Chương 46: Chapter 43. First Mission

By the time we finished eating, the ache from the morning had settled properly into my shoulders. The recovery draughts from the infirmary certainly helped with that. We stopped there on the way back from the dining hall, where a pair of healers took one look at the six of us and decided that yesterday evening had not been dealt with quite thoroughly enough.

They checked ribs, joints, teeth and whatever else had survived our introduction to one another, then handed out small glass vials for the strain from the buckets and rubbed something cold and medicinal into the worst of the bruising. My eye had changed colour again by then. It had been a deep blue-black when I woke that morning, but by the time one of the healers tilted my face toward the light it had faded toward an ugly pink-purple around the edges.

Curious, I checked the probable cause and was pleased to find that it had progressed as well: [Healing Factor — Lv. 1 (8%)] We were released with enough time to wash, change into clean uniforms and report to the Eastern Muster Hall before the appointed bell. The hall was beneath one of the lower towers, built almost entirely from grey stone and iron, with none of the gardens or hanging banners that softened the academy elsewhere.

Weapon racks stood recessed into the walls beside sealed equipment lockers, maps of the kingdom and its surrounding territories covered one entire side of the chamber, and along the opposite wall hung wooden boards crowded with orders, casualty notices, patrol rotations and mission assignments written in block script beneath the crests of Sartheon and the Crown.

Students came and went through the broad doors in groups rather than individually, most of them already carrying packs or wearing field equipment, and instructors moved between them with clipped gestures and folders tucked beneath their arms. Group Seven had been directed to Muster Room Four.

When we reached it, all six of us went in together, and the moment we crossed the threshold, Varen, Kael, Jaerik and Dren spread into a straight line across the centre of the room, boots settling neatly along a dark seam in the floor. None of them spoke about it or looked to one another first. They simply did it. So, following their example, both Tomás and I moved quickly into place beside them and tried to look as though we had known to do that all along.

Professor Ashara stood several paces ahead of us beside a long table covered in folded maps, sealed packets and six identical field satchels. Her hair was tied back, a short blade hung at her hip, and a black leather folder rested beneath one arm. Her eyes passed slowly along the line before flicking toward the clock above the door.

"You're all here," she said.

"And on time, too." Then her gaze returned to us.

"Good." Ashara shifted the folder beneath her arm and looked toward Tomás and me.

"Since the two of you are new to Sartheon's field cycle, listen carefully. Missions here are generally allotted one week. You will be given a set of objectives, and once that period expires, every additional day you take to complete them will cost your group points." Her gaze moved briefly across the rest of the line.

"You will only return to the academy when the mission is complete. Once you do, your performance will be assessed, and if that assessment reveals weaknesses in theory, technique, command or anything else, you will be assigned classes before your next deployment." She rested the folder against the table.

"That is, for the most part, all there is to Sartheon. Complete your missions, fulfil the objectives within the allotted time, and do it well enough that I do not have to spend the following week correcting what you should already know."

"Yes, Professor," Varen, Kael, Jaerik and Dren answered together. Tomás and I followed a beat later.

"Yes, Professor."

"Excellent." Ashara opened the black folder beneath her arm.

"Missions are ranked from E through S according to difficulty, risk and the resources expected to complete them. First-years are restricted to E and D-rank assignments unless the faculty decides otherwise. Aridis, come closer, will you?" I stepped out of line and approached her, then she handed me the folder, and nodded toward it.

"Open it and describe what you see for your group." I obeyed and found several sheets sitting inside, divided neatly beneath two headings. E-RANK Locate and return a missing housecat. Assist in clearing an obstructed irrigation channel. Deliver medical supplies to three outlying households. Inspect and record damaged wardstones along the southern road. Locate six missing goats belonging to a local herder. I stared at the list, increasingly confused. A missing cat? Ashara must have seen something on my face.

"Sartheon sits above a populated valley, Aridis," she said.

"There are villages, farms, roads and smaller settlements for miles in every direction beneath us, and the people living there submit requests to the academy registry just as they would to any Crown garrison. The academy accepts the ones suitable for training and assigns them to students." She tapped the open folder with one finger.

