As they headed in deeper, the air became even colder. It started to affect the squires as he could notice their movements were slower than usual. Jack felt himself affected as well. In fact, his radar that could usually detect a radius of 300 meters, was reduced to 50 meters as they had deeper. He opened his map and found that the area over 50 meters away from him was covered by grey fog, even for the path that they had just passed through. He realized this place was not as simple as he thought.
After the next battle was finished. He asked Alonzo, “is this cave usually this cold?”
“No, this anomaly started from the depth of this cave. These Ice Trolls started appearing soon, attracted by this cold. The guards had to evacuate the miners and stopped all mining activity. Apart from clearing this cave from monsters, our mission is also to stop the cause of this abnormality.”
Jack nodded.
The other three squires had continued ahead again, completely disregarding Jack. Jack motioned for the other two to follow after the three. There were several mining spots visible along their way, but they were covered by a layer of ice. Jack was not sure if he could perform mining with that ice covering the spots. He didn’t try as their mission was to clear the cave, and it might cause the NPCs to look down on him even more if they saw him trying to mine, so he left the spots alone. Maybe later after the mission was done.
The next wave of monsters was more than the last. He saw that they were starting to have trouble already, when he was about to lend a hand, he noticed a green dot approaching. As his radar was impaired, the one represented by the dot was already close by when he noticed it. But since it was green, he didn’t worry too much.
The green dot turned up as a young man with blonde hair wearing the same blue uniform as Alonzo and the others. He charged and ambushed the monsters from behind, breaking their formation and decreasing the pressure on the five cadets.
“Walter!” Marriet cheered when she saw the one coming to their aid. He was the missing squire who had gone into the cave by himself.
“You are safe now, for I am here!” The cadet called Walter proudly proclaimed.
With the six of them together, the battle became manageable again. The upper hand was slowly shifted to the group of young squires. Not long after, the Ice Trolls were routed.
After the battle was over, the three squires who always ignored Jack went to greet Walter cheerfully.
“You all are lucky I come to your rescue,” the newcomer Walter boasted proudly.
The other three didn’t seem to mind Walter’s cocky disposition, they chatted with them happily. Alonzo and Lindsey on the other hand, stayed behind with indifferent expression. Jack didn’t expect the relationship between these NPCs would be this complex. It was apparent that the latter two didn’t think too highly of this Walter character.
Jack didn’t bother their reunion, he went ahead and picked up the dropped items from the fallen monsters.
“Who the f**k is this clown?” Walter said with an annoyed tone when he saw Jack went around picking things up.
“He is just a nobody,” Marriet answered.
“A low-level nobody,” Teddy added.
“This nobody is our appointed leader,” Alonzo spoke out loud.
“You must be joking, right?” Walter said.
“No, Lieutenant Bailey was the one that appointed him,” Lindsey added.
Walter turned and stared at Jack. “Not only she made us wait for a useless outworlder, but she also appointed him a leader? What the heck is that old hag thinking?” He said with disgust.
“Careful! That’s our commanding officer who you insulted,” Alonzo warned.
“I don’t care who she is. Her status as our trainer will be over once we complete this mission,” Walter said with defiance. “I have had enough of her training. Once I go back to my father, I will request for that hag to be demoted. Placing us under the command of a low-level outworlder, that in itself is an offense against my noble line. But worry not! Now I am here, I will take over command as the leader.”
“No, Lieutenant Bailey had given the order. It is our duty to follow her order!” Alonzo exclaimed.
“You are always such a stickler for rules. Well, you can continue to be a follower if you like to follow orders that much. I for myself will follow my father’s footsteps and join the higher-ups of this kingdom to give out orders instead of following them.”
“You still have to listen to the order of the royal family,” Lindsey exclaimed
Jack was continuing to pick up the dropped items, completely oblivious of their arguments.
“I have no time to argue with you. Come on, follow me. We should finish this mission as soon as possible and end our status as trainees,” Walter said as he started leading the way.
Jack had done picking up all the dropped items. He turned to Alonzo and Lindsey who were not following Walter and said to them, “let’s go.” He then followed behind Walter and the other three squires.
Not far ahead, his radar detected something in the wall. It was marked with a blue marker. He remembered that blue indicated an uncommon grade. So he went to the place with the marker. He saw something in the wall behind a layer of ice. He hit it with the hilt of his sword and the ice broke off. Something fell to the ground with the broken pieces of ice. He inspected with his God-eye monocle and found it to be a Copper Ore, which was an uncommon grade mining material. He was just about to pick it up when he heard a loud yell.
“Do not touch! That is mine!”
Jack was startled by the yell. Before he knew it, a hand had dexterously picked up the Copper Ore. It was Walter. He put it inside his pocket without any qualm.
“It was Mister Storm Wind who found it first!” Lindsey protested.
“This cave belongs to our kingdom, so everything here is ours. Outworlders had no right to it,” Walter retorted.
Jack was not too angry by Walter’s snatching the copper ore, he was more in surprise. The NPCs didn’t show any interest in monsters’ dropped items, but they competed with him when it was something that had already existed in this world. However, he did feel a slight annoyance to Walter’s constant belittling of him.
“You seem like you have something to say to me?” Walter asked with a sneer on his face.
Jack was about to teach the smug punk a lesson when his radar lighted up. Numerous red dots rushed in from the depth of the cave. Because his radar was reduced to one-sixth of its usual coverage, the monsters were already almost upon them when they were detected.
The cadets had also come to know about the incoming monsters from their noises before Jack had the opportunity to warn them. They turned to look into the deeper part of the cave. Mob of Ice Trolls came out from there. The numbers were much more than any other monster waves they had encountered within this cave.
“Crap! They are still chasing?” they heard Walter blurted out.
Alonzo turned to Walter with an incredulous expression, “you drew them here?”
“I was scouting! Of course I would draw something. I just didn’t expect them to be so tenacious. I thought I had lost them and they had given up,” Walter replied, he felt wronged by Alonzo’s statement.
“We have no time to argue, get into formation!” Jack commanded.
“Shut up! You are not our leader here!” Walter exclaimed.
“Everyone, line formation!” Alonzo took over, ignoring Walter’s pettiness.
All the squires immediately get into the formation instructed by Alonzo, including Walter despite his irritation because Alonzo had taken over the leading role instead of him. There were over thirty Ice Trolls in front of them, none of them could afford to take the situation lightly.
The six squires stood in a horizontal line and had their shields held high in front of them. Even Lindsey who had been using her crossbow all this time opted to join the front line and used her shield and sword. They would need to stand together and stopped the swarm’s advance. If they broke through their line and surrounded them, they would be done for.
The Ice Trolls clashed against the six squires’ sturdy shields. The force of the impact pushed them back a few steps. The Ice Trolls themselves possessed little strength, but with their large number marching together, the pushing force was not something to be underestimated.
The Ice Trolls made another push, while the squires were losing their balance. They managed to hold on by supporting each other, but they were losing ground. They had to use all their strength just to defend against the monsters’ battering without having the chance to strike back.
