All the members of Logan’s division sat talking all around. Among them were many who were grinning at their adventurer card. An ID, a true identity authorized by the adventurers guild was something none of these monsters thought possible.

One special thing about an adventurer ID is that such people are protected from any attempts at slavery. That is why close to 100% of all monster race inhabitants and their families register and spend time adventuring. They do it for the protection that the guild provides. Of course, the guild is only so powerful but there are even more powerful governing bodies.

Although the guild masters are generally A rank, the guild actually has very few S ranks. In fact, there are only 2 officially known S ranks in the entire organization of the adventurers guild itself, as in an actual employee or guild master.

Naturally there are adventurers who are S rank but many of them have ties to their home nation.

Despite the size of the guild, they still aren’t an immovable body not like the Great Empire that has a scary number of S ranks. Their 10 generals are all S rank and then you have the royal knights, the weaker members are all B rank and the many captains A ranks. The emperor’s personal guard, number 50 men, were all S rank, showing the financial power of the empire to raise so many such men.

Of course, this did not compare to the Golden Lion in their prime, every main base in the ancient order possessed no less than 20 S ranks in each base. This goes to show how serious the situation had been for the 4th grandmaster when he was the last S rank of his time.

As for the current location, the division was on an airship rented solely for the movement of the division to just south of Shiarus’s south border. There were a total of nearly 20 monster groups alone in this nation and resolving their problems would garner not only reputation but also money.

The bounty for the most dangerous groups was a hefty sum going up into the hundred thousands. They were extremely good at hiding and they attacked a lot of trade routes causing immense financial losses. The merchants guild put up bounties in the mercenary and adventurers guilds to deal with this months ago but all attempts had been failures because the leading figures seem to be extremely cautious.

Although the members of the division seemed calm and casual, this was just because many were on break, instead below, a number of them were constantly at work, processing their mana and channeling it through their swords to open their channels using the large quantity before upgrading to the completely processed F rank.

Among other things, Storm was spending time with the lizardmen who gained his bloodline and had begun to teach them how to battle and use their natural abilities.

Similar to Storm, they now ate lightning and they all gained his green lightning and were in the process of trying to adapt. Of course, they were trying to adapt to the purple lightning as well, it was not their natural bloodline and their bodies lacked a great deal of development in lightning resistance.

Still, Storm began to teach them to form lightning orbs and basic lightning clad for their swords.

Everyone had seen Logan demonstrate this simple skill through Arashi and the destruction it caused when that compressed lightning touched something.

Not to mention that their speed would go up when using the clad.

Jade on the other hand, pulled the many mage type races and had begun a more indepth tutoring into magic to allow them to not be stuck with just their element affinity. The golden lion mana used all forms of mana so they would definitely be able to use all types though could specialize in just one. Logan was a clear example of a Lightning Swordmage who could use all elements thanks to the spell techniques.

As for Logan, he was channeling E rank mana through Arashi. The mana was already at the base of the blade and during the last of the trip he finished.

Arashi shined brightly when it finished and mana began to flow naturally. Particularly, Logan’s D rank mana was slowly pulled through her without his command and he felt E rank mana in the body of Arashi being slowly replaced.

He absorbed mana to fill the space and transferred his own mana until it was happily stuffed.

Logan was quite clear that a lot of his power depended on her and her development relied heavily on it.

He hoped he could reach the awakened flame because upon reaching it, he would not need to be silent about his Legend sword. Of course, it would be impossible to hide that fact anyway because the blade would be yellow and it would radiate a strong presence. There is no way to hide the fact.

He would only be unable to talk about how to obtain it, it was part of his oath with Elas and the rules of the gods.

When he finally finished, the ship was already arriving at the port and everyone was gathering their things.

They gathered at the deck and disembarked and had all their goods examined before walking out.

“Alright, we already prepared before coming, we just need to get updated information of the movement areas.” Logan said.

