After dealing with the ice goblins, Iron moved hurriedly. He did not even give his soldiers time to rest. He knew that the battle must have been very exhausting but he still ordered his soldiers to move quickly. The soldiers also had complaints in their hearts but they did not voice it out. They just moved silently under Iron’s guidance. They knew full well that staying in this place would make them a prime target for ice goblins later. It wasn’t a place that they could stay in any longer so they had to move regardless of their tiredness.

“Where are we going?” 

“We’ll first go to the snow goblins’ territory.”

“Are we doing it just like we did earlier?” 

“That’s right. We’ll have to do this crazy method for at least a week. That’s the only way that we can find a gap to move.” 

Corporal Charles looked at Iron in doubt. He had an inkling that agitating and inducing a fight between the monsters were not their main task.

“Do we have another mission?” 

Iron glanced at him for a moment. He was surprised at how quick-witted Charles was. He pondered for a while. He was thinking if he should explain it or not. In the end, all Iron could do was sigh as he opened his mouth.

“That’s right. The conflict between the monsters is not our main purpose.” 

“Are… Are we looking for something?” 

“Something similar.” 

Iron stopped walking as he turned around and stared at the soldiers.

“Curious?” 

Everyone gulped when they heard Iron’s question. They admit that they were all curious but for some reason they felt like they shouldn’t ask for more and dig any more deeper.

Iron grinned when he saw them with conflicting expressions. 

“We’re looking for traces of dimensional cracks.”

“Yes?”

“Literally what I said. We are confirming if there is a sign of a monster wave. That’s our real purpose for coming here.”

Corporal Charles looked dumbfounded, from all of the answers that he was hoping to hear, he did not expect that something like that would come out of Iron’s mouth. Even the other corproals were shocked dumb at the words that they heard.

Fear, trepidation and tension started to appear on the soldiers’ faces when they heard the words monster wave coming out of Iron’s mouth. It was just the other day when they were wondering if there was something wrong about this mission that they were supposed to pioneer. But it seemed like they had been moving at the forefront of a mission that was both extremely important and extremely dangerous. A level of difficulty that was far higher than what they had initially expected.

Just the other day, they felt like something was wrong when they heard that they would pioneer a new mission. But it seemed like they were at the forefront of a far more dangerous and extremely important mission than what they had initially expected. 

“What we’re looking for are monsters that have just the tiniest bit of contamination from dimensional cracks.”

“Then, does this mean that our platoon is in danger?”

The other corporals also nodded their heads when they heard Corporal Charles’ question. 

Generally, monsters that have been contaminated by polluted mana from dimensional cracks would be strengthened and would show a force that was several times higher than their usual power. And if the monsters had been exposed longer, their mutations would develop and progress further giving them far stronger powers.

The normal monsters in the Winter Mountains were already dangerous enough. And if they were going to deal with contaminated monsters, then they were sure that more than half of their platoon would be seriously injured if not dead. 

“That’s why we have to search for the monsters that are generally in the outskirts of their territories. We can’t go to the center anyway. Doing that will provoke an all-out war between humans and monsters.”

Iron continued to speak as he stared at his soldiers.

“We might just be going through the outskirts but it’s necessary that we stir up trouble and agitate the monsters. Only when they are in conflict with each other will we be able to find the contaminated monsters. Compared to what you have experienced so far, everything will be extremely difficult. Be prepared.”

“Yes, sir!”

The soldiers answered Iron loudly with a determined look on their faces. Iron looked at his men with satisfaction when he saw their firm will. 

And from that day, Iron, who was covered with the blood of the monsters, stimulated and agitated the monsters in the Winter Mountains’ dangerous areas by slaughtering the goblins and other monsters like a madman.

***

The dangerous areas of the Winter Mountains was a place that even the special search unit was reluctant to enter. In fact, the military wanted to maintain the status quo but the high-ranking people did not want to cause problems by themselves by poking the hornet’s nest for no reason at all. Perhaps this was the reason why they were all so reluctant to enter the dangerous areas of the Winter Mountains. 

