Year 2, Winter, Third Month, First Week.

Samia look back and realized her two comrades were lagging behind again, her expression didn’t change but she was mentally sighting. Maybe it would be better to form the scouting team alone, even the people from her old team couldn’t keep up with her. When she was the only one with the lightening boots, the delay was acceptable but the other two had the same equipment as her.

In the dreadful meeting when the Council decided to stop and make camp, they also decided to give her the task of leading the scouting team. The nomination made sense since her old team had been the best at moving silently and launching ambushes. The idea was to use the wind horses they caught a few months back to increase their speed and cover, but they were still struggling to train beasts.

Since they started scouting two weeks ago, the small team of three covered a 20  kilometers radius to the west of the camp, from where the Kingdom forces could appear, and fortunately, they didn’t found anything. Each day they would advance another kilometer and move around the new perimeter to identify possible threats. Before coming, the Alchemy Department adapted a removable part in the locator so they could change pieces and identify both MQ beasts and Kingdom forces. Although they located a MQ beast 12 kilometers from their new camp, after monitoring its position for two days, they concluded the beast was probably hibernating since it didn’t move.

The scouting job was actually easy, the only difficulty was moving fast and facing the harsh winter, but the water-infused meat and the small heating circle were helping with that. In Samia’s case, her biggest challenge was waiting for the two slower hunters. Another fortunate thing was that none of the three hunters was experiencing magic poisoning yet. Thanks to the portable barrier, they could sleep through the night without fearing the beasts while processing the magic energy absorbed into their bodies. The night rest, the large amount of detoxifying herbs, the Runes in their coats and equipment all helped to prevent the magic poisoning, but they would sooner or later start feeling the effects

Today they decided to hunt some beasts since their meat ended a couple of days ago, but they still had to finish their daily search, which meant checking two other locations. Aside from being terribly cold, winter was the ideal time to train in the wild. With fewer beasts running around, small teams could improve their abilities and techniques.

When they counted another kilometer, Samia stopped and took out the locator while the defender and archer watched over the perimeter. First, she checked for MQ beasts, she waited for three minutes and the absence of movement in the magic reader confirmed another area free of MQ beasts. Then, she replaced the removable Array for the one that locates metal and activated the tool, the first reading came in less than two seconds, which was expected since they also use metal, enemy readings would come at least 20 seconds later.

Samia counted the seconds as she prayed for the Origin to bless then yet one more time. The reader shined and the stone started to move, making the attacker almost drop the whole thing. The stone slowly moved upward as Samia struggled to accept the result until it stopped in the W mark, indicating the presence of someone approximately 800 kilometers in the western direction, probably near the river. After confirming the result two times, she was finally able to accept it and tell her comrades the bad news. Now, it was time to report it back to the camp, they just started to recover and now they would have to start moving again.

After scolding the two depressed hunters for being distracted, she put away the locator and took out the magic communicator. The tool had a wooden handle connected to a thin metal rod. Samia breathed again and pressed the activation Array while pointing the tool towards the camp direction. The Arrays shined but the metal rod didn’t display the lightning effect, so she kept moving the tool until sparks appeared. It was oddly comforting to known the exact direction of the camp. Then, she released the activator and observed as the sparks blinked through the air, she repeated the action to transmit the bad information. She counted two minutes and repeated the two sendings that indicated they identify someone with weapons.

Samia looked at the other hunters and they both nodded in agreement. Now they would need to approach the supposed enemy to confirm as much as they could. They carefully walked one hundred meters in the western direction and used the tool again. It pointed to a close direction but this time she counted approximately 700 meters, which meant the other party was moving slowly in the direction of the river. Although the target wasn’t moving directly towards their camp, it was still getting closer to them, so Samia’s team decided to approach it faster.

After moving forward 500 meters while repeating the locating process three more times, the team finally found the target. Samia asked the other two members to stay back and keep watch while she carefully moved closer to better identify the other party. Taking cover behind the trees, she kept moving until she was finally able to see them better. The group of ten didn’t look like the spies that approach them neither the Guards from section towers.

Through the thin snow, Samia vaguely identified two robed figures, which should be Mages, probably fire and wind Mages if their rob color was to be trusted. While the other members of the group were dressed in either light armor or seemingly thick coats. Most of the non-robed figures were holding packs or weapons. Judging by their numbers and equipment, Samia suspected they could be the Mercenaries or Adventurers Lew described. However, she would have to follow them to confirm it. The Council placed the decision to retreat or follow the potential enemy entirely on her hands. She would have to evaluate the risk decided if it was worth it.

She stealthily moved back and discussed the situation with her team. The possibility of the group not being their enemies brought a little light to the hunters’ eyes, so they decided to try following the team and confirming their purpose. Samia took the communicator tool and repeated the signals that indicated the target could be non-enemy forces and that she would follow them. The most complicated part was indicating their numbers, she had to be very careful to don’t confuse the signals, but fortunately, everything worked out, or so she hopped.

The team continued to follow the group for the rest of the day, thankfully, they stopped and made a camp after they met a group of white wolves. Watching another team fight the beasts was a novel experience to Samia, the group with weapons wasn’t much better than their hunters, but the Mages look very powerful, Samia was especially impressed with the fire Mage spells. She finally understood how unprepared they were to face the Kingdom.

After reporting back to the camp, they erected their barrier and rested almost one kilometer away from the supposed Adventurer/Mercenary group. Since they could locate them, it would be better to keep a safe distance. Samia pushed away the worries and quickly fell asleep, now it was up to the Council to decide what to do.