“Sir, are we moving out at once?” One of the knights asked.

“Yes, we have 20 targets in total and it would be a pain if they moved out.” Logan said.

“Are we aiming for the least destructive first?” Storm asked.

Logan shook his head and took out the files Max had given them. “This is our first target.” Logan said.

Storm read through it, “Doesn’t seem too bad, is there a problem with them?” Storm asked.

“They have pillaged villages and reports say they kidnap women.” Logan said simply.

Instantly a good number of them frowned. None of them were strangers to what that meant, for cruel monsters, they would play and kill their food but more often than not, it is humanoid monsters who take women for mating vessels. This is a cruel fate, even more than slavery.

“Come on.” Logan said.

Everyone followed after him and waited outside while he went to gather information from the adventurers guild.

“All these groups have been a big pain. It is good to have more people dealing with this.” the receptionist said. She pulled out more files and updated his maps showing the area of attack.

“These areas are all the ones they attack.” She said.

“Right, how am I supposed to deal with groups just trying to survive compared to actual bandits?” Logan asked.

“Most monsters honestly lack common sense, that said, someone has to be accounted for. At the very least, the current leaders who are ordering the groups to do this will have to be incarcerated but he won’t be killed.” she said.

“Considering they are all dungeon monsters, they don’t actually have nationality right?” Logan asked.

“If you mean that you want to get them to move to your home nation then no, there is no problem with that.” She said.

Logan nodded in thanks.

The main problem that is caused by poverty is the fact that there is a lack of jobs to prevent poverty. Eshen is in its prime condition to reintroduce people but a good chunk of the population now live in the archipelago. Those living there are not going to go to west Eshen to rebuild since they have stable lives there.

This is perfect for monsters who aren’t good at fighting. The only problem is balancing the damages of the leaders orders with getting the unranked and weaklings who barely achieved F rank.

It is unlikely that the many mob monsters will be like those following Logan. The main difference is how much their mana is developed and how much they trained as unranked creatures.

It can be seen clearly with the goblins. They evolved into hobgoblins upon forming F rank mana development but Jade only evolved at the peak of F rank.

A difference in training and quality makes a huge difference. It is unlikely that there are a lot of powerful low ranking monsters.

“Thank you.” Logan said and walked out. They all walked out the east side and headed directly into the woods. Logan took this time to slowly start teaching hunting tactics so that future members would be able to teach those in the future properly.

At the same time, his eyes were constantly probing. Three days quickly passed and they found a good spot to camp. Without informing the others, he had already spotted many traces and they were moving towards the location that was closer to the actual camp. He knew because the tracks were getting fresher and he knew that the group of enemies would eventually attack.

When they set up camps, they started cooking and Logan informed Jade and Storm of what was to come.

“Quietly go around and inform the others but have them act like they aren’t any more cautious than normal.” He whispered to them.

They nodded and they slowly went and after informing a camp, he would start talking as if he was teaching them cooking which he actually did before moving to another fire.

Eventually the entire division was aware. As for the night shift, there was already a clear division of work and the first shift was already open and walking about.

They used basic eye magic to enhance their vision at night and to help block the glare from the fires which actually helped to blind them from the movement in the dark.

Those who were once goblins needed this far less because goblins have natural night vision and this doesn’t change even as they evolve but the magic was still needed to reduce the glare and improve their already good vision.

Very soon, a discreet knight came and informed him that several different humanoid monsters were spotted scouting their camp.

“What kind?” Logan asked.

“Low ranks, goblins, kobolds, orcs, we also spotted some weirder ones.” he said.

“How so?” Logan frowned.

“I think some wild animal monsters were domesticated from the dungeons before being dragged out because we saw cautious horned rabbits with clear intelligence beyond the breed. Also it seems they were much bigger and were standing on their hind legs and could take a few steps to move their field of vision before scurrying off.” he said.

