After a thoroughly restful sleep, Sirus decided to leave for the Royal Army's mission earlier than he had planned for, as he didn't really have anything to do in the capital.

He made his way out of the inn with Riria, who was looking more beautiful than ever in her new dress. The umbrella slightly obscured her figure, which was a demerit in Sirus' eyes, but he supposed it was necessary.

In his hands were the papers that the guild attendant handed him, more specifically, the details sheet. His knowledge of the common language here wasn't exactly fluent, so he handed the paper to Riria and asked her to read it.

She began reading from the top: "Adventurer's who accept this mission are directed to go to Sliver Pass at our south-west border, this pass is the only way into the borders of the Sword Kingdom from that direction, making it a hugely important location. If the Magic Kingdom gains access to this pass, an invasion is imminent. Upon arriving at the pass, meet up with the soldiers stationed there and follow the orders of the stationed officers."

She finished and turned the paper in Sirus' direction, pointing to the bottom.

Sirus gaze looked to where she was pointing and landed on a map, the map displayed all four kingdoms and where they were supposed to be heading.

There were two large land masses in total, in the westernmost direction there was a large roughly circular mass which housed both the Magic Kingdom and the Sword Kingdom, whilst to the east there laid another land mass in the shape of a crescent that was separated from the circular mass by a strait named the 'Strait of Sorrow'. Both the Gear Kingdom and the Woodland Kingdom resided on this smaller crescent land.

The Sword Kingdom was a triangle shape and was in a slightly precarious area, they were situated on the northern edge of the circular land mass, with the western side of the triangle surrounded by the Magic Kingdom, luckily the side was protected by a mountain range with the sole pass being 'Sliver Pass' which was also the site of a fortress, whilst the eastern side of the kingdom was bordered by a desert.

Although certain elites of the Magic Kingdom had ways to make their way past the difficult landscape, they couldn't march an army through the desert, and they couldn't march through the pass without first taking over the fortress.

It looked like the light skirmishing along the pass had started to get more aggressive and the troops stationed there weren't sufficient to protect the fortress, hence the call for adventurers to assist.

Sirus rubbed his forehead and asked Riria, "Any idea how far away the pass is from the capital?"

"Let's see..." She inspected the map, "It should be around 25 leagues."

"Uhm.." Sirus coughed, "How long is a league?"

She rubbed her eyes.

"Somewhat around 15,000 feet long." She answered.

"Oh-" He muttered to himself, "So like 3 miles..."

He did some basic math, "75 miles, huh?"

"We can arrange for a carriage to take us there, which'll take around 4-5 days, or I can go into sword form and you can ride a horse, which should take us about 3 days." She explained, "Which one do you want to go with?"

Thinking for a few moments, Sirus replied: "We're leaving a couple days early so the extra time on the carriage will probably be made up from that, also riding a horse hurts, and it's going to bore me out of my mind."

"My, my..." She smiled, "Can't stay away from me for even a moment, can you?"

Sirus groaned.

-Magic Kingdom, King's Throne Room-

The King's booming voice echoed out throughout the throne room, "Your first real mission is going to begin now!"

Standing before the king's ornate golden throne, were all 14 of the remaining Magic Kingdom's 'Heroes'.

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Upon hearing his words, the heroes clapped their hands and excitedly whispered to each other.

"Now, now." The King loudly clapped his hands, "I haven't finished explaining."

He continued: "Now because sending all of you on a single mission would be like firing a cannon at a gnat, me and the white-cloaks have decided to split you all into two groups-"

Sarah cleared her throat, interrupting the King, "Wouldn't it be better to send us all on a single mission just in case we face something half of us can't handle?"

The King displayed a slightly annoyed expression but replied nevertheless, "You heroes are some of the most powerful people in the Magic Kingdom, it would be a rare mission for even just half of you not to be able to handle it."

"Besides," The King continued, "The missions we are sending you on shouldn't be difficult, as we will also be sending a regiment of our soldiers with each of your groups."

Sarah nodded her head along with some of the others.

The white-cloaks along the sides of the room seperated them into two groups of 7 and assigned each a team leader.

The first group's leader was Dylan, and the second group's leader was Sarah.

After assigning the groups, each leader was told the details of the mission.

The first group's orders were to clear a low-medium tier Meteor Labyrinth with the assistance of some spare soldiers, while the second group's orders were to reinforce the troops attempting to take over Sliver Pass Fortress.

Sarah questioned one of the white-cloaks, "Why don't we just send the main army to take over the pass?"

The white-cloak quickly replied, "Right now we are trying to take over the fortress in the guise of a frequent border-skirmish. If we send the main army, the Sword Kingdom will send their main army as well, exponentially increasing the difficulty and resource expenditure of the mission."

He continued: "Once we take control of the fortress, we can send our main army and begin the invasion."

"I see." She nodded her head thoughtfully, "How long will it take to get there?"

"Normally it would've taken around 2 weeks to reach there, but we're sending you on some of our new prototype hovercrafts. With those it shouldn't take an excess of 3-4 days."

Sarah thanked him and walked back to her group, attempting to acquaint herself with them better. Each of the 14 heroes had been trained individually, so besides a few group missions into labyrinth's or the like, they didn't really get much chance to get to know each other.

Standing in front of the group, she announced: "I'm the group leader, and my name is Sarah."

In response, the other 6 members announced themselves in varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Dylan here." Dylan said.

"Name's Matthias." A tall blonde haired boy with a thin body said.

"Rikter." A black haired but slightly stout guy said.

"Keith." This one also had black hair, but was of more average height and build.

"Lana!", "Lucia!" Two extremely similar looking girls with black hair and a petite build said at the same time.

"Great!" Sarah replied in response to their introductions, "Let's head off then."

One of the white-cloaks approached them again: "Follow me young heroes, I will show you to the hovercrafts."

They followed him out of the palace and, but soon heard ear rattling screams echoing out from a nearby dark-gray stone building.

"What are those sounds?" Sarah asked the white-cloak.

The white-cloak instantly replied, "Just some captured Sword Kingdom dogs in the process of having their information... extracted." He said the last word in an eerie tone.

All of the group besides Sarah paled, while Sarah seemed to not comprehend the somewhat obvious intonations that were given.

The white-cloak continued to walk and the rest followed, albeit hesitantly.

Eventually they reached another stone building and they made their way in.

Greeting them inside was a somewhat damp interior filled with 14 large tarp covered bulges.

Lifting the tarp off of the closest one, the white-cloak said, "These hovercrafts were recently designed by our kingdom's highest level magicians. It uses high tier magic and should be around 2-3 times faster than a carriage, while also ignoring earthly environmental dangers."

The hovercraft itself looked like the seating area of a carriage attached to the back of a large vertical slab of brass.

The white-cloak placed his hand on the center of the brass slab and muttered a few words, suddenly intricate blue lines started to flow across the slab, forming intricate formations in many different shapes.

After the entire slab was covered in the lines, it released a deep thrumming sound and slowly lifted off the ground.

"Whoa..." The group muttered in unison.

The white-cloak continued to explain: "Each of these should be able to hold eight people, and seven of these will be given to you whilst the other seven will be given to the other group. The other 6 will hold the regiment of soldiers that will accompany you on your ride."

Rikter spoke up, "Who's going to be driving them?"

"They have pre-programmed routes built into them, so there won't be any need for drivers." The white-cloak replied.

"Damn, and here I was hoping I could drive it." Rikter complained.