150 Expected it? (1/2)

”But what type of problems are there in the Fer City that we have to change the route to the Dividing Mountains?” Blaze asked, not letting Clive get out of it so easily.

”That... There are some political struggles, and we want to be as anonymous as possible. And there are some other things that I cannot explain.” Clive lied without batting an eye.

Whatever excuse he made, there was no way for the mercenaries to confirm his statement.

Clive was helpless himself. He had gotten his orders, and he couldn't go against them. All he could do was to make lame excuses and somehow convince everyone that they really did not have any choice.

Ozul looked suspiciously at Clive and moved his eyes to the trees far in the distance from here he felt the anxious emotions from. He could only shake his head, 'So they are expecting things to happen at the Dividing Mountains...'

Only when he put some thoughts into the matter did it start to make sense to him.

If they entered a famous City now, there would be almost no suitable place for an ambush. And even if it did, there would be too many eyes on the situation, and these people probably wanted to avoid anyone else getting a word about all of this.

”And why do you ca-” Blaze was about to add something else, but he stopped in the middle of his sentence when Ozul motioned him from the side.

*Cough.*

Clive faked a cough before saying, ”So, since everyone agrees, we shouldn't waste any more time here.”

He urged the group to hurry up since debating anymore would only make things difficult for him. The mercenaries did not have much to say since they were told beforehand that Clive was their leader. They couldn't disobey his direct orders.

The Dividing Mountains were at the Northwest from the convoy's location, while they would be walking towards Fer City if they advanced straight towards North.

The mercenaries all had their guards up again since although the Dividing Mountains were not as dangerous as the Old Whispering Woods, it was a mostly unexplored area.

These Dividing Mountains were named as such because there was a huge desert on the other side of this mountain range!

On this side, there was all lush green, while the creatures on the other side longed to see greenery in the burning desert. That is why it was named The Dividing Mountains since they divided such contrasting locations.

People passed by these mountains when they wanted to enter the desert on the other side. There weren't many people who had tried to explore this area. That is why it was dangerous to travel in. There could be very well tens of unknown places that could endanger their lives.

That is why the mercenaries did not like the idea of traveling through the Dividing Mountains when they had a safer route instead.

People might not even realize before tens of men suddenly drop from the sky, surrounding the whole group. And it seemed that this was exactly the reason for them to choose this location.

As the group walked towards the Dividing Mountains, they had the same formation as they did in the jungle with the trio again in the last of the group.

There weren't any trees around them, but they had to climb off quite many cliffs to get down and follow the path to the mountain range.

Half a day passed before they actually got to the mountains. They could only see them at a little distance, but it seemed that unless they sped their pace, reaching the mountains before the day ended was impossible.

Fortunately, Clive was dealing with men with even the weakest ones as Rank-5 Mages! They could handle themselves by walking a little faster than before.

A few hours later, they could already feel their altitude increasing as their surroundings got more rocky and less green. But it did not mean that there were no trees at all. It was just that compared to before in the Old Whispering Woods, the number of trees seemed to be nonexistent.

One main route was not even mentioned, but people understood it since the track was visible to the naked eye. If anyone really passed by here, they would walk on this specific track.

So the group followed the track as well since Clive led them in that direction.

Before it got dark, the group found themselves in a place surrounded by high hills. It was like a canyon between two different hills. This was exactly the type of dangerous place to travel in since anyone could appear any minute without them expecting anything.

That is also why the mercenaries were all on their toes. They were alerted even when someone created a different sound while walking suddenly!

Luckily for the group, they had yet to encounter the Beasts. Heck, they hadn't met any other living creature except for them in this location!