“Oh, they are quite intelligent if they are using weak monsters like horned rabbits as scouts. That said, if they are able to take a few steps, aren’t they almost Almiraj?” Logan asked.

“What is that?” the knight asked, confused.

“An almiraj is a horned rabbit who is much bigger and their hands gain a thumb and nimble fingers allowing them to grab objects. They are extremely fast and dangerous in large packs but most of the ones known are never intelligent. They become Warhares in the dungeon and gain a humanoid beastman appearance.” Logan explained.

He took out his communicator and pulled up a monster encyclopedia and showed the forms. “Horned rabbits born and raised outside of dungeons evolve differently, their horns become edged and form blades as a blade rabbit and this gets sharper and they gain magical attacks that they can execute from their bladed horn. Above that is a creature called a vorpal bunny and they gain a bladed whip like tail. These are dangerous D and even C rank monsters.” Logan showed them the secondary path of evolution.

The knight was shocked, he was naturally a monster breed and it was shocking how other monsters had as unique of evolutions as his own.

“Go tell the others discreetly to watch out for the rabbits.” Logan said.

The night continued on and they spotted more and more scouts but no attacks.

The shift changed three times but Logan only meditated instead of slept. It wasn’t even to absorb mana, it was just pure meditation to let his mind rest without actual sleep.

When morning came, the fires were rekindled from the remaining embers and fresh food was brought out but despite the cheerful talking, all members were ready.

It only took the time for the many pots of stew to release a tantalizing smell for loud shouts to come from the woods.

Everyone quickly shined as their clothing suddenly transformed and everyone drew their weapons and turned towards the woods like a steel wall.

This change was so shocking that the horde of many different kinds of monsters stopped.

Logan looked and saw dirty goblins, kobolds and orcs like it was said but there were more, he was surprised that there were intelligent undead, a couple of rusty armored headless zombie warriors. Logan examined them and saw they were just that, sentient headless zombie warriors.

Among the monsters in the dungeon, sometimes the corpses of fallen adventurers are made into mindless monsters and in the same stretch as normal monsters, they can gain sentience but not of their long dead counterparts.

That said, undead are much weaker during the day with more than 60% of their power weakened. Undead are powered and survive off an energy known as death mana. If any normal person that wasn’t a demon processed dark mana in a particular manner, they could achieve this type of mana used to raise the undead or shadow mana used in shadow magic. Naturally occurring undead meant the land it was born in was corrupt to the point that the souls of the dead could not move on while dungeons could naturally produce it. They tend to avoid it more though that doesn’t mean it is always the case.

After these weak ones came the stronger ones who had achieved F rank mana and were bigger, fitter and clearly more well fed. This was common even in wild monster tribes where the stronger ones commanded the food.

Finally a powerful roar came as trees were upended and the leading forces appeared.

A group of 5 D rank monsters came forward, one in particular was very dangerous and was an orc warchief.

There was another next to him, a mage type Lord. The final two were actually shocking and were the mounts. Two massive fat rabbits that were the size of elephants with sharp sword-like claws. Most prominent are the three horns on the head.

“Trihorn Bull Rabbits… how did they evolve something like that?” Logan muttered.

This kind of rabbit is purely unnatural, they can only come into being through interference of an external force. The rabbits are horn rabbits who grew immensely strong physically and their food habits changed to meat. They are extremely dangerous beyond what one would expect.

The war orc got up and jumped down and lifted his axe towards the wall.

“If you do not want to die, you will give food and all your women!” the orc roared.

Instantly everyone scowled and their mana began to cycle.

They all combined forming a strong aura.

“So you are the leader of these monsters. What are you doing with the women you kidnap?!” Logan shouted.

“Filthy humans are breeding mates. Useless ones turn into food!” the war orc said.

The humans that were among them, especially the females were instantly enraged and Logan already felt veins on his forehead but he grinned.

“Oh, so you really are enslaving humans for this.” Logan said as his armor transformed and covered up.

