"I would suggest trading the lizard's blood with the Processing Division for some extra cash in hand. But if that tiny income wasn't your concern, perhaps trading them to the Medical Division would be much better?" Catalina said with a smile on her face.
"Of course, if bringing it to the Medical Division is your choice, I suggest you find a physician you trust to manufacture the Blood Stopping Paste. To soldiers like us, having a portion or two of the paste is a live-saver in critical times," she added.
"Blood Stopping Paste... I remember the town's supply store used to sell them for a silver coin piece for a dollop." Ashen shared.
The others seem to have a different kind of view on the Blood Stopping Paste. But most of the thoughts are neither positive nor negative.
(This thing... I think my father mentioned that the cost of making the paste is absurd. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the paste varies between the practitioners, and the good one can only be made by someone with a hundred to thousand trials...)
Everyone remained quiet in the room. It seems that Catalina's suggestion was quite up to a point, but the problem is, they're quite pricey.
Of course, the price of this item can be justified by its effectiveness. Furthermore, the Blood Stopping Paste is not something that can be casually bought in-store.
"Well, I'll be taking five corpses off from you guys first. Since there are six more days to go before the time limit, I wish you luck in delivering at least thirty Mountain Lizards before the weekend. That would be all from me." the smile remained on Catalina's face no matter what she was doing.
After ensuring that she had the gutted lizard corpses tied together, Catalina easily lifted the seventy to eighty kilograms of weight up without breaking a sweat. Catalina gently excused herself from the office, knowing it wouldn't help the party if she mentioned anything else.
With her leaving the office, the tense atmosphere inside the room gets less nervous than before.
"Leader... How the hell you get entangled with the Golden Witch?" Brent asked. Stolas was caught foolishly nodding at the question due to his curiosity.
"Golden Witch? Who's that? Catalina?" Hespar asked. He was here for less than three days, so it was understandable that he had no idea about Catalina's infamous nickname.
"Yeah. That's Catalina's title. She was once a second-class officer like you, but from what we heard... She failed her mission and got demoted. Before anyone knew what happened, she was kicked out of the Commanding Division and re-assigned to the Supplies Division." Brent said.
"I see... No wonder she's quite experienced in all this. But why are you guys so afraid of her? I think she's quite nice." Hespar replied while sharing his impression of Catalina with them. In his eyes, she seemed to be someone interesting and resourceful.
"Leader... You really had no idea, huh? She's quite famous in the camp... Many guys who had some indecent idea about her... Had their eggs crushed in her hands?" Brent had a sudden shiver while sharing what he knew. It was not a secret that Catalina was the infamous egg-crusher of the eleventh camp.
"Oh wow... She's famous, I guess?" Hespar simply smiled at the others and decided to hit the canteen with them tagging along. Coincidently, he saw Paul once it was his turn to get his plate filled with food.
"Oh, you're helping in this place?" Hespar greeted Paul in a friendly manner. He had no idea where everyone was taken to, except for Lucas and Victor. In fact, if he had the opportunity to reform his own team, he would likely prefer to re-assemble his squad of ten once more.
"Yeah. I saw Lucas and Victor just now. Did you go out of the camp?" Paul asked. It was unsure from where he found out that Hespar went out to complete his assignment today.
"How did you find out?" Hespar smiled and snatched his food tray back from Paul's hand. Based on his understanding of Paul, he'll restrict Hespar's food portion when the answer isn't satisfactory.
"Come on! Whenever you go into the woods, you'll get spiderwebs all around your head. Unless you're admitting that you didn't shower for an entire week, it would be impossible for that to happen, am I right?" Paul harumphed and gave Hespar another roll of bread.
"Go and eat peacefully over there. I'll come and look for you after I'm done getting used around here. Camp number sixteen, fourth room, right?" Paul said.
"Wow... You're really the worm in my belly. You even know where my room is." Hespar chuckled and left with his food tray.
After joining up with his squad members for dinner, everyone returned to their respective rooms.
