Mars turned in his bed but showed no signs of waking up which caused Nicole to give a sigh and begun shaking him slightly

"Mars it's time to wake up"

"hmm..."

this time there was slightly more sign of life as he turned again and slightly opened his eyes

"...good morning"

"good morning Mars"

Mars raised his upper body still in bed and stretched, late last night he had been collecting mana stones and had managed to rise his level to 27

"get out of bed now! Mars we need to leave now!"

"okay, for f.u.c.ks sake give me a second..."

"move it! I'll take down your tent now"

Mars jumped out of bed and quickly put on some clothes, before he stuffed his backpack with his stuff just as Nicole tore down his tent when mars's eyes adjusted to the light he spotted something... weird

"is that a mountain?"

Mars saw what looked like a mountain, the only weird thing was it wasn't there yesterday

"no it's a cla.s.s 4 golem and it's moving this way!"

"s.h.i.+t"

Mars snapped out of his daze and quickly packed his stuff while he took another glance at the cla.s.s 4 golem it was approximately 400 meter tall with the rough shape of a man with 2 arms and 2 legs and one head with 2 gemstone like blue eyes

"holy s.h.i.+t that's huge"

"yeah that's why we need to move!"

"I can see that... I'm almost ready give me a second"

Mars once again looked up at the cla.s.s 4 golem and had a stupid thought

'I kind of want to fight that...'

"Mars!"

"yes yes, I got it already"

Mars finished packing his stuff and gave one last look at the golem that was slowly moving this way before he yelled out

"ready to move!"

"finely... okay let's go, base camp will take care of that thing"

"""yes captain"""

the group began moving east trying to get out of the way of the ma.s.sive golem without being spotted by it, a few hours later the group finally stopped and Gus called out while he looked at the golem in the horizon

"I think we're clear"

"looks that way... let's get some breakfast"

the group stopped and begun eating some food while they all watched the golem, now south of them move in the distance

"I really wanted to fight that thing tough"

"...you're crazy Mars"

"yep sure am, still I have the feeling I could take it"

Hans patted Mars on the shoulder and looked towards the golem in the distance

"whatever you say Mars, whatever you say"

after about a hour of eating, drinking water and resting the group was ready to move again when the mana communicator lit up with a incoming call, Vanessa took the call and after taking respectfully for a few moments she hung up and stared out into the empty air with a grave look on her face, Mars walked up to her and asked

"what is it captain?"

Vanessa gave a sigh and looked over the rest of the group before she spoke

"a scouting party form the northern containment task force have gone missing after they entered the mining town yesterday evening, if that wasn't bad enough the captain is the son of a high ranking minister, and said minister have pressured the general to get his son back, so now we need to go into hostile territory and search for him until we find him or prof he has died in action"

Hans gave a sigh and sat down on the desert sand before he spoke

"well that... sucks"

Vanessa gave a nod

"yes it sucks but we have received our orders, so let's get to it"

"""yes captain"""

"oh and Mars, have you seen Victoria?"

"hmm... she should be around?"

just as Mars looked around after Victoria did she jump out of a nearby shadow with her horns glowing

"what... is it?"

"oh there you are Victoria, the captain wants to talk with you"

"okay..?"

Victoria tilted her head to the side and looked over at Vanessa with a blank look on her face, Vanessa gave a sigh and walked over to the two of them and kneeled down in front of Victoria before she cautiously reached up with her hand and petted Victoria on the head and spoke

"h.e.l.lo Victoria, I'm Vanessa do you mind if we talk for a bit?"

Mars saw Victoria's horns flash followed by a delightful look on Vanessa's face and amused the conversation was going well, Mars decided to give them some s.p.a.ce and walked over to a nearby rock and laid down on it and closed his eyes and enjoyed the desert midday sun as only a half dragon could, form the shadow of her armor suit Nicole gave Mars a amazed stare and poked Hans that sat a little ways away

"what?"

"see Mars?"

"Mars..? oh holy s.h.i.+t he must be baking in that heat..."

"yeah it's about 40 right now plus he laid down on a stone that have been in the sun all day, there's only one thing right to call that..."

""a freak""

Mars raised his head and looked over at Nicole and Hans

"oi, I can hear you two"

they both gave a harmless smile and then Nicole spoke up

"we were just complimenting your heat tolerance"

Hans clearly agreed as he nodded along with what Nicole was saying, Mars gave a smile and asked

"why don't you join me out here in the sun?"

""we'll pa.s.s""

"....you two clearly are in sink today"

Mars laid his head down on the stone again and enjoyed the desert sun for some time until Vanessa called out to him

"Mars get up, we're moving now"

"okay captain"

Mars rose from the rock and stretched while the other 4 jumped into their armor suits

"let's roll"

"""yes captain"""

the group began moving north again and after a few hours match some walls became visible in the distance they had reached it the mining town were it all started, Mars narrowed his eyes and walked forwards as he looked at the wall

"how does it look?"

"it looks... empty captain"

"empty?"

"yeah I had expected guards on the walls but it looks deserted"

"I see..."

Vanessa fell into thought and mars remained silent until she spoke again

"then let's climb the walls and take a look from there"

"""yes captain"""

the group moved closer to the walls, clearly the golems never heard about guards because the walls was completely deserted like Mars said, actually there was not even the slightest sign of even a single golem nearby which only made the group more tense as they reached the foot of the walls

"Victoria go check out the top of the wall"

"okay..."

Victoria disappeared from were she was sitting and moments later she appeared again with her horns glowing

"it's... clear"

"she says it's clear"

"okay, Mars cheek it out"

"got it..."

Mars took a couple steps back before he jumped and landed on top of the 5 meter tall wall and lowered his body to the ground as he looked around, on the outside of the walls was more desert but on the inside of the walls was a splendid town, only there was no signs of anything alive in the town, at least not form were Mars was looking, a little confused Mars raised his body up and stood straight up and looked into the ghost town

'it really is empty...'

there was not a single golem in sight, just building after building with no signs of life coming from them

"well this makes it easy for us..."

Mars jumped down the wall again and filled in the waiting Vanessa

"it's empty, there's buildings but no signs of life or golems"

"weird... Mars get back up on the wall, the rest of us will move tough that gate over there"

"""yes captain"""

Mars jumped back up on the wall and watched the town with vigilance, meanwhile Vanessa, Nicole and Gus moved in their armor suits and walked into the town though a nearby gate were they stopped and Vanessa waved Mars down from the wall, Mars jumped down and rejoined the rest of the group

"what now captain?"

"call out Victoria, she will scout the town form the shadows"

"okay, Victoria"

Victoria jumped out of Mars's shadow and sat down on the ground while her horns flashed

"I heard... her... should I... just look.. around?"

"yeah, come back if you find any golems"

"okay..."

Victoria jumped into a nearby shadow and disappeared meanwhile the rest of the group remind alert until Victoria returned a few minutes later

"the whole.... town is... empty"

"she says the whole town is empty"

Vanessa gave a frown as she put a hand on her chin and thought for a bit before she asked Victoria

"did you find any armor suits?"

"yeah.... by the giant... pit"

"giant pit..? oh, you mean the pit mine... well then let's head over there and take a look"