“What are we doing out here man? Why do we care about a few townies from the asshole of Eter holed up in a mine?” Briers complained for the fifth time in as many minutes, holding his hands up over the fire to warm them. “Freezing my jewels off out here.”

“Above our pay grade. We have our orders,” replied Captain Tuol. “The King wants the kid from the leaderboard, needs him for something.”

“Ain’t no kid from the leaderboard all the way out here in a damn mine. That mayor of Burch got his little ego hurt by the townies and is looking for revenge.” Paxon mumbled on the other side of the fire.

“Agreed. Doesn’t change our orders. We give them a chance to surrender the kid and let us inspect the mine. It doesn’t have to get violent, they are just scared of retaliation.” Captain Tuol responded to the mumbled comment. “Show of force overnight, let them see the fancy uniforms of the first army. We will negotiate tomorrow afternoon, verify that the kid isn’t here, use the town interface to ally with Eter and then be back home in two days.”

“Show of force? They can’t see us! They are in a damned dark mine!” Briers complained.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“See that platform up top? They have guards watching us. If any of them can use a variant of Identify on a few of us above level 12 it will make negotiations easy tomorrow. We are the strongest force in Eter right now.” Captain Tuol said calmly.

Briers grunted his agreement and for once stayed silent. The captain had a way with words, able to calm his soldiers down even in the worst scrap. Briers was a tracker, the best in the Kingdom of Eter as far as he was concerned. He had tracked the former residents of Burch to this little shithole in the ground two days ago. Watching and using his Take A Look skill to find the one they were after, a kid named Sylar.

He was supposedly the highest level in Eter according to the leaderboard. He had only been recently overtaken by the mad emperor of Norx, Allain. Any assignment not near that madhouse suited Briers just fine. He was two years from retirement and his land grant. A fat pension and his own plot of land just south of the capital. Fertile fields as far as the eye could see, all he had to do was survive two more years in this mad world.

Briers looked over the rest of his squad. All elite at their roles, all lifetime army soldiers. He used to feel pride in the Eter army, proud of the work he had dedicated his life to. Now all he felt was shame. The King had changed, the kingdom was going down a dark path. It would be a new Norx within a few years. Two more years, two more years was all Briers could think as he settled in for a long, cold night in the forest.