Platoon missions. Company missions. Battalion missions. Even with all these missions, none of them dared to touch that place unless something big happened. But right now, an outpost leader was poking the hornet’s nest. They assumed that since this was the outpost leader’s first outing to eat jjambap, he unintentionally touched the hornet’s nest. 

Naturally, all the other outpost leaders were complaining. However, the 2nd company commander kept his mouth shut even though the 4th outpost leader was an officer under his command. But, even though he kept his mouth shut, he still couldn’t understand what was going through the young outpost leader’s head. 

At first he thought that he was overdoing it to make his merits and deeds stand out but that wasn’t the case at all. This was because he had seen that they were thoroughly going through the boundary of the outskirts of the dangerous area while stimulating the monsters. But what was even crazier was the fact that the search unit commander had approved this mission completely.

 “What does this mean? Isn’t he stimulating the monsters for no reason at all?”

“This is the reason why our troops are being affected, right?”

“Someone file a complaint to the search unit commander!”

“A few days have already passed!”

The other officers were also in support of stopping Iron’s crazy operations through their connections. At first, only the 1st company commander was dissatisfied. It was only natural since the monsters that had been stimulated had been making things difficult for their company. However, the dissatisfaction slowly spread towards the other outpost leaders. 

This was because they were causing trouble not only in the ice goblins’ territory but even the other goblin territories including the snow goblins and the white goblins. They kept on poking one place after the other. But the cherry on top that made them explode in anger was when they also stirred up the anger of the frost bears. As a result, the nearby silver wolves had been stimulated to fight too. And now, the dangerous areas had been turned into an open field of mayhem. 

And because of this, the other outpost leaders became dissatisfied. It was not only the 1st company commander’s outposts that were placed in danger. Even the other outposts had been placed in danger. 

Naturally, the 1st company commander wouldn’t sit still as he watched this unfold. He immediately sent a letter of protest to the 2nd company commander. But the 2nd company commander avoided responsibility and said that this was under the direct command of the search unit commander. 

Receiving this reply from the 2nd company commander, the 1st company commander was given a justification to visit the special search unit commander. He confidently moved forward. After all, even the 2nd company commander was openly showing his dissatisfaction with the 4th outpost leader’s behavior. 

“It’s been a long time.”

Captain Paulo saluted stiffly when Special Search Unit Commander Carl Gustav greeted him with a smile.

“Sit down. Bring two cups of tea over here.”

An officer quietly went outside and closed the door after hearing the special search unit commander’s words. 

“Alright. Why did you come to find me?”

“It’s because of the 4th outpost leader.”

“Hmm…”

Gustav frowned when he heard 1st Company Commander Paulo’s words.

“Because of the platoon mission?”

“That’s right. The 4th outpost leader is stimulating the monsters under the pretext of the platoon mission. That’s why the 1st company’s outpost leaders are dissatisfied.”

“Isn’t that the reason why the 4th outpost leader had to explain? I could have sworn that you already know?”

Captain Paulo’s face hardened when he heard Gustav’s answer.

“Yes. But that doesn’t make sense at all. They said that they were stimulating the monsters to investigate their numbers and the changes in the areas for any monster invasion. But there wasn’t any sufficient evidence.”

“That might be the case as of now, but it’s true that the monsters have been showing abnormal behaviors in recent years. We need to investigate.”

“It’s at a level that can happen occasionally. If you look at it on a yearly basis, you can see that there isn’t that much difference from the previous years. The entire search battalion cannot take any risks just because of those small changes.”

Hearing Captain Paulo’s words, Gustav remained silent. However, he looked at him firmly as he raised the teacup that the officer had brought over.

Captain Paulo thought that the special search unit commander was struggling with his thoughts since he remained silent. So he opened his mouth again to bring him back to the topic at hand. 

“I know that there’s an abnormality in the Northeast but I think that this response is too much for that small change.”

“Is that what you think?”

“Yes! You have to call for the 4th outpost leader right now!”

Gustav rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment when he heard Captain Paulo’s words. 

“You should wait for now.”

“Yes? But…”

“Wait.”

The special search unit commander made Captain Paulo shut up with just a word as he looked at the clock with his chin on his hands. He looked like he was waiting for something.