The next moment, Jin appeared and Storm shouted as he transformed while Jade walked to his side as he released the restrained magical aura.

Expressing and restraining this aura is a skill, the five in front of him naturally had neither skill or even magical development of D rank only quantity for one.

Instantly the four auras blended into the existing aura and it washed over the entire area.

The drake appearing instantly scared all the weaker members but the warchief roared forcing them to cower at him.

“You humans are strong but we are more!” he shouted.

“Orc, tell me. Among your people, who enjoys your captured women?” Logan asked.

Some of the women in his division looked back at him through the corner of his eyes.

“Women are only strong! Weakling does not mate!” the orc said, slamming his weapon on the ground as if to show his strength.

Instantly, Logan’s eyes shined and his vision turned and passed over the entire area. He took out Arashi and suddenly released dozens of lights that flew up and shot into the forest making them all cry out but besides a glowing golden mark forming somewhere on the bodies of specific people, there was no difference.

“If you are talking about strength and you do not even think with remorse towards enslaving and raping human women, we will teach you what it means to attack people in the outside with no thoughts about the consequences.” Logan said, “Attention! All you monsters who do not have any glowing mark on your bodies, this is your only warning, as long as you back off, not a single one of you will be hurt. I swear on all our lives as well as my honor as a knight of the Golden Lion Army that we will take care of you and you will live a much better life!” He shouted.

The leader growled and slammed his weapon, “If any of you retreat, I will chew your bones myself!” he growled only for a bright but dangerous flashing slash to come down from the air.

He swung his weapon and smashed into it. The axe was filled with mana and it caused a huge eruption and instantly all the weakest members screamed in fear as they turned tail and ran away.

Those who were official F ranks and were stronger members all remained. The numbers can’t be underestimated, even when all the weak members left, there was still a powerful force of nearly 300 other monsters behind the orc.

There are a lot of dungeons and millions of monsters were released into the world, this ‘small’ group alone consists of over a thousand members.

“I shall deal with them later.” He growled.

ROAR!

Suddenly Storm rushed over the defensive line.

Instantly the two bull rabbits rushed forward, a rider each. That said, on Storm’s back, Logan was riding and as they collided, the riders each attacked.

Logan had the Nodachi form out and swung with a golden light and connected with both weapons before cutting right through them just as Storm pushed forward and raised up and grabbed at the rabbits who jumped with their front horns towards his underside. He grabbed them by their horns as they began to push him back with their extremely developed hind legs.

That said, the unexpected thing was when suddenly, their horns formed jagged scale-like covering and began to spin like drills.

Storm instantly roared as his hand was instantly drilled but it just enraged him as he suddenly tightened the grip and lifted the rabbit. This inevitably stopped the horn but without the ground gripping it, the rabbit suddenly spun and Storm brought it down on the other.

Crack!

The motion was too sudden and the horn broke in his hand that was bloodied. The other one he gripped harder and stopped it before twisting and breaking it before swinging his arm back and releasing the two huge bloodied horns.

The riders finally moved at this moment, the first had been thrown off while the other barely got clear as the second rabbit was hit.

The first one swung at Storm’s throat but the next moment Logan jumped at him. In his hand was a stone battle axe but the magical glow was solid and there was a blade of earth mana. He swung at the incoming damaged weapon and blew back the enemy.

As for the other one, he was aiming for the left hind leg but Jin suddenly appeared and swung his right hammer into the incoming weapon. A massive explosion from the force behind it came as the weapon exploded into pieces before he swung the other one and sent the orc flying.

The lord that Logan had pushed back instantly, jumped back covering a large distance before he started to chant.

“Jade, heal Storm.” Logan shouted before his body began to radiate lightning and a pair of majestic wind wings formed on his back.

“Knights! ATTACK!” Logan shouted before he vanished.

The next thing everyone saw was the head of the lord flying up and Logan appearing to grab it. He put it away in the inventory before he vanished and appeared swinging at the war orc.

