Chapter 59

With their stomachs all full and now with everyone equipped as much as possible, Timothy's squad headed towards their previous destination and had met with the military officer who had begun to escort them to the general's building. The general's nickname was Black Raven and like every other general ranked figure in the military, his nickname was consistent and described not just his personality but strength as well. General Black Raven was able to slay a rank eight raven type demonic beast and after swallowing its core and blood, General Black Raven's normal flames turned pitch black and his usual calm personality had turned much more unrestrained in battle.

"This officer greets General Black Raven! I have come on behalf of this squad who are from Grey Imperial Academy. Their squad leader is a rank four light element mage named Thomas and the remainder of the squad are all rank three mages while one of the four students is also a rank three warrior which makes him a dual expert. I believe General Black Raven would agree with the mission statement I have drawn up and hope for your guidance!" After kowtowing and introducing the squad to the general, the military officer immediately stood up straight in order to receive orders.

"Hmph, a rank four light mage is going to be the leader of the squad and from the looks of it all of them are more green than even our most recent batch of recruits who have yet to see a battle in their lives? Oh well, it seems like their lack of experience can be made up with all of that equipment that they have on. It really is a shame that even our foot soldiers are unable to have so much equipment readily available to them while a squad made up of students and an instructor do. Very well, give me the paperwork for the mission so I can approve it, it is not like we are in a position to turn anyone away at this point in time."

After the officer handed over everything to General Black Raven, the general asked him to stand outside so that he could speak to the squad privately. However, once he was done, General Black Raven told the officer that he would be the one to escort them to the teleportation array in order to send the squad on their way properly once everything was squared away. After the officer left the room and closed the door, General Black Raven let out a select few words under his breath before he began.

"As you all may or may not know, the Demonic Mountain Pass is home to mainly low ranked demonic beasts, but what you do not know since you have never been part of a military operation here, is that on the other side of the mountains are home to one rank nine demonic beast and three rank eight demonic beasts who serve it. Since it would be unwise for the Imperial Family to send every last expert there in order to kill the demonic beasts since it would take an army of rank seven and above experts just to stand a chance, our job is to just make sure that both sides remain civil."

"For about fifty years now, a rule has been put into place that only human experts of rank six and below are able to enter into the Demonic Mountain Pass while only rank five and lower demonic beasts are able to exit the mountain range. What we did not realize at the time, was that making such arrangements with the domineering high ranked demonic beasts would put us in a very poor position. At any time, tens of thousands of low ranking demonic beasts could be ordered to attack us and the only way to cut down their numbers over time, is to send willing human cultivators into the fray."

"Therefore, your mission is going to be manageable especially since I see that you all are packed full of equipment and your squad leader can literally reattach any body parts that could go missing during a battle with his light element techniques. So, your mission will be to kill at least fifty demonic beasts of the second rank and if possible, to kill one demonic beast of the third rank."

"Unlike the mercenary groups who steadily volunteered to venture in and slay numerous rank one demonic beasts just to compile a large bulk of cores and souls, our military is forced to give your squad some additional benefits for completing the missions assigned to you especially since it is considered to be an emergency situation. Therefore, if your squad is able to prove that you have completed the mission whether it is using the corpse or the demonic cores themselves if your storage rings are not able to fit all of the corpses inside of them, you would receive an additional military rank compared to the rank you would receive in normal times."

"What we like in the military are those who are considered to be overachievers and so as a general, I am able to increase rewards of completed missions as long as the difficulty is increased in order to match the higher rewards. And so, if your squad is able to kill one hundred rank two demonic beasts and just one rank three demonic beast, on top of the original reward, each squad member will receive two technique manuals of your respective elements from us. Such manuals are only available to seasoned officer ranked personnel but none of you will be forced to join the military in order to have access to the two manuals."

"You all must be thinking that this is generous of me to give you all, but truth be told, just for you all to get deep enough into the mountain range, you will most likely have to kill your way past several hundred rank one demonic beasts. Since you are a squad of five members and even while being super green, it is not difficult for a rank three human expert to slay a rank one demonic beast, just take it as an additional bonus since just a high quantity of demonic beast corpses and cores could fetch for a very high price even if you all just chose to sell it directly back to us which we would surely give a competitive offer."

"Just think of this mission as quantity control where you all can kill as many demonic beasts as you would like and I am sure you all have some new techniques that need tempering in order to perfect. If any of you run into trouble where your squad needs to escape, you will know the path in which you entered the mountain range in the first place and there will always be a handful of soldiers with an officer present working on powering up our defenses who when they see you fleeing, will step in and assist. With you all being involved, it lowers our military's own risk since if we were to send our own troops in, it may spread us too thin and we would collapse shortly after."

"Now, all I need you all to do is to sign this paper using a drop of blood to signify that you have agreed to all of the terms I have presented to you. Also, just be aware that if any of you were to fall in battle, our military would on top of your academy, will give your families or next of kin a proper amount of compensation equivalent to what we would give to a rank three soldier who was also a mage or in Timothy's case, a rank three dual expert."

As everyone had begun to sign in order to accept the mission and head out, Timothy could not help but to ask General Black Raven a question. "General, may I ask why the military did not request several much bigger squads from across the empire to take on a mission like this but instead reverted to hiring any mercenary group that arrived and were eager to get started? I would think that there are plenty of forces in the empire who would be able to send over a high number of cultivators even stronger than we are?"

"That is a good question boy, well to be perfectly honest with you, it comes down to the amount of internal and external power struggles that many factions deal with whether when it comes to the military, the royal throne, or even just holding power and influence in their own regions. Of course, any orders passed down by the Emperor must be followed no matter who has ill intentions towards who since this is the empire's overall safety we are worried about. But, there are a handful of nearby factions who would only allow a demonic beast horde to wipe out towns and villages just so that they could then wipe out said horde and afterwards rule over those who would have lost everything in the process."

It was a sad reality that General Black Raven had explained to Timothy and the rest of his squad who were interested to understand a little more. This however went to show why students from the Grey Imperial Academy who for the most part have never even seen a demonic beast up close, were in a way, forced to take on dangerous missions for the military. In times of war, there were those who would hole up and wait for everything to settle, there were those who answered the call and put their all into the war to come out on the winning side, and there were those who chose to wait it out while planning to take advantage of anyone weaker when the dust were to settle down!