"What? How could this happen?" Aige stood speechless, letting the precious parcels he carried tumble into the dust. "What happened to all these ruined walls and broken roofs?"
His home village was unrecognizable. Charred wood and collapsed walls lay everywhere. Although there were no corpses, it was clear that some great calamity had befallen the village. On his way here, he had noticed that many fields had been destroyed. Farmers, who had always treasured their land, would never have done such a thing, so the only remaining explanation went without saying...
Sensing that something was wrong, he had hurried the rest of the way, only to find this desolate sight. The entire village had been destroyed, and most of the homes had been burned to the ground... What had happened?
He had been full of joy at the thought of returning home in glory. Now, all he could do was sink to his knees in front of what he thought had once been his home...
"Captain! There seems to be someone up ahead!"
"Go take a look!"
Voices came from the direction of the road outside the village, but Aige, showing signs of a breakdown, did not hear them at first. His later self, however, was a calm and rational person. When he sensed someone approaching, he forced himself out of his boundless sorrow and looked at the uninvited visitors...
A group of regular imperial soldiers! With their standard-issue equipment, swords and shields, and imperial flag, they were clearly regular troops from Northshire! They appeared to be a ten-man squad, with levels ranging from five to eight. Aige could not detect the squad leader's level; a skull and a question mark appeared instead. That meant the squad leader was at least level thirteen (the system could not detect targets more than ten levels above the user unless they chose to display their level). A golden dragon emblem also surrounded the indicator of his identity, setting him apart from the ordinary imperial infantry.
Aige knew what that meant: the squad leader was an elite! His strength was worlds apart from that of an ordinary soldier of the same level! Although he carried the standard shield in his left hand and a one-handed sword in his right, Aige had sensed his strength and did not dare underestimate him in the slightest... Respecting the strong at all times was an essential rule for survival on the continent!
"State your identity, young man." The captain gave a standard imperial military salute, then sternly demanded that Aige identify himself.
"Honored imperial soldiers, I'm from this village. My name is Aige. I've been working in town, but when I returned, I found my old home reduced to ruins, and my family is nowhere to be found!" Aige collected himself and answered without panicking. He had told the truth without a single lie, so he sounded sincere.
"Aige? A civilian from the village? Sigh..." The captain sighed. "I'm Claude, captain of the first squad, fifth battalion, of the regular imperial forces stationed in Northshire. I was temporarily assigned to this area to investigate the Kobolds' sudden attack on a civilian village."
He paused. "I'm sorry, young man. If your family was in this village, then I regret to inform you that all the civilians here were killed by the Kobolds. Not one survived... My condolences!"
"Why aren't there any bodies? I haven't seen a single one. You're lying to me, aren't you?"
He demanded an answer frantically, clinging to a sliver of hope.
"I'm sorry! After my squad and I received word, we joined up with several Priests sent as reinforcements and rushed here, but by then the place had nearly burned down. When we moved in, there were bodies everywhere, along with traces of the Kobolds' atrocities. Because it was such a grievous offense against the heavens, the Priests asked our men to help gather and bury these poor people, and performed basic rites for the dead to give their souls some comfort...
"That was all we could do, and we buried every one of them ourselves. I remember there were 224 bodies. As for the house you're standing at, I remember we recovered three bodies from inside: two men and one woman. Young man, I know you're grieving, but the dead are gone. You still need to stride forward!" Claude patted the unfortunate young man before him on the shoulder and offered what comfort he could.
"Damn it!" The details matched: two men and one woman. They had to be Aige's father, mother, and older brother, which meant they had all perished. His last sliver of hope had been shattered...
"When did this happen?"
"About three or four days ago!" The captain was a decent man and felt quite sorry for the survivor!
"Damn it, why wasn't I here... Damn it all! If I'd been here..."
"Young man, I sympathize with what happened to you, but even if you had been here, I'm afraid there's little you could have done as a mere civilian. These Kobolds are vicious, and they deeply resent humans for encroaching on what they claim as their 'territory.' They hate humans and never leave survivors when they get the chance. If you'd been in this village, I'm afraid there would have been one more body for nothing..." Claude said, trying to console him.
"If I'd been here, I might not have been able to kill all the Kobolds, but at least I could have dealt with some of them..." With that, Aige conjured a small fireball in his hand, ready to launch.
