Everyone was on their way out of the military camp. Evan glared at Rocky as they left. His jealousy and hatred for Rocky only grew when his joint signature petition for protest was denied by the Commander in Chief. The idea behind him was to expose Marin's bias towards Rocky.
Almost everyone had evacuated the camp except for Rocky and Marin.
"Commander, what are your directives?" Rocky knew better than to think this is just some daily light-hearted chat. He could sense the tension in the air the moment he came in to the Commander's camp. His guess was this meeting was to pick on him.
"I have a secret mission for you," Marin said to Rocky who was fairly surprised at this point.
"A secret mission? Why assign it to me? I think you're overestimating me here. You fully know the extent of my power. I don't think I am cut out for a secret mission," Rocky refused with an awkward smile. Marin must be out her mind to assign some secret mission to him. There was not a doubt she had some sort of hidden agenda for assigning him this secret mission. She could not possibly be up to any good.
"Despite this mission's secrecy, it's actually quite simple and easy. Here are three confidential documents I need you to deliver to different outposts," Marin explained, picking up the envelopes ready to hand them to Rocky.
"However, as easy as it may seem, I am fully aware how this mission could put me in a possible risk. Commander, I believe you just said spies from the Timber Deity Empire could have possible slipped into our border. I'd automatically fail this mission if I got targeted by them," Rocky rationalized, trying to get himself out of this mission. He was not up for any kind of secret mission, ever. Not to mention the iffy feeling he got from Marin, this mission was absolutely not his thing.
"You said it yourself, your power's extent won't be of any interest for them. No spy would care to target on you. They would not think of you someone worthy enough to harbor a single confidential document, let alone three," Marin snapped back.
"True, but what if they're such bad spies they don't know how to tell strong spirit manipulators from the weak ones?" Rocky responded, marveling at Marin's quick wits.
"This is an order. Your willingness matters not at all. Your compliance is required. Otherwise, you will have to face grave consequences," Marin stated matter-of-factly and threateningly.
Rocky could not help but sneer. He knew Marin was out to get him and make things more difficult for him.
He looked at Marin and approached her with a straight face to take the three envelops from Marin's hands. He left at once without another word.
"What a douchebag," Marin whispered to herself. She bit her lower lip, frustrated at how unnecessarily rude Rocky was.
An attractive-looking figure then emerged beside Marin.
"Just follow him as Deputy Commander in Chief's suggestion for now," Marin ordered the attractive looking figure.
She nodded in compliance and instantly vanished.
'Let's see how you're going to get away with it now, Rocky. I will do everything to expose everything you're hiding, ' Marin almost sinisterly thought to herself. Her eyes were filled with a shrewd look.
Rocky went straight to his house after leaving the camp. He took out the three envelopes Marin gave him from his chest pockets hidden underneath his robe. He stared at them for a few seconds and muttered, "What Marin is up to now? This must be some kind of a fake secret mission, but what's her agenda here? Was she just doing this to sound me out? Working with women is such a pain. She kept on badgering me for who I am. I doubt her finding out of who I am will do her any good. This will only result to a bigger problem," Rocky murmured and put the envelopes back where they were previously hidden.
Rocky headed to the eastern village to hand Rubygon over to Sue. He needed help taking care of it because he could not bring it along to this secret mission. When he got back to the military camp, he started preparing things needed for the operation. He got himself a long bow and a quiver filled with several bone arrows in the middle of the normal arrows. Hidden by the night's darkness, Rocky, as always, with Uriah beside him, headed out for this secret mission.
He reserved the outpost near the place where a Dark Heaven Insect could be possibly found as the last destination. With his prior research, he knew these two were not so far away from each other. He knew if he started now, he'd be done with the delivery by noon tomorrow. He might be able to check out the Dark Heaven Insect.
Two figures then suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his way.
Rocky ran a quick scan of the two people before him. They both wore green clothes and bamboo hats covered their faces. Judging by their movements, their skill level should be at the sixth level of the Mortal Stage. This is a relatively strong spirit manipulator by the military's standards.
"Hey, you! Hand over the items you are hiding on you," one of the two spirit manipulators ordered, shouting.
"The item? What kind of an item is it?" Rocky squinted his eyes in an attempt to look oblivious. 'Are these two also sent by Marin as a test?' Rocky asked himself. 'If that were true, then Marin really was desperate to find out the true extent of my powers and my real identity. First, she sent someone to spy on me. And now, these two are trying to set me up. Oh, but she was wrong to underestimate me. I couldn't be possibly fooled by such a shoddy trick. It was so poorly executed I saw right through it from the very beginning.'
"Quit it with the games. Hurry up! Give it up! Now!" The other spirit manipulated shouted.
"Hey, brother. I'm not playing any games, alright? Go back and tell the Commander this is not fun at all," Rocky replied calmly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.
The two spirit manipulators looked at each other in confusion.
"Should we just kill him? We shouldn't have wasted our time having this screwball fool around with us," one of them yelled.
Their eyes flashed with an intent to kill. They lunged towards Rocky, shoulder to shoulder, employing the techniques of spiritual martial arts.
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