Chapter 317 - Naivety

Move around in the enemy territory. It will be dangerous, and it will last for a while, so Zaos made some preparations. Aside from a single set of extra clothes, he was only carrying ammo for his rapid-fire crossbows and the mana potions he received from Tyra.

This time, Vitalar decided to leave only one-fourth of his men behind. So, the group will have thirty-two members counting with Zaos and Vitalar himself. It will be pretty hard to travel around without being found with so many people, but in a sense, their goal was to be seen and then track the enemies' steps back to their villages. Once that happens… Zaos had no idea what was going to happen. Most likely, Vitalar will want to use Zaos's unit to attack those places. The question was, will Zaos obey that order? He will face at any time anyone who might attack the civilians of the kingdom. Still, he was willing to do the same in the enemy territory. Some people might say that Zaos was being naïve and that the enemy deserved to suffer the same as the people that died five years ago. Zaos would agree with them. Still, he wouldn't do the dirty job for them.

Regardless, the first days of exploration didn't result in any findings. Still, Vitalar gave the order for the group to stop several times. Once they did that, they established a perimeter, Vitalar began to fill a new map. Putting his personality aside, it was kind of impressing how much interested he was in knowing more about the followers of the demon god and their country.

On the fifth day of the expedition, Zaos felt some presence in the direction they were heading. Those had a lot of mana, so it became evident who they were. Zaos gave the group the sign to stop, and then he warned them. A group of followers of the demon god was heading south toward the northern base. Naturally, they will have to pass by Zaos's unit.

"How many?" Vitalar asked.

"Four enemies and they came from that direction," Zaos replied

"There aren't any signs of a village in the direction they come from, so we will capture them and investigate their footsteps," Vitalar said.

"It isn't a good idea to advance in enemy territory with prisoners," Zaos said.

"I know that. That is why one of us will take them back to the base and wait for the collectors," Vitalar replied.

"Collectors?" Zaos frowned.

"Classified information," Vitalar said.

Zaos was starting to hate that term. Still, he wasn't the commander right now, so he couldn't ask much more. After preparing an ambush, Vitalar gave the order for his men to attack the group. In the end, he even knew how to position his men well. After allocating them and surrounding the enemies in four points, his followers attacked the enemies in a sequence that prevented them from reacting since they failed at identifying the direction the attacks were coming from.

They tried to attack the enemies that they couldn't see. The surprise attack worked well because Zaos knew more or less the effective range of the enemies' magic perception. After getting hit and trying to counterattack to no avail, the followers of the demon god noticed that they had been poisoned and tried to pull out the bolts, but that only worked to make them fall unconscious due to the pain. Thanks to that, Zaos and the others captured them alive without suffering any damage.

"You have some decent tracking skills for a soldier," Vitalar said. "Where did you learn that?"

"It is confidential information," Zaos replied.

"Fair enough," Vitalar said and then gave the order for two of his subordinates to take the prisoners in one of their many carts back to their camp.

After that part of the work was done, Vitalar and his men analyzed the footsteps and concluded that finding the place those four enemies came from would be easy since it didn't snow in the last two days.

"We have to use this opportunity, so let's hurry up," Vitalar said.

After walking for two days, they found the village in question. It was two times bigger than the previous one. Much to Zaos' surprise, he didn't find any signs of people preparing for fights there… that wasn't supposed to be surprising, but… Zaos couldn't help it. The people in the region really lived by relying only on hunting and fishing. Cultivating the land was impossible with so much snow, after all.

"We are going to attack and capture a few of them. Pay attention to the directions they were going to escape," Vitalar said.

Zaos could see some kids working around the village carrying firewood. So he blocked Vitalar's path. That wasn't something he wasn't willing to do.

"Don't attack the kids," Zaos said.

"… Do you know that once they grow, they will attack the kingdom even more fiercely due to the resentment, right?" Vitalar asked.

"They at least deserve the chance to grow and feel like that," Zaos said. "They didn't do anything yet, so they don't need to be treated like real enemies."

"Now I can see why your father didn't tell you the truth… you are too naïve," Vitalar said.

Health: 1640/1640

Mana: 3760/3760

Stamina: 4300/4300

Strength: 820

Magic: 1780

Endurance: 2150

Resistance: 1780

Focus: 10 + 01 

Sorcery Lv 86 (+ 07 UP), Meditation Lv 49 (+09 UP), Magic Perception Lv 41 (+ 14 UP), Magic Swordsmanship Lv 59 (+ 08 UP), Magic Spearmanship Lv 26 (+ 11 UP), Magic Archery Lv 36 (+ 16 UP), Magic Martial Arts Lv 35 (+ 09 UP), Alchemy Lv 18 (+ 09 UP), Magic Resistance Lv 29 (+13 UP), Swordsmanship Lv 78 (+ 07 UP), Axemanship Lv 29 (+ 12 UP), Spearmanship Lv 25 (+ 05 UP), Archery Lv 49 (+ 08 UP), Martial Arts Lv 31 (+ 09 UP), Assassination Technique Lv 19 (+ 06 UP), Throwing Technique Lv 22 (+ 08 UP), Counterattack Technique Lv 15 (+ 08 UP), Shield Mastery Lv 36 (+ 10 UP), Pain Resistance Lv 62 (+ 11 UP), Poison Resistance Lv 34 (+ 13 UP), Blacksmithing Lv 22 (+ 07 UP)