TBATE Rogue

Chapter 11

Alea Triscan POV

"Day Three in the mission," I started to write in my journal, "Still without any trace of The Syndicate after all this time. The Council had ordered me and assigned more than 50 mages, all experienced in various branches and roles, to help me find those bastards who much highly are hiding deep here underground."

"With every hour passing, I have the impression I am closer and closer to catch them but maybe, in reality, it's the complete opposite. It feels like I am going in circles. There is still this problem about communication with the ones at the surface. For an odd reason, no equipment we have, including the two-way scrolls, is working. No one knows why." I still had so much to write about it but for a reason, I lost interest in continuing.

Pretty much what I wrote, because of all these factors that I hadn't foreseen, I forced myself to write a journal with everything that happened, at least what's most relevant.

We, me and a team formed of more than 50 mages made of humans, dwarves, and elves, went deep inside Beast Glades in search of The Syndicate's operational bases. By consulting some maps, we must be somewhere near an AA-rank dungeon called Blind's Graveyard, also very close to another Dungeon called Widow Cript.

It says that the definition of craziness is when you do the same task, over and over again, and at the end of it, you expect something different to happen. This is how my mental state is at this very moment, on the verge of going numb and wild. Luckily, I heard a voice in the distance that snapped me back to reality.

"Lance Alea! Over here, please!" a soldier called my name, trying to show what he had found out. I flew at them, carefully above the other tens of men to inspect.

"Lance Alea, please take a look," the soldier, a tall human man whose facial features couldn't be identified because he was wearing an iron helmet, pointed with his index finger at the dirt path under his feet.

"Beasts footprints," I said matter of factly but also with a hint of boredom. I mean, we are in a cave system that connects a multitude of dungeons full of mana beasts, so it was kind of obvious to meet these. Also, there is not our first such discovery. "You have called me for only this?"

"No, of course not, Lance Alea," he excused himself, waving his hands in the air so I don't get the wrong idea, somehow. I tried to fly back to where I was with the leader of my search team but was fast to complete his report. "Between the footprints, we have found traces of boots and other footwear. There is no mistake, we are sure of it."

I took a closer look at where the soldier was pointing. There were indeed some odd marks between the giant prints of what mana beasts horde was passing before our arrival but nothing convinced me. I raised an eyebrow at the soldier, "How sure you are? There might be another beast that could walk between it. We shouldn't rush with such little pieces of evidence."

"One moment please, Lance Alea, if you can," another voice called me. Turning around I was met with one of the few women who were asinged with me in this mission by the council. She was almost my height, with a 4 or less centimeters shorter, with blonde hair caught in a bun and green eyes behind a pair of glasses.

"My name is Maria Starfrost, a dual elemental augmenter in the wind and water magic and -" she salutes me first, but I brush her off with a 'get-to-the-point' wave hand. "Right, my apologies. My specialization is Mana Beast Research and Analyst Patterns. I was specially designated in your team to search, report, and identify any little mana beasts' sign of activity," this got me a little interest in her words so I paid some attention.

"The beasts that I recognized in those footprints are Stone-Eaters Minions, Blind Bears, Arcane Boars, Obsidian Golems, and Whispering Tigers," she listed all these mana beasts' names, showing me their respective footprints. "So?" I question her.