Before dawn, the amenoi mage in Boris’s crew used a wind spell to carry three different baits toward different areas of the cavern. Sensing the movement of the wind and the smell of blood on the baits, the aphopedes rushed toward the bait closest to them.

The aphopedes ate the bait. They appeared satisfied, and coiled their many bladed legs around themselves as they slumbered. The crew slowly descended down, and with coordinated precision, they all struck the centipede in between the segments, making enough punctures and strength to disassemble its head.

The small victory was celebrated by a nod by everyone as they worked together to dismantle more parts and hoist it above before the other two aphopedes could hear them. By noon, everyone made it to the top, smiling with bitter hearts.

The trip provided Ian with a wealth of experience. More importantly, it showed him how completely useless he was in battle. In rank D realm, he could at least hold down monsters. In an rank S realm, he could only cower behind a stronger team mate. It wasn’t a feeling he liked to feel, the feeling of helplessness.

In the midst of the night, Ian sat by the campfire, sketching the nearby desert grass and plants. The campfire did little to deter the chilling breeze. The coldness of the desert was biting. His hands rubbed together, but the coldness of his skin made him shiver.

Ian took out a pill, and ate it. Almost immediately, he felt warm. It was a low level pill, but enough to warm his body with pyro mana. He avoided reliance on the pills, but he needed to draw as quickly as possible. He had drawn the aphopedes during the train ride into Halland City, but the one with a cheroplant near its tail was slightly different.

Ian searched his notes to see any potential combination that would produce an elektro spell. It was possible to create an elektro spell by combining plants with neutral elements, and one with elektro elements. Of the plants Ian had, only the bacsile plant had elektro element. It had been one of the plants he had continuously attempted to fuse, but failed to produce any meaningful result.

On the journey back to Halland City, Ian drew the false cheroplant. Cheroplant were parasitic plants grown on monsters. The first drawing he drew had 35 SP, but the subsequent drawings had 25 SP and 20 SP. With the three illustrations, Ian combined both illustrations with itself to form a 30 SP cheroplant. With the cheroplant in the item creation space, Ian examined the plant. It was more like a hybrid monster creature, with its roots moving about as though they were tentacles. The root tentacles were sharp, attaching itself to monsters, living off from the spiritual mana of the monster. Despite its parasitic nature, the plant lured prey for the monsters to feed on.

Ian’s avatar attempted to touch the plant, the roots attacked him as though he was an enemy. Ian blocked out of the way. The plant's natural reaction to the enemy was to attack. It wasn’t a sentient life form, but its reaction was similar to how a Venus Flytrap would react.

Once the crew made it back, Ian continued studying for the exam.

****

Danger made Logan excited, or at least they used to. It was so much easier when he was a sergeant and had to follow his lieutenant’s orders. Now that he was in the same position, he couldn’t risk his platoon life because of his recklessness. The attack strategy was one that would put their lives in danger.

“Lieutenant, we all signed up for this, didn’t we?” the sergeants asked.

Logan smiled and nodded. “Hell yeah.”

After the announcement was made, several people in the melee unit dropped out. Everyone who remained knew what they were getting themselves into. There were also new people who applied for the melee unit. They all knew it was the best opportunity to fight with hundreds of monsters. As dangerous as it seemed, it was a hunting experience that people rarely ever encounter in their lifetime.

Bordoxes were giant rams, larger than an elephant, with long tusks and rock-like noses. They were fast creatures known for tearing down structures. Their hides were used to create defensive armors.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“How many creatures are they expecting for this raid?” asked the sergeants.

“Based on the previous raid, they estimate a little over 1,500 monsters.”

“But we haven’t been able to refill positions that were lost last year, how are we going to lead the attack? We have at best three more months before the next raid.”

“The Academy is speeding up the recruitment process.”

The sergeants were all C-rank awakeners. Sergeant Jabal was assigned with creating the specific actions for each squadron.

“Lieutenant, when are we going to make the announcement?” Sergeant Jabal asked. “The soldiers are weary as their workout and training session have been more intense than usual.”

Logan nodded. “Three days after today's meeting.”

There were three standard attack patterns of a monster raid. Aerial attacks, long range attacks, and full frontal attacks. The general demon leading the pack had never been defeated. It only retreated when more than 50% of the monsters were eliminated. Logan believed the general demon hid somewhere within the realm. However, no party had ever encountered the general demon. If they did, it was likely the parties that had been wiped out.

Although more and more people awaken their geists every year, it was difficult to maintain forces powerful enough to protect the city. Higher rankers were more unwilling to risk their life, and would only go after positions that would guarantee the greatest success.

It was known that the ground infantry was one of the safest. However, as Logan laid out the plan, he could see many of his sergeants hesitating. He worried that by the following day, they would resign from their position and seek safer positions with other units.

Logan promised them that their unit would have first priority over the pills, armors, and elixirs. Every raid was an expensive expenditure, and although there were many resources within the S-rank realm, it was equally expensive to live within the realm. Everyone knew of the price, but it didn’t make it easy on them when it was time to repay their dues. One of the requirements for residency was active participation in the raid. Non-rankers had to protect the safe zone. A potential breach through the barrier was expensive. Although most monsters couldn’t sustain life and mana, their sheer size could still create collateral damage.

Logan held back from another problem. Although they had a decent supply of pills, there weren’t enough to last through the raid. A raid typically lasted 24 hours.

****

Jay Richardson looked through the various messages on one of his four phones.

Ptah: The hi-horse has caught wind of our movement. We need to find a way to retrieve the target.

Jay rubbed his beard on his lower jaw. Path was his handler within the Underrealm. For Ptah to send him the message, it meant that there was a mole inside the Tallas Federation. There were few people involved who knew the true purpose of the investigation, so it must be someone who was recently bought into the investigation. Jay typed back using his underrealm alias, Montu.

Montu: Do you have a time table?

Ptah: Not yet. Continue communicating with the target. We will wait for the hi-horse to act first.

Montu: Is Anubis going to get involved?

Ptah: Anubis knows the layout better than anyone, and will likely lead the retrieval team.

After the communication ended, Jay dismantled the phone and threw the pieces into the different trash bins as he walked toward the office building where his pawn shop was located. Ten minutes after entering the shop, a young lady followed inside.

“Good morning Mr. Richardson!” she said with a bright smile, which appeared brighter between her black colored lipstick. Her curly dark brunette hair and dark rimmed glasses made her head bigger than it really was.

“Morning Evana,” Jay replied.

Evana was a senior at a local college that Jay had hired as a part-time clerk to oversee the shop. As Evana dusted the items, she noticed Jay unrolling several sheets of illustrations.

“Ah Mr. Richardson! Are those more illustrations from Ian?” asked Evana.

“Yeah, he sent me some more when I said there was a buyer,” replied Jay. “Are you going to buy them?”

Evana bought the previous set for thirty pounds. Knowing her boss, he would give it to her for free, but she didn’t take handouts. “Can I pay you forty for this set?”

Jay shook his head. He didn’t like Evana's reverse bargaining mentality. She always paid more than the expected asking price. “Just focus on your study. How is it going?”

“It’s going well,” Evana replied. “They might allow me to graduate early.”

“That’s good. Are you interested in working for me after you graduate?”

Evana smiled. “That sounds lovely. Is there something you want me to take care of?”

Jay passed Evana a hand-written note. After she finished reading the note and nodded, Jay burned it with his lighter.

[Mission: Kill Target.]