Chapter 115: Springwater Source Bonsai part 1
Kayn followed Jude along with his party which is made up of five men, including the latter, as he brought him to an entrance of a sewer.
Upon arriving, Jude's friend was already waiting for them with a piece of paper in his hand.
"You know what to do with this," Jude's friend handed Jude the paper.
Without wasting any time, Jude made a small wound on his thumb using his teeth and made a thumb mark on the paper.
"Done," Jude nodded to his friend.
"I'll report this to the Barracks. As for your party, you can begin the mission any time you'd liked," Jude's friend informed them before quickly leaving.
"That was quick," Kayn can't help muttering. "And suspicious," He added in his thoughts.
"It's illegal to do something like this in the Canyonside Town, that's why the process is very quick," Jude explains.
"I see," Kayn responded. But his eyes turn to look at Natas who is hovering on top of a building's roof, evidently observing where Jude's supposedly friend was going.
"He is meeting a bunch of suspicious individuals that suddenly appeared out of nowhere," Natas uttered very loudly so that Kayn can hear him. "Now he is unfortunately dead,"
That information was more than enough for Kayn and Natas.
Natas hovers down to Kayn's side. "It seems like your suspicion isn't baseless anymore,"
"I told you so," Kayn already suspected that something strange was on with the person who posted the mission.
A scouting mission, at the river of the Springwater Canyon. And the reward was also very astronomical for merely gathering information, which would no doubt motivate any party that accepts the mission.
He also notices something when the mission was handed down to Jude by his friend. In one of the paragraphs, it stated that the party that accepted the mission would have to scout the area for a week straight and gather as much information as they can find in the area.
Well, that might explain why the reward was astronomical because the duration is considerably long.
But for him, the duration is exactly what's very suspicious about it. Duration doesn't always imply more payment, but it always implies more results.
More information means more details.
And what exactly would all of that information be used for?
Gathering materials?
Monster hunting?
Dungeon Raid?
Along the way to Canyonside Town, he studied the map of the Springwater Canyon. Aside from gathering materials and monster hunting, there's no Dungeon Raid to do here. And as far as he knows, all information needed for monster hunting in the Springwater Canyon is already very accessible because even he knows about it while he was still in Green Horn Village. So, there's no need to scout for any information.
So, the question is brought up once again, what exactly do they need the information for?
After Natas witnessed the death of Jude's friend just now, he now has an answer to that question.
The person who posted the mission is here for the same thing as him.
Unfortunately for whoever that person is, while he has to wait before he can receive all information, Kayn, on the other hand, is getting all of it in real-time.
Hence, there's less for him to worry about, at least as of this moment.
"Let's go!"
Jude's voice pulled Kayn out of his thoughts.
Because of the level of confidentially that must be performed for this mission and out of convenience as well, Kayn and the others used the sewers to go outside of Canyonside Town.
Once outside, they followed the path that leads down to the riverside of the Springwater Canyon.
The path was very difficult to traverse, and one wrong move could very much spell death for one of them.
Because of that, Kayn and the others tread very carefully.
After tens of minutes of walking the arduous path, they finally reached the riverside.
"Let's take a rest for a bit before proceeding,"
"Charles, after you finished taking your break, start scouting the area for a camping ground," Jude ordered.
Hearing that, Kayn can't help sighing in relief. He is very glad to know that his next task isn't going to involve a lot of extreme effort. He seriously doesn't want to perform something difficult right after experiencing that event that happened in the Hanging Vines Cave.
Scouting and camping, now that's one of the definitions of relaxation and resting. After all, how hard could that be, right?
…..
Very hard…
That is now Kayn's current thoughts after they've gone through dozens of perfect spots in order to set up a camp because of monsters suddenly attacking them as they start setting up their tents and stuff.
"Has it always been difficult to start a camp in the Springwater Canyon?" Kayn finally decided to ask.
"No, which is very strange," Jude shook his head.
"It's probably because of our location," Charles interrupted.
"Tell me more,"
"I don't know why, but this certain part of the Springwater Canyon is the only place where setting up camp is very difficult,"
"That must be the main reason behind why this mission exists; to find the root cause for the strange behavior of the monsters in this area,"
Kayn can't help nodding his head in agreement. Of course, not to Jude's assumption, but to the probability of what the latter spoke about to be the case if only he doesn't know the truth.
Jude's assumption is honestly not that far-fetched and hard to believe.
Apparently, almost all missions posted in the Barracks would be related to safety, security, and other tasks that can bring benefit and profit to the territory.
What's happening right now is evidently a big problem for the people that live in the Canyonside Town, especially for the gatherers as the aggressive behavior of the monsters makes it difficult for them to gather materials that can be found in this specific area.
However, just like what he said back then in the Eclipse forest; when monsters start gathering in one spot and acting weird, in most cases it means that there is a treasure in that place.
"How about we just pick one spot, and clear out all monsters to a certain distance from camp as our perimeter, before we finally begin setting up our camp?" Kayn suggested.
"That's the last option," Jude shook his head. He knows that what Kayn had suggested will definitely work and he had also considered that option a long time ago. But that would cost a lot of effort on their part. Hence, they would have to spend the rest of the remaining time of the day resting because they would no doubt become extremely tired already with setting up the camp alone. They obviously can't do that since that would waste a full day and they could have used some of that to gather a little information for their mission.
"You're the leader,"
Unlike Friedrich and the others in the first squad, he doesn't have any sort of influence in Jude's party nor has he earned the qualification to try and suggest a better plan to their leader yet. If he does any of that, he'd be offending Jude, thus ruining their first impression of him.
"Come on people, let's not give up yet!" Jude motivated the members of his party.
With that being said, Kayn and the others continued to look for a place to set up their camp.
Every now and then, their scout, Charles, would find a good spot to set up their camp. They would go there and start setting up tents and stuff, but before they can accomplish more, a group of monsters would suddenly attack them and ultimately ruin all of their progress.
Although they've killed all monsters that attacked them in the end. But the area would become ruined enough to the point that they can no longer set up camp over there.
Such a situation continued for a few more hours.
Time and time again, they failed.
If only they didn't bring extra tents and stuff and they weren't fortunate enough to be able to save them in time before they get damaged by the monsters, then let alone setting up a camp, they wouldn't even be able to have anything left to use to set it up.
"I give up!" Jude finally conceded.
"It's about time," Kayn thought to himself.
"That might be the main reason why he died back then; because he was too stubborn," Natas expressed.
"Let's do exactly what Kayn had suggested to us before," Jude can't even be bothered anymore explaining again the plan.
For one last time, Charles looked a perfect spot to set up camp.
As soon as Charles found one, Jude and the others, including Kayn as well, started clearing out a perimeter to clear off any monsters and also to scare them from approaching their camp.
The moment they were done with that, setting up their camp became very easy.
No monsters suddenly attacked them.
They don't have to salvage any more tents and camping stuff.
And lastly, they don't have to waste time looking for another spot.
Everyone part of the party immediately lay on the ground as soon as they finished setting up all the tents and stuff.
"Let's call it a day,"
As much as he hates to say that, Jude doesn't have any other choice after noticing how exhausted his party members are already. Anyways, they've gathered some information along the way. Albeit it was only a bit, at the very least, they still made progress in their mission.
Regardless of how little, progress is still progress.
That is what's very important right at this moment.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l