Now that the gang was done with their excessive sleeping, they were almost ready to train for their hardest battle yet.

But before they could do that, they had to meet with Cadmus. Helios’s father had been requesting a meeting ever since they returned to Hedonia, but he was understanding enough to let them rest.

As they stepped into Cadmus’s house, the familiar scent of his enchanted foods immediately made James’s mouth water.

The patient Cadmus let them eat to their hearts’ content, watching them with a big smile as they fiendishly devoured everything he had set on the table.

Once the three piglets were done eating, it was time to talk shop.

“I’m actually glad you children had some time to rest. Even though I wanted to meet you days ago, I understand how hard you’ve all been pushing yourselves. More importantly, Hedonia thanks you for your service.”

Cadmus bowed deeply towards them.

“Jeez, that’s not necessary! It was our duty!” Lunaris quickly responded. They were all blushing, being bowed to like that was embarrassing. “Plus, we profited greatly off it anyway. James got so much stronger, and we all got plenty of experience.”

“Yes, I can clearly see that all your powers have greatly increased. You’re all bursting with aura and mana. Especially our quirky little friend here.” Cadmus looked at James with great interest, as if he could see everything that happened to him just from looking at him.

“My god, boy. You keep exceeding my expectations every time I see you.” While he was looking at James, Cadmus’s mouth dropped for a second, but the experienced mage instantly regained his composure.

He approached James and inspected his arms, his head, his back. The more he analyzed James, the more his eyebrows were involuntarily waggling, his smile growing larger and larger. Even though he was a veteran, hardened old mage, he couldn’t hide his gleefulness entirely.

“My children, not only did you do get rid of a gang of neophytes that surely would’ve claimed many lives in the future. But you also caught the traitorous archmage that had infiltrated our ranks, and even divined through his memories to find the other traitors he recruited.”

The distinguished Cadmus seemed to be about to break into a dance, so happy and full of excitement he was.

“You have no idea what a service you have done for Hedonia, for all of us. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Even though theoretically there may be other spies, your achievements have made Hedonia a much safer place. And for that I thank you.”

Cadmus bowed again, but Helios would have none of it. “Cut it out old man, you’re embarrassing us.” He said while blushing. “We love this place just as much as you do, all of us. So there’s no need to thank us, we did what had to be done.”

“All right, all right.” Cadmus smiled. “But you’re still entitled to a reward. And I know just what you need.”

The three straightened their backs. They didn’t demand a reward, the good they did for the world and the amount of progress they made was reward enough. But they wouldn’t refuse one either.

“I’ve been trying to find information on this Garantep guy ever since Helios sent me the message. Unfortunately, as you know, agents are much better at finding out information about us than vice-versa. Still, at the very least, our scryers were able to gauge the extent of his powers. While they didn’t uncover anything in particular, one thing is for sure. The memories Denmac sifted through weren’t exaggerating at all.”

The three frowned at the news. They knew Garantep was incredibly strong, but to hear Cadmus confirm it was quite unpleasant. It was one thing for Denmac to say it, but if Cadmus thought he was strong, then they had a real problem on their hands.

“That’s why, for your reward, I’ll just have to give you something to help even the odds.” Cadmus grinned and handed them three wristbands.

“Now that we’ve cleared our ranks from traitors, we have even less manpower to spare. But looking at your results, I can justify any expenditure.”

Cadmus stroked his beard as he looked at each of them.

“The wristbands accurately monitor all your parameters. Your vitals, your powers, your mana. They’re even more accurate than the system messages, so you can imagine how expensive they were. Although that’s not saying much, we all know how vague it can be.” Cadmus rolled his eyes in frustration, and Lunaris shook her head, sharing the sentiment. Scholars like them hated inaccuracies. Countless scholars were driven mad by the vagueness and incompleteness of the system messages.

“That’s not the real reward though. As short-handed as we are, this Garantep character worries me. So I’ve asked a team of highly knowledgeable wizards to accompany and monitor you during your training. Using the information provided by the wristbands, they’ll be able to assist and guide your efforts.”

“Thank you, dad.” Helios respectfully bowed his head, Lunaris and James following suit.

“Don’t thank me, it’s all up to you. The wizards will just be making suggestions, but it’s up to you to do the work.” Cadmus furrowed his brows, clearly not fully satisfied. “Still, this is far from enough. Even if you might be able to deal with Garantep, and I have a hard time even imagining that happening, we’re talking about attacking a Stygian city. You’ll need a lot more people with you.”

“We’ve already asked Denmac to look for another mercenary that will complement our powers.” Lunaris answered.

“One more mercenary?” Cadmus shook his head. “It’s a start, and it’s true that we can’t just recruit hundreds of people for a such a dangerous mission. Few would be willing to risk their lives to go to a Stygian city. Not to mention that every single person is valuable to the war effort. And even if I wish I could join you, but I’m needed here. If I leave Hedonia, even with the spies eliminated, it would create the perfect opportunity for someone to attack.”

Cadmus closed his eyes and stroked his beard repeatedly for minutes on end. No one said anything, the enormity of the task at hand was enough to give them all pause. “There is one thing we can do. It’s not perfect though, definitely not as good as having dozens more people by your side, but it’s something.”

The three leaned forward. They task seemed so impossible, that they were eager to hear any potential solutions.

“The problem is that Garantep stays within the Stygian city, only sending his shadow clones out. Which means there are thousands of other foes you’d have to deal with, hundreds of agents. Ideally, you’d want to fight only Garantep and whoever was around him.”

They all nodded. The plan of fighting an entire city worth of agents was definitely a non-starter.

“So we have to take a page from their book.” Cadmus grinned cunningly. “You have to make your way throughout the city, reach Garantep, and fight him without anyone outside of your immediate proximity interfering. That means we have to use infiltrations, stealth, anything that can get you to him undetected.”

“Beat them at their own game?” Helios shouted. “That’s impossible, you yourself said that they’re so much better at this than us.”

“They are, that’s true.” Cadmus smiled. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t hold our own. Long-term, you wouldn’t have any chance of pretending you’re one of them for months and years, like they’re doing to us. But short-term? Infiltrate and scurry around, pretend you’re one of them if they do see you, stealth up and execute precise attacks? That’s not impossible.”

“That still sounds impossible. They are master infiltrators after all. Wouldn’t they be just as good at detecting infiltration?” Lunaris asked.

“It would still be incredibly difficult, don’t get me wrong. And to be honest, I’d never let you go if not for what’s at stake.” Cadmus sighed and crossed his arms. “But I’ll take care of it. You children just do your best and get as powerful as possible. Make sure you can beat Garantep, and just in case, imagine he has several guards with him. Leave the infiltration part to me.”

Now that they had a plan, as improvised and dangerous as it was, the group could finally start training.

The three bowed deeply towards Cadmus. They bowed out of gratitude, but partly as revenge, making him blush this time around.

They also dropped off the corpses of the neophytes and the agent, which definitely had their uses, but it made for an awkward scene as they pulled out corpse after corpse in the middle of Cadmus’s house.

Finally, they returned to their quarters. As much as they would have loved to rest some more, they had to start their training the following day. They had a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time.