Since Hespar had no idea where would Agnes be, he could only choose to leave a message to the Processing Division that he was looking for her. Once the message was delivered, she would likely come to the office tomorrow before they departed.
Agnes indeed made her appearance the next morning. The brunette-haired lady seemed uninterested as usual when she made her way into the office.
"Why are you looking for me? I told you before this... I am very busy with my work, so please do not request my attendance unless necessary." Agnes said after walking up to the meeting table.
She hasn't noticed the container with Mountain Goblin's hearts yet, although it was just on a corner.
"I heard that you need goblin hearts. Is that urgent?" Hespar asked. It would be seen as inconsiderate if he simply brought the material out before making sure that was what Agnes needed.
"Well, why ask if you already knew about it?" Agnes didn't try to avoid the question. After all, it wasn't a secret regarding her recent purchase of the goblin hearts in bulk. But the main issue was the lack of Mountain Goblin hearts to accomplish her assignment.
"If you need me, please be patient and give me two more days. I will be available after delivering five bottles of Medicinal Tincture to the division's office. Can you do that?" Agnes said. It seems that she had certain difficulties that only she understood.
"You've misunderstood me, Agnes. I didn't call you here to waste your time." Hespar quickly clarifies himself before the misunderstanding escalates further.
"Then?" Agnes raised her voice. She seemed to lose herself due to the stress over her assignment. Still, that was understandable because everyone here was tied to completing their objectives during their military service.
"We had hunted forty Mountain Goblins yesterday. From what I heard, you need them, correct? If you still... Need..." Hespar's finger was pointed at one of the containers along the wall while speaking. But before he finished, Agnes had made her way over that direction and made a mess over the boxes.
"That's it! That's it! With these, I'll have more than enough to complete the assignment!" Agnes smiled. She couldn't believe that out of so many people she was asking around, her own squad members would be the ones providing this ingredient to her.
"If you still need them, the six of us can..." Hespar continued after moving closer to Agnes. But again, Agnes interrupted him before finishing what he was going to say.
"There are more than enough hearts here! I can easily make eight batches of the Medicinal Tincture from this box. If there's nothing wrong in my concentration, I could at least succeed five out of the eight tries." Agnes said.
The stressful look on her somewhat changed and replaced with a more cheerful-looking face. A smile would always look good on a lady as it made Agnes immediately look brighter and more attractive with a smile on her face.
"In that case, good luck. The six of us will be going out soon. If there's nothing else, you can take the hearts away and continue with your works." Hespar gives out the best smile he has and sends Agnes out of his office.
"Thank you." Agnes happily accepted the box and left with a smile on her face. This was unexpected, as Agnes had no idea she would be getting multiple materials to process today.
(Maybe this leader of mine is not as terrible as I thought...)
Agnes thought and returned to her workshop happily.
...
"Alright. Let's get going. Are we all prepared?" Hespar asked.
"Yes, Sir!" their reaction today was more uniform than before. Evidently, yesterday's experience started to take root in everyone as they began to resemble a team.
The party quickly arrived at the final depth of the Mountain Zone yesterday.
"Today, Foster and Quinn will be with me as the vanguards. Brent and Ashen will stay and protect Stolas. Did I make myself clear?" Hespar asked.
"Yes, Sir!" they collectively respond to him.
The party quickly hunted six Mountain Lizards with much better teamwork than yesterday without facing major issues. But they had no idea something was lurking nearby, waiting for them to fall into the trap.
(Giga... Giya!)
The Mountain Goblins seem to be more disciplined than before. After receiving the report from the scouts above the trees, they quickly scattered and surrounded the party through a few chokepoints.
There are at least a hundred Mountain Goblins, with the three evolved goblins included. There's also a goblin draped with garments of a priest, which seemed to be stolen from somewhere.
(GIYAJI!)
The priest-looking goblin finally gave the order after holding itself from the excitement. The order to mobilize everyone to attack.