"What about hunting for some Mountain Lizards?" Catalina asked while pulling a piece of paper out from the catalog. The description of the target, notes, and rewards are clearly written on it.
"Mountain Lizard... Those known for eating and keeping metal and magic ores inside their bodies? That's my assignment's target?" Hespar asked. From what he knew through the academy's education subject, the Mountain Lizard mentioned by Catalina is likely one of the three subspecies of the Lizard's Family Tree.
The three subspecies are the Forest Lizard Tribe, the Mountain Lizard Tribe, and the Dungeon Lizard Tribe. The first two were considered the most commonly seen monsters in the wild, with the second-largest population after the goblins.
As for the Dungeon Lizard Tribe, they're much harder to encounter unless one decides to explore the dungeons. Due to the limited number of relic sites available throughout the continent, this tribe is considered rarer than the other two Lizard Tribe counterparts.
While each had its own specialty and uses, the three subspecies shared a common trait, like their edible flesh, blood, usable leather, scales, and so on. In some parts of the Sauro Kingdom, Lizard Meat was considered a cuisine delicacy.
"Yes. That's the Mountain Lizard I'm talking about. Are you interested in hunting some back? Our division is paying a pretty handsome reward for groups that came back with a minimum of twenty lizards hunted." Catalina nodded and placed the assignment paper into Hespar's hand.
[Supply Division Request - Lizard]
--> Issuer: Catalina | Difficulty: 1-Star | Participant: 1 - 10 members
--> Task: Hunt and bring back the complete corpse of Mountain Lizard. The target must be at least 1.5m in length and reach two years in maturity.
--> Reward: Fifty Copper Coin Pieces for each corpse / Seventy-Five for each corpse on delivery above twenty lizards. The blood, organs, and content will be calculated separately / Optional rewards included.
-----
Hespar had a smile on his face right after browsing through the content. He had the gist of why Catalina would bring this task up to him.
"From the look of it, you're interested in having a try? Should I put your name and apply for an exit permit for you right now?" Catalina smiled and fiddled with her pen. She might be just a year or two older than Hespar. Still, Catalina's eyes seemed to be hiding plenty of experience handling people and their thoughts.
Encountering Catalina right after he came here might be better than the others who still hang around inside this tent and have difficulty choosing their mission. Her commission might be on the higher side, but Hespar wanted to see if her demand of that price was worth the assistance she provided.
"Sure." Hespar nodded and gave Catalina his identity token as a Second-Officer. The following tedious process seems to be nothing but a walk in the park to Catalina. Using less than half of what others would take, she returned with an exit permit in her hand.
"Let's go. We'll have a talk while you're going back to your room." Catalina said.
"My - My room? Why?" Hespar was shocked. As this was his first time having someone of an opposite gender come to his place, he was unsure how to respond.
"Don't tell me you're suggesting that we discuss our private matters here in public? I'm not that nice to let other competitors know where are my hunting spots, tips, and tricks, alright?" Catalina replied with a harumph.
"Al - Alright! Well, I wasn't sure where is my room anyway, so... We might take a while to look for it." Hespar habitually rubbed his nose from the embarrassment.
"It's alright. What room you've been given?" Catalina continued and took the lead in their conversation. At the same time, the two are gradually picking up their steps towards the Commanding Division's barracks.
She doesn't even need to ask where are the barracks located, as only people from the Commanding Division had the right to accept additional assignments. But the same wasn't applied to Hespar's subordinates, which should be gathering at his place later.
Although it was said to be a private room, the tent seemed more of an operation room. Plenty of storage space was provided, with a long table for discussion. But weirdly, chairs weren't included in the list of furniture.
'Looks like having a private room is an overstatement... Instead of calling it personal, let's say the officer is expected to eat, sleep, and stay where he will be working with his subordinates...' Hespar finds it hard to refute his first impression.
It was no wonder Catalina seemed to be quite familiar with the process. After all, Hespar wasn't the only officer she was supporting.
The two started to study the map right after Hespar left his luggage in his personal space. Standing beside one another, they look matched to each other while waiting for the others to arrive.
