Belli Mundi - Chapter 34

By the time the switch was called, Sam was exhausted. She hurt everywhere thanks to her battles with the goblins and the boar. She was really glad that they could now rest a bit by taking down trees. Unfortunately this proved to be just as exhausting as fighting the monsters.

After her squad had only down three trees, a halt was called. Due to the difference in strength between their squad and second squad, the speed with which they cut down trees was deemed too slow. Thus, instead of cutting down trees they were tasked with trimming the branches off of the trees that had already been cut down by second squad.

The branches that they trimmed off of the tees could be used a stakes at the campsite. These would be put in the ditches and then a point would be cut on them.

Meanwhile trimming the branches would also make it a lot easier to lug away the logs.

After another two hours or so of working on the downed trees, they were finally done. The only thing left to do was getting both the trees and the stakes back to the camp.

“Alright slackers, each squad gets half the trees and half of the branches. I want them back at camp before dark, so you guys had better get started.”

Apparently MacGregor didn’t plan on letting them slack for a moment. He also didn’t care about the difference between both squad’s stats. He had already gone easy on first squad by letting them trim the trees instead of cutting new ones down.

Immediately second squad picked up some trees, with one of the big men at the front, and one at the back. Then they started to jog back towards the camp.

Sam and the others of first squad though, didn’t have the same stats as the men from second squad. Thus they needed four persons lifting at the same time to get the trees back.

The next morning was a difficult one for Sam and the others. After several days of hard labor on the ditches, the exhausting work with the trees had been too much for them.

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“Let’s hope that we don’t have play lumberjacks today. I’m not sure if I can take it another day.”

“I hear you, Erik. I understand that it’s needed to make the palisade, but why can’t they just buy the wood from people with the actual class to get those trees?”

While the squad is still bickering among themselves, they arrive at the campsite. Once again MacGregor is waiting for them. Today though, their trainers Quincy and Irana are standing next to them with second squad already waiting in front of them.

“Finally, there you are. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“What do you mean, sir? We always start at this time.”

“I’ll let first squad’s trainer explain things.”

Immediately trainer Quincy starts talking.

“Right, thanks MacGregor. Yesterday has proven that the forests around Veritas are once again overflowing with monsters. Normally we take care of this once a decade by sending out the centuries of the returning legions. Unfortunately, this time we can’t wait for the change. With the fourth legion spread out, and the nearest centuries of active soldiers already being busy with the dungeon break, the task falls to you. As of this moment, your century is being ordered to act as adventurers to clean up the area surrounding our city of Veritas.”

Before trainer Quincy can continue with his explanation, the members of second squad start to shout.

“What do you mean act as adventurers! We joined the legion to get out of that line of work! We were meant to finish our training and get a nice cozy spot for a decade or two! Not this shit we keep getting send into.”

“You know Irana, I don’t know what you told these recruits, but you may want to teach them a little respect. Apparently they’re not in the know about their situation.”

With that trainer Quincy starts to explain again.

“Right, let’s get back to it. You will form adventurers parties with your squads. At least the first few weeks you will go out with the entire squad, after that we may split you up to cover more ground. This camp will become your base of operations, and we will assign one of the buildings as an informal headquarters. It will serve the same as an adventurers guild, where you can take on quests to go to a certain area to cull monsters, gather materials, or do other useful things. Some of the officers will take some of their resting time to check out the area and report their findings to your headquarters. All in all you will be adventurers in all but name. In the meantime you will continue your training of course, and even integrate this in your quests. No use wasting an opportunity like this to fight monsters other than the predictable ones in the dungeon.”

With that both squads were told to take the North and South respectively, and start exploring and culling the monsters.

“And don’t forget to keep your eyes open for other resources!”

After that they had to march partway around the city, as the camp was almost on the eastern side of the city.