Mage And Wolf-Chapter 171

Karl wanders off for a moment, in the direction of the fight and returns with a handful of jewelry, holding it out to Betty.

"Pick a piece, any piece you like." He says.

"That silver necklace with the purple gemstone on it. That’s the prettiest one by far." Betty declares with absolute certainly.

"Then here you go young lady, one amethyst crystal necklace. It’s a storage ring, focus on it and direct a bit of energy to open it up to see what is inside." Karl fastens it around her neck and tucks it under her clothes out of sight. Betty takes a couple tries to accomplish the task, having never owned or used one before, but soon had claimed her prize.

"A bottle of Qi Gathering pills, some yummy looking trail mix, dirty men’s robes and a bunch of money!" She calls out the inventory before throwing the clothes on the ground.

"Good choice, who needs someone else’s dirty laundry?" I laugh at the disgusted look on her face.

Betty takes off her little backpack she carries like a purse and stores it inside the necklace happily. "Now I’m like a real Sect cultivator, keeping all my stuff in a storage ring. Oh, I didn’t mean anything bad by that." She says looking at the backpack I carry.

"Don’t worry, it’s just because of that extra special tent. It can’t go inside a storage ring, but we wouldn’t want to travel without it now would we?" Elder Song laughs and she shakes her head vigorously.

"That tent is nicer inside than my parents house."

We continue to search through the ruins until mid afternoon, when Betty finally exhausted herself, finding two intact swords and a couple crystal statues mostly buried under rubble with the help of Alice. Elder Song picked up our most enthusiastic but exhausted group member while Karl scouted us a spot in the ruins that looked stable enough to safely set up camp and we got ready to settle in for the night.

"Hail to the camp." A voice called just after we finished eating, startling Betty who hadn’t heard them approach. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Welcome, please join us." I call out and an old man in Sacred Thunder Sect robes steps into the firelight.

"Well met, Elders of the Shadowed Blade and Librarian Song. I am Elder Chou." the man in the early stages of Immortality says with a smile.

"Welcome Elder Chou, what brings you here tonight?" Elder Song asks, not correcting him about what constitutes an Elder in the Shadowed Blade Sect.

"Two things actually. First I wanted to try my luck with the lightning room, only to find it powerless and the room below it deserted. But more importantly, The Sect sent me here looking for you three in particular. We got word of your, let’s say ’particular aptitude for siege warfare’ from our Sister Sect in another Mortal World and wanted to hire you to assist in a small problem we’re having."

"We’re listening. We’ve got a bit of a deadline to keep to get home in time for the open tournament, but I’m sure we can do something to help the right cause, for a price." I smile at the Elder who grins back, fully understanding that he’s dealing with mercenaries, not charity workers.

"One of the Sects near this year’s open competition has gone rogue and started attacking all travelers in the area. Not just rival cultivators, or even just Light Sect cultivators, but non cultivators, neutral and dark Sect travelers too. It’s becoming an issue for the tournament organizers, and we think you might be the best option to deal with the problem." Elder Chou explains.

"So, you would like them to learn a lesson? I don’t see that being a problem." Karl nods his agreement. We can’t have morons messing up the tournament when we’re trying to improve our Sect’s reputation.

"Close, the Sacred Thunder would like for them to become a lesson." Elder Chou says softly.

We can do that too. In fact, it’s likely more fun that way. Both Karl and Elder Song look like they’re in agreement. "We will need some details so we can get to work." I tell the man, who hands me a leather file full of documents.

"It’s all there, everything we know about the Jalen Sect. Their Elders, specialities, defense, current bandit encampments. If you need anything else, just ask." Elder Chou tells me.

Me and Karl flip through the documents while Elder Song goes in the tent to put Betty, who is nodding off in his arms, to bed and returns with a plate of dinner for the Sacred Thunder Elder.

"We can’t have a guest go hungry. Eat up then." He says, setting the plate beside the visiting Elder. One of the Sect rules is that a paying customer is to be treated like a dignified guest. Elder Song sticks to that particular rule fairly well, regardless of all the other rules he ignores.

"Okay, this looks a lot like the Golden Field situation, but with a half dozen groups out as bandits." Karl says as Elder Chou makes happy noises finishing the dinner that Elder Song brought him.

"Bandits during the day and then the Sect at night, or the other way around?" I ask, deferring to his experience in tactical matters.

"Sect First, it will put them off balance and we can clean them up when they return to see what happened and then chase down anyone who runs. Or if we grab a few squads from the Sect to deal with them as soon as the Sect Compound goes down that would be better." Karl suggests, looking at Elder Song. We are a long way from home after all.

"Two dozen Inner Court disciples shouldn’t be a problem. Four per bandit group." Elder Song agrees to the proposal.

While we look over the roughly drawn topographical map The Sacred Thunder Sect provided of the area with Elder Chou, Song returns to the Shadowed Blade and posts a short notice mission, returning within the hour accompanied by exactly twenty four Inner Court disciples in the mid Core Formation Realm and Elder Ye.

They’re happy to see a straight forward and clearly defined mission for a change, no searching or determining who the target is makes their lives much easier.

"Alright, we will all head out in the morning, the mission action will begin at dusk, so find a comfortable spot once you locate your groups. Elder Ye will be spending the day here in the ruins getting acquainted with her newest disciple candidate." Elder Song directs the disciples, leaving them to set up camp around us.