The Greyhound Squad looked at the mission board. There were all kinds of missions like courier missions and delivery missions. But what interested them the most was a mission at the top of the board:
{Exploration mission
[Your task is to explore a Wallcrawler infested cave.]
Mission:
[Go to the specified coordinates]
[Kill 20 Wallcrawler]
[Kill 1 Wallcrawler queen]
Rewards:
[5000 Credits]}
The party looked at each other, nodded and Aria, who was still sitting on Buck's shoulder and therefore closest to the mission, tapped on the screen and accepted the mission. A notification appeared on the screens on their left forearms.
{Mission accepted. Please go to the requested location.}
The notification disappeared and a map appeared in its stead. The map showed the layout of the floor they were currently on, as well as the streets and the outline of the surrounding buildings. A marker was placed on the map to indicate the location they had to go to.
"Alright then, let's go!" Remy was ecstatic and ran outside. "Come on guys, don't be so slow!" Wex shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. We're coming."
---
On the way to the cave they talked about their loadouts and their special talents. Remy told everyone about her equipment. "I have the H204 Healarc and the L-11 Defender armor. The armor gives me 2000 Defense and the ability to scan my patients for both internal and external injuries. The Healarc can heal all injuries, disinfects wounds and removes debris and shrapnel from open wounds so it can heal it without problems."
Walker continued. "My weapon is the AP3-40 Submachine Gun and my armor is the L-33 Defender. It's basically the same mine has a camouflage ability that makes me undetectable for most devices, animals and monsters."
Wex had put his mask back on and moved his status window to the screen in his mask. "I have the SF-20 Heavy Flamethrower, paired with the L-22 Defender. My armor gives me immunity against poison gas, resistance against fire and a space-compressing backpack that allows me to store 500 liters worth of fuel." He thought the fire resistance part was pretty useless, considering he was a Dragonkin, but well, that's the researchers job to worry about, not his.
Buck pulled Wex out of his thoughts. "My equipment consists of the L-300 Sentry armor and the D-55 Heavy Gatling Machine Gun. My armor gives me 20000 Defense and my gun can fire 20mm bullets with a few hundred rounds per second."
"You sure know your business. And what about you Aria? What equipment do you have?" Remy asked excited.
"Hmm?" Aria seemed to have taken a nap on Buck's shoulder. "Oh, I got the Mana Bow Prototype and the Demon Armor Prototype." She showed off her bow. It looked like a normal compound bow but she had no arrows.
"Why do you have no arrows?" This was the first time Walker has talked since they introduced themselves. Aria gave a pretty surprising answer.
"Demons have the ability to control something we call Mana. This can also happen with individuals from other races, but it's rare." She drew the bow and the moment it was fully drawn, an arrow made from seemingly pure energy appeared.
"See? I can also infuse the arrow with elemental energy to give it certain effects. When I infuse it with the lightning element for example, it will stun the target and apply a paralysing debuff."
Wex was quite impressed, but he noticed something else. "Why is your armor also a prototype?"
Aria chuckled. "Ah, yes. Well, you see, members of the Demon race can sprout wings from their back and fly. This armor will help me navigate through the air and is equipped with sensors to broadcast enemy locations to you. Furthermore, my body is a little smaller than most races average so that could also be a reason."
"It also seems much lighter. It's almost as if you weren't even there." Buck noticed it since he was carrying her around all day.
Aria nodded. Remy seemed to remember something. "Didn't Angels also have that ability?" Aria thought about it. "Not much is known about Angels. They don't reproduce as fast as other races and mostly keep to themselves. There is the theory that the Angels are a mutation of the Demon, or the other way around. Some even think it's both."
Wex was once again caught in his own thoughts. It seemed like the scientists managed to delete most of their memories but kept their common sense intact. How did they manage to do that?
The more he thought about it the more complicated it got until his head started to hurt. He already had a relatively high Intelligence stat, but if he couldn't comprehend this, he didn't even want to know how high the Intelligence stat of the scientists was. It was almost scary.
---
They arrived at the cave. It looked like a normal cave but Aria's sensors seemed to have picked up something, because the visor in Wex' mask showed him the feint outline of some sort of insects. They seemed to flicker a little.