"Huh? A mage? You're a mage?" Claude asked loudly, pleasantly surprised. "I never expected you to be a rare mage! Would you be willing to enlist? If you are, I can write you a letter of recommendation. For my sake, the battalion commander will surely assign you to my squad to patrol the surrounding area. That way, you might have a chance to use the empire's military strength to avenge your family!"
Claude was clearly trying to entice him! Mages were rare, and they attacked from range with magic. His current squad consisted entirely of melee soldiers. If he could add a mage-not more, just one would do-it would raise the squad's strength by more than one tier and let them complete special missions they had previously been unable to handle. That was why he valued mages so highly. But too few mages were willing to enlist, and his first squad had not been assigned even one. Now that he had found one, he was delighted and hoped to use their acquaintance to recruit his first mage. He could not help taking it seriously...
Aige shook his head! Enlist? Impossible! That would severely restrict his freedom and make it impossible to do many of the things he wanted. It was not in his personal interest...
"No plans to enlist? What a shame! Won't you think it over, young man? If you're willing to join our squad, I promise I'll make helping you get revenge on the Kobolds a priority!" He still would not give up...
"No! I have no plans to enlist! My mentor wants me to return to the mage tower to continue my training after some time, so I can only thank you for the offer!" Aige made up an excuse to brush him off!
"Oh! Your mentor has plans for you, so I overstepped! That's all right; I have no problem with it! But as for the Kobolds... You see, our squad is responsible for patrolling this area and protecting more civilians, so we can't abandon our post. You're a powerful mage, so could you take a mission from me? I need you to clear out some Kobold laborers in Echo Ridge. You only need to use your spells to deal with some Kobolds and obtain eight candles from them, then come to my outpost to turn in the mission. I can give you a reward: fifty copper coins and a standard-issue one-handed sword. How about it?"
"A one-handed sword? What would I do with that?" He wanted to take the mission, but wasn't the reward a bit of a rip-off?
Claude gave an embarrassed chuckle. "This mission was originally open to all freelance mercenaries. As you know, they're mostly Warriors, and we have a surplus of the reward here! You're a mage, so naturally you wouldn't think much of a one-handed sword, but we can't offer a standard-issue magic staff as a reward! I see you don't have a weapon, so make do with it. If it doesn't suit you, it's still worth a few copper coins if you sell it. The empire places no restrictions on that sort of thing, so you can dispose of it however you like. I offered you the mission because I thought you were well suited to it. What do you say? Will you accept?"
"Honestly, even without your mission, I'd still be avenging my family. I'll take it! Of course I'll accept!" Aige said fiercely.
System notification: Accepted the mission to clear out Kobold laborers. Obtain at least eight candles dropped by Kobolds. Upon completion, you will receive fifty copper coins, a standard-issue one-handed sword, and experience equal to one-quarter of the amount required to advance from your current level. In addition, when turning in the mission, you can obtain one random one-star white card from the Book of Hearthstone. This mission can be abandoned!
Ah... Praise the great system god! Not only were there rewards out in the open, there was also a substantial experience reward. The mission itself was even one way to accumulate cards for the Book of Hearthstone. It seemed he could not casually pass up any mission in the future...
Come on! Young Master Aige secretly clenched his fist, cheering himself on... The gesture made Claude think the young man was steeling his resolve for revenge, and his favorable impression of him grew considerably. What a pity that esteemed mages never liked joining the army to temper themselves, always preferring to stay in their mage towers or some other dark corner. Could counting crickets make them stronger? Hmph...
"Considering your special circumstances, as a ranged mage, I can assign you two shield-bearing Warriors to command and protect you. But you'll have to sign an agreement promising not to disregard their lives for your own selfish interests! If you're willing to pay twenty copper coins, I can send two of my finest, strongest Warriors with you. That way, you'll be able to complete this mission very easily. Of course, the coins can be deducted from your mission reward; you don't need to pay cash. What do you say?"
To put it plainly, Claude was offering him a favor. For a mere twenty copper coins-just ten per person-he could have two powerful tank Warriors join him. To other mages, it might have seemed like a windfall.
But given Aige's special circumstances, it held no appeal at all. He had three even better, more powerful tanks, so there was no need to spend money hiring two Warriors who would only weigh him down...