Chapter 98: A squad

With Nero selected as the nominal leader, the group stood together, even if there was an invisible line dividing them into two. Taylor and Wendy stood a little closer to Nero, while Henry and Charles, together, stood but a single step away. But the distance was still not so great that they did not seem like they were in the same group.

They waited until they were called to receive a sealed brown envelope which contained the details of their mission.

"Do not open the package here. You will be taken to a secure room where you can investigate the contents of it and discuss your initial strategies. You will also be given a form with a list of equipment that will be made available to you before you embark on your mission. Please fill out the form, and you will be given the items before you set out.

Take your equipment into consideration while planning for the mission."

Nero nodded, and followed another soldier who led them to what was clearly a room that had only been recently built, though that had not in any way reduced the construction quality in any way.

As soon as he entered, Nero felt a slightly increased pressure on his internal aetheric pressure, indicating that the room was under some kind of enchantment. He ignored it for now.

"Let's read the mission objective first. We can decide what equipment we need based on that," Nero said, even as he unsealed the brown envelope and pulled out a stack of pages.

The mission they received was quite straightforward. The forest they were in was divided into various zones, with their current location being marked as A-1. In zone C-7 a cursed beast had been identified which was rapidly evolving.

It was originally a lemur, but had somehow become cursed and was now undergoing rapid changes. The lemurs in this region were catalogued to have aetheric abilities which allowed them to control plants, to a small degree. But after it became cursed, this particular lemurs abilities seemed to have mutated, allowing it to gain a sudden leap in power.

It had already destroyed the tribe it was originally from, and was hunting expeditiously, with an abnormally fast growth rate. It was estimated that it would reach the Initiate level of power within the week if it was not eliminated.

The mission seemed straightforward, but it was far from simple. To start with, the distance between A-1 and C-7 was 13 kilometers (8 miles) in a straight line, which was not how they would be able to travel.

"As we face obstacles and become more familiar with each other's abilities and capabilities, we will continue to refine our cooperation. It is important that we get at least some sense of how we each fight before we face the cursed lemur. Any questions?"

The other four looked at him, stunned.

"Is that... allowed? Can we team up with others?"

"They have left the strategy completely up to us, which means we can do as we please. Helping each other out and taking advantage of every opportunity around us is exactly what we need to do. I'll go and find the other teams, in the mean time, you get the equipment and get ready. Wendy, get me the Victus-3 spear and the light synthetic armour set. Let's aim to depart in 20 minutes."

After ensuring that they had no questions or complaints about the initial plan, Nero stepped out of the room. Technically speaking, the point of giving them private rooms was so that information about their missions did not leak. The army was indirectly making everyone think that they needed to keep the contents of their mission private.

That made sense. Ordinarily, within the army, missions would not be publically announced. Only those carrying out the missions would know the details. All this created a blind spot in the cadets mentality where they would naturally avoid taking advantage of their greatest asset.

Nero suffered from no such constrictions, because from the get go he was planning on asking the rest of the students who had come from Mount Aiden what their missions were, and giving them some advice. Of course, if they were specifically instructed not to do this he would not. But they hadn't been.

Since there was a time limit, Nero moved quickly, and asked all of the recruits he was familiar with about their missions, sharing the details of his as well. Most other people didn't get a target elimination mission like him, which was something he immediately noticed.

He was sure that this was just a coincidence and the fact that two members of his team might be trying to eliminate or sabotage him had absolutely nothing to do with it. Whatever the case, he did not let his thoughts show on his face. Instead, he did as he promised, and actually gathered 4 other teams who needed to pass through the same zones as him, or had missions in adjacent zones.

Since no one tried to stop them, they decided it wasn't a bad idea to move together, especially since they had a lot of ground to cover.

So, twenty minutes later, when he returned to his team, they were all surprised to find twenty students behind them. Not all of them were from Mount Aiden, so it wasn't like they were going to listen to Nero, but clashing over leadership for temporary teamwork would be a waste of time and a mistake.

Under the curious stares of the entire camp, a group of five fireteams departed. Coincidentally, a squad, which was a collection of fireteams, also consisted of four to five fireteams.