61 Round Stones

After the squad went around the south forest of the Enline city , they only returned to the skies with 2 magical orbs that they found underneath the rocks. "It been 4 days , we should skip this part of the map and go straight to the mountain." Evelyn was pointing at the at the checkpoint as she looked at Lili.

"Mhm... You are right , they should be used to it by now." Whenever it was Lili's turn to pick , she would always choose the safer side of the mini map and led them to the easy areas.

Evelyn pressed her finger on the window and the plane turned around and quickly flew toward the enormous mountain. After less than a minute , the plane arrived at the outskirt of the mountain that had two tall cliff with a pathway in the middle. "This should be it." Seeing that they were descending infront of the tall cliffs , Evelyn and the squads hurriedly left the airplane.

The two squad captain always kept their armored suit on standby mode as they carried it with them while wearing the exo skeleton like everyone else. "Lili! The area is secure!" Neih who was geared with sensor devices used her magic to release a huge umbrella shaped mana wave to detect any big heat signature.

"Mhmm , Nodus was the one who set up this safe point after-all." On contrary to the contracted slaves , the elves were more intimate with each other as they were childhood friends. "Amy , Cucu , are you ready?"

Cucu was the supportive type while Amy was their backbone to protect them against any threat. "Mhmm! Don't worry Lili , I am carrying a spare unit house just incase!" The blonde elf was waving her hands as she stood in the furthest back of the squads.

"Let's go." Although the slave squad weren't that intimate , they were more efficient than the rest as they took their role even more seriously than Lili and her friends.

Even during the airplane ride they wouldn't drop off their tools and weapons as they were taught to always be ready for anything while the elves were more relaxed.

The entire squad bolted in between the cliffs with fast lightning speed and arrived at the dense mountain forest. "Stay alert and save energy , we might need it to scan this entire place."

As soon Evelyn took a step forward into the forest , the rest of the squad formed a triangle behind her as they focused their attention different direction. Amy and Irvin who was at the furthest back were slowly walking backward while Evelyn was searching for a good place to set up the drill.

"These foot prints belong to a magical beast.. Should we follow it?" Evelyn turned her head and looked at Lili. "We should follow the opposite direction , I think the beast came out to hunt so.."

She understood what Lili meant and decided to use the tracker visor on her left eye to highlight the prints on the ground. Although the forest was calm , it wasn't quiet at all with all the scuffles and movement around them.

"*Graww!*" As they followed the prints , the squad heard a loud howl. "Stand by.. I think it's fighting something.." They could hear the sound of broken trees and a slight tremor as they stood rooted in the same position.

"It's getting closer , prepare for combat!" *Chin!* With the extended shield ready , other than Irvin , every body else had a crouching position as they took out their appropriate weapons. The magicians with a short rifle , the close combat had heated sword and a echo dagger.

The sword could cut through almost every material easily while the dagger's blade that looked like it was shivering were used against magic.

Those were one of the few magic items that Nodus came up with as he called them the Technomancy Weapons. "*Roar!*" A huge brown furry boar with 4 horns on each side of it's jaw that was covered with wounds ran toward the squad. Without any hesitation , Irvin jumped 10 meters in the air and landed in front of them with his shield locking into the ground while Evelyn ran toward the beast with her two daggers.

*Zing!* The demi demon moved so fast it looked like her blurry image dove into the beast as she appeared behind it. The board was cut in half from the front until the rear as the unfortunate pursuer that came after the beast had it's face blasted off by the long range of the magic gun.

All of that was over in 5 seconds and the squad took care of two peak rank 3 magical beast that was a step away from being a rank 4 , the advance tier.

"Good , no energy wasted , let's take their core and some meat and move out , we can't stay here any longer than 15 seconds." The squad nodded and split their task as they quickly moved back to their original path.

"If the nest is empty , we can set a ambush and occupy it until tomorrow morning." The group nodded as they felt slightly tired with the moon almost at it's highest point in the sky.

As she predicted , they arrived at a carved out hole that was on the small rocky part of the mountain. " The beast is likely to be a feline type and to be able to dig out stone like this... Set up the Thunder Clap inside of the entrance." Evelyn was just calculating out loud to convince Lili with her plans.

"Mhmm Evelyn is right." By slowly approaching the cave , Neih scanned with her wave and found nothing but Lili still had to make sure by telling Amy to throw in a sensor bead. "It's clear , there is something in there and a heat wave , it seem the beast just left recently." Cucu was holding onto a small tablet looking device that was showing a perfect 3d shape of the cave.

The squad made their way in the cave while Irvin and Amy stood at the entrance and acted as the guards. "So.. Irvin , have you found any good restaurants lately?" Amy who got easily bored was talking to the robust man about food since that's the thing he loved the most in this world.

"No.. But.. As soon we get our times off I will be going in the gourmet district for sure!" The squad earned their own money but also got paid a salary from Nodus and each one earned around 10 gold in a day. If the imperial soldiers and city guards knew about their salary , they would surely quit and apply for the Proxi Mercenary.

"Oh.. These are..?" Erica crouched down and picked up a gray rock that was suspiciously too round to be normal. "Look sister Lanny!" The young girl held the perfect circular rock on her palms as she called out the eldest among them. "Wow.. It's so smooth.." Lanny picked up and cupped her hands as she rolled it around. "I can feel something.. the warmth.."

Lanny took out a magnifying glass looking tool and pressed the button on the side. The glass slowly floated above the thin stick as it rotated around the round stone. Taking out her own small tablet , she could see a pulsating light coming from the center of the rock , the light was so weak that she wouldn't be able to see it clearly until she zoomed in with her fingers.

"There's something in the rock!" The squad gathered around Lanny and stared at the small tablet. "Good find , we shall leave it for P-0 to analyze it." Lanny gave the stone back to Erica and the squad resumed their search.

"There's even more of them here!" Elli who was easily lifting every stone she saw found a stash of them that in the dirt floor that was hidden by a flat stone. "Good! After taking care of the beast we should put a drill in here , it will be safer like that."

Lili nodded without any hesitation as she look forward to what they would fine with the drill. The magic beast wouldn't go too far unless the lack of food was a big problem so Evelyn thought that the cave was the perfect location as it also acted like a natural cover. The squad would just have to defend from one side and if they didn't find anything they could just repack the drills.

"There is nothing else , set up the Thunder Clap at the entrance." Irvin nodded as he took a small disk from the back of his belt and walked toward the edge of the entrance. With the disk splitting in half , Irvin gently pushed the half disk on both side of the entrance and joined his squad who was hiding in the forest.

While Evelyn took the grounds , Lili and her squad climbed higher on the hills as they took out a black tube and folded it. With two tube extended beside each other , Lili could see the forest perfectly with the night vision modular on the binocular lenses.

As she slowly rotated around , Lili spotted a tree shaking. 'It must be something big..' As her vision followed the trees that shook , she noticed that it was slowly making it's way toward the cave. 'I can see it , it's definitely a feline type!' Looking at the big orange tiger with a thick fur on each ankle. 'A Molting Tiger!?' She hurriedly and pressed on the button as the circle in the lenses focused on the beast. *Beep* With a quiet beeping sound in their ears , everyone saw a red dot appearing on their tablet that revealed the position of the beast. "It's here , as soon it activate the trap , Irvin unload all of your mortar." Seeing that it was a strong beast , Evelyn had to make sure it's dead without taking any chance.