Sheer instinct made him duck and dodge.

At the same time he roared a war cry as he swung his axe at Logan.

At once the monsters advanced on the knights.

At the same time, the knights advanced and every weapon began to glow golden.

Holy light gathered at Jade’s staff and it was released and shined over Storm. The hide from his hand that was torn instantly started closing and the scales soon started to grow.

He growled as he stomped down and released a roar as his body began to radiate a fierce amount of purple lightning and it gathered at his mouth before he suddenly opened his jaw releasing a roar of anger.

Suddenly a breath of lightning like a roaring tsunami washed over one side of the enemy forces instantly paralyzing them before Storm turned to the other orc.

Lightning gathered and quickly channeled down his tail to the crystal blade and it suddenly extended. Taking a step, he swung his entire body.

Jin was already on top, attacking the orc and naturally heard and saw the drake’s movement.

To deal a killing blow, he suddenly used Lightning Clad and appeared behind him and swung both hammers skillfully into his side and sent him flying.

The end result was not nice as he couldn’t defend himself as the blade of lightning cleaved him in two.

Storm finally turned to the still living rabbits and stomped on their heads and roared as he released lightning through his entire body and instantly began to fry their bodies.

As for Logan, his eyes glowed yellow with the lightning and it shined under his helmet, the war orc swung and attacked with all his might but Logan skillfully dodged by the hair but it was all easily calculated. The movement of the orc was slow in his eye. A creature who focused on brute strength, even if his attacks caused the earth to cave and every tree the axe touched to be cleaved in half, it was impossible for these slow attacks to hit him.

Strength only mattered if they could connect.

Logan didn’t kill him outright, the others could die quick to secure his divisions safety but this orc could not. Like a cat playing with his prey, he slashed his armor off, made shallow cuts on weak muscles and tortured him for almost two minutes before he cut the knee joints.

“Let this be a lesson for you in your next life. Don’t think that enslaving men or women will be allowed.” Logan said and chopped off his head.

The three heads of the humanoid leaders were gathered and the knights were still fighting.

Logan had taught them to be defensive, they formed units of 6 to protect each other and this had saved many of them.

When they joined, with Jade healing many of the injured ones, the flow instantly fell into their hands. Logan was like a ghost and if he did not have the fear and awe of his division before, he definitely had it now.

Eventually the enemy began to surrender but Logan made it a lesson to kill them all because they thought little of enslaving humans and even other monsters. This was a lesson to the remaining monsters and would continue on as they pass down stories.

When the last one was killed, Logan sighed as he removed his helmet and looked at the forest, “Come out!” he roared.

Silence filled the area but soon, groveling monsters came out begging for mercy. It was shocking when even the sentient undead did the same but Logan thought a bit and tested something. He walked through them and with a very weak flow of mana, he neared the undead and their bones seemed to rattle as they felt the mana.

He nodded and understood what was going on, the mana they possessed was likely something toxic to them. He honestly didn’t know what to do with them.

“As promised, I will not injure any of you. This is an oath that I will make on my life. That said, I need you all to follow my orders, first I need you all to lead me to your current home and gather all the people from your colony.” Logan shouted.

The monsters still begging for mercy got up and tried to lead him. He had them wait as the camp was cleaned up and they moved out and followed the horde of monsters until they reached a clearing with many caves dug out of the walls. Very horrible houses were built of twigs and leaves and bedding was grass. Some had leather and hide though.

He pointed to one monster and had him show Logan to the enslaved humans and they were soon taken there. He scowled as the number reached hundreds.

He quickly had Jade and any other who knew healing magic to come and give them care.

Many of them cried in happiness as they were led out and a new camp set up to feed themselves and the rescues.

When it was done, all the remaining monsters were gathered.

It was no secret as they looked at all of them. They were filthy, skinny and weak, clearly showing the cruel reality of monster society.

