If the military planned on using guerrilla tactics in order to avoid aggravating the Undead, then the squads had to be strong.
It was unlikely for a Basic mage to take part in this mission as Combat squads. Other than logistics and support every other person was a Intermediate mage or higher.
Ancient Capital military would be unwilling to loose any of them if they had a choice. There maybe even elites with special talents being deployed. Military would make sure of their safety to a certain extent.
In any other mage organisation the average level of the mages were intermediate or higher but for the military it was the primary level. In the military, intermediate mages were already elites in a sense.
Intermediate mages had overcome the first large bottleneck of cultivation. They had two elements are were ready to do missions outside the safe zones. They were valuable assets to the military and made 90% of all Formations and Layering spells the military used.
---
Carp Village was just as unremarkable as the other twenty or so surrounding Ancient Capital. Made of stones or wood and with a thatched roof.
There wasn't much aesthetics or planning in to the position of the buildings. They were surrounded with a fence of Ash Wood, which similarly to Ash Garlic kept Undead away.
Now the village wasn't filled with the monotone noises associated with life in backward village. It was bustling with mages in uniform.
The construction mages had already built a couple of high storied buildings to house every one. Now it was up to the logistics personnel to arrange everything. From where the communal space to the waste bins went.
Then it would be ready to house five hundred or so elites from the intermediate level, who were poured into the missions arrived. All but two things in the village had been changed by Army's obsessive compulsive builders.
One out of necessity, the Ash Wood fence and another out of obligation and old well in the corner of a village. The old chief had put forward the condition that even if military would abandon the village afterwards, these two structures had to remain standing.
What did the army care? It was just a pathetic old man's inexpensive wish. As for the truth it eluded most of them for a decade until a young woman admitted in front the army and president of the Clock Tower magic association the underlying heritage of these backwater villages. But Cao Guang could not have that could he.
A push here and a nudge there and a premature truth came out turning the wheels of time in a precarious manner.
The well had bothered Cao Guang since the moment he arrived at Carp Village. A random poison mage of a village, creates a dreadful poison that could grow and then mumbles a esoteric name minutes before he croaks.
A few hours later a village chief happened to decide that they were going to relocate to a city they had neighboured for millennia.
The odds didn't seem all that likely. The villages weren't bothered by Undead the only thing that would bother them was a drought. A drought of a special substance that had been adequate in a water scarce area for equal amount of time.
Song Xia is who I should bring with me. The other two are far to naive. But do I need to sneak in or do I ask permission.
Cao Guang didn't feel like bothering his teacher for this matter but bothering a combat instructor who was supposedly the incharge of this mission that seemed far easier and logical no doubt.
What reason should I give? Or should I not give any, just voice my suspicions and let their brains do the rest
He had known that smart people were often misled by their rationale and smartness. He had been using this to his maximum advantage.
From prying Little Tora pendant from old man Ying's hand to recieving an apprenticeship offer from Pang Lai. He had let the smart men do their own thinking. Regardless of his suspicions it gave him acess to a resource he planned to steal afterwards anyway.
"Song Xia, I have a task for you in some time. Meet me at the village well in ten minutes won't you?".
Cao Guang went up to Fei Jiao's makeshift office. New power often meant new responsibilities. Fei Jiao got to know of this quite recently.
Cao Guang knocked and entered the Hut.
"Got something for me?" Fei Jiao asked without looking up from his paperwork.
"Just a few questions, why did the villagers decide to move out from here again?"