Chapter 555 Introducing The Squad!
"What do we do?!" Gabrial asked with a rushed tone, "We need to go around the order somehow and hinder the spaceship!"
"I concur." Barry supported with an agitated expression, "For Felix to use a wish on this matter, it only meant that the spaceship is carrying his grandfather, family, or even some of his teammates!"
None of them had bothered to consider that the spaceship was meant for Erik and Malak since they were known to be just bodyguards of Robert!
In their minds, why would Felix bother to escort those two out while leaving his grandfather behind?
"I suggest we do nothing." Maganda Chief proposed calmly.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
They knew that it was going to be extremely risky to make a move on the spaceship while under the SGAlliance's protection, but there could be a way out if they pooled in their ideas.
"Don't get me wrong." Maganda Chief clarified, "I want them to get caught but I believe that it's best to let the others make a move on them. After all, the spaceship had been disclosed by the Queen."
He coughed, "If the information that the spaceship was carrying Felix's close loved ones gets leaked, then there could be someone insane enough to try and hinder them."
The other four leaders immediately understood what he was implying.
However, they weren't given a second later to think about his plan as the commanders all shouted abruptly at once, "It's on the move!!"
"Bastard! He activated the wish just before their departure!" Zosia lost her composure again after seeing a red dot speeding rapidly towards the sky in her hologram!
All of them could only stare at it with a feeling of hopelessness washing through them. They couldn't make a move neither were given time to inform the others.
They knew that none of them were going to make a move on the spaceship before understanding the benefits associated with it...
Meanwhile, inside the cockpit of the exploration spaceship that appeared like a silver cube flying, Malak, Erik, and the rest of the squad were all sleeping in their VR Pods.
They left the Queen to handle their escape since their spaceship was going to be traveling at the speed of light the moment they reach the exosphere layer.
Currently, they were gathered in Malak's UVR's room that was modified to resemble the interior of their spaceship.
Felix was sitting with them without any disguise.
He didn't need one because every member of the squad was a slave who signed an even stricter contract than Malak and Erik.
A couple of seconds later, the Queen announced in Malak UVR's room, 'The spaceship is currently traveling at the speed of light towards the 2nd nearest VIP wormhole.'
"Yes!" Erik lifted his fists in the air in excitement abruptly, scaring and confusing the other squadmates.
Neither Malak nor Felix had informed them about the dangers they were currently exposed to since they believed that it would bring nothing besides unnecessary panic.
'How did you do it, Sir Felix?' Malak asked telepathically while sighing in relief.
'Don't bother yourself with it.' Felix waved his hand dismissively and said with a serious tone, 'It's not over yet. You can expect them to camp multiple wormholes and also place a wanted notification on our spaceship module.'
'I will keep an eye out constantly.' Malak promised solemnly.
After the situation cooled down a bit and the journey had officially started, the squadmates all focused on their elusive master.
This was actually the first time they meet up with him!
Felix always wanted to pay them a visit and introduce himself properly, but he gets hung up on important matters and ended up postponing it to another time. Though, he was given a report about their information by Malak.
In the last two hours, he wanted to show himself but he decided to not distract them from their work since they needed to move the moment they pick up Erik and Malak.
"Malak, please introduce the squad." Felix requested with a friendly smile.
"Line up before the boss!" Erik shouted with a strict tone.
The ten members of the squad all listened to the order obediently, creating a long line in front of Felix.
Just like the report he received, the bunch was mixed with humans and other races. There were 7 males and 3 females, not considering Malak and Erik.
All of them were wearing a single armored black uniform with '𝓛𝓛' in their chest.
Malak went to the end of the left line and pointed her finger at a slime that was taken the shape of a human.
"This is Momo, an experienced slime who went through multiple expeditions with another crew." Malak reported calmly, "However, his latest expedition with them had ended in everyone dying but him. Since his owner was dead, he broke from his slave's shackles. Unfortunately for him, he got caught by pirates yet again and got auctioned to me with a price of 1 billion SC."
Upon hearing so, Felix felt a bit bad by Momo's garbage luck.
There were a hundred quadrillion slimes spread all over the universe, yet this particular slime had been caught not once but twice!