“Alright, I will say this, none of you will be enslaved, our order is completely against the idea of slavery. Any such thing is dealt with heavily. What I can give you are two options, you can pick yourselves. The first option is that I can provide you with basic knowledge, the language of common Nuntip humans in the written form and another in market prices of goods produced. This will not let you be tricked. My second offer is that you return to me and we, the Golden Lion Mercenary army, will help you all form a safe and prosperous village where you can learn to farm, fight and whatever.” Logan shouted.

“Sir, w-why are these monsters not punished?” one of the enslaved women asked.

Storm answered for her, “These monsters before you were no better than yourself. The ones who raped and pillaged without remorse are already dead, these only looted because they needed food but human merchants took advantage of their ignorance and charged them hundreds of times market value on all basic goods for survival including food. In a sense, you are just a victim of another selfishness.” Storm said.

The women spoke no more.

As for the nearly one thousand monsters, they turned and began to talk.

He was interested in all the nonhuman creatures who were looking but clearly had an intelligent glint in their eye.

Finally a more intelligent monster came up after nearly 10 minutes as monsters spoke broken human tongues and some more complete one.

“We go… please mercy!” he said.

Logan nodded and took out a door and opened it revealing the Micro world.

“Go inside and we will find a place for you all to sleep until we can move you all.” Logan ordered.

At the same time, he had the women enter and together with his division, he helped make a temporary camp for the women and the monsters far apart.

Part of the group searched around but there wasn’t much, however using identification magic, Logan scowled as he punched a wall to reveal a hidden cove behind a magically risen stone wall where a huge store of food was.

“Get these to the monster camp so that they have some food to eat.” He ordered.

“Yes sir!” The knights shouted and started to pull everything inside and started to make many camps and fires to feed the monsters.

Doing a thorough check and finding nothing else, he had them all return to the micro world to make sure nothing goes wrong as he put the door away and flew off back towards the city he had arrived at and opened the door at the guild and released the rescued women at the guild while turning in the heads of all three leaders.

For safely rescuing the hostages they were given a big bonus. The mission alone was 250,000 tip but each rescued person earned them 10,000 bonus and there were over 500 people.

This was a big event as the first of many monster groups was dealt with.

Of course, the 5,250,000 tip was split among 186, Jin, Storm, Jade and Logan being counted. There was also a 20% cut for the treasury of the army.

The treasury got 1,050,000 and the 4.2 million was split among the rest resulting in about 22,580 for each member.

This would slowly allow each person to purchase magic tomes, tools, materials and more for their own growth as time goes on.

That said, this was barely enough to spread their name but those saved by them learned their name and would remember it and talk about it as their rescuers but they had not seen them fight.

Still, it was the first bit of development outside of Eshen they had as an Army.

Picking another similar target to this one, after a few days of rest to heal the wounded, they left once more. At the same time, Logan began to continue their training because many of them lacked the skill for survival as the last moment causing injuries that could be avoided. To Logan, it was more important to survive, surviving meant being able to live and train, learn from mistakes.

The first fight had a big effect of growth and it showed another weakness which was lack of coordination in group fighting but that had to be achieved through fighting. Of course, to make this progress faster, Logan began making official units of 7 and made 26 units to fight together.

It would basically be like an adventurer party.

How effective was this shown in the following raid. With a monster horde no different from the last who caused major problems and also kidnapped people, the division in units instantly showed benefits as they began to divide work properly and fight better as a party. The number of injuries decreased heavily and a second large group of monsters was pulled in.

Of course, at the same time, the Micro world became too full and they had to return to Eshen to let the A rank leaders deal with the settlement problems but basic knowledge was passed along among the monsters who slowly began to gather up among their own kind instead of being a big mess. It was the natural instinct of all creatures to be with their own kind.

How the groups of monsters would be taught was up to them but they would all at least get an unranked mana development technique and would be taught farming to open the land and learn from the Farmer’s guild.