Mage And Wolf
Chapter 110

Chapter 110: Chapter 110

The morning brings a slow report day. It’s not even dawn yet though, maybe the drones will bring back more reports in a few hours.

I decide that Category 2 boar monster roast sandwiches might make good lunch boxes, so I commandeer a corner of the kitchen. As it turns out the staff knows the technique, the Guild just doesn’t have much stock because the beasts coming in are mostly inedible tasting.

I give them a stock to do lunches in exchange for a bag of rolled oats, cream and fruit for the very first recipe in the mystic cooking book. I’ll practice a while in our room until we get a mission.

It’s surprisingly easy. I only waste one batch before getting something passable. The merger of flavors and energy makes it so much more than simple oatmeal.

I bring my successful breakfast down, hoping to lure out my benefactor and it only takes a few minutes to succeed. One of the guys is darting glances not at me, but at the pot on the table.

"Care to try?" I ask him.

"Not first. You never know if the Dark Librarian is playing a prank that might be lethal." He laughs. Definitely him, but how would he have even gotten it? They’re rare texts, and this one’s by a notorious author.

I’ll worry about that later, it’s my book now.

I dish out 6 small bowls, so everyone can get a sample and he dips his spoon in a soon as I take the first bite.

"You know I sampled it before bringing it down, right?"

"I assume nothing. It’s safer that way." smart man.

The first decent looking mission comes in just after we finish eating, but it’s snapped up in seconds.

"Hey, how about we head up the coast a bit? The drones don’t go out that far, so we might get lucky and score something good."

"Make it an overnight camping trip?" Kel’Mira asks "I’ve never been camping"

That settles it. "Pack up folks, we’re going camping"

The Guild Clerk warns is that’s suicidal as the monsters come in overnight and get extra aggressive, so all the coastal small towns are abandoned. But what fun is camping without giant monsters, right?

Something is wrong with the drone reports today. We’re only an hour East along the coast and have already cleaned up two small packs of monsters. Did the drones only catch groups with Category 3 leaders? Good money for us though.

Another few minutes along we find the remains of one of the giant robots they first tried against the monsters. They were glorious, huge and powerful. The problem was, they were metal, and non magical. Every giant beast from category 2 could tear them apart without too much effort.

"Hey, let’s stop and check that thing out" Vinnie calls excitedly. "It looks to be in decent shape, if we can get it moving we can bring it back for scrap. It’s got to weigh a hundred tons."

It’s not in bad shape. It looks like the beast it fought punched a hole through its generator, stopping it dead and then ignored it. I find an open hatch and decide to look at the condition inside, make sure it’s not water damaged, being so close to the ocean.

That was a mistake. The pilots didn’t make it out, whatever they were fighting made it in.

"Looks good, minor repairs to the controls and a makeshift generator. But you’ll have to clean it first." I tell Vinnie, who is looking it over with eager eyes.

Like me, he foolishly sticks his head through the hatch.

"Oof, that is just rancid. Can we rig controls on the outside maybe?" he shudders, not looking forward to the cleanup.

"Well, we know why it’s still here" Kel’Mira laughs.

"Let’s head down the coast a bit further" she suggests. "There’s supposed to be a resort town along here somewhere, it’s likely abandoned, but it should be a fun spot to camp and wait for the monsters to show up."

"Hey, don’t you guys think the Guild has been ignoring a lot of territory?" I ask as we crawl down the road, on the lookout for more monsters.

"I mean, the furthest I’ve seen a mission is 2 hours from the city limits, everything is day trips. Anything further out is totally off their radar."

"Well, it’s a newly occupied territory, maybe they’re just short on manpower?" Kel’Mira suggests.

"Keep the surrounding area safe first, then see what’s recoverable further out? Makes sense." Vinnie adds.

"But Arcana and their allies keep an area 700 kilometers across in either direction cleared. Isn’t two hours at a jogging pace a bit too small?" Hui’Jin wonders out loud.

"You secure that much with a single city? How?" Kel’Mira gasps.

"We sell enchanted ammunition to the civilians and the military outposts. They take care of the little things and report in the big things."

