After three days of deliberation, the Central Government decided on its course of action regarding the recent incident.

After coming to a consensus that the unidentified ship might pose a threat to the country, they decided to send a tactical unit to investigate it.

The Sixth Company of the Republic of Krista was tasked with investigating the massive ship that had suddenly appeared and landed at the Wasteland.

The Sixth Company was composed of three platoons, each of them consisting of a hundred soldiers.

Each of the platoons was led by a lieutenant, while the Sixth Company itself was led by Captain Valentino, one of the rankers in the Republic of Krista.

The Sixth Company had just departed from the Morigane Camp. Onboard military trucks, and escorted by dozens of soldiers riding ATVs, they were now moving toward the Wasteland at a constant pace.

Most of the soldiers were D-rank, and all of them were armed to the teeth, their bodies covered by leather armor and metal plates. To take care of the weaker monsters, they also carried firearms with them.

“Captain, no matter how I look at it,” said one of the lieutenants. “This… is too hasty. Three hundred soldiers are not enough if we’re delving to the heart of the Wasteland.”

Although three hundred soldiers may seem a lot from the perspective of civilians, everyone in the military knew that they needed a much larger force if they wished to prevent massive casualties in this expedition.

It was common knowledge that as one went deeper into the Wasteland, the probability of encountering large and strong monsters increased exponentially.

“Sending our Company to investigate the central part of the Wasteland,” said the Lieutenant angrily. “It’s no different from telling us to die just for the sake of information!”

Captain Valentino smoked from his pipe. A massive scar ran through his bald head, down to his neck.

“Suck it up,” said Valentino. “We can’t do anything since it’s an order from the higher-ups.”

“…But!”

“Enough.”

Captain Valentino ignored the ramblings of the Lieutenant sitting across him.

Unlike the Lieutenant, Captain Valentino was briefed on the reason why the Central Government chose to send only the Sixth Company to the heart of the Wasteland.

There were three famous boss monsters in the Wasteland:

The Lightning Dragon Lord, Uurgamak.

The Deathworm, Sandclaw.

The Black Salamander, Igiris.

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The five countries bordering the Wasteland had been monitoring the movements of the Wasteland’s rulers through an artifact capable of detecting mana signatures from a great distance.

Using this artifact, they were able to assess the current situation in the heart of the Wasteland, and they were able to approximate those boss monsters’ current location.

Of course, this was possible only thanks to the sacrifice of the awakeneds who attached the tracking seal to those monsters in exchange for their lives over a decade ago.

On the same day the unidentified ship appeared on the sky and landed on the Wasteland, the mana signature of the Lightning Dragon Uurgamak disappeared completely.

It was as though its life was snuffed out by some entity on that same day, and this was what terrified the Central Government of the Republic of Krista the most.

Unbeknownst to the rest of Captain Valentino’s men, the Deathworm and the Black Salamander had already fled the central region of the Wasteland.

The Deathworm was currently moving toward the Kingdom of Tiamat, while the Black Salamander had moved to the Wasteland outskirt near the Kingdom of Avalon.

Basically, after the death of the Lightning Dragon Lord, the two remaining rulers of the Wasteland fled in the opposite direction of the Republic.

The Central Government deemed that a company was the ideal military size for this task. A small army like them could move much quicker than a battalion or a brigade, and since the rulers of the Wasteland had already fled, it should be relatively safe.

Of course, these were only assumptions, and Captain Valentino knew that there was a chance that the tracking artifact was wrong. Moreover, aside from the rulers of the Wasteland, other strong monsters lived in the central region, and an encounter with one of them could spell the difference between survival and annihilation.

‘The Wasteland monsters aside. What is that ship? Or is it even proper to call it a ship? It’s so massive it could probably fit five or six cities inside it.’

Part of the reason why Captain Valentino agreed to accept this mission was out of curiosity.

He’d been an awakened for more than twenty years, and he’d been to nearly all of the countries in the continent, but that was his first time seeing something like that.

What words should be used to describe it?

“It looked out of place,” muttered Captain Valentino.

“Captain?”

“…It’s nothing.”

In this world where technology had stagnated, the ship – although half-destroyed – looked indescribably advanced and futuristic. It even had semblance to the science fiction movies he’d seen back when he was a kid.

“Lieutenant Kram! Captain Valentino! Monster horde ahead!”

From the intercom, the voice of a soldier was heard.

Lieutenant Kram replied, “Their numbers?”

“I-It’s… Oh god! I can’t believe it! There are probably more than a hundred thousand of them! And they’re all headed our way!”

Captain Valentino nearly dropped his pipe, and Lieutenant Kram subconsciously stood up from surprise.

“W-What?!” said the Lieutenant. “There must be a mistake!”

A hundred thousand monsters were enough to overrun even a city. It went without saying that a mere company like them would be helpless against it.

Instead of asking through the intercom if the reports were indeed accurate, Captain Valentino decided to see the horde himself.

“Captain!”

The Captain opened the door of the military truck while it was still moving, and using nimble movements, jumped to its roof.

Using his binoculars, he looked at the cloud of dust approaching them from a distance.

“This is….”

Captain Valentino shuddered.

Scouting the Wasteland was one thing, but stopping a monster horde of this magnitude was another.

Even a brigade would have a hard time stopping a horde this large without the aid of a siege or several rankers.

Walls were a minimum requirement if they wished to survive against those monsters.

Lieutenant Kram also went to the roof of the military truck.

“Orcs, kobolds, and… goblins? What? Why are those three moving together? No, it doesn’t make any sense!”

Captain Valentino clenched his fists. His cape fluttered from the wind.

“Sixth Company!” shouted Captain Valentino. “Halt!”

Immediately, all of the trucks and ATVs hit the brakes. Now that they were stationary, they could feel the rumbling of the ground caused by the approaching monster horde.

“Did a new portal open nearby? Or….”

“Captain, doesn’t it look like they’re running away from something?”

Captain Valentino observed the approaching monster horde through his binoculars.

Indeed, the Lieutenant was right. Rather than mutual cooperation, it looked as though those monsters were running away from something right now.

But the two remaining rulers of the Wasteland should be currently at the opposite direction.

What caused so many monsters to flee to this place, disregarding the enmity between their races?

“What’s the nearest city to us?”

Lieutenant Kram replied, “That would be the City of Inaka, Captain.”

“Inaka, it’s a walled city. It should be much better than our camp,” muttered Captain Valentino. “Disseminate my order to everyone. We’re abandoning our mission to scout the central region of the Wasteland.”

The horde hadn’t spotted them yet, so it should still be safe to retreat from here.

“But if the Central Government hears about this….”

“I’ll take full responsibility.”

Captain Valentino could feel that something wasn’t right. After seeing the unusually large number of monsters, his intuition was screaming at him that proceeding with their mission would guarantee the annihilation of the Sixth Company.

Even Lieutenant Kram felt this, too, but he was worried about the backlash from the Central Government.

“Understood.”

After disseminating their orders to everyone in the army, the Sixth Company turned around and headed toward Inaka City.