Three days had gone by since the banquet and the entire force that Houten had gathered was set up just outside the forr capital city that was now a den of undead monsters.
As the leader of his party, Marcus was currently attending a eting for adventurers that was detailing the attack strategy that would be deployed.
"While the army will do most of the fighting on the open streets and areas that have been cleared of obstruction, you adventurers will be assigned into smaller groups that will eliminate the undead that are hiding in any buildings. In the past sudden ambushes from hidden attackers has halted our progress. But this ti, we shall have all of you to even the field." General Javier Borbon said.
He was the person in charge of coordinating the adventurers with the army.
Previously the third prince was supposed to be the one officially in command, but thanks to his poor actions at the banquet he had been relieved of his position. Pretty much every mithril rank adventurer that had been presented disdained him after what he had done.
The eting continued, and towards the end the floor was opened up to questions.
"If you are worried about surprise attacks from inside buildings, why not just raze them to the ground? Surely a constant bombardnt of high tier spells and powerful ranged skills could level the city." One of the adventurers asked.
Many others seed to agree with him. If the buildings were a problem, then they just needed to take get rid of them.
"That would be fine if we were aiming for total destruction, but do rember, we want to retake the city. Turning it into a pile of rubble would be counterproductive to our goals. Anyway, the undead would not sit by idly as we attempted the bombardnt.
Around a hundred twenty years ago the king at the ti attempted to do so and was t with a fierce rain of attacks that killed over half of Houten's forces at the ti. Clearing out and securing the hundreds of thousands of buildings is one of the main reasons we have brought in you adventurers."
Unlike the army which mainly specialized in large scale battles against other nation's militaries, adventurers were used to fighting in smaller groups in enclosed spaces. Most adventurers spent their ti in dungeons, or hostile untad wildness.
The inside of buildings may have been a bit outside of their normal hunting grounds, but dealing with enemies in confined spaces was often a part of their job.
Once the briefing had ended, several of the general's aids passed out papers detailing the assignnts that each party would receive and the officer who would be acting as their liaison.
'You've got to be kidding !'
When Marcus saw the area his party had been tasked with securing, he knew that it must have been so sort of reprisal. While it was true that Cerdo had been in the wrong, that did not change the fact that he and Mrazivý had embarrassed the entitled prince.
Out of all the places in the city, he and his companions were in charge of clearing out a large part of the forr capital's sewer system.
Almost anyone would consider this to be the worst possible assignnt possible. It would be dank, dark, and devoid of glory. Not to ntion that there were almost certainly so very nasty monsters lurking beath the city. Most undead preferred dark places to bright ones. Though only a few types of undead like vampires and shadows were truly weak to sunlight.
Marcus unfortunately knew that complaining was not going to help him out of this. The military would just say that all assignnts had been random or was tailored to each individual party and the other adventurers would think less of him for trying to get a different mission simply because he got the short end of the straw.
He was not the only one that had been given this area of the sewers, though. Novak's party had as well, giving more evidence that they were being punished.
"Guess we'll be working together for the duration of this job. I know we got a bum position, but I'm glad to know that you'll be having our backs. I can't think of anyone more reliable than you and Mrazivý." Novak said cheerfully.
"Thanks." Marcus responded halfheartedly.
The two of them then t with the officer that would be their army liaison who was at the rank of major.
His na was Leopold, and he looked the party of a well-respected, disciplined military man.
As for his level, Marcus judged him to likely be in the low or mid-thirties. The way he held himself showed that his combat skills were sharp as well. No doubt he had earned his strength rather than having been power leveled.
"So, you are the unlucky parties that received the sewer assignnt. There aren't many details about the area from past operations, but I'll give you what I have." Leopold said, a hint of pity in his eyes.
However, when Marcus and Novak received the information about the part of the sewers that they were ant to clear out, there was almost nothing of worth.
Other than the fact that any scouting party that that had ever ventured into it did not return, there was pretty much no intel. Frankly it seed that they were being sent into a death trap.
"This is not 'many details', this is nothing! We don't know what we're going up against and you're only sending in two parties without any other support!" Novak said, unable to suppress his outrage.
Any adventurer that made it to mithril rank knew that collecting information about where you were going and what you would be up against was paramount. And if the case ca up that you had to go into sothing without any advance knowledge, that ample strength and other preparations were necessary.
"We have an entire city to cover. Personnel is scarce all over. This place may be considered an unknown danger zone, but that is why we are sending in two powerful and accomplished parties with mithril ranks in them. Unless the rumors that a single mithril rank adventurers are worth an entire battalion are untrue, I'm sure that you all will be fine.
In the worst-case scenario, you are permitted to retreat. Just learning what is down there will be a great boon."
Major Leopold told them that he would do what he could to support them, but everything he said was pretty much lip service. This was definitely a punishnt for Marcus and Novak and there was nothing their liaison could really do to help whether he wanted to or not. His rank may not have been low, but he was still just one of many officers following orders.
With nothing else to do but accept the awful assignnt given to them, Marcus and Novak left the command tent and headed back to where their parties were set up. They needed to tell them about what their mission entailed. Early in the morning tomorrow, the operation to reclaim Houten's forr capital would officially begin.
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