The others had also put on the masks. Aria's voice sounded through Wex' helmet. "We should be careful. My sensors don't work that well underground. Wex, you have a flamethrower, you go in the front with Buck. Remy, you stay behind and heal them if necessary. Since I can't fly in the cave and Walker also can't use his cloak as well since Wallcrawlers can look through most cloaking devices. I know it's supposed to protect against most sensors, but I wouldn't want to risk it, we'll be the rearguard for this one."
Wex was impressed that Aria managed to come up with the team formation so quickly. He decided to ask her about it later. For now he had other things to worry about.
They entered the cave. After a few meters into the cave they heard the shuffling of insects and the markers from Aria's sensors came closer. "Here they come!" Wex grinned underneath his mask and flicked the safety on his flamethrower.
When the markers were only ten meters away, he pulled the trigger and his flamethrower started to roar. A stream of flames filled the cave and set the whole cave on fire. The insects screamed but they were unnoticable among the sea and roaring of the flames.
Fifteen seconds later the flames subsided and the area that were hit by the flames had turned black. A few notifications have appeared on Wex' screen.
{You have killed [Wallcrawler] x6. You have gained 20 EXP x6.}
{You have leveled up. You have [15] undistributed stat points.}
Wex was a bit surprised at the amount of stat points he got. Maybe there is a rule that determines the amount? Another question for Rupert.
They went further into the cave, but nothing seemed to happen. "Guys, I don't think this will end well!" Walker was shivering a little. Aria looked at him and tilted her head. "Why? Are you scared?" Walker shook his head. "No, but I have this eerie feeling that there is something up ahead."
Wex looked ahead. He could see clearly, even though it was very dark inside the cave, due to his racial traits. "I don't see anything."
Aria checked her sensors. "Me neither." They shifted closer together.
Then, Aria's sensors picked up something. It looked like a big blob of the insects they encountered earlier. Remy nudged Wex from behind. "You know what's to do, right?" Wex didn't answer and just disengaged the safety on his flamethrower and started discharging burning fuel towards the mass of chitin and insect meat.
This time the whole blob charged towards them. This was bad. Wex had overestimated the strength of his flamethrower and now he had agitated the swarm.
Buck lifted his machine gun and fired. The bullets he fired were APHE and every time he hit one of the insects the bullet pierced through the carapace like paper and the bullet exploded, sending chitin shrapnel through the cave with surprising power.
Aria and Walker also opened fire. Buck slowly started to push forward. The insects shifted their attention towards Buck and tried to overwhelm him. Buck took the left hand off his machine gun and grabbed a combat knife the size of a broad sword from a sheath on his thigh.
When the first insects reached Buck, he just continued to fire towards the swarm and just cut them down with his knife. One bug tried to bite him in the leg but its shears just glanced off and Buck crushed it under his armored boot.
---
The fight took five minutes and Wex sat down on a nearby stone. "Why is this mission among the beginner missions? Either the ones who posted the mission are idiots and didn't scout properly, or those things reproduce very fast."
Buck sat down next to him on the ground. "I would say both. Or it's the guys from the complex wanting to test our strength. But it makes sense considering the reward." He looked at his notifications. "At least I leveled up a few times." Wex looked up. "How many stat points did you get?"
"Twenty." Wex was surprised. "I only got fifteen. I'll ask Rupert about it later."
"Let's get going! We still have to kill the queen!" Remy told the squad.
Buck waved his hand. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I just need a pause after firing a machine gun that weighs over a hundred kilos with a recoil that could propel a full grown Megacow into outer space for five minutes straight."
"What on earth is with your strength stat? I probably couldn't even lift that thing." Wex looked at Buck. "300." Buck answered and Wex almost fell backwards off the stone. Wex was sure that Buck was grinning widely underneath that mask.
---
They continued exploring the cave and soon came upon a big room high enough for Aria to fly. Inside was a much larger version of the things they just had exterminated. It goes without saying that this was the queen.
Aria took off, drew her bow and fired at the Wallcrawler Queen. She infused her arrow with the ice element and froze the queen to the ground, rendering her unable to do anything.
She then fired another arrow at the head and killed it instantly. "Well that was easy." The whole squad said in unison, looked at each other and laughed. The system had registered their kills and they made their way back to the Adventurer Division.