He waved his hand and an assistant staff member in the room provided him with a map of Hajin and several surrounding towns.

"As I'm sure you're all aware of the commission objective; It's to protect our outgoing supplies dispatch batch enroute the Shadow Trails, a valley in the Basara mountains to the East of Hajin, all the way to the mission destination; the town of Gallagar." He said, pointing to a town far east of Hajin past a mountain range.

Rui nodded, familiar with the mission details. There was a small mountain range in between Hajin and Gallagar known as the Basara mountains. Their job was to protect esoteric supplies dispatch travelling from Hajin to Gallagar, through the Shadow Trails a valley in the Basara mountain range that was going to be traversed to reach their destination.

p "This route has been the go-to route for shipping and transport between Hajin and Gallagar for nearly all matters, since it is the only practical means of travelling from Hajin to Gallagar without inflating the time, difficulty or cost."

Mountains were extremely unconducive as a topography for regular and reliable means of transport and shipping due to their structure alone. Furthermore, the greater one deviated from known trails and paths in mountain ranges, the more one strayed into wild territory, which housed many best species that were part of an intricate ecosystem largely uninfluenced by humans. The risks of happening upon predators was not insignificant.

This is what made the Shadow Trails in the Basara Mountains of such vital importance. It was a lifeline for a lot of markets, industries and sectors in several towns in the geographic vicinity of the Basara Mountains. The Shadow Trails valley was what allowed for a sustainable supply and transit between all these towns.

Which is why the presence of a new bandit group that threatened safe exchanges was extremely detrimental to several economies. The new bandit had been operating for little under two months, they slaughtered their victims before extracting everything of value that could be found.

Even though this bandit group attacked occasionally, this was more than enough cause significant negative impacts. For one, the moment transport and shipping companies heard about the bandits, the prices of transport and shipping services had been increasing over time, inflating well above the norm.

This was because the risks these companies were undertaking was huge. Furthermore, a lot of employees and personnel who managed the travelling process, who were directly at risk, had either quite their jobs or demanded higher pay or a guarantee.

This was how the bandit group caused several problems beyond just the loss of life and goods.

"We have been attacked by them once before as well. This time we have decided to hire the five of you as bodyguards to protect this particular dispatch among other dispatches." Savin explained.

"Why this dispatch among others?" Dalen duly asked.

"A pertinent question, I was just about getting to that." Savin explained with a smile. "Before I answer that, allow me to talk about the objective of this particular supply dispatch that you're guarding."

Those words earned a frown from the Martial Artists. There was more to their target of protection than merely shipping esoteric supplies?

"The objective of the current dispatch is to take down the bandit group, one way or another, simply put. We have noticed that this bandit group has not been indiscriminate in their targeting. They largely aim for higher-grade esoteric material supplies from esoteric suppliers such as ourselves rather than any random travelling group." He explained. "The supply dispatch you will be bodyguarding is quite valuable, furthermore we have subtly caused a minor intel leak regarding the contents of this particular exotic supply dispatch in the right circles. This dramatically increases the probability of you being attacked. However, with your presence, we'll be able to kill all of them or at the very least highly cripple them."

This made a lot more sense. Rui finally understood why the Lowminer Industries picked five Martial Artists for a simple routine supply dispatch. It seemed far too extravagant and a highly unsustainable security measure. This could only have meant that the target of their protection was valuable and special.

"If the bandits are in the Shadow Trails, how will they have access to this intel?" Rui asked.

"Most organized bandit groups have sources of intel one way or another, usually through some elementary communication device that allows them to transmit some basic signals." Savin explained. "Furthermore, a lot of their attacks are too unlikely to be coincidences."

He paused, before continuing.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

"The five of you are meant to be a guarantee for this operation to succeed. This actually a bit of a joint endeavor between several industries, who have aided us with intel spreading and some funding. Furthermore, two of our own personally employed Martial Apprentices will be aiding you in this mission."

A total of seven Martial Apprentices was an extremely solid defense team, at the Martial Apprentice Realm, at the very least.

"Are such significant measures really necessary?" Fae wondered aloud.

"For normal bandit groups, no. But this bandit group almost certainly has Martial Apprentices in it. Inspecting the scenes of massacres has allowed us to confirm this." Savin explained. "Furthermore, they implement these attacks deep in the Shadow Trails. Which makes it highly likely they base themselves in the Basara Mountains permanently. Which is extremely dangerous and cannot be done without Martial Apprentices."

This made sense. Furthermore, there was a lot at stake for the client. Valuable Martial Apprentices, high-value esoteric supplies that was going to be used to bait out the bandits and the stability that the bandits had caused to crumble.

"The reason I wished to speak to you personally was to inform you of our plan so that you would be aware and to ensure you wouldn't be caught off-guard when the attack happens." Savin explained. "If this operation is a complete success on our end, I will reward you all with a solid bonus."