"Must be nice. My homeworld is mostly monster wilderness, you don’t go between cities without an escort of Immortals." She responds.

"Portal on the left, hidden by those trees" Paul calls from the box and I swing off into the ditch to investigate."

This portal is huge, easily 50 meters tall. We didn’t realize there is a Ridgeline behind the trees that made it look much smaller.

"Hui’Jin, can you close that if we get the area clear?" I ask.

"Working with Kel’Mira it should be easy, the portal is unstable, just massive"

I stop the truck and crawl over to get a look below the ridge. Thousands of oversized beasts are roaming around that field. Mostly overgrown class 3 monsters at first guess, it’s hard to tell precisely without testing their strength.

"Hui’Jin, can you teach Kel’Mira to work the summoning circle? and how is your fire magic, my dear healer?"

"My fire affinity is pretty good, but I don’t know any offensive spells, why?"

"Because you’re going to need to restock the ammunition for the gun. There’s spare barrels and a setup tool in the bag there, for when it’s needed." She looks a bit depressed.

"We can’t just let this group raid the city. They’ll wipe it out in a single night." Vinnie tries to comfort her, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

A small bus pulls up on the road behind us and stops, dislodging a team of 10 cultivators in green and blue robes. They approach silently and their leader joins me in looking over the hill.

"You’re crazy, you know that, right?" he asks.

"Trust me, it’s going to be awesome" I assure him. "I’ve got a plan."

"You’re not stoned are you?" he snorts in amusement.

"Thanks to the steep cliffs, there’s only 2 ways up from that bowl. If you’re in, we’re going to put one team at either side and shoot down with the mounted gun until they run up or we run out of ammunition."

"Still crazy Young Miss" Paul laughs.

"Do you have archers, or a Mage type cultivator?" I ask the second team’s leader.

"Yeah, 3 archer Specialty Mystic cultivators."

"That should be enough. Just unload into the crowd from a distance. Not the front row, cause confusion if you can. The rest will hold off anything that comes up the hill."

"And if we’re forced back?"

"Just flee in the bus if you can’t regroup. If you have to flee, report this mess to the Guild. We’ll do the same if we have to flee."

"There’s an Earth mage with us too. We will try to collapse the hill when we run and leave them trapped as much as we can."

I pass the new plan to the assembled teams. Theirs doesn’t seem as enthusiastic as mine, despite having twice the numbers. But that’s alright.

"I’ll leave the Toyota with the girls here mostly blocked by the ridge, just far enough ahead to shoot down. Vinnie and Paul, spread between me and the truck to pick off targets running for the hill. I’ll stop them from getting loose."

I can hear the other team coming up with a similar plan, but with more guards on their hill, and their leader waves a ready signal.

"Hui’Jin, you may fire when ready"

As planned, she’s shooting into the middle of the bowl, confusing the monsters as to what is attacking and leaving the wounded trapped by their comrades. She goes through all 6 belts in short order and begins swapping barrels as Karl taught her as Kel’Mira finishes enchanting the replacements.

The herd hasn’t started coming our way yet, though the other side has attracted some attention, and it’s growing.

"Gentlemen, a bit of fire into the closer ranks please. Don’t let the whole pack start turning their way or they’ll stampede."

The arrows do their job, precise accuracy dropping monsters at a reasonable pace and causing the pack to mill around, looking for escape. Backing away from the threat has left them trapped, and they’ll have to come back towards the arrows and gunfire to reach the hills.

Even better, they’re moving away from the portal, which lets us see what and how often monsters are exiting into this world.

These giant monsters are different than the others we’ve fought. More like actual giants of recognizable beasts instead of mashed up mixed species experiments.

The gun is down again, Hui’Jin putting on gloves to swap the hot barrel.

"Space your bursts out a bit more, let the barrel cool, that’s the last spare barrel we have for the day." I warn her and she nods. Our healer is a surprisingly efficient munitions grunt, all the belts are refreshed and ready to go except the one currently being fed.

The other side is in and out of melee combat, and more targets are moving their way.

"I am going down the hill, I’ll fight there and draw attention, don’t burn out the barrel, let the guys pick up the slack if anything gets close." I instruct Hui’Jin and head into the fray.