"An E-rank mission is not meant to test whether you can kill something impressive, but rather whether you can take an objective, organise yourselves and accomplish it efficiently. If the objective is finding a cat, then I expect six trained mages to use tracking magic, divide search areas, question witnesses and think before they spend three days crawling beneath houses." From somewhere behind me, Varen spoke.

"Read the D-ranks, cap." Ashara's eyes moved past my shoulder.

"Minus one point, Varen."

"Wh—!" When I glanced back, Varen's mouth was slightly open.

"During a briefing, your captain speaks for the group unless I address you directly. If you have something to contribute, you wait to be recognised. I believe you were already familiar with the protocol, no?" Varen's mouth closed.

"... Yes, Professor." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I cleared my throat and looked back down at the folder.

"Right. The D-ranks." These made considerably more sense. D-RANK Escort a Crown surveyor through the western foothills and return safely. Remove a colony of stoneburrowers damaging the orchards outside Greymere. Recover a merchant wagon abandoned along the old northern road. Investigate repeated livestock disappearances near the village of Dunswell. Subjugate a herd of Blood pigs threatening the farms surrounding the town of Bellhollow.

Well, Blood pigs, at least, sounded like something one might reasonably send six mages to deal with. Ashara took the folder back from me and closed it.

"You have five minutes," she said.

"Discuss the available assignments with your group and decide which one you intend to take. Once your captain gives me your choice, I will provide the full briefing, known risks, location, objectives and anything else the academy has on record." She stepped away from the table and folded her hands behind her back.

"Five minutes, Aridis. Use them." I turned back toward the others and walked toward them.

"So, guys, we—""Blood pigs," all four of them said at once, which made me stop in my tracks immediately. It felt abnormal that they all seemed to agree on one thing. For a moment I simply looked at them.

"... Why does everyone seem so interested in the Blood pig mission?"

"Just take it," Dren said. So I looked toward Tomás instead.

"What do you think?" He straightened slightly, apparently pleased to have been asked.

"Well, the Crown surveyor would probably be the most useful choice. We'd be travelling through the western foothills with someone who actually works for the Crown, so we'd get experience with route planning, escort formations, terrain assessment, and depending on what he's surveying, there might also be opportunities to learn—""Boooooooring," Varen groaned, and before I could say anything, he hooked an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially.

Jaerik immediately leaned in from the other side, followed by Kael and Dren, until the five of us had somehow formed a small circle around nothing. Tomás stared at us for a moment, sighed, and shuffled closer too.

"Listen, cap," Varen murmured.

"Bellhollow, you've never been, right?"

"... No?"

"Then trust me. Best little town south of the valley. They've got this bakery near the eastern square that makes honey twists the size of your fucking head, three different sweet shops, grilled meat everywhere, and the taverns stay open until morning." Oh, food! I liked food.

"And," Varen continued, his grin widening, "their harvest festival is this week." Jaerik nodded solemnly beside him, as though confirming a matter of great importance.

"Whole town comes out," Varen said.

"Music, dancing, contests, food until you can't fucking move, and girls from every village around Bellhollow come in for it." Tomás pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"If we take the blood pigs," Varen went on, squeezing my shoulder, "we kill the pigs, save the farms, get our points, and then spend the rest of the mission time at the festival while everybody in town thinks we're heroes." I looked at Tomás, who was already looking at me. His eyes narrowed slightly and the small shake of his head that followed carried enough meaning that he did not need to say anything, I understood him completely. Do not encourage them. I glanced toward the others, then back at him.

But they all want it. Tomás's expression tightened. That is exactly why you should not. I looked once more at Varen, Kael, Jaerik and Dren, all of whom were watching me expectantly, then returned my attention to Tomás who stared at me for another second, and somehow managed to look almost pleading. Varen seemed to follow the entire exchange without difficulty.

"Look at it this way, Stark," he said, still keeping one arm around my shoulders.

"Five of us want Bellhollow, one of us wants to spend a week following some surveyor around with a notebook. Majority's settled it, so you're the one who has to adapt." That did seem fair. I shrugged, giving Tomás an apologetic little look and murmured, "sorry." Tomás watched me for a long moment before his shoulders sagged.

"... Sure." I then stepped away from the group and returned to Ashara.

"We've decided, Professor." She looked at me.

"What will it be?"

"We'd like to take the Bellhollow mission." Somehow, I could feel that this had been the answer she expected.

