As they were finishing setting up their tent one of the two guards they saw at the command tent came over to grab Tom.

“Tom, you are to get ready to meet the nobles. It seems the final group will arrive at the base camp in a few minutes.” he said.

Tom nodded and proceeded to get changed into his armor, after all he had to look presentable as the main liaison. He got dressed very quickly with the help of Kate, showing that he had plenty of experience putting the armor on and taking it off. After he left Kate joined Ajax in their common area where they set up a table. Just before she took a seat she took a quick glance out the tent to make sure nobody was eavesdropping.

“There is one more thing you need to be aware of Ajax. Since nobody knows about your ability to wield mana you weren’t pulled aside for this. You see despite the fact of there being more than a dozen mages on each side we are not to use our powers offensively against the other side.” Kate explained.

“But why not?” Ajax asked. “Isn’t magic the easiest way to deal with groups of people?” Hatchet had drilled into him what the advantages of wielding magic were.

“Yes they are but the purpose of this skirmish isn’t to kill the enemy, it isn’t even to secure the resources for the Baron. The purpose is to get some training for the conscripted so that should a real war break out they will have a better chance of survival and prove more useful.”

“But then in a real war wouldn’t mages actually go around attacking like this?” why wouldn’t you prepare for such a scenario if it was that devastating.

“Yes and no” she replied. “Yes in a real war mages would do devastating damage, but in a real war the amount of troops will be much bigger and the number of people able to detect and protect from such spells would be enough so as to counteract this.”

“The only thing you need to be on the lookout for are mage ambush groups that might be looking to infiltrate and destroy the camp supplies.” she explained “You see unlike the conscripted, guard units like ours are also here for training, just of a different type.”

“While the normal conscripted are to face each other in open field, we are to run infiltration, hit and run as well as ambush tactics. They are mainly to be targeted at the other guard units on the other side but they can also target the main enemy camp. The only suggestion is to avoid any lethal blows, as killing each other is not the point of this exercise whenever engaging the enemy looks to be to land a few blows to signify your victory and then let them retreat, they should do likewise to you.”

This made a lot of sense, after all in terms of actual combat between people of the same level and skills the fight could swing from one moment to the next, such rules of engagement would definitely prove useful as long as they didn’t become a habit in a real war.

After Kate was done with her explanation Ajax was called out by his fellow hunters where they took to explaining his immediate tasks.

“We are going to split the forest into four for now. As the food storage tent has just been set up we are cleared to go out and start filling it. The plan is that each of us will take one of the areas and not only hunt there but also lay down some traps. These traps aren’t to catch anything but instead to signal should anyone be passing through. For the next four days we will all have a chance to go through each of the areas. As such we will also practice dodging each other’s traps for when we need to infiltrate enemy territory. Any questions?” The oldest of the hunters asked.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ajax had no questions for them. While all of them were not only much older than him they were also higher level, with the high end of the army being at around level forty. Surpassing that point while staying as a guard got very difficult even with decades spent on the job because of the slow down in experience gain.

As he made his way through his assigned area Ajax layed down quite a few traps. Though signal traps were not the main ones he was taught by Hatchet for the past five year he had been shown how to put them and managed to adapt most of the different types he knew to do the same.

At first he also wondered why they wouldn't also be putting down other types of traps after setting up the fifth one, it only then occurred to him that they might only do that after they each had a chance to experience all the zones. Why not take advantage of the first few days and get some practice on dodgin traps without being afraid of stepping into any dangerous ones.

This realization made him think that the other side might be looking at things the same way, if that was the case, wouldn’t now be the best time to try and infiltrate the enemy camp? With this idea in mind Ajax finished setting up his traps, hunted down a beqar and started planning his activities for tonight.

The rest of the day was uneventful, with him just spending time practicing his non-mana skills before dinner and waiting for the sun to go down. He did explain his plan to Kate, that he was looking to try and plant one of the listening enchanted items they were provided in the enemy command tent on the first night. He would have talked it over with Tom as well but he hadn’t returned yet.

Surprisingly Kate seemed to think this was a great idea. Since spies that were caught were only imprisoned, him getting caught might actually be a good outcome for staying low during this time. The only downside being that he will be wasting all his time for the reminder of the skirmish.

After the sun fully set he headed out. It was a short thirty minute run to the main camp and then he took a longer route through the mountain pass to get to the enemy side. It might take twice as long compared to passing through the open field but that was just asking to get spotted and captured.

It was around midnight when he finally reached the enemy camp. Getting in was surprisingly easy as their sentries were all still busy setting up watchtowers. In all honesty he thought that watchtowers were a great idea, one that he hadn’t seen over in his camp, but leaving the camp almost unguarded while setting them up was just asking for trouble.

It took him almost no time at all to find the command tent, similar to the one in the camp his side had; it was the biggest tent close to three other big tents, most likely the ones housing the leading nobles for this side.

Using his earth magic he quickly tunneled and crawled his way into the tent from the side so as to avoid the guards sitting at the entrance. Thankfully nobody had stayed behind on the first day so he had an easy time hiding the listening device. The only question was where to place it? Almost anything could be removed from here. In the end he decided to hide it under the small tent on the map covering the large temple representing the enemy base. After all, how often would that piece be moved?

Getting out was done through the same tunnel, and afterwards he sealed it back up and used [Syphon Mana] to clear away any residue of magic. Just as he started walking towards the edge of the camp and looking to make a quick getaway he heard a voice call out from behind him.

“Hey, you, what are you doing here?” a soldier on patrol said as he approached him.

Ajax had two options now, one to take out the soldier, this was the less useful one as the presence of a spy would be noted and the listening device found, or he could maybe trick him into thinking he was part of their army.

“Me?” he asked, trying his best not to show how surprised he was by the patrol not being at all on guard against him. “I'm just out for a walk.”

“Why are you taking a walk at this hour? We were all told to get a good night’s rest because we are starting some drills tomorrow morning.”

“One of my tent neighbor’s snores louder than a rooster, I am hoping to tire myself out so I can get some sleep before morning.

Hearing the explanation and taking another look at his common clothes the patrolman gives him a pitying look before he lets him get on with it. He does mention that he should carry on with his walk away from the noble quarters, disturbing one of their sleep is just asking for trouble.

On the way back Ajax was ecstatic at his success, he was just deciding how and to whom he should report that he already managed to sneak a bug into the enemy main tactic room.