Chapter 58

It took over six hours for the squad to make it to the military base right outside an area called the Demonic Mountain Pass. None of them were thrilled with the traveling because they had to jump through twelve different transportation arrays just to make it where they were and unfortunately, they were in the military base rather than in the area that their mission would be given in. Still, Thomas eased the tension and promised that the meal before the mission would be handled by the military and that soldiers usually ate extremely well.

Thomas led the squad into one of the buildings in the base and sitting in a large room was a military commander ranked figure. As he saw the squad, he quickly stood up to greet them before they all sat down together to go over everything. "So this is your student's first time in this area? If that is the case let me explain a little bit about the Demonic Mountain Pass as well as the mission we came up with for your squad."

"The Demonic Mountain Pass is a very special area which is home to a large group of mountains and paths that spreads over five thousand kilometers. In the outer area of the mountain range, you will frequently see groups of rank one and rank two demonic beasts. However, as you begin to head closer to the center of the mountain range, you will come across even higher ranked demonic beasts, those from the third and fourth rank. But in the very center of the mountain range, there lives a rank six demonic beast that is considered the ruler of the area, even though on the other side of the mountain range lives demonic beasts of even higher ranks."

"Our military base here houses a fairly large army and our task is simply to make sure that the Demonic Mountain Pass remains to be only an area where demonic beasts live, rather than living in fear that they will one day launch a wide scale attack. With the amount of soldiers we are limited to, my men and I are only able to handle this task by setting up our defensive formations and barriers in a way to lay a foundation in case such a horde of demonic beasts at a large scale were to uprise and attack us out of the blue."

"And so, with being so low on manpower since we had to send several portions of our army to different areas, we are forced to use a different type of tactic in order to ensure that we will not be left in a position to have no choice but to request more backup ourselves. This is where squads similar to mercenaries like yours come into the picture. We have been sending squads into different parts of the mountain range since there are many different areas of entry, and are just allowing everyone to go wild with hunting down demonic beasts."

"Since your squad captain is only a rank four mage while the rest of you are of the third rank and inexperienced, I would recommend once we bring you to the area for you to enter, that you follow the different signs and barriers that we have set up in order to only remain in the areas where rank one and rank two demonic beasts are living. Also, out of the many groups that chose to accept the missions we have offered them, many of them were mercenaries and out of the whole bunch, the majority do not have the best of reputations."

"Our military when hiring outside help in order to eradicate low ranked demonic beasts do not care about their background or who they are as long as they are not escaped criminals and do not have any bounties on their heads given out by the Imperial Family or the Imperial Judge. That does not mean that you all are considered to be any safer since many of the paths within the mountain range do intercept every so often and if the mercenaries have ill intentions towards your squad, you will be on your own and we can only hope that you are all strong enough to survive."

"Your squad arrived earlier than we had expected so why don't you all go and have a nice meal in the dining hall here on base and that will give me enough time to finish up the requirements and information related to your mission so that you can begin as soon as possible. When you are done with your meal head back here and I will personally accompany your squad over to our general who approves all operations here on base for the Demonic Mountain Pass."

After being dismissed, Timothy's squad quickly headed over to the dining hall and started eating their meal as they had begun discussing some tactics and ideas that they had concerning the upcoming mission. Timothy let everyone know some basic survival tactics included having at least one person in the squad awake for half the night while the rest slept and taking turns to rest during the day while the others stood guard. Timothy also laid out a solid plan to maximize their overall efficiency just knowing the little information that he had known about his squad members and their captain.

Thomas reassured everyone that because of how many demonic beasts would be present in the mountain range, that it was highly unlikely that a mercenary group, if they were to spot their squad, would go out of their way to cause them trouble. Not only were the mercenary groups who were involved in this operation very greedy, but they most likely received an offer to attend that they could not refuse. And with all of that put into place including the amount of additional pay they would receive if they hunted down an endless amount of demonic beasts, there was just no reason for anyone to outright attack them no matter how evil said group was generally.

Thomas also continued to give short pep talks in order to keep the squad's morale high. There was no telling how long it would take for the squad to overcome their current weakness which was their lack of teamwork. Hunting demonic beasts of the first rank was technically very doable for just a single rank three cultivator whether they were a warrior or a mage. But since they had a rank four mage in their group and the rest of them all being rank three mages while Timothy doubled up as a rank three warrior, such a weakness was not vital to their survival.

While Thomas continued to go over basic squad formations that they could try out once they entered the area that they would be staying in for an unknown period of time, Timothy had begun to pass around different items to his squad members who were lacking certain types of armor or other things. Timothy was not stingy and gave everyone everything that he could afford to give to them to use during the mission because if his squad members were completely set up and ready, it would allow him to feel much safer too.