'What does he mean by that? Is there a calamity coming?' Michael thought, and he was so engrossed in his thoughts that he can't even hear Tina calling out to him.

"Shadow!" Tina pinched Michael's waist and angrily whispered beside his ear.

"Ack! What are you doing?" Michael angrily turned his head towards Tina, while holding the part of his waist that was pinched at.

Tina snorted and said, "I should be the one asking you that. You were so engrossed in your own thoughts that you can't even hear me"

Michael pinched her her cheeks and said, "I was just thinking about something important, you didn't need to pinch my waist you brat"

"Ohh..how I envy her" Emma whispered beside Casey.

"Why don't you push him down then?" Casey smiled mischievously.

Tina's eyes suddenly lit up when she heard her, but then she sighed, "That would have been a great idea if Michael was just holding himself back to make a move on me, but from my observation so far, he's not, and he even has a woman that he likes that doesn't lose out to my looks and figure at all!"

Michael's lips curved upwards when he managed to hear much of her mumblings.

'Of course, any sane man would have immediately push down someone beautiful like you who's literally throwing herself at me, but a pity. My eyes are only looking at Amanda right now'

On the other hand, Harrison who could also hear his cousin's mumbling filled with anger and envy had a bitter smile on his face while thinking, 'Good thing Rick isn't here or else he would have erupted in anger by now and attack Michael'

A few hours later, the expedition force safely arrived at Stormwind Fortress with no troubles along the way, and what greeted them when they arrived at the gates of the fortress are the eruption of cheers from the people living in the fortress.

Some of them are standing on top of the walls or lined up beside the main street, as the troops paraded before their eyes.

"Welcome back daddy!" a little girl suddenly broke out from the crowd and ran towards a mounted soldier, and the man in question quickly jumped down from his wolf and received his daughter in his arms before jumping back on the back of his mount with the little girl in his arms, who giggled in excitement and started waving at the crowd.

"Wow, I didn't expect that the people here would receive us like we're some kind of heroes or something" Emma said while looking at the cheering people around them, as the expedition force march through along the street.

Tina and the other users are also waving at the crowd of people in excitement, as they had never experienced something like this before. Even Emma who was born with a golden spoon hadn't experienced this kind of reception before.

The lot of them felt like their hardsh.i.p.s until now was worth the trouble of joining the expedition force, because not only did they gain multiple levels and a lot of high quality materials and items that aren't in the market yet. They are also receiving something of what someone would call a heroes welcome.

"The people living here would experience beast tides once or twice every year. This is the reason why the people living here are giving us this kind of welcome. After all, we had just went through a lot of trouble and practically killed thousands of monsters inside the Forest of Despair, and those thousands of monsters that we exterminated would have destroyed a lot of things around the fortress and would have killed a lot of people during a beast tide"

"So giving us a warm welcome is the least they could do"

A kind looking imperial soldier patiently explained the reason to Emma and the others, and only did the lot of them remember that every border towns, villages or cities near the Forest of Despair would suffer from the so called Beast Tide once or twice a year, so the expedition force that had just went inside to secure the batch of mounted mounts literally had taken care of two tasks at the same time, securing the future beast mounts for the army and reducing the number of monsters inside the forest.

After much fanfare, the troops finally arrived at the army headquarters, where the soldiers immediately dispersed to their respective quarters to rest, while the users headed towards the administration office of the barracks and reported for their quest completion.

"Holy! I got a lot of fame and experienced points that I'm now Level Twenty Six!" a bow user exclaimed just after he had submitted his quest towards the receptionist/soldier.

Everyone of the users who managed to survive during the expedition managed to upgrade at least one or two of their items, which is already considered as a huge reward apart from the experience points and fame they would receive as a reward for this expedition quest.

Suddenly, a group of three soldiers with dominating auras around them walked inside the administrative building and swept their eyes inside before stopping at the only cloaked figure among the users.

The three soldiers briskly walked towards Michael, and Emma and the others quickly noticed them as they watched them walking towards their direction.

Michael turned his head over on one of his shoulders, and saw the three imperial soldiers from the corner of his eye.

The three imperial soldiers stopped before Emma and her team, and the domineering soldier who's standing in front of the other two soldiers who has a scar across one of his eyes looked towards Michael and said, "Mr. Shadow? I'm Captain Hayes of the Third Imperial Wolf Cavalry. I was sent here by the General to request your presence at the Headquarters"

"Why?" Michael turned around and asked.

Captain Hayes just shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's better for you to ask that question to the General as we're only following his orders"

Then he gave a quick nod of acknowledgement to the others before he turned around and started walking towards the exit, with the two soldiers following behind him.

"Did you do something?" Emma asked with a worried tone.

"I don't know. I guess I'll find out soon" Michael just shrugged his shoulders and slowly followed behind Captain Hayes, under the gazes of the other users that is full of confusion, worry and envy.

A couple of minutes later, Michael arrived before the largest building in the army barracks.

Captain Hayes lead him inside the building then towards the second floor, where they arrived before a room with dual front doors.

"The General and the rest are waiting for you inside" Captain Hayes said as he quickly moved out of the way and stood guard beside the door.

Michael slowly opened the door and what greeted him are three people from different ages, one white haired man around mid fifties, a black haired woman around mid to late twenties and the other one was General Ouki.

*****

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