20 soldiers secretly left the Obedin City Army.
With their all-black clothes, all 20 of the soldiers having been trained in the past 2 months easily blended into the background of the city as they started traveling through the shadows without being caught.
Leaving the city without being seen was their first objective.
Though they were 20, they were all talented soldiers and they moved with such understanding and skill that for the next 30 minutes, they were not discovered by the police nor were they seen by any civilians in the city.
When they finally arrived outside the city, it was already 5:47 pm.
By now, each one of their AOS smartphones already gave them beep notifications to indicate the new message from the Sergeant who assigned them on this secretive mission that was off the books.
Like the others, Rex hid in the shadows of the nearby tree before checking his smartphone to see the new message.
>The Marauders were last seen moving in the deep east direction<
>Their destination is probably the Spider Swamp<
>Sender: Unknown<
Once they saw the message, they all understood where they had to go.
The Spider Swamp was a massive well-known swamp forest that stood between Obedin City and Weaver City.
Anime City shared a border with Obedin City from the north, Bowling Town shared a border with them from the south, while the Spider Swamp covered everywhere from the east to southern borders of Obedin City.
The Spider Swamp separated Obedin City from Weaver City, which was the city that was supposed to border it from the east.
In normal circumstances, both cities would have leveled the swamp to build their boundaries together like they did with other cities but they could not.
The Spider Swamp was one of the few regions in Delta State that were not controlled by the government. This was a mystic beast-infested region, 40% of adventurers who entered yearly were rumored to never come out.
There were rumored to be thousands of basic mystic beasts inside, and a sizeable number of intermediate mystic beasts also which easily made it one of the most dreaded locations in Delta State.
The Spider Swamp featured a wide variety of mystic beasts but it was famous for its high concentration of mystic spiders.
These dangerous mutated spiders were the real dangers of the swamp. They had a lot of abilities, but their most recognized power was their ability to turn mud through their mystic energy into powerful weapons.
Apart from their mystic energy, the spiders were dangerous melee and ranged combatants and they were highly poisonous.
Once all 20 soldiers understood what they were up against, their faces turned solemn but they didn't leave immediately although they were in haste. They needed a leader if they were to succeed.
Before any soldier could speak, Turan spoke first. "Let Crane be the leader!"
"He is a veteran soldier with over 3 years of experience in the army already. He is a veteran leader, he is intelligent, he has a rare summoning mystic ability, and prominently, he is a powerful 8th tier basic mystic warrior".
Every single soldier here knew Turan due to his achievements in the past 2 months in the army, Crane was the leader of his military team.
Him vouching so confidently for his leader eased the other soldier's nerves. In the end, no one objected and private Crane became the leader of this mission.
Crane cleared his throat and spoke. "We don't have much time on our hands, but to increase our chances of completing this mission, we need to know ourselves properly including our strengths and weaknesses".
"I'll start first".
"My name is Crane, an 8th tier basic mystic warrior summoner".
"My weakness is…"
Once Crane was done, the other soldiers complied as they quickly gave every useful information about themselves that could possibly help in this mission.
Once they were all done, Crane brushed his hand above his head as he briefly closed his eyes before opening them again. Turan's evaluation of his intelligence seemed to have been right as he came up with a plan the next moment.
"This is not the first time that you and I are hearing of marauding tribes, you know how notorious they are, they are powerful opponents".
"This is why we need a game plan if we even want to complete our mission".
"According to the Sergeant, they are now few, weak, and injured but I don't want us to be too confident. Let us take the worst-case scenario as our approach".
"My plan for this mission is a hit and run tactic".
"We need to enter the Spider Swamp without caring about anything else. Let us ditch stealth after entering, they are veterans, if we take the normal way, we may probably not be able to discover their traces till forever".
"Let them find us instead of the other way around".
"Them finding us will put us in more danger but it is our only chance".
"No matter what ambush they prepare for us, I want us to give our best out there. We will fight explosively to rescue the commissioner and once we get him, as the strongest soldier here, I will escape with him".
"Your roles from here are to protect my retreat. Do that for 2 minutes and also escape for your lives, separate into 2 teams for a higher survival chance".
"I know that our chances of survival are still slim despite this but that is why we have the mystic beasts. The mystic beasts are not just our enemies, they are the enemies of the marauders also, we will use them to our advantage to escape".
"This is my plan". Crane took a deep breath. "If we can implement it properly, I believe that we have a high chance of completing this mission".
"If you have any objections, say it now".
"…"
"In the absence of none, let's move!"
Almost immediately as the plan was finalized, as they moved, Rex briefly stared into space as his system notified him of a new mission.
[You have received a new system mission: Rescue the Commissioner!]
[Mission Details: The Commissioner of Defense of Obedin City has been kidnapped by marauders, and you have been chosen among a team to rescue him.]
[1st Sub-mission: Kill 20 marauders!]
[Mission Reward: 50 Skill Points.]
[2nd Sub-mission: Kill 100 mystic Swamp Spiders!]
[Mission Reward: 100 Skill Points and 15 Constitution Points!]
[Main Mission: Rescue the Commissioner!]
[Mission Reward: 50 Mystic energy limits!]
…
Due to the need to keep secrecy, bikes were not provided for Rex and his companions for this mission. They had to travel on their barefoot as this enabled them to avoid the drones that patrolled in the air.
This slowed them down but they didn't have to give up since it plagued and slowed the marauders also, they took their quest one step at a time.
An hour and a few minutes later, all 20 soldiers finally arrived in the dreaded Spider Swamp undetected. They already completed a large part of their plan.
By the time of their arrival, they were already deep into the dead of the night.
Different beast sounds echoed from deep inside the dark swamp forest as they produced a chaotic and horrifying cacophony but the soldiers were not deterred as they remained focused.
They steeled their minds before decisively entering the massive swamp.
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