Chapter 118: At the camp

Just the first day of the quest proved how wrong Fen was when imagining how does the mercenary job works. Instead of constant clashes with wild beast or bandits, tough challenges to overcome and great adversaries willing to put their lives on the line to stop their advance… There was only walking.

And after said walking, only a bit more of walking awaited, a short break of monotony with some walking for a change and ultimately even more walking to top it all off. 

The entirety of the first day was only about this damned walking. While this kind of harsh reality allowed the young man to practice his endurance and improve the speed of his walking, it was as far from the exciting life that he pictured to live as an arcanist as it could be!

"We will be setting the camp here."

This command was just as lacklustre as the attitude of the man throughout the entire day. Simply letting Fen's questions go by his ears while focusing his absent sight at the area in front of him, the man definitely didn't have the chance to score the award for the great team building.

"Any deeper reasons your decision to pick this particular location?"

Throwing this question more for the sake of reminding himself that he was still trying to achieve something rather than with real interest about the answer for the said question, Fen didn't even bother to look up at the man, not expecting the answer at all.

"This place is as good as any other. We have a wide view of our surroundings, there is hardly any spot from which we could be taken from the surprise. And most of all, we don't have to stray much from the road."

Shaking his hands as if it was something perfectly obvious, the burly man dropped his bags to the ground before kneeling in front of them and starting to unpack some things. Since the command to set the camp here was given, the young man didn't really have anything else to do than following the group leader's example.

Placing his own bags down, Fen pulled out the package with the light tent made out of four sets of two wooden poles, each as long as one's hand. By stacking two of those poles together, one of the axis of the tent would be created. Connecting the four ends of the poles and wrapping a specially prepared set of cloth all over it quickly turned this small package into small but surprisingly comfortable lodging. 

Obviously, there was absolutely no way for any of the mercenaries or especially Fen to carry additional mattresses or literally any form of unnecessary applicancies, turning the quick process of setting the tent that could last at most ten minutes if someone was really manually handicapped, to over three hours long period of looing for branches, leaves and literally anything that would at least isolate the cold of the earth during one's slumber.

"Finally… Done."

Looking down through the one loose part of the material that serves as the entrance to the small cave that Fen created, the young man could feel the tingling of pride fluttering through his insides. Given how he didn't even have any proper tools to make any improvements, he was limited to just what his hand could accomplish.

While the others were already sitting around their fireplaces, soaking the salty pieces of meat in boiling water, Fen continued to rummage the area. Thanks to his findings, all the bottom endings of the cloth was already pinned to the ground with a small layer of earth, preventing any of the air to disturb the man during his later sleep. 

For the bedding, Fen went with a slightly modified option to the bedding he would prepare once alone in the forest. Mounting several short sticks as tightly as he could over the entire length of this long weapon, Fen bound them all together with some kind of plant that he found growing nearby. Only on this platform did he spread a layer of slightly wet earth, covered with the thick mass of all the plants, weeds and leaves that he could find. 

But while this construction of his neared its end, it was still far from being ready. Instead of using what he already prepared, Fen instead started to dig a set of three, squarish holes, only about half the hand's length deep each. Spacing each of the holes to be in a perfect line, reaching as far as the entire length of his body, Fen finally pulled on the spear to cover the holes with the rest of the bed that he prepared earlier.

Only now did Fen find some time to prepare himself for the night. Given how they were out in the wild, there was absolutely no way for him to find a way to take a proper bath. Even if there was some kind of small stream or river flowing nearby, it would still be a rather bitter experience when compared to flushing his body in the full comfort of the small sauna that was in his rented house. 

Limiting himself to just wash his body with a thick shower of flames, Fen used the leftover stones that he gathered in advance along with some remaining sticks to start a small campfire beside his tent. But instead of going for a soup like most of the mercenaries did, the young man simply pulled out the one fresh product that he bought for the journey. 

After all, it was only a matter of time before it would spoil in the heat of the routine march through the open plain. Even eating it now bore a slight risk of turning bad later on, but knowing that he had absolutely no time left to bother himself with making a proper meal, Fen had no other choice but to satisfy himself with a bunch of fruits and a sweet bun he grabbed off a stall back in the city.

But if the young man wasn't planning to cook anything, then one might ask - what was the point of starting the campfire in the first place? While some might consider it flexing, if a fire arcanist wanted to keep himself warm, all he had to do was to surround himself with the flames!

But that solution bore two problems. Fen saw the looks of the mercenaries when he used the fire freely right beside his tent. It seemed as if the solution that the material was soaked with, while it could protect the user perfectly from the cold and rain, it seemed to have a particular fond relationship with fire and death!

Yet, this kind of arcanist way of going around the problems wouldn't work one the young man would go to sleep!

By the time everyone started to extinguish their flames and head either to their posts or to their sleep, Fen followed their example and got rid of the fires raging over the small set of stones he placed there before. Using his leather shoes, the young man quickly kicked all of the hot stones to the holes below his bed. Once the spear base was moved to the right place so that the rest of Fen's bedding would completely cover the holes, the young man finally laid back on his makeshift bed. In just a few moments, the heat from the recently burning stones started to warm the wet earth up, quickly forcing it to release its water in form of vapour, that quickly turned the entire thing comfortably warm.

��It's surprisingly easy to fall asleep when you have veterans behind your back…"

Talking to himself as he stared into the darkness in the small hole between two ends of the cloth that made up his tent, Fen fixed the coat that served as his couvet. 

Previously, it was nothing but a guess. Given how keen Fen's landlord was at obtaining that flower's petal, it would be strange for him to overinvest in a young arcanist while holding his money back when it came to the true foundation of their firepower being the mercenaries. But now, seeing how all the lights went off so that the guards could see further in the dark than the small area around themselves if they were to use torches, Fen felt reassured. Using light to guard one's camp was a natural drive of humans, often replicated in the wild areas to scare the beasts away. But given how costly the defences of this group were, there was little to no doubt that in case of the enemies that could potentially threaten the safety of the camp, the fire would be of no use outside of alerting the enemy of their presence!

As the young man's consciousness started to fade away, his head filled with the thoughts about the future. According to the landowner's words, they should arrive at the site where the actual quest would take place by the end of tomorrow. If everything were to work out just like it should, then by the end of the week, he would be already back in Ganua, reporting the results of the quest to both his senior and the guild, initiating the truly important part of his growth in the academy!

All of it… All the prospects of growing stronger, earning more and turning his life to a comfortable one, rested on whether he would manage to fulfil his part of the quest. But instead of stressing over it, Fen felt greatly excited. 

After all, it would be one of the moments where he would take his life in his own hands and decide how his future would look entirely by himself!