Seeing this, Captain Paulo couldn’t help but tilt his head in confusion. It was because he did not know what the hell they were waiting for. He knew that he would have been sent out already if this was something personal or it was unrelated to him but he was sure that this was related to the situation at hand since he was allowed to stay here. 

After experiencing about 10~30 minutes of uncomfortable silence…

“Special Search Unit Commander!”

“Is it the 2nd Company Commander?”

“Yes, sir. There was a red flare!”

Hearing the officer’s report, Gustav removed his hand from his chin as he stared at the 1st company commander. 

“Is it… the 4th outpost leader…?”

“That’s right. It’s a request for help.”

“Damn it! I knew it! The 4th outpost leader has driven the soldiers to a fire pit!”

When Captain Paulo spoke foul words, Gustav frowned and gave the 1st company an order.

“The 1st Company Commander should gather all of his company members right now to dispatch to the dangerous areas. We will commence the battalion missions from now on.”

“Yes?”

Captain Paulo stared at Gustav with a dumbfounded look when he heard his orders. He felt strange when the battalion missions were launched instead of a support mission for the 4th outpost leader.

“The operation name is Winter Mountains Search. The 2nd company will take the lead while the 1st and 3rd companies will act as support.”

“That… What do you mean…”

“I meant what I said. The 4th outpost leader had done a great job in doing the order that I gave him. So I will be launching the battalion mission as the battalion commander.” 

“B… But the dangerous areas…”

“Are you disobeying my orders?”

Captain Paulo’s body stiffened when Carl Gustav gave him a hard and cold look. This result was inevitable since Gustav’s momentum was beyond the 5th Stage. His force could easily tie him up and make him choke on his seat. 

“No, sir!”

“Then follow my orders right away!”

“Yes, sir!”

Captain Paulo immediately went outside when he saw Carl Gustav’s cold expression. 

“Operations’ officer.”

“Yes, Battalion Commander!”

“Is there no news from the 2nd company?”

“There’s none sir!”

The special search unit commander nodded lightly as an answer to the officer and beckoned him to leave. Gustav sat on his chair with his legs crossed as soon as the door closed. 

“Did I expect too much?”

Carl Gustav looked disappointed. 

This achievement was already a huge one but this could only be considered as huge at the level of an outpost leader. He had hoped that his mission as a Ghost would pay off tremendously but it seemed like he was thinking too much. 

“Well. if we search then we’ll find it. My pride is probably hurt because I put too much trust into a young officer…”

Carl Gustav gulped down his tea before standing up and preparing for battle. 

While the special search unit commander launched the battalion mission to answer the support request that was fired by the 4th outpost leader, Iron, the person who requested the support, was still busy looking for something in the dangerous area. 

“Hoo… My goodness, it’s so hard to find.”

Corporal Charles approached the mumbling Iron, who was looking at the snow-covered peak.

“Are you looking for something?”

“That’s right.”

“But if it’s about the traces of the dimensional crack, didn’t we find it already?”

“Not that one. I’m talking about something else.”

Iron said this as he looked at the distant scenery in the Winter Mountains. There, he could see the figure, which was much clearer now than before, staring back at him. The figure, which resembled a bird, continued to stare at him as it guided the way forward. 

He had followed and chased the goddamn bird and ended up all the way here. Unfortunately, a lot of his soldiers received injuries ranging from light to fatal during the process.

Of course, their sacrifices weren’t in vain. They had finally secured enough evidence to prove that there were signs of a monster wave in this place. They were able to successfully find traces of deterioration caused by contaminated mana from the monster corpses that they have gathered after dealing with the snow goblins, white goblins, snow foxes, giant white bears and ice trolls countless times.

At first glance, one would assume that these traces were nothing significant. However, Iron was convinced that the dimensional crack was the reason why he felt that strange energy. Considering the fact that this energy that he felt always accompanied misfortune in his previous life, he was sure that this was truly caused by a dimensional crack that would cause a monster wave. Especially when he clearly felt the energy from the monster corpses.

“I think we need to split from here?” 

“Yes?” 

Charles was flustered when Iron suddenly talked about splitting ways. 

***

Notes

[Operations’ officer] – officers that manages the operations of a military command and looks after the mission operations. Afaik, they’re in charge of planning.