Arrival

Jason stopped at the cliff overlooking the city of Muno. He and the green barrack members and wolves stood at the tall cliff that was a few hundred meters above the flat ground that the city of Muno stood on. The city of Muno was a good distance from them, but Jason could still see it clearly. The city looked like it could fit about 20,000 people. In the middle of the city stood a large tower fashioned out of clear glass it rose to at least 6 stories and it lead up to a point like a cone. The way the cone reflected and emitted light mad Jason momentarily mesmerized by it. Next to it was a large mansion that was built like a mini fortress just like the walls that surrounded the city, it had mini-towers and wooden ramparts with a few guards on it and a simplistic large square wooden building in the middle.

As Jason looked back out the city he could see cleaner and more elegant houses and mansions in the inner circle, then after that the more normal houses that seemed to belong to the middle class then if he stared intently he could see places in the city that had almost no normal houses but instead just run down ones or even just small tents, but being so far away he wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Large 40-meter grey walls surrounded the city, from where Jason was he could see that they were at least 5 feet thick. Rampants and towers were studded everywhere and right in the center of Jason's vision, he could see a large gate. It was made of a sort of metal that shone like brass and had a metal shield carved into it with the inscription of what Jason could only describe as a feral beast snarling at the outside of its gates.

Looking into the city he could see almost no movement in what looked to be a colorful environment the streets that should have been filled with people were empty and deserted with only a few patrols passing through every now and then.

The tall buildings seemed deserted, and only on the walls could Jason see any activity. The walls were filled with archers and soldiers the first line was filled with holding long pikes and spears while the last 4 lines behind them consisted of archers and a few swordsmen to guard them.

It was a bit weird since Jason expected to come upon a full-blown battle. The rest of the platoon were definitely very far ahead of them and if they got the news that an army of bandits was assaulting the city of Muno, then they should have already been here. Jason looked at the flat grasslands in front of the city. Nothing could be seen, no debris no blood bodies, or abandoned weapons. It seemed that everything was peaceful except for the many soldiers on the walls of Muno.

Jason looked behind him to momentarily check on the people he was leading. He wasn't sure why they were able to listen to his commands so easily after all he was a beginner, it may have been the trust that he and Jamie had. But he still wasn't sure.

He called out to one of the green barrack members that he had gotten to know along the way

"Jarvey, you are the best a reconnaissance right?"

The green barrack in the very back pulled back his hood to reveal wheat-colored hair and green eyes. While Jason was talking with the green barrack members he started to notice that only a few were as quiet as their leader Ardem. Some were able to hold conversations and Jason was able to communicate well with them. They all seemed to have a tendency to listen to him Boops kept on complaining that it was the charm stat.

Jason opened his mouth to ask Jarvey to check out things but before he did that Jarvey grinned quickly said

"yeah I got it"

And with a quick jump, he leaped to his feet and dashed down the large cliff to the grasslands.

Jason watched as Jarvey speed down the bottom of the cliff. Regular tactics said that you shouldn't send a single person to go and find information but in the 4 days that they had journeyed, Jarvey was the most diligent and quick green barrack member, he was also the most talkative and it seems he was the only green barrack member to approach him to talk about things.

So yeah, Jason had a bit of trust in that guy and Boops gave sufficient evidence saying that the only emotions that Jason was getting from him were admiration happiness, and excitement. Boops kept on muttering stuff like

'man it might be the charm stat huh, it really needs a nurf, like pronto, it's getting too easy'

Jason watched as Jarvey quickly reached the bottom of the cliff and traveled around it until he could face the city of Muno.

Around that time he allowed the rest of the members to take a break and eat some food. Some of the green barrack members pulled out their own bag of rations and started to munch on it, while the wolves just stared at Jason with hungry eyes.

Jason of course relented and started to give the wolves some jerky since he didn't want to start a fire and alert anyone. Jason watched Jarvey's figure as he sat with Jeffery and Lance and munched on some jerky.

He was patting Jeffery's head who was lying on the floor lazily next to him while Lance sat in an alert and careful position constantly sniffing the air to check for enemies.

He watched as Jarvey slowly turned into a tiny figure and reach the gates. He could see him stop and raise his hands and after a bit of time to what Jason assumed to be a bit of banter, he was let into the city, the large metal gates slowly turning to allow him entrance.

It was still midday and the sun shone brightly on them making most of the wolves retreat to the shade and start panting.

Jason waited for a bit and after a few hours, the tiny figure emerged out of the gates and started to run back up to the cliff.

Jason quickly told the rest of the green barrack members and wolves to follow him, and then quickly packed up and flowed him down the cliff and to where Jarvey was returning.

They jogged to each other while Jarvey rushed to them.

Seeing that Jarvey was rushing to them, Jason ran up to Jarvey and quickly asked what was going on

Jarvey stopped and put his hands on his knees and started to take deep and heavy breaths. Finally, after a few minutes, he was able to stand up and he looked at Jason straight in the eye and said

"the platoon managed to intercept the bandit army and are currently engaging them 2 hours away from here, they plan to fall back to the city to do a defensive war but not after they take down a few of them."

"How large is the bandit army?"

"around 7,000 bandits I didn't even know we had that many bandits in our kingdom let along for them to band together to fight"

Cold sweat went down Jason's back as he remembered how many members there were in the platoon. Each of the barracks had about 100 members, and there were 3 of them, so about 300 trainees were facing an army of 7,000 bandits.

The first thought that Jason had was that he needed to go and help, he did not want to see any of his team members or acquaintances lose their lives NPCs or not.

But before he could issue the command to go and help them. Boops managed to stop him

'wait, wait, wait, wait Jason, calm down listen to what Jarvey said, they are planning to bring the bandit army back to the city of Muno for a defensive war. Let me repeat that, they are bringing the army back to this city. this city what does that mean?'

Jason answered tentatively

"It means I have plenty of time to set up traps and an ambush?"

Jason could hear Boops laughing in glee

"yup, correct answer, don't let down your team members and give the bandit army a "nice surprise" if you know what I mean"

Jason's worried face started to relax and an evil grin covered his face. he quickly looked at one of his skills

[create trap (level 3)]

He then looked at his inventory, the one that was filled with lots of lighter fluid from the store, knives a random shovel, and a crazy large amount of metal spikes. Jason quickly looked back at the green barrack members and the wolves who were just sitting there looking at him curiously and his brain started to churn furiously.