Anyway, that had all been in the early hours of the morning, and now it was now approaching early evening. The number of players in their group had fallen down to 106 since other players needed to log off due to their headset restrictions, real life commitments, or other such reasons. Those players, according to the plans drawn up between ALD Munro, his commanding officers and Aurora, would either join up with the second group currently making their way over or not make it in time.

The main group he was one of the leaders of was making camp off to the side of the central road directly south of the border while they waited for the rest of their numbers. They were atop a small hill that had a relatively good view of the highlands, so it was both defensible and had the ideal vantage point to see any danger before it reached them. Those small facts however did nothing to calm the military guys since they apparently felt too exposed, but Tyrell knew that they would take some time for them to get used to the idea that the locals were not running around with 40 cal sniper rifles.

On another topic, he was thankfully able to get a tent to himself and had just finished setting it up in the centre of their encampment. God bless being directly under the Boss Man, sorry, Boss Woman herself. Fuck. This was going to take him some time.

As for the camp, he was not exactly well versed in ancient military encampments, but he was almost certain that they were following the layout of a temporary Roman legionary fort, just without any usual fortifications.

Officers were in the centre of the rough rectangular layout of tents, with people on watch around all the sides. He had no complaints, it meant he was near to people he knew and was less likely to be the first one attacked - if anyone even dared to try.

With his work done, he made his way over to the fire that had been constructed in the centre where a small number of the military personnel Aurora had somehow managed to hire were sat around, alongside some of the random players who were lazing around and eating.

After a quick glance, he spotted Russel sitting next to Roxanne and an older man he had only met in person for the first time earlier in the day.

He was in his 40s or 50s, with dark short-cropped hair showing a couple of hints of grey flashing through, and his atmosphere radiated seriousness and discipline.

His brown eyes held a shadow of weariness showing a reflection of his past and experiences, something Tyrell noticed Aurora had shared in common after finally meeting the veteran.

Tyrell never would have noticed the same look in Aurora’s eyes had he not met Munro, and he had started to realise just how fucked up the world would become if his friend after only 3 years held such a shadow held by a man with many decades of experience.

With a hand raised in greeting, he walked up to the familiar faces.

“Yo, did I miss anything?”

Roxanne looked up from her boring lettuce and ham sandwich to answer him with a raised eyebrow.

“Not much, we are waiting for Munro’s scouts to come back with any information they could find. Since Astaria had to log off to deal with the board, we have only an estimate of where they are right now.”

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Tyrell gave a brief nod as he pulled a small wooden camping stool out of his inventory and sat down. He wouldn’t lie, despite all the negatives the apocalypse would bring, gaining access to the system and his inventory in real life would be so convenient.

“Ah, great. I guess tomorrow will be when we get some action. Man, I just hope that we can deal with them all without too many wipes. Astaria mentioned that the higher level ones can move so fast you can barely see their strikes, and she is a much higher level.”

Munro let out an exasperated sigh before taking a sip of his fire-warmed drink.

“Yeah, I get why Mr Branford brought us under his into the project, but we deal with modern combat, not arrows and bludgeoning. The only good thing is the pay, I swear.”

Tyrell and Russell exchanged a look of slightly amused understanding of the truth of the situation as Roxanne spoke up.

“You say that now, but trust me, that opinion will quickly change. Her- his decision to get you involved, if everything turns out as predicted, will benefit you unimaginably. Just have some faith.”

Munro looked over at Roxanne who was sat with a sincere smile, raising an eyebrow in scepticism as he responded.

“Oh, is that so lass? Is there some sort of classified information I have not been told?”

Tyrell who was nearby rested a hand on Munro’s shoulder who subtly flinched, as he looked around to see the expression of pity and condolence on his face.

“Oh, man, you have no idea. You are supposed to be having a meeting with Astaria soon, correct? Just wait till then. You will soon understand the insanity this world will be facing.”

Russel gave an amused snort as Munro looked around at their faces to see each of their reactions.

“Hmm. I will have to judge that myself, but what can be more crazy than some rich person using a PMC to create their own army in a game?”

Roxanne rolled her eyes as she responded, a hint of exasperated defeat in her tone.

“A. LOT. Just count yourself lucky when you are let into the little secret. And don’t let it break your mind too quickly. Aurora has a track record of breaking people's image of reality.”

Tyrell rolled his eyes as his memories flashed to the previous night.

“Just hope she doesn't slap you with an innocent-seeming illusion of a forest only to spot an elf screwing a tree.”

His comment got an amused look from Roxanne, and both concerned and confused expressions from Russel and Munro. The tone of their conversation shifted as one of the 3 unknown players sitting in the little group, a guy who had picked the faun race so had a pair of relatively curly horns on each side of his head as well as goat legs, spoke up, confusion evident on his face.

“Wait, what are you guys talking about?”

Roxanne just waved her hand, dismissing his question.

“A currently unbelievable truth. Just put as much time into Caelus and you will be fine. Apparently.”

The faun player whose name read ‘Sir Greenspeaker’ rolled his eyes as he pulled a waterskin out of his inventory and continued speaking.

“Ok, keep your secrets then. Can you at least tell me anything more about this whole situation? There has been speculation amongst the others, but all we know for certain is what you guys told us, that there is some form of event where a tribe of gnolls is going to try attacking some villages. Like how did you find out about it anyway, it's not like there has been anything posted on the forums, and trust me, I checked. Almost during the whole trip.”

Munro sighed as he turned his imposing stature to Sir Greenspeaker.

“Well, our esteemed guild leader decided to accidentally kill the gnoll chieftain, which apparently sent the tribe berserk. After some infighting and repetitive attacks from Astaria, they finally started moving down from the mountain before they should have, in search of humans to dispense their retribution. Thus, the guild ended up moving in advance of our plans to protect and evacuate any villages in the tribe's path.”

The three other players looked at Munro with a hint of disbelief, this time an elven player spoke up, his ears that pointed upwards twitched slightly as he spoke, his tone incredulous.

“Hang on, you are saying Astaria walked into a gnoll camp and just stabbed their chieftain? What level even was it?”

Tyrell gave the elf a smirk as he replied, excited to see the entertaining look of disbelief on his face.

“Nah man, she didn’t just walk in. She snuck in, assassinated 20 or so, then survived half a minute with the entire tribe trying to kill her, killing a few more, THEN she managed to clap the chieftain right at the end after it shanked her through the chest.”

Roxanne gave a snort of amusement as the other players just looked on incredulously with little understanding at the crazy feat Tyrell had just explained, deciding to add to his words with context.

“Yes, it sounds quite… tame, but the tribe varied between levels 10 to 75, and the chieftain was a level 78, so absolutely no pushover. Might even be able to take on all of us who are under Lv 20 if we have no coordination, that's if what Aurora told me was true.”