chapter 2: the blue siren

 As the lioness's gaze swept through the mountains and forests, halfway up the mountain, a few miles away from the orc camp, behind a dense bush, several pairs of eyes were also staring at every move within the camp.

 "A woman of the Lion Clan, what a rarity!" A robust man spat the four-leaf clover in his mouth on the ground with force.

 The man crouched behind the bushes was cloaked in a worn looking gray cloak and wore a battered half leather armor covered in scars. He had short blonde hair, a bushy beard, and a long scar that ran from the corner of his mouth to the bottom of his eye added to his menacing appearance.

 "Cairns, the leader of the Blue Leprechauns, was an enigmatic man. Five years ago, he and his mercenary group appeared in the border area of Isaac Kingdom as if out of thin air, and in just five years, he grew from the lowest level G class mercenary group to B class mercenary group, which was rumored to be a miracle within the mercenary trade union of Beland continent.

 The promotion of a mercenary group's rank relies entirely on the points of the mission, the higher you go, the more difficult it is, a newly formed mercenary group in non-war time rises to the ranks of a high-level mercenary group of C grade or above requires decades or even hundreds of years of time to accumulate. Nowadays, almost all of the mercenary corps above grade B in all human countries are veteran mercenary corps with a history of more than a few decades, with the Blue Goblin being the only exception.

 "Boss, are we rich this time?" A small man on the ground beside Cairns asked in a lowered voice.

 "It's time for us 'Blue Goblin' to get lucky, I didn't expect this kind of C-rank quest to happen to run into an orc tribe. Eat them up and we'll be eating and drinking for a year." Cairns also had an excited look on his face.

 "You two are crazy, aren't you? It's a small orc tribe down there, and we've only come with about thirty people this time. Once we're discovered, it's more like these orcs swallowed us up." A cool voice threw a pot of cold water on Cairns.

 The one who spoke was a woman behind the man in a black hooded robe, a silver hexagram at the collar of the robe showing her status as an intermediate level magician.

 Magician is a rare profession on the continent of Beland, it is the object of competition from various kingdoms and large forces, and female magicians above intermediate level are even rarer.

 The female magician was in her thirties, with long flaxen hair, blue eyes, a high nose and a soft face. Perhaps due to long years in the wilderness, her skin appeared slightly rough.

 Cairns turned around and grinned at the female magician, "Don't worry, Adeline, every one of our Blue Leprechaun's brothers is an elite mercenary, and they are the best at hunting orcs, so even twice as many of them can be swallowed."

 "I don't agree, it's too risky." Adeline's tone remained firm.

 "I'm the leader, just follow orders, and when the time comes, you'll get an extra share of the loot."

 "I'm also the deputy leader of the mercenary group, I'm also responsible for the safety of my brothers, you're being brash!"

 "I appointed you as the deputy leader as well, if it wasn't for the fact that the promotion of a B rank mercenary group requires that there must be an intermediate or higher level magician within the team, I wouldn't have spent such a large amount of money to hire you?" Cairns had a disinterested look on his face.

 "If you insist on being brutal, I'll quit the group now!" Adeline did not compromise in the slightest.

 "Don't be so impulsive? You'll hear me explain it to you." Cairns was the first to compromise.

 He had used all his means to ask Adeline to join the mercenary group, and with the intermediate magician's team's combat power directly upgraded by a notch, he naturally couldn't afford to let Adeline go.

 "You don't know the orcs yet from your little dealings with them. Orcs generally form tribes based on groups, for example, a werewolf tribe will never have orcs from other groups mixed in. And there is only one possibility for this kind of orc mixing in the camp below, that is the tribe of a high level orc noble, only nobles can recruit orc warriors from other clans to serve for themselves." Cairns pointed his finger at the orc camp below and patiently explained.

 "See those young beasts and female orcs in the camp? That means they're a tribe of orc nobles who fled or were crippled, and they stumbled here for a special reason. The number of real orc warriors in the camp is very small, and their true battle power isn't even half of that of an ordinary orc tribe."

 Admiration flowed unnaturally from Adeline's eyes, she had long ago realized that the man with a rough appearance in front of her was actually very meticulous in his thinking. For example, right now, he had surmised the origin and battle strength of the orc camp below just from observing it from a distance.

 Seeing that Adeline appeared shaken, Cairns continued, "Orc martial arts, rare materials, blades and armor, gold herbs, an orc noble camp has more wealth than you can imagine! You know that the mercenary group is in great need of money right now, and I still owe half of what I promised you at the beginning? We mercenaries are risk-takers, if we don't dare to fight for our lives, how can we support our women and children?"

 Adeline nodded, finally not objecting again.

 "Boss, you should change your outfit after this job, right? We, Blue Demons, are also a B-rank mercenary group, and because of your outfit, Boss, the other mercenaries always laugh at us for being from the countryside." The small man muttered in a low voice.

 Cairns hit the smaller man's head heavily, "Tony, what do you know! This leather armor of mine is an excellent level of enchanted leather armor, no amount of attacks can break the defense, and this cloak is made of dragon skin, you guys don't know what you're talking about!"

 "Dragon skin? Blow it, the continent hasn't seen a dragon in how many years?" Tony bristled in dissatisfaction.

 There was a sudden, slight rattling of the bushes.

 The two men stopped fighting immediately, one of Cairns' hands resting on the hilt of the greatsword behind him, a fireball instantly taking shape in Adeline's palm as Tony rolled to the side and disappeared into the bushes.

 A slim man in hunting attire showed himself, a man with a bright, sharp gaze and two neat wisps of beard on his upper lip.

 Cairns withdrew his hand on the hilt of his sword, "Angus, what's going on down there?"

 Angus said slowly and unhurriedly, "The number of orc warriors is no more than fifty, most of them are first and second level low ranked orcs, including that lioness and her two guards, middle ranked orc warriors I found five, I didn't find the existence of higher ranked orc fierce warriors."

 Cairns gave an excited wave of his fist, "It's just as I suspected!"

 Angus hesitated slightly, "The only thing that's a bit of a problem is that there's a pack of wolf cavalry in the camp, and I'm afraid we're going to be scented by their seat wolves as soon as we get close to the camp."

 Cairns smiled softly, "Tony, it's your turn, I know you have a solution."

 "I'll go to the forest and find some wild wood chrysanthemums, the smoke produced by burning them together with the tri-colored mandarins will smother all those beasts." Tony's voice disappeared directly into the underbrush.

 "Good! Have the brethren gather and we'll strike when it gets dark." Cairns' eyes flashed with a strong killing chance.