"Very well." She opened the folder again and removed one of the sealed sheets, laying it flat across the table.

"Bellhollow is entering its harvest period, and like several regions around the valley, it has been dealing with an unusual increase in creatures coming out of the surrounding forests. Animals and monsters that normally avoid farms and settled roads have been ranging farther than usual, crossing ward lines, destroying crops and attacking livestock." She touched two fingers to the page, and the ink across it shifted as a drawing unfolded itself above the paper in pale red light, turning slowly in the air.

I leaned forward despite myself, awed at what I was seeing. The creature resembled a wild boar at first glance, though considerably larger through the shoulders, with coarse dark hair running in ridges along its spine and a pair of heavy tusks curving out from either side of its jaw. Beneath those, however, were shorter hooked fangs that looked much more at home in the mouth of a predator than anything I would have called a pig. Then again, I had never actually seen a living pig before.

Everything I knew of them came from illustrations, anatomical diagrams and the occasional moving image used during lessons at the estate. Yet sometime this week, I was going to see hundreds of these, alive... The thought was considerably more exciting than it probably should have been.

"These are Blood pigs," Ashara said.

"Fast over short distances, aggressive when threatened, and considerably more carnivorous than ordinary boars. They will eat roots and vegetation when convenient, but given the choice they prefer flesh, which is where the name comes from. Small animals, carcasses, livestock, occasionally one another." The image turned, showing the thickness of the neck and the long claws digging from its forefeet.

"The forest east of Bellhollow supports one of the largest populations in this part of the valley which normally causes little trouble, but this year, they have begun leaving the forest in herds and pushing directly into farmland." She looked across all six of us.

"Your primary objective is population suppression. By the end of the week, Group Seven will provide confirmed kills for no fewer than two hundred blood pigs from the affected territory surrounding Bellhollow." She touched the page again, and the image shifted into a map of the town and the farmland surrounding it. One farm along the eastern edge brightened.

"You will also be assigned responsibility for this property. Until the mission is complete, protecting its crops, livestock and stores from further damage is part of your objective. Other teams will be covering the surrounding farms, so your concern is this one. I will verify the final count myself, along with the condition of the farm placed under your protection. That is all you need for now." She gestured toward the six field satchels waiting on the table.

"One each. They contain provisions for the week, basic medical supplies, recovery draughts, spare bandages, field rations, a local map, marking chalk, signal flares and the standard equipment Sartheon expects you to carry on a D-rank deployment. Anything beyond that is your responsibility." We stepped forward in turn to collect them, and when I reached the table, Ashara stopped me before I could return to the line, and placed a small silver whistle in my palm.

"This is yours as captain. I will be observing your group throughout the mission, though most of the time you will not know where I am, and unless circumstances require it, I will not intervene. There may be occasions when terrain, distance or another responsibility takes me away from you, however. So if you require me immediately, blow this." I turned the whistle between my fingers.

"It will transmit your location directly to me," she continued.

"Use it only when you believe the situation has exceeded your group's ability to manage safely. Calling for assistance will not automatically count against you, but the circumstances that forced you to do so certainly may." She let me pocket it before addressing all six of us again.

"Your mission will receive a group assessment, but that will not be your only mark. Aridis, you will also be evaluated separately on command, judgement and how effectively you use the people under you. The rest of you will be assessed on discipline, cooperation and your compliance with your captain's orders. A strong group performance will not conceal poor individual conduct, nor will one capable student carry five others through an assessment." Her started walking toward the exit.

"A carriage will be waiting below within the hour. It will take you directly to Bellhollow, and your mission time begins the moment you arrive. Until then, check your equipment, gather anything personal you intend to bring, and be ready to depart when called." She gave us one final look.

"Dismissed." Then she was gone. We had barely started toward the door, my groupmates all sheering for the coming mission, when the familiar chime sounded inside my head. Ding! [New Mission Acquired] First Deployment Objective: Successfully complete Group Seven's Bellhollow primary assignment within three days. Time Limit: 72 hours from arrival. Reward: Special Mission. Failure: No special mission, obviously. I slowed without meaning to. A special mission?

The others continued toward the door while I stared at the words hanging in front of me, particularly the last two. Whatever the System considered special, I suddenly wanted very much to find out.