445 Chapter 445: Infiltration (1/2)
It took us half a day to cover the remaining distance, and by the time we reached the edge of the forest on the mountain overlooking the Dark Church's base, it was past noon. The sun had just brushed past its zenith and beginning its slow descent toward the western horizon.
Strangely enough, there wasn't as much activity today, and the outskirts of the base were largely empty. Mainly because the cargo was all transported yesterday, and so there wasn't much on today's schedule. Nonetheless, we could still see a few robed sentries here and there, enduring the heat stoically despite how sweltering it must be to be dressed in those dreary black cloaks.
”Is your team ready?” Feng Hai asked Brown, whose recon team had assembled near one of the larger trees that served as sufficient cover. The sentries weren't staring in our direction, their eyes stoically glued forward, but even if they had turned to glance this way, they probably wouldnn't be able to spot us.
”Yes, sir. We are ready to move out anytime.”
The rest of her words went unsaid, but it was obvious what she meant to imply. They were just waiting for Feng Hai's orders.
The mercenary leader took a deep breath, his eyes still fixed on the newly constructed base below, and then he nodded once.
”Move out.”
”Sir, yes, sir!”
The scout team saluted, and then they disappeared. Like, literally. One moment they were standing there, and the next they were gone, their silhouettes melting away into the surroundings and vanishing from sight.
”As impressive as always,” I murmured. Stealth wasn't my thing…and before a few of those readers inevitably say it, NO. There was no such thing as a stealth spirit. Even if it was, it wasn't something I could conveniently summon just because I wanted or needed one at hand. Summoning magic wasn't this super convenient, omnipotent magic where you could summon whatever you want or need.
When I was injured? Summon a healing spirit! When I needed to sneak into someplace? Summon a stealth spirit! What the fuck!? These readers evidently had NOT been reading my account properly. I took pains to assert that summoning magic wasn't omnipotent and had a lot of restrictions, yet these juvenile, edgy readers kept coming onto my story demanding that I summon healing spirits, spirits that could buff, and now…stealth spirits. No, summoning magic did NOT work that way. Besides, if I wanted to buff myself, why the hell would I go in such a roundabout method to summon a spirit, and then ask the spirit to buff me? Wouldn't it be more efficient, faster and smarter to just learn buff spells and buff myself directly instead of introducing an unnecessary middleman? Same with healing magic – if I wanted to heal myself, why the fuck would I go in such a roundabout method and summon a spirit to heal myself? Wouldn't it be more efficient and faster for me to learn healing spells and heal myself directly right from the start instead of wasting time and mana on a middleman?
Sometimes these readers didn't use their brains. And they had the audacity to insult me as stupid or retarded. Perhaps they should look at the mirror first, or at least refrain from making assumptions about what I could do. If I didn't do it, then I had a good reason not to – because I simply could not.
Sorry for the rant, but if I did not do this, then I would have to deal with comments on the right side insulting me as stupid or retarded, and asking why I couldn't just summon a stealth spirit. Seriously. I was getting sick and tired of that bullshit, with these readers bringing their own preconceived notions of how my summoning magic was somehow this godlike, convenient, omnipotent ability that allowed me to summon whatever I want or need. NO. It was NOT.
”What do we do now?” Adrian asked, craning his neck to look past the leaves and down at the base, while remaining cautious enough not to reveal himself. Unfortunately, his caution was outweighted by curiosity.
”We wait,” I replied simply, and then went to a tree root and sat on it, leaning against the trunk. ”The only thing we can do now is wait.”
*
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long.
Unfortunately, the infiltration team returned with some…friends.
”Contact!” Brown's voice fizzled over the communication beads that the mercenaries were equipped with. ”We have pursuers on our tail! We can't shake them off!”
”Is it the Dark Church?” Feng Hai demanded, already springing to life and conjuring his multiple swords. The blades hovered around him fiercely, their sharp tips pointed in the direction of the base. ”They caught you?!”
Damn. That wasn't good. If the Dark Church caught the infiltration team and was chasing them, then it meant we were pretty much in for an all-out war. We couldn't turn and run, not with the Dark Church in pursuit. Not because we couldn't outrun them or couldn't shake them off, but because we couldn't afford to let them know that we were here. We had to prevent them from reporting our presence to other Dark Church subsidiaries, otherwise…
…well, I don't know. Otherwise the Dark Church would bring their entire force here and launch a search and destroy mission. We would be forced to escape the Yao Cai Mountains, and that would terminate in a mission failure. Then again, with the Dark Church here in force, it was extremely unlikely that Ling Dan would continue to hang around in the mountains, so we most probably had already failed our mission to begin with.
”Well, not exactly.” Brown sounded a little miffed. ”We didn't get caught by the Dark Church themselves, but apparently their pet monsters sniffed us out, broke out of their cages and chased after us. The Dark Church might have suspected that there are intruders, but they didn't get any visual or ident on us. For now.”
”Pet monsters?” Redwood repeated, bewildered. ”I thought monsters can't be tamed?”
”That's exactly why we didn't get caught.” Brown wasn't able to mask the bitter amusement in her voice. ”They can't control the monsters, and had to stay some distance away. Actually…they are currently being attacked by their own monsters that had broken out of captivity. It will take them some time to exterminate the monsters assaulting their base and recover or restore order. So we are pretty safe for now.”
”What are the monsters pursuing you, exactly?” Feng Hai asked, his tone all business. He was already assessing the threat level of the monsters that were following his scout team and running through multiple scenaros, his swords vibrating violently in tandem with the strategic flows in his mind. ”Rank, number, size…”
”Barbaric Baboons,” Brown replied immediately. ”Rank D, larger than human-sized, and about thirty in number. At least the number of those chasing after us, anyway. There should be twice that many attacking the Dark Church base right now. But for you guys, it shouldn't be a problem.”
Feng Hai sighed and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, a hand covering his face and rubbing his temple from the stress. I could tell what he was thinking, because I had the same question as him.
Why didn't they just kill the Barbaric Baboons? Even though they were not frontlne combat units, the reconnaissance team should theoretically be more than capable of dealing with a bunch of rank D monsters by themselves. Granted, thirty of them did sound like a bit too much for them to handle on their own, so maybe there was that.