86 Chapter 86. Scouting operation

That day, the Sword party was successfully integrated into the Killing Cloud mercenaries as a branch but the downside was that, the party had gone down to fifteen or so members.

"Guys! Guys!" Mars shouted as he jumped up the tree and ran towards the group in the afternoon.

"What's wrong?" They all asked at the same time as they were training in their own respective branches.

"Did you guys hear about the new mission?" Mars asked as he reached them.

"What mission?" Vanessa asked as they all looked at Mars cluelessly.

"Phew... My climb up here was not for no reason," Mars commented as he smiled.

"The Lapis army has put up a new mission and the people who do it are given a hundred thousand points in ranking as a reward," Mars informed as he began explaining.

"What?!" Garrick exclaimed in shock as a suddenly luster appeared on his face. This would bring him up to the top fifties if he did so.

"Explain the situation," Wenella immediately asked. She could immediately tell that there was something fishy going on.

"I don't really know much but there was a note on the reinforcement notice board about this. It said the army require twenty cultivators who are at at least refinement realm to go to the Ruby army camps and scout for a certain object. If we are interested then we are to go to the Lapis meeting tent," Mars replied.

"Hohohoho," Garrick heartily laughed as he immediately answered, "We should all go and check it out at least."

Vanessa and Wenella immediately knew that Garrick was interested, he was often talked about how he would do anything for his kids so there was no stopping him.

"Fine, when do we go to the tent?" Wenella agreed.

"Right now," Mars spoke as he jumped down the tree and everyone else followed. When he saw this, he himself was excited and wanted to come here to see if there was anyone from the group who would like to join him and luckily for him, Garrick seemed to take a liking to the idea.

He quickly led them down the tree and onto the Lapis soldiers' camps where everyone saw them with reverence and fear. They all found Wenella, Mars, and Garrick especially intimidating due to rumors of their kill counts being in the ten thousands.

And as they walked pass the medical units, many wounded soldiers there looked as Vanessa with extremely thankful eyes as they viewed her as a guardian angel, numbering to over five thousand.

"My goodness, you really helped the Lapis army a lot," Mars commented as he was in sheer awe of what Vanessa had managed to accomplish.

"Just luck, I relied on our mercenary leader a lot," Vanessa commented, not daring to take all the credit.

"We are here," Mars spoke as they stopped at a large tent on the center of the Lapis camp.

"Ok. let's head in," Garrick spoke as he walked inside the tent with the others following right behind him.

As they walk in, they are greeted by a large group of sixteen mercenaries who were standing on the left side of the tent while the generals and the commanders were standing on the right.

"Welcome, please take a seat," Tyson spoke as he welcomed them and directed them to take their seats.

After seeing them take their seats and there being twenty cultivators just like they had asked, Tyson began speaking, "I'm sure you are all concerned and curious about this mission."

Silence permeated the atmosphere with a few nods here and there in reply.

"Let me explain the whole thing. The king has sent an envoy telling us that there needs to be a scouting operation," Tyson explained.

"The message talks about an object?" Mars asked curiously as his interest grew even stronger and more concerned.

"Ah yes. I will get to that," Tyson agreed as he began to explain the whole situation, "The scouting mission is for you guys to infiltrate the Ruby camp and look around the whole place for this object and once you find out, return to this place as soon as possible to report."

He then brought out the paper and passed it among the group. Confusion appeared on their faces as they all looked at the drawing on the paper.

"A scepter?" Garrick asked confusedly as he stared at the paper then at Tyson and the rest of the generals.

"Yes, this is a scepter but it's incredibly vital that we find out about it as soon as possible," Tyson replied.

"Why aren't you guys carrying out the operation yourselves?" Wenella questioned. If it was so important to them then why wouldn't they just take charge?

"That is a valid question but we cannot confirm if this is true or not. It could be a plot and they might attack us while we are on the operation, leaving the army here defenseless," Tyson explained logically.

"So, are you all willing to go and carry out the mission?" Tyson asked.

"What is that scepter?" one of the men asked curiously at the background behind the object.

"We don't know, only the king does, he just told us about how important it is," Tyson replied as a helpless look appeared on his face.

"So, what are your answers? Are you all willing to partake this mission?" he asked with a slightly pleading voice.

"We have all agreed to go. We have a lot of responsibilities that will be lessened by the reward in this," the other mercenaries all agreed. Immediately, smiles appeared on the generals' faces as they all thanked the men.

Tyson and everyone else's attention fell on the Killing Cloud mercenaries now.

Mars and Garrick looked at each other and could see the desire for this in their eyes and immediately both smiled at each other and looked at Wenella.

"Sigh..." Wenella sighed as she had a feeling that Garrick could not be convince to not go, "Garrick and Mars will go. We just came here to find more out more about the situation."

"Oh," an extremely disappointed expression appeared on Tyson's face as had hoped that they were all here to join.

"Well then, I ask everyone who is joining in the operation to follow the generals. They will lead you to the map room where you can plan your tracks," Tyson turned and spoke to everyone as he pointed towards the generals.

Immediately, all the generals walked out of the tent as they signaled for everyone to follow them.

"Vanessa, I want you to go and follow them," Wenella told Vanessa.

"What about you?" Vanessa asked curiously. Why would Wenella just say this?

"I want to talk to the commander for a bit," Wenella simply answered. Vanessa simply nodded as she trusted Wenella and joined the group.

After seeing her leave and the tent being emptied, Wenella walked to the commander and her face immediately turned serious as she asked, "What is really going on here?"

"What do you mean?" Tyson asked as he put up a fake expression of confusion.

"You know what I'm talking about. You are able to send a general to infiltrate the camp but you actually looked to the mercenaries. Why?" Wenella asked as her tone turned slightly cold.

"My decisions are not something that you, a mere mercenary reinforcement, can question," Tyson coldly spoke as he dropped the act, realizing that Wenella had figured out that he was faking it.

"Oh, so there is something about more about this than just a simple operation," Wenella smiled coldly as she realized that her concerns were correct.

"So what if there is?" Tyson mocked as he saw no reason to change his mind.

"Haha," Wenella laughed mockingly but her voice suddenly turned cold as she frostily glared at him and left, chasing after Garrick, "If any members of my group die in this operation, I will come for your head because I know that this is pretty much a sacrificial operation."

That short but extremely vital day ended with Wenella desperately trying to force Garrick and Mars not to go but it did not go as she had hoped and Garrick simply smiled as he swung his arms around Mars and said, "Don't worry! I have Mars to help me, we will be fine. I will even guarantee our survival."

"Damn it, Leo! Why did you have to go again?" Wenella cursed out frustrated.