Explaining Tasks

Sure enough, once an hour elapsed, Xander and co left the tent, and Sparrow was already waiting for them, her eyes scrutinizing the large tent with barely restrained judgment.

When they came out, she simply gestured for them to follow, and they came beside her own tent where there was a table and chairs, the members of her squad waiting. And on the table, there was a map.

"Y’all should sit down." She gestured to the empty seats that had been left for them, and they all sat... except Mia, who had settled for curling on Xanders lap. Keir and Mary had also settled on his shoulders once more.

Some looks were thrown at Mia, but no one seemed keen on pointing out the strangeness.

"Alright, first thing’s first. I’d like you guys to state your roles in your team, then we will do ours, and things will go on from there." Hearing this, the squad glanced at each other, then Xander spoke.

"Vanguard and damage dealer." Taking that as a signal, the other spoke.

"Damage dealer."

"T-Tank and support."

"Scout and strategist." The rest introduced.

"What about her?" The inconspicuous Zeke spoke.

’Well crap.’ Falael cringed through the mental link.

"She’s... ambiguous. We can’t really say much about her." Xander smiled awkwardly and scratched his neck, hoping the answer would satisfy them.

It did not.

"Look, kid. We know you’re not half bad, and we can guess the rest of you aren’t either, but we gotta know what we’re dealing with if we want this arrangement to work." The older Nash spoke, and his words were met with nods.

’We could just lie.’ Aubrey suggested.

’They’ll know. How troublesome...’ Just as Xander was considering how to answer the question, Mia let out a soft yawn before snapping her fingers.

The moment she did, Sparrow, along with everyone on her team, blinked a few times, then Sparrow spoke.

"Moving on, I’m support. Ragna is our Vanguard and tank. Bodhi is our damage dealer, Zeke is our scout, and Nash is control and support." Hearing her suddenly continue speaking like the previous question wasn’t asked, and how none of her teammates found an issue with it, Xander and the rest were genuinely terrified for a moment.

’Mary... did you notice anything?’ He asked quickly, and the spirit’s voice came through clearly yet obviously concerned.

’I... noticed a brief fluctuation of mana. But it was so minute it could easily be mistaken for a slight change in the atmosphere. How did she...?’ Mary trailed off, and the group collectively added another reason for why Mia was absolutely terrifying.

"... O-Okay. So our roles overlap a little bit." Xander cleared his throat and spoke so as to avoid suspicion, and Sparrow nodded at his words.

"Correct, which should make things slightly easier." She then gestured to the map which everyone looked at, and it was a map of Landor from above along with the surrounding terrain for a few hundred miles.

She pointed at three points.

"These are the main causes of concern for Landor. All of them face the East somewhat, and if one were to follow them long enough, they would eventually end up at the hell gate." Hearing this, Curtis mused.

’... It must be pretty far away if it not even on a map this big.’

’Is that surprising? Considering how dangerous hell gates are, a distance of a few hundred miles might as well not be there. In short, Landor wouldn’t exist if it was that "close" to it.’ Aubrey explained.

Sparrow continued.

"The first point is simply called the ravine. It stretched from dozens of miles and is half that wide. The mountainous terrain around it naturally filters in anything that wants to pass into that point, making it especially saturated with demonic beasts and their nests. In terms of sheer quantity, it possesses the highest number of monsters, but it’s also fairly easy to defend due to there only being one opening to be attack from. Demonic beasts leave it regularly, but every so often, the number within reaches a critical level and they come spilling out in a tide. To avoid that, we need to regularly clean up the beasts so their population doesn’t rise past a certain level." She gave a detailed explanation of the first location.

"It’s pretty tedious, all things considered, but when you have the strategy down, it’s not all that dangerous." Ragna said gruffly as he tossed one of his axes up and down.

"Hm, that’s not too bad?" Mumbled, which earned him strange looks from his teammates.

’How is that not too bad? It’s literally a breeding ground for hordes of demonic beasts.’ Falael raised a brow.

’Well, yeah. But the ravine acts as a perfect chokepoint. Only one way in and one way out. From a purely defensive standpoint, that’s perfect.’ Xander replied calmly, and Falael clicked their tongue but didn’t press the issue.

After that, Xander gestured for Sparrow to continue, and she went on, pointing to the next point.

"We call here the catacombs. A vast network of underground caves that house a number of ant-type demonic beasts. There’s also a lot of them, but each one is weak individually." She started, but that made Xander frown.

