Elite Soldiers

I stretch my right hand at the dungeon gate and get pulled inside the gate by a sudden force. My feel like my head is spinning at a 100 kph and close my eyes and force myself to stay conscious and to stop feeling nauseous.

I also feel like I am floating in the vacuum space unable to move around and can only wave my hands and legs trying to move around. I come out on the other side, inside the dungeon after about ten to fifteen seconds.

THUD.. thud.. thud..

Once I come out of the gate I fall on a grassy land and roll three times before standing. I control myself as hard as i can to stop throwing up my breakfast. I would have eaten less if I had known how entering the dungeon will be. I am still feeling dizzy and had to lean on a tree near me to balance myself.

I look around and find Jack helping Vimal who is emptying his stomach content due to the heavy breakfast he had even after a slight suggestion not to. We were never told or what to expect when we are entering the dungeon and we were caught off-guard.

THUD

I hear a solid sound near me and turn to see Tariq landing with a practiced steps after coming out of the gate clearly showing this is not the first time he is entering a dungeon. He nods at me with a smile coming close to me giving me a hand to move towards Jack and Vimal.

I look around and see we have entered a small clearing surrounded by trees that are 20 meters high and as thick as 5 meters and grass as high as 2 meters looking like sharp blades.

With these tall trees and grass, we will have to be extra cautious and focus on our surroundings as we can be ambushed at anytime and have to find a way to get out of his as quickly as possible. But looking at me and Vimal, we will need a few minutes time to get back to our full efficiency and can move without assistance.

We were informed that as per the reports from the probing and scout teams who entered the dungeon, it is set like an open world with eight small camps in a circle with a large camp at the center. It should take us a full day to clear out the small camps and then move onto the larger camp at the center of the dungeon where the boss is supposed to be.

We will have to clear out one of the smaller camps with the help of a few defense corp squads that will rendezvous with us before the day ends if we are lucky so we can prepare and attack the camp tomorrow at dawn.

After about fifteen minutes of rest, we start moving out of the clearing and into the forest towards the center of the dungeon. This move was planned with the help of the reports that were provided by the scouts. We are sure to stumble upon one of the eight smaller camps on the way and will meet the other teams who have entered close to us.

When moving, I can see a lot of plants and trees which I have never seen before. I keep my senses to its full extent which will help us not to get ambushed or surrounded. I expect to see a patrol or guards roaming around the camps and will have to deal with them before joining the soldiers squad to attack.

After about three hours of walking with full cautiousness, we get to see one of the squads of five soldiers of the defense corp and join them moving further. I can see two of the soldiers are very confident and arrogant while walking without worrying about the surroundings while the other three have a mixture of excitement, fear and caution on their faces.

I sense their powers and find that all the soldiers are in Mid-E grade but the two arrogant soldiers have more energy in their body than the others. This is the first time I am seeing them inside the 20 meter coverage of my senses and sense their powers.

Now I understand why they are the squad leaders and why they are arrogant. They are the Elites, who have more energy than the rest of the soldiers. They are arrogant because, with their power and the energy reserve, they can kill an E grade monster with ease and stand toe to toe with a D grade monster and hold their ground until help arrives or find a way to escape.

There are a lot of rumors how the elites are trained and how they become stronger than normal soldiers and how they get to have more energy reserve, but all are just rumors without any concrete evidence, just baseless assumptions.

I think about Jack looking at him as he could also be an elite, but not sure as I never had a chance till now to sense the power level of an elite of B or C grade people to compare it with him. But, by the way he spoke as an equal with a defense corp commanding officer and how the soldiers and even the elites try to keep a distance from him till now, give me a 70% confirmation that he is an elite who is trying to hide his power level for some reason.

I also notice their armor and weapons are different from the normal soldiers, not by much, but there is a slight difference that can be identified if we look at them closely. These equipment could be crafted for them and are modified for them to blend in with the rest.

Wondering about all these in my mind, I didn't realize we are surrounded by a group of pigmen and they are closer than expected. I immediately raise my hand high with closed fist, a gesture to let others know of the immediate threat.

Everyone immediately stops moving and crouch to the ground looking around trying to find what is close to us. I look at Jack who is close to me and whisper "We are surrounded by twenty Mid-E grade pigmen." To which he looks a little surprised as this is the first time I have missed to sense the surroundings, but gains his composure immediately.