Bakc To Mission

After a while, the exhaustion started to fall off and Zavier recovered his strength and vigor. He didn't wait any longer and asked the system: "System, please enable the sharing mode."

[Shared mode has been successfully enabled.]

[You are now connected in senses and thoughts to four other clones.]

As soon as the system messages appeared on the display screen, a flood of information started to flow from one of the clones to the rest of the connected nodes across the information network through the connected consciousness.

Four fully masked and colorfully dressed bodies scattered across the city were in complete sync as of this moment. To others, they would have all looked as if they were in a trance or were undergoing enlightenment, for there would appear slight changes in their facial expressions from time to time. If one could have seen them all simultaneously, then one would have easily noticed that the changes in their facial expressions were completely in sync with each other, as if they were all undergoing the same ordeal.

The information being shared was the experiences of all the clones during the time that they had stayed disconnected. Despite working in individual mode all this time, the fact couldn't be denied that the clones were a singular entity because the consciousness supporting all their mental faculties was singular and belonged to the original.

The clones were soon all caught up with the progress that each of them had made during the reconnaissance drive that the original had initiated to find any further clues related to the killer Pacer and the organization that he belonged to. From what information was available, it was fare to say that the greatest headway was made by the clone with the perception system, as it should have been. After all, it was something that clone specialized in.

As it was, all the clones and the original had put in their best in their reconnaissance efforts but the result was far from satisfactory. The only clue that they had managed to uncover was the brass key which was also a courtesy of someone else; someone whose identity was still a secret. It was impossible to determine whether that helper was a friend, an ally or even an enemy trying to lure them in with some benefits but beggars couldn't be choosers.

One thing that he could be sure of was that the helper at the very moment was acting like an ally or a guide. The information he had provided alone was enough to consider him a valuable asset. There was no need to think of him as an enemy or a hostile agency until there was such an implication from his behavior or his decision making.

That aside, at the moment Zavier was not in a position to trust anyone let alone someone as suspicious as the secret helper who was even unwilling to show himself. Even his closest relative, his Uncle Val, was under strict scrutiny; what to even mention, an outsider who had appeared out of nowhere.

Zavier was not recovered to his prime and couldn't handle such intense information sharing session for long. When they were done with the information exchange, Zavier put in another command to the system.

"System, shut down the sharing mode."

[Individual mode has been successfully enabled.]

[User is now disconnected with all the clones. The clones will keep acting on their latest orders.]

Evening had set in; the sun was close to making the final plunge behind the mountains. Stars were dimly appearing on the darkest portion of the sky that was now painted in various hues ranging from light grey to reddish orange.

The silhouette of the moon was already hanging in the background waiting for the sun to set which would enable it to display its brilliance once again.

The light was barely enough for the task at hand. The five travellers were currently busy pitching their tents in the clearing in between the rocky path and steep climbs.

They had already had to ditch their transportation because of how difficult to traverse the path ahead was. But even that didn't lower their motivation to complete the mission. The teacher that was supposed to be their protector had already issued the threat for not completing the mission earlier in the day. Not one of them wanted to be on her bad side because they knew that she held grudges and wasn't very keen on forgiveness too.

The pitching of the tents should have been pretty smooth considering they all could use magic except the anomaly Alissa who according to Zavier was being held back by the monster inside of her.

But the strict teacher once again intervened in their happy thoughts and robbed them of the opportunity.

"You should all use your physical strength to pitch these tents. Remember that all of us are on an escorting mission and the most important thing to watch out for in escorting missions is preservation of strength. You must not use your strength for trivial things because that might compromise your strength in the longer run causing you to fail in protecting what was really important just because you wanted to take it easy."

All three of them nodded while hiding their grievances thinking what even was the use of magic if it couldn't even make their lives any easier?

"Good that you understand. Now hurry up and set up the tents so that we can work on dinner then."

Zavier had never been on such trips before but the previous owner seemed to have experience in this field. His memories played an important role in the perfect pitching of the two tents.

Moreover, Valerie seemed to be quite experienced in the whole thing, after all she had been going on these missions for quite some time now. She knew the ins and outs of the whole process and guided them through it the whole way, though Zavier kept feeling that she was purposefully ignoring him and spending more time teaching the female students which irritated him. Zavier had some memories but there was no practical experience whatsoever so he found the bias extremely unfair.

On the other hand, Valerie knew that he already had enough experience so she decidedly focused on the two girls.

The ground was soft compared to the rough and rugged terrain that was awaiting them which was the reason that the pegs could be driven into the ground very easily. The tents were erected in no time after that.

The tents they had brought with them were rectangular in shape with spacy living area inside and a door and three windows on all sides for air ventilation. There was also a mosquito net covering the net so as to prevent any kind of insect from wandering in.

Major portion of the group comprised of girls so it was a popular choice amongst them.

By the time that they had finished their chores it was already night and they still hadn't had their dinner. After working like laborers for so long, Zavier and the other two students were starving like deprived children who had been hungry for a month.

Valerie despite being the eldest woman there ended up being a total burden when it came to cooking. Even Zavier was better than her. He wondered what she did when she had to go on solo missions. How had she been able to survive for so long with such disastrous culinary skills?

Fortunately, they had an absolute expert amongst them or they might have had to eat the packed snacks and rations that they had brought for emergencies.

Though Alissa was no good at magic, her culinary skills more than made up for it. She was practically a life saver for all of them. Even Valerie seemed grateful that she had brought Alissa along.