"How was the conversation? Did he try anything?" Gaius asked as they left, looking accusingly at Finn. They were no longer in the rock village, but in a small artificial cave on the side of a hill on the outskirts of the forest, far from all the villages and the city of Faltra.
"It was the worst possible outcome, but this is not the time for it. Gather the team here, we have a new mission before we leave this region." Emilia frowned angrily as she spoke, before turning to Finn as if remembering something. "And return his uniform."
"OK." Caio was not happy with this new "mission" or the lack of details, but he obeyed anyway. He grabbed the uniform from a nearby stone table and held out his arms for Finn to take.
"Thanks, #5." Finn grinned as he reached for the suit, but #5 let go before he could, dropping the suit in the mud. Finn was sure the floor was solid rock a moment ago, but he didn't point it out.
"Sorry, my hand slipped." Gaius said in a monotone voice, not even trying to hide his hostility. He turned around before Finn could say anything and left to call the rest of the team.
"Don't worry #5, people make mistakes." Finn spoke to Gaius' back, in a louder tone than usual. He took his uniform out of the mud and activated a self-cleaning enchantment on it, removing all the mud before getting dressed. In fact, the enchantment was used to erase evidence such as blood or fingerprints left in a location, but it could also be used to clean.
"Look, if you're not our hero! Thanks to you, I've earned some money, so let me buy you a drink after this mission is over." #3 yelled in high spirits after entering the room, oblivious to the tense atmosphere in the room. The team was on hold in a room adjacent to this one.
"Why haven't we left yet? #1 is already recovered, we have no more reason to stay here." #2 asked annoyed. He's lost a lot of money to #3 and he's dying to get home and relax a little.
"I have some bad news folks. There was a problem near the border. A team of mages was transporting an extremely important cargo for the dark elder, but they lost contact with them after they entered the forest of Faltra. We are the most nearby and we've been ordered to find the lost mages, or at least the cargo." Emilia spoke the first lie that came to mind.
"What do we have to retrieve?" #4 asked.
"A human corpse. And before you ask, I don't know why he's special." Emilia replied.
"How long has it been since contact was lost? And any idea what might have happened to them?" #3 asked this time. He found all this effort over a dead body strange, but he didn't question it, certain that the dark elder was eccentric enough to order them to comb an entire town just because he'd lost a handkerchief somewhere.
"One day and 14 hours since last contact. Unfortunately, we don't have any information as to why the contact was lost." Emilia lied through her teeth, but the unit members didn't see her expression because of the mask.
"Any ideas on where to start looking?" #4 asked, fatigue building up at the thought of having to search the entire forest.
"I have no idea so let's split up to look for them. From #1 to #4 they will search the east of the forest. Me and #5 to #8 will search the west side of the forest while #9 goes to the city and waits for the mages there. It's unlikely, but chances are, the team will make it out of the forest and into the city.
The forest isn't big, so it shouldn't take more than a day to search half of it. The forest is apparently inhabited by spirits, so stay alert. Get in touch if you find anything, we're leaving in 10 minutes." With that, everyone started getting ready to leave.
'That should be enough. Everyone here is on the same level as me, while captain Emilia is way above me. There must be nothing in this forest capable of defeating them.' Finn thought, jinxing the entire mission.
They spent the next day investigating the forest. The first hours of the search passed without problems. They found nothing but weak monsters and boredom, but there were no problems. They used their magical senses regularly to investigate their surroundings, but nothing was found.
The problem started about four hours after the search began. Suddenly, one of Emilia's team members stopped and looked around suspiciously.
"What's up #7?" Emilia asked, using her mana vision to look around, just in case.
"I think we're going in circles, Captain. It's the third time I've seen this tree." #7 spoke looking at a twisted tree. He had memorized the position of the tree and those around it to use as a reference and it was then that he noticed something strange.
"...Are you sure?" Emilia looked at the tree too, but didn't notice anything wrong. '#7 could be imagining things, or it could be that the spirits of this forest are preventing us from moving forward. If the same thing happened to the mages, it is possible that they fell into some trap and died.' Emilia thought, deciding to test her theory.
"Let's stop here for a while. If we're really going around in circles, it's useless to continue." She spoke aloud.
"Wait, stop to rest? Not investigate the surroundings?" #7 asked confused.
"Yes, let's take a break. We were alert until now and still haven't noticed anything with our magical senses. Instead of wasting time looking around, let's use the other team to investigate." Emilia decided to stop explaining and pressed the button on the collar of her cloak.
A light of understanding flashed in his eyes and the others quickly copied it, pressing buttons on the robe and checking the other team's position. They walked in a straight line for some time, before starting to turn slightly south. They kept curving every few minutes, until in half an hour, they had made a complete turn.
"Shit, we really are going in circles!" #9 yelled, seeing the other team return to the starting point.
"Yeah, and we're just as lost. The spirit is just playing with us." Emilia spoke, lost in thought. 'It took less than half an hour for them to make a complete turn and the same should apply to us. I need to know if the spirits are doing this just to prevent us from approaching him, or if he wants to trap us here for some other reason. '
"What should we do, captain? If the forest is surrounded by a disorientation spell, it might be a good idea to split up. Contrary to what most mages think, disorientation spells affect a certain area and by separating, we can force the spirits to cast multiple times to keep us trapped, draining his mana and focus." #8 suggested.
"That's a great idea if you want to kill us. If we split up like you suggested, we'll be an easy target for them and we'll be killed one by one. What we should do instead is have a view from above the forest, beyond to destroy the trees in our path, so that we have a clear path ahead." Emilia spoke, casting a spell of light.
She reached out her blade-like hand and swung quickly, releasing an arc of light that cut through all the trees ahead within a 10 meter radius. She also summoned her familiar, a dream sparrow. It was a four-inch-long sparrow with gray feathers and a short tail. He had the ability to release a sleep mist when he flapped his wings, hence the name.
"Keep an eye on us from the sky, and report anything strange." Emilia ordered and the familiar obeyed. She turned to the others and said, "Let's go ahead and make sure you destroy the surrounding trees, we need to have a wide line of sight. #8, get in touch with the other team and let them know to do so the same."
"Yes ma'am." #8 spoke, a little shocked at Captain Emilia's power. He could cast spells as strong as that or even better, but not as easily.
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