Although he felt bad, Felix had no intentions of releasing him since he understood that slimes were necessary assets in ruins explorations.
That's because slimes could be used to scout the situation in the ruins ahead of everyone since they didn't feel pain or get affected by illusions.
Additionally, his form wasn't solid, making him able to fit in places where no man could enter!
Also, he could split parts of himself and send them inside tiny holes or simply scout for traps without endangering himself!
Although slimes didn't feel pain and were almost immortals as long as a small part of their body remained, they could get destroyed quite easily.
Their trash defense and offense made them part of the bottom feeders in the social status in the universe...Even lower than humans.
'Good morning Sir Felix.' Momo greeted telepathically since he didn't have vocal cords. Even the bracelet was being consumed inside his jelly-like head since he could'nt hold into it.
'Morning to you two.' Felix greeted back and focused on Malak who was now pointing her finger at a hound half-ling.
He had the head of a Labrador and the body of a human. He also had paws instead of hands and a furry tail behind him.
"This is Khodri from the hound half-ling species. I have recruited him due to his excellent smell senses. I believe they would come in handy during our explorations."
"Couldn't agree less." Felix nodded his head and said, "Welcome to the squad."
"Thank you sir." Khodri lowered his head with a calm disposition. He didn't seem as playful as the dog species he belonged to.
Malak went to the next one in line and introduced, "This Nicci, she is a peak 4th stage plant Elementalist who will be our primary healer."
"I am happy to have you as a part of our family." Felix nodded his head at Nicci who appeared quite pretty with her short curly brown hair and thin pink lips.
She looked quite shy as she had her head lowered since the moment they lined up.
"Mmmm." Nicci made some acknowledgment noises without lifting her head.
Just as Malak wanted to scold her for such disrespectful behavior, Felix waved his hand at her.
"Please carry on."
Malak nodded her head and went in front of a woman with a head of a bat but the curves of a female human. She also had dark furless wings folded behind her.
Unlike Nicci, she seemed pretty flirty as she was blinking at Felix with a faint playful smirk. Alas, Felix merely felt shivers course at his back at the sight.
Who was in his right mind would feel attracted to a bat half-ling besides males from the same race?
Felix wasn't that kinky yet.
"This is Malissa, I hired her due to her sonar-based abilities since I know that in ruins, recognizing sounds would be extremely important." Malak introduced while glaring at Malissa.
Felix nodded his head at Malissa and quickly changed his vision to the other six male humans beside her.
Malak also didn't want to spend too much time talking about the flirty Malissa. She went and placed her hand on top of the short bearded man's shoulder and introduced with a respectful tone, "This is Sir Declan Arroyo, he is the chief engineer and repairman in this ship. I have spent quite a hefty sum to hire him but I believe it's worth it."
"I am ecstatic to have you with us elder." Felix spoke politely after realizing that the man was a commoner in his hundreds of years.
He didn't respect him out of his age only but also due to his tremendous experience in repairing broken spaceships.
Felix understood that repairmen were the bloodline of any spaceship due to the hazardous environment of space and deserted planets.
Bots could handle most of the repairing issues, but there were some tricky situations only experienced repairmen could solve.
"Hohoho, what a handsome young fella." Declan spoke with a heavy accent, making his words come out a bit confusing to the ears.
However, most of them had managed to understand him due to their sharp senses.
Felix showed a strict expression to everyone and warned, "Although elder Declan is a commoner, I want you to listen to his orders obediently if they are related to the spaceship. If he told you to bring a screwdriver from the end of the ship, you do it. Am I understood?!"
"Yes Sir!"
"Good." Felix nodded his head in satisfaction and requested, "Please carry on."
Malak didn't spend much time introducing the others as one of them was the spaceship operator called Samir while the other three were the combat force of the squad.
Two of them were 4th stage bloodlines at greater purity while the last one was at peak 3rd stage of replacement.
Although it didn't seem like much, Malak did her best to gather this squad with the limited budget that Felix handed her.
However, Felix wasn't too worried as he had enough money to add more in case the situation called for it.
Now? 12 members plus him were good enough to aim at 4 tier and below ancient ruins.
The ruins they were currently going for were tiered 4 and called the Shurima Temple!