By the time Ashton and Anna reached the city, the gold water mercenaries had already disappeared. Kern had to be in a hurry to deliver the staff to whoever was paying him. Ashton felt nothing while selling the artefact to Kern, but now he felt a bit bad for him.
After all, based on the person he was dealing with, trying to pass off a counterfeit might cost Kern dearly. He might even have to give up on his life altogether.
'There's no point thinking about things that are out of my control.'
[According to that logic, you should stop thinking altogether.]
'Nah, who will keep roasting you if I did that?'
[I'm more than capable of doing it myself.]
'Self-burn, those are rare nowadays.'
[Yeah, yeah, just get off this planet now. I don't like this place one bit.]
Except for the Gold Water mercenaries, everyone else was stationed as Ashton had instructed them. The humans were shocked to see Ashton return as they had already begun preparing for a feast in his 'honour'.
Out of the hundreds that entered the cave, no one had ever returned alive. That said, the residents believed Ashton would be no exception. But much to their horror and surprise, the mutant returned from the cave, alive and kicking as always.
As much as Ashton enjoyed seeing their colourless faces, he was more intrigued to see Vulcan waiting for him.
"Woah, easy there, little guy!" Ashton said as Aegis ran up to him.
"The runt was getting desperate after not seeing you for a while," Vulcan nonchalantly mumbled.
"So you didn't miss me, then?" Ashton replied, imitating Aegis' baby face.
"This brat..."
Vulcan shook his head, but Ashton knew Aegis was just an excuse. The Mastersmith was as much worried about him as Aegis was. However, the stubborn dwarf genes would never allow Vulcan to show his caring side to anyone.
"Well, I have a few things I'd like to discuss once we are off the planet, about you know what."
"Alright," Vulcan mumbled and went back inside the ship.
By now, Vimur and Laihud had arrived with their reports. The beast corpses have been divided as per Ashton's instructions. Staying true to his words, Ashton had left a fraction of the corpses for the humans.
Had Ashton wanted, he could have been petty and asked for compensation for clearing the cave dungeon. However, clearing the cave was more of a personal project for him than anything else.
Moreover, Ashton had tormented the humans enough. Any more of his tricks, and they might actually kill themselves just to be free from him. As much as it would help him create a lich, he wasn't eager to witness such a sight.
"Great work. Load up the corpses on the ship, and we'll leave."
"There's something else," Laihud said, "The humans have asked to have a conversation with you if you don't mind."
"We both have fulfilled the terms of our deal. There's nothing more to discuss," Ashton replied before heading inside the ship, "and if they want a share of the reward from the dungeon, tell them to pound sand."
Laihud nodded and left to make final preparations. Within the next hour, Ashton and the Ghosts were ready to leave. Humans were never great at hiding their emotions, especially positive ones. The lot began dancing as soon as the mercenary ships exited the atmosphere.
Unbeknownst to them, death was slowly heading towards them and allowing Anna to leave would be the cause of their doom.
***
Once aboard the ship, a few things needed to be dealt with regarding the faction. In his haste to make a mercenary faction, Ashton had pushed essential matters such as a hierarchy on the side.
At the moment, the Ghosts had no official hierarchy, and the order they had amongst themselves was based on mutual respect. But on Vulcan's and Laihud's suggestions, Ashton thought it was wise to put a hierarchy in place with their respective salaries.
Ashton was made the captain with unanimous votes. Anna was named the second in command, while Vulcan, Laihud, Vimur, Leon and Kass were made lieutenants with their own jurisdictions.
Ashton wanted Vulcan to take up the position of the Second in command, but he declined. So Anna ended up accepting the job.
Instead, Vulcan was tasked with procuring and creating weapons for the Ghosts. Laihud was tasked with handling external affairs, mainly using his diplomatic prowess to deal with the mercenary association and other mercenary groups.
As for Leon, he was in charge of internal affairs, and his job was to maintain peace between the Ghosts and resolve any incidents amongst the troops.
Vimur's job remained the same as he was in charge of training the troops. Kass was given the command of logistics and tasks related to the ship, whether it was the maintenance of the ship or purchasing dropships and gunships for dogfights.
Apart from them, there was another lieutenant, Ricochet, the metahuman from Occuna, who supported Ashton in his fight against the beasts. In Ricochet's words, he had turned his people into enemies by siding with an outsider.
As a result, Ricochet had to leave the planet. So when Ashton asked him to join the Ghosts, Ricochet immediately agreed. However, Ricochet wasn't alone; his twenty soldiers joined the ghosts with him.
With Ricochet's team joining the faction, their total numbers were 36, out of which 20 were E-graders.
Vulcan saw the newbies joining as a sign to get rid of his old equipment and immediately armed the new members. That said, even his old equipment was comparable to high-grade weapons sold in Kernel Tower.
Ashton left Leon and Laihud to discuss everybody's salaries and returned to his room. An important call needed to be made.
"Hello, Otiga. I happened to come across a few rare beast corpses, and I was wondering if you could-"
"I was about to call you myself," Otiga interrupted him, "We have received a distress call, so I thought you'd like to know about it."
"Why would I-"
"It's from Earth."