About an hour later, the first member of Hespar's ten-men squad finally made his appearance. The others gradually appear in one to two minutes, all in their uniform.
Eight male soldiers and two female soldiers. Out of the eight males, one was an oddball with an unkept hairstyle and messy uniform. The others had nothing extraordinary on them. Appearance-wise, they had nothing special.
"I am your squad leader, Hespar." Hespar introduced himself after all the members of his squad had gathered.
"Reporting for duty, Sir." their response was instantaneous, but it's more like a reaction out of habit. Even someone as new as Hespar could feel the lack of enthusiasm in their tone from just hearing them.
"Well... I wish you good luck, Hespar." Catalina smiled after looking at Hespar's 10-men squad. After tapping at his arm thrice, Catalina excused herself. She had nothing to say since her responsibility was just relaying the tactics and tips to the leader.
Anything else between Hespar to his squad is his own responsibility.
"Shall we introduce ourselves to one another?" Hespar initiated a conversation after Catalina left the tent.
"Brent." the unkempt soldier was the first to mention his name to Hespar. But that was all he had to say before rolling up himself like a porcupine in a corner.
"Shane."
"Lewis."
"Fulham."
"Ashen."
"Quinn."
Foster."
"Stolas."
"Shelly."
"Agnes."
The others unenthusiastically introduced themselves. It seems that the group was not only unmotivated, but they also seemed to have some issues in their attitude. Even the girls don't look as bright as they appear to be.
"I'll ignore whatever offense on our speech today, so everyone may speak comfortably. Since this is our first meeting up, let's make everything comfortable between us, alright?" Hespar said.
"I suppose this is not your first time seeing Catalina, so I'll go straight to the point. I've accepted one of the assignments to hunt for Mountain Lizards. As this was our first mission together, I want five volunteers to follow along. We will try to bring 30 corpses back, so the physical fit is preferable."
"I'm finished with what I have to say. If anyone else has something to say, start now." Hespar dragged one of the storage chests closer and took a seat.
"I am very busy with the Processing Division task. Please excuse me from this mission. Unless it's a mission that requires everyone to participate, please don't issue a gathering notice like today. Thank you." unexpected to Hespar, Agnes was the first to speak after him.
And she was pretty frank in her words. After finishing what she had in mind, the brunette-haired Agnes left the room without looking back.
The others were looking at one another as they were unsure whether to go along with Hespar's assignment or not. But to everyone's surprise, Brent was the second to speak after Agnes.
"I'll join. Make sure you give me a break after we're done with this Mountain Lizard task. If there's nothing else, I'll go back and get a rest. See you tomorrow morning." Brent speaks like a hunchback and leaves the room next.
The others weren't as outspoken as Agnes and Brent. Still, four more people left the room after giving out a random reason for not participating.
Only Stolas, Foster, Quinn, and Ashen were left around. But having the four is no different from having some puppet soldiers at his expense. They're not here because they wanted to, but more like they're the only few left with no other choice.
"I know some of you aren't convinced about following me, but let's give it a chance to get to know one another further during the assignment. If there's no question, let's meet each other tomorrow and try our best to complete the mission." Hespar said.
The four simply nodded at Hespar and left without a word.
'Ah... Looks like this is going to be quite troublesome.' Hespar pressed the back of his neck while thinking about how to break the ice between his ten members. For a moment, he missed how easy it was back when Paul was in his group.
Using the time between the evening to familiarize himself with the eleventh camp, Hespar had his first night here as a soldier and woke up early the following day.
This job might not be his, but Hespar has no qualm about getting them done if it could bring him and his squad member closer to one another. By the time they're gathered, Hespar already had prepared what they needed.
"Let's depart right now," Hespar said, taking the lead out of the eleventh camp. Using the exit permit applied by Catalina for him, he had no problem leaving with five of his members. The only thing he had no idea was there was still some paperwork in between, which was handled swiftly.
"We're here, leader," Stolas said to Hespar as they approached the location infested with Mountain Lizards.