The orange light of the distant volcano illuminated the silhouette of the corpse hanging from the spear, giving the image a dark feeling.
The soldiers could deal with a strict officer, but they couldn't deal with one that killed people without a good reason.
The officer slowly lowered his spear, the corpse of the Scumbag flopping to the ground like a sack of meat.
Then, the officer turned to the watching soldiers.
"This is a mission coming from Duke Whirlwind himself," the officer explained. "Traitors are especially devastating in such a remote location, and we have our ways to weed them out."
"This traitor," the officer said as his spear pointed to the corpse, "has fallen into one of our traps and reported incorrect information. Remember that we are not the only soldiers here."
A communication crystal appeared in the officer's hands. "We corroborate the different reports, which gives us a very clear picture of the surroundings. There is no reason to lie to us if you are loyal. After all, you get nothing out of it."
The soldiers looked at the corpse with complex emotions.
A traitor?
Some of the Rookies almost couldn't believe it, while most of the Bootlickers only narrowed their eyes at the corpse.
The Scumbags weren't present right now, but if they were, they would only sneer.
"As long as you don't try to sabotage this mission, nothing will happen to you," the officer explained. "That is all."
The soldiers didn't feel at ease, but they weren't angry enough to stage a revolution.
Even more, most of them thought that the officer had done the right thing. Traitors needed to die!
But some of them still felt very uneasy.
Had the Scumbag truly been a traitor?
Sadly, there was nothing they could do. There was no way for them to check if the officer had told the truth.
In the military, the soldiers were expected to blindly trust their superiors, after all.
Their superiors were under far more scrutiny than themselves, which made it far less likely for them to be traitors.
And just like that, this incident passed over.
Half a day later, the wall had been assembled, but many of the stones still had to be fused together.
The Scumbags and Rookies that had been responsible for building the wall were transferred to their other teams, joining them in their mission of clearing the surroundings.
And that was how it continued for the next week.
Over the next week, the surroundings had been cleaned of all the beasts in a radius of five kilometers.
There had been several more Mid General Stage beasts, which the Numbers killed.
By now, the four groups had fully taken form.
The Scumbags, the Bootlickers, the Rookies, and the Numbers.
However, not all of the groups were separate all the time.
The Bootlickers and Rookies talked a lot with each other since they had similar ideals, essentially creating the majority of the entire unit.
There were only 28 soldiers left, excluding the officer.
Three Numbers.
Seven Scumbags.
Six Rookies.
Twelve Bootlickers.
With 18 people, the Rookies and Bootlickers made up the majority.
Over the last week, two men had become the unofficial leaders of these two groups, and they talked to the officer about the redistribution of forces.
The officer agreed and didn't separate them into immediate and further surroundings anymore, giving them the freedom to handle it.
The officer had also acknowledged the leader of the Bootlickers as the leader of these two groups.
On this day, the Bootlickers and Rookies fused into one group, the Idealists.
Shang watched all of this from the side.
'Interesting. Was this the officer's plan all along?' he thought.
'In the very beginning, he said that he would make us into one unit, but as soon as we arrived, he systematically split us apart, contradicting his earlier statement.'
'And now, suddenly, over half the people have formed a single group with a leader. It's essentially the first step of creating one unit.'
'Did he plan for this to happen?' Shang thought.
'It sounds very complicated and, frankly, too convoluted and smart.'
'But, I mean, the blue uniforms in the academy have to learn a ton of stuff about people. Maybe this is actually part of their lessons?'
Shang couldn't be sure.
After another week, the outpost got its first visitor.
A soldier arrived at the outpost with a letter.
But wait, why was there someone delivering a letter when the officer had a Communication Crystal?
Well, Communication Crystals transmitted their signals with Mana, and if there were a sufficiently powerful Mage, they could intercept the signals.
Because of that, the most important information was delivered via letter, delivered by one of the most trustworthy people.
The officer read through the letter and nodded.
The visitor left, and the officer called some of the soldiers over. By now, the soldiers didn't need to work the entire day. Nearly all the beasts had been cleared in the surroundings, and they only had to maintain the current state.
"Go to the warehouse and get these things," the officer ordered.
The officer told them what they had to get, and the soldiers left to get these things.
Most of the buildings had been made into warehouses where they stored all the dead beasts and the valuable ore they found.
After half an hour, several parts of different beasts had been put in front of the officer.
The officer looked at all the materials and nodded.
"You four will deliver these things to the town you saw two weeks ago," the officer ordered four of the Idealists. "I prepared one more of each material, but the town won't mind. The more we help, the better."
The soldiers didn't show it, but they realized why the officer had prepared more materials.
Just like the Idealists wanted to impress the officer, the officer wanted to impress his superior.
"Now, get moving!" the officer ordered.
The four people gathered the things. Luckily, one of them had a Space Ring, making it easier on them.
And then they left to deliver the wares.
For the next couple of hours, nothing of note happened.
But then, someone came to the outpost.
It was only one person, and the soldiers recognized him.
It was one of the four that had been sent to deliver the wares.
The others asked the soldier what had happened.
The soldier seemed absentminded.
"Quite smart," the officer said with a smirk to the soldier.
"Seems like you either didn't fall for it, or you are actually loyal."
At these words, the soldier regained life and looked at his officer in shock.
"You did this?" he asked in shock.
The officer only smirked. "I lied," he said. "I prepared just the amount necessary, but I said there was more. I wanted to see if someone wanted to earn some money on the side."
The soldier looked to the ground with a white face.
The officer left the soldiers alone, and the soldiers quickly asked their comrade what had happened.
Apparently, while the group had been traveling to the town, two of them had suggested pocketing some of the wares. After all, there was more than necessary, and since this information wasn't transmitted via Communication Crystal, the town wouldn't know that more had been sent.
As long as they left some of the extra stuff in there, nobody would notice.
One of the others hesitated but eventually caved in.
After that, the three people peer pressured the last one into joining them.
In the end, the last one caved in.
Everyone pocketed a bit of the resources.
When they had arrived at the town, the fourth person, the one that didn't want to join, stealthily put his own portion on top of the delivery.
He didn't want to be seen as a traitor by his three friends, but he also didn't want to betray his home.
His friends would think that he was in this together with them, but in truth, he had taken nothing.
But when the soldiers inspected the goods, everyone was immediately apprehended and searched.
The three stolen portions were found, and the soldiers immediately killed the three thieves.
Since the soldiers didn't find anything on the fourth person, they let him go.
Three of the Idealists had died today due to their own greed.
When the other soldiers heard it, they felt a mix of nervousness and relief.
They felt nervousness because there had already been four traitors.
But they also felt relief since that meant that there were four fewer traitors.
How many traitors could one group of about 30 soldiers have?
Although, there were no longer 30 soldiers.
Five people had died in the last two weeks.
Now, there were only 25 left.
'Five dead people in two weeks?' Shang thought with narrowed eyes.
'Something isn't right. I can accept the first two deaths, but there is something fishy about this newest development.'
Shang looked at the shaken soldier.
