to give him the carcass from the mornings pig for the next two weeks with one of the remaining coins he had received from the Gnoll.
He quickly left the base and went to Sub's shelter to hand over the carcass. Upon arrival Lance noticed that Sub was still sleeping but the sharp sense of smell didn't let him sleep after smelling the carcass. Sub quickly jumped up and started salivating. Tossing the carcass to Sub, Lance spun his whirlpool and told Sub that this was a rest day but that they'd be heading out tomorrow to scout beyond the wall.
After feeding Sub, Lance quickly returned to the mess hall to eat breakfast with his squad mates.
"What's your schedule for this week?" Dan asked Lance as he sat down beside Dan and Candy at a table.
"I've got wall duty later today but tomorrow I have a free day. I'm thinking of taking Sub past the wall to go after some more Gnolls. I'd feel happier if we had a couple more partners though…" Lance hinted to Dan and Candy.
"Dan's got guard duty tomorrow, but I'm free to join you. But I want fifty fifty on all spoils. If we find more of those coins I'm going to be filthy rich." said Candy.
"I'd actually prefer the contribution points to the coins. How about you get 70 percent of the coins and I'll take the contribution points." Lance said.
"You've got yourself a deal!" Candy said with a smile on her face. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of you."
"No problem. I wouldn't really be able to use those coins until the end of my service anyways. I can stock up closer to the end." Lance pointed out.
After eating breakfast Lance headed to the wall with Candy for their guard duty. New recruits were given easier jobs to get them used to the dangers of the abyssal zone and guarding the wall was no exception. For the next twelve hours they would march back and forth along their section of the west wall keeping an eye and an ear to the hills and trees in the distance. Beast sightings would be noted and the numbers tallied while smarter creatures like the Gnolls and other intelligent creatures would be called in and handed to a vanguard force who could quickly hunt them down if they were in range. Larger packs and the worst case, an army, would sound the alarm and all recruits within the base would be called to the walls to defend.
During their first shift they had spotted two small packs of Hell Hounds and at dusk, just before their shift ended, they saw a group of five Gnoll riders which they called out and a team of ten from the vanguard went flying out of the base to catch up and slaughter the Gnolls. The group sent out even had a couple of five star ranked skill users. Those skill users usually had abilities that could one hit KO an enemy, perform AOE attacks or provide AOE buffs to the team. The two in that vanguard unit were buff units. One had the skill to buff the teams speed up to a certain distance and the other had the ability to buff the teams defence. He was able to create a semi-opaque shell around the group but Lance wasn't sure what the exact details of the skill were.
"Wow, would you look at them go!" Candy exclaimed.
"That's incredible. That speed skill is incredibly useful." Lance said.
"Still not as fast as your Hell Hound." Candy said. "That beast can give 'er…speaking of…when are you gonna help me get a mount?"
"I'm trying to tame Sub to a point where I don't need to use my skill on it anymore." Lance said, "If I can get to that point, I'll work on a second beast. I don't have enough confidence in keeping to beasts controlled with the skill for extended periods yet."
The last couple hours were largely uneventful as Candy and Lance walked down the stairs from the wall after being relieved for the evening.
Lance said "Let's go check out the mission board. Maybe we can fulfill two of the missions at once tomorrow. Anything to do with Gnolls or Hell Hounds will work perfectly."
"Will Sub be okay with Hell Hound missions?" Candy asked.
"It seems like he was the last one of his pack. I heard the different packs are very competitive with each other so there shouldn't be a problem." said Lance.
They approached the mission board together and started searching for Gnoll and Hell Hound missions keeping an eye out for small group requirements.
"Here's one." Candy said, "Hunt the Gnoll scouts to the Northwest of the base. Looks like they send a regular scouting group up the hill to check out our base. Their numbers are usually 3 or 4 in a group and they move using Hell Hounds just like the group we ambushed yesterday."
"Hmm, between six and eight enemies...we might need to find one or two people to join us for something like that. There's no reason to be reckless if we can't make a decent plan. Let's accept the mission but we should head out early tomorrow to check out the situation in the surrounding area and see if we can use it to our advantage. Maybe we can set up some sort of trap for easy pickings and if not we will have the time to find a couple of people for some easy money." said Lance.
"Sounds good to me!" said Candy, who clearly didn't want to split her profits up any further.
"Oh, and can you make me a hardened wood shield?" Lance asked, "It'd go a long way in the unlikely case of an ambush."
"Deal. But I'll need some replenishment during the process. Shields require a lot of energy to form due to their size." said Candy.
"Alright, I'll see you in the morning. Let's meet at the mess hall tomorrow morning at sun up and we will make our way out to the hill and scout the area." said Lance as they parted ways for the night and headed back to their bunks for the evening.