"Isn’t that extremely problematic?" His question was met with a raised brow from Sparrow in response.

"If they swarm you or you get lost, yes. But they are quite reclusive and prefer to stay there. Still, they were deemed a latent threat, so again, it’s a matter of periodically clearing out their numbers." Xander leaned back into his chair.

"What about soldier ants? What you’re describing only sounds like the workers. Also how vast does this network go? Is there any worry of the ants burrowing this way underground? What about the queen? Does anyone know her position? How long has this colony existed?" Xander rapid fired questions, and Sparrow looked taken aback, same as everyone on her squad. Heck, even the members of his squad were a bit surprised.

"That’s... the information we have about them isn’t extremely detailed as, like I said, they are largely reclusive. Higher-ups judged that there’s no extreme need to antagonize them, so it’s more cleanup work than anything. But it’s been a few years since it was first discovered." When he heard this, Xander genuinely just stared at her. But Nash chimed in.

"They’re just bugs, kid." He shook his head, and Xander nearly flipped the table.

’... They genuinely cannot be this stupid, right?’ He thought inwardly.

’What’s the big issue? They’re just ants.’ Falael said, trying to sound nonchalant, but the group had reached a level of cohesion where they understood that one member being worried about something meant it wasn’t very simple.

’I mean... I heard ants can expand rapidly, is that what he’s worried about?’ When he heard that, Xander instantly understood what the issue was.

’Knowledge of certain creatures isn’t as widespread here as opposed to earth.’ Xander clicked his tongue inwardly. After all, the primary focus was magic and demonic beasts, or just monsters in general. Ants rarely ever fell under that category, so not much attention was given to them. People just knew they existed.

Moreover, considering magic like pest repellent was extremely widespread among human cities, ants were hard to find, so it was no wonder they didn’t understand just how horrific an ant colony when left unchecked could become...

Especially if the colony consisted of demonic ants that had been left unchecked for YEARS!!!

"... I see. Proceed." Xander eventually said, mentally deciding to go and find the captain once this meeting was over.

At this point, Sparrow could already tell that something was off, while the remaining members of her squad looked either confused or mildly annoyed.

Regardless, she went on.

"... Right. Finally, we have the Azure Plains." She gestured to the last area which was very... blue.

This time, her expression turned a bit serious.

"Around a decade ago, this place was used as farmland by citizens of Landor who lived outside its walls. However, an especially powerful demonic beast called the Azure Tree arrived and settled. It spread its roots and took control of all the surrounding vegetation, slowly growing its range of influence." At this, Nash’s expression darkened.

"You can think of that whole region as its body. Its vitality is absurd, and it’s almost impossible to reach its main body, as the moment you enter that field, you’re effectively in its domain." He said with a click of his tongue.

"It’s attacks are especially insidious as well. Like normal plants, it can spread by releasing pollen into the air which takes root and connects with the rest of the mass. And if a person inhales them, well..." The unspoken words were obvious.

"We have wind mages around the clock ensuring the pollen doesn’t spread. Then people with fire magic constantly burning the edges to push it back." She pointed some distance away, and the group turned to see billowing smoke that was endlessly rising.

"So a very intense battle of attrition, huh?" Xander mumbled before asking.

"Wait, how far away is the main body? It’s probably been tried before, but couldn’t have a mage with powerful long range abilities strike it from a distance?" At that, Sparrow shook her head.

"The issue is that the thing both has incredible vitality and utterly absurd defenses. Even if you managed to get close and hit it with a high-ranking fire spell, it could just regenerate from all its controlled territory. If you even break past its defenses in the first place." Zeke huffed at that.

"Even with all the burning, its still slowly claiming more territory. We’ve requested the aid of a high-ranking mage multiple times, but we usually get hit with the same responses over and over. So we can only cope and slow down its advance as much as possible." He closed his eyes and leaned in his chair.

"So, there you have it. There are three primary points that need to be kept in check. Each point is looked after by a rotation of squads which changes every half day you lot happened to arrive on the day our squad has no rotations. But we have one first thing tomorrow. Understood?" She asked, and Xander slowly looked away from the map and nodded.

"Understood."

"Good." Sparrow nodded in return and stood.

"You’ll follow our lead when the time comes. So, until then... I suppose you can continue to get used to this place. If you need help with something, meet one of us." With that, she rolled up the map and walked into her tent.

’Hm.’ Xander closed his eyes and thought to himself.

’Landor... might actually be screwed.’