Awakened: SSS Ranked Soul king

The whole room was silent for a couple of minutes as everyone in it remained laser focused, looking at the young man from the Aaron family.

Although it was quiet, it was also extremely tense.

This Mason was, of course, no small fry—to be placed as the true sub leader of the Aaron camp. His fighting capabilities needed to be top-notch, but they could still take him down a few notches at least until the rest of the Aaron army came and killed them all.

"Cough cough"

All of a sudden a gentle cough resounded in the room as Jemie and Guilliman turned to Hamdel.

The old man shook his head, as if to tell them it was alright. Victoria knew what she was doing. This caused all of them to calm down and look back at Mason; their fighting spirit had diminished.

"Anyway, Miss Victoria, Barthold and Hamdel will be with the Sire Robins team, so there's no need to worry about their safety…" Mason was not happy with the way this was going; however, with Victoria's mysterious background, he knew to step lightly.

The Silversteins—they were largely an unknown family in the shelter. "Wanderers" was the right choice of words; they had come here a couple of years ago, and who knows, they might be gone in the next.

The thing was… the head of this two-man household, Mr. Silverstein, seemed to be rather close with the Blacksteel Lord—so much so, to the point where he openly forbade their fathers from coming into direct contact with them in the shelter.

So, aside from her special status, they knew nothing of this family. He wouldn't dare antagonize an unknown in the name of the Aaron family.

"Her mission is important, just like yours will be… so who amongst you likes the thought of wilderness exploration and hunting?" Mason's lips curled into a malicious smile as he looked at them.

He cared about what Victoria, her butler, and even Barthold thought, but these bunch of unknown people didn't deserve his care. He would stick them in the worst place to work in the camp.

A few minutes later, Mason stood up and left with Victoria and Hamdel to have a discussion outside, after which he left the area completely, leaving them alone.

Victoria then entered back into the tent and spoke to them.

"The situation is not too complicated, even though on the outside, the three families have allied, they are all still looking for a way into the keep without fighting or letting others know. I've told Mason about the tunnel; they already saw it, so there's no need to hide its existence. They will send powerful men to try and break through the fog inside the tunnel. I doubt they'll succeed so you guys will have a different objective."

Victoria looked at three members of the cohort,

Guilliman, Jemie, and Morgan.

These three would have free rein to roam around the area, unlike Victoria and the rest. They would have to stay behind and work with the Aaron family for most of it.

She would have to depend on them for a broader information-gathering network that would probably help sustain—or at least survive—the onslaught of the fog.

"I'll meet you with some instructions later on… but you have to keep an eye out for someone. He's called Carlson," she said, not having as much info as she hoped; this one in particular was from Cyrus.

Apparently, this Carlson was important in most tasks of the Aaron family, like a hidden blade. If there was anything being hidden from them, Carlson would know or be in charge of it.

"Ahhh, I see," Guilliman smiled.

This was a very touchy situation they were in. Victoria mainly wanted to reach the keep early so as not to be under the three families' control and to preserve some sort of power for when Thane comes back—in case the three families act out of hand.

However, now they were here working with the three families, embroiled in their politics.

The next day, Victoria, Barthold, and Hamdel went up the hill towards the Aaron family tents to ready themselves and receive orders; meanwhile, Guilliman and the rest were sent to the wilderness team down the mountain.

.

.

.

"It's over here," Guilliman pointed out as they walked through the thick forest surrounding the hill.

Because of the increasing number of slayers making it to the fog, the Aaron family had to create a team in charge of various functional aspects of the camp.

Food and water gathering, beast clearing, and retrieval of new slayers.

They allowed for anyone to join one or two of these efforts, but would sometimes assign people to join these efforts.

"Hello, we are from the new slayers, Mason sent here," approaching a fairly old slayer seated atop a rock next to several large trees, Guilliman introduced himself.

Of all the efforts being made to empower the camp, Mason had deemed it fit to send them to a food gathering squad…

This old man was the leader.

"Hm? Mason? Ballsy calling him by his name," the old man smirked as he turned to look at the three individuals who had approached him from behind.

Normally, this would be a scary situation, definitely dangerous in fact, having someone sneak up on you like that was frowned upon.

But the Aarons and whoever was associated with them were exceptionally good at things like this—sneaking around and detecting prey from far away.

"Ahh? We are all slayers here, no?" Guilliman refused to call that guy by his title. He came off as a bit of a prick, not too different from Vincent.

He wasn't as weak as Vincent, of course; Mason was known as the Black Ranger, denoting the class of the Aarons and his personal notoriety.

With a draw of my bow, death is at my whim.

Some cringey thing like that.

"Well, we are, some more than others, of course," the old man smiled. He didn't mind the disregard with which Guilliman referred to Mason; however, he wouldn't speak against it.

He really needed people in his team, since everyone else had to go ahead and die on him.

"This is Jemie and Morgan. You can call me Guilliman," Guilliman introduced himself to the old man.

He was clearly somewhat related to the Aarons; if not, he wouldn't hold such a position after coming back with a dead squad of slayers.

"You're welcome. I hope our responsibilities here won't be a burden on any of you," the old man said as he stood up from the rock he was seated on and bowed to them in a respectful way.

It would be hard to convince these youngsters of his competence after what happened to his other team; it hadn't happened to him before, so he didn't know how to handle it.

"Uhhh, get up, old man," Morgan walked forward and brought the old man back up from his bowing position.

He was clearly helpless about the whole situation, hence his bowing. However, it also went to show how his character was.

All throughout his life, he had never met a noble or anyone related to nobles bow to commoners, no matter how strong they were.

"Haha, sorry about that. I'm a bit out of my depth here," the old man scratched his head.

He didn't look so different from Morgan—in the sense that he looked ordinary.

Yes, the old man in front had nothing special about him, not the way he looked, the way he spoke, or even his intent.

He looked completely plain.

"It's alright, where will we be hunting in first?" Guilliman, with a glint in his eyes, walked forward and surveyed their surroundings.

They were one of 10 hunting teams from the main camp, and their mission was extremely simple.

Go around, kill low-level monsters, and harvest their meat.

It wasn't so hard; in fact, it was the easiest and safest job in the entire camp. Some would say they were lucky.

But were they really lucky? Stuck in a place where it was hard to grow? He didn't think so. With the siege of the fog drawing near, they needed all the strength they could muster.

Staying weak was not an option.

"Well, we'll just go east of here for now. The food stocked up is already enough to last us two days before getting into the red, so we'll just top up," the old man walked forward and explained.

He was the leader of this here team, so naturally he had full control of where and when they needed to go out. Even if they didn't respect him, they would have to respect that.

"Okay, east it is," Guilliman smirked with a bitter look on his face. He had a mission, something he needed to accomplish. This position didn't place him in the right place to gather what he needed, so he would have to improvise.

"Oh yes, Old man, you must have been here for a while, I have some rather embarrassing questions about how things work here. I hope you don't mind my insistent questions."