The wooden crate was incredibly heavy.
Every step back up the snowy mountain sent a sharp pain through Ilya's shoulder. The freezing wind pushed against them, trying to throw them off the narrow paths. But the four boys kept moving.
'My physical body is still a huge liability,' Ilya thought. His breathing was heavy and loud. 'The Anemo magic makes me fast, but it does not make my muscles stronger. If I drop this crate, I lose all the value I just created. I have to push through.'
Behind him, Pyotr, Ivan, and Nikolai were also struggling. But they did not complain. They followed Ilya's footprints in the deep snow exactly. They trusted him.
'Loyalty is a powerful tool,' Ilya noted, glancing back at them. 'An hour ago, they were ready to die in the snow. Now, they are a working unit. They are yielding results.'
They finally saw the weak orange glow of the campfires. The Wyrmrest Valley checkpoint appeared through the blowing snow.
As they walked past the broken wooden wall, the other Fatui soldiers stopped what they were doing. Several men in heavy coats turned to stare. Nobody said a word.
The giant Electro Vanguard was standing near the center fire. He watched the four young boys walk into the camp carrying the heavy supply crates. Even behind his thick mask, he looked completely shocked.
"Put the crates by the main tent," Ilya ordered quietly.
Pyotr, Ivan, and Nikolai nodded. They carried their heavy boxes to the large black tent in the center of the camp and dropped them in the snow with a loud thud.
The Electro Vanguard walked over. His heavy boots crunched loudly. He looked at the crates, then looked down at Ilya.
"You are not dead," the big man grunted. It sounded like he was having trouble believing it.
"No, sir," Ilya said. He kept his voice completely flat and polite. "Delivery is complete. Food, medicine, and fire oil. Just like you ordered."
The Vanguard stared at him for a long time. Then, he turned his head toward the large black tent. "Captain! The recruits are back."
The flap of the tent whipped open. Captain Bracing stepped out. He was not wearing his long black coat, just a dark red shirt and black pants. He held a hot cup of tea in his hand. The warm steam rising from the cup made Ilya's frozen stomach growl.
Captain Bracing looked at the four wooden crates. Then, his cold, scarred face turned toward Ilya.
"I was told there were monsters down by the cavern," the Captain said. His voice was quiet, but it carried perfectly over the howling wind. "Three Cryo Whopperflowers. Nasty things. Did you not see them?"
'He knew,' Ilya realized instantly. His eyes narrowed slightly. 'He knew the monsters were there. He sent us down there as bait to clear the trap, or just to get rid of us. This is classic bad management. Sending the lowest workers to do an impossible job and expecting them to fail.'
"We saw them, Captain," Ilya answered. He stood up straight, ignoring the pain in his shoulders.
"And?" the Captain asked, taking a slow sip of his tea.
"And we cleared them, sir," Ilya said.
A murmur of surprise went through the other Fatui soldiers standing around the fires. Three Whopperflowers were enough to kill a squad of grown, trained men. Four skinny boys with cheap Delusions should have been turned into fertilizer.
Captain Bracing stopped drinking his tea. His eyes locked onto Ilya like a hawk looking at a mouse.
"Explain," the Captain commanded.
'This is the most dangerous part of the mission,' Ilya thought quickly. 'If I sound too smart, he will see me as a threat. Bad managers hate workers who are smarter than them. I need to make him think we just got lucky by following basic rules.'
"We just used basic reactions, sir," Ilya said, keeping his head slightly lowered to show respect. "Ivan used his Hydro magic to make the monsters wet. Pyotr used his Pyro magic to hit the wet monsters. The Vaporize explosion killed two of them. I used my wind to blow the leftover fire into the last one."
Captain Bracing raised an eyebrow. "You organized a perfect elemental combo attack? Without any training?"
"I just watched the colors of the magic, sir," Ilya lied smoothly. "Water puts out fire, but fire on wet targets hurts more. It was just a lucky guess. We were very scared."
Ilya made sure to let his hands shake just a little bit. He wanted to look like a frightened kid who just got incredibly lucky.
'Never outshine the boss,' Ilya reminded himself. 'Always look useful, but never look dangerous. Secure your position first.'
Captain Bracing stared at him for a long, uncomfortable minute. The only sound was the crackling of the campfires. Finally, the Captain let out a short, sharp laugh.
"A lucky guess," the Captain repeated. "Well, luck is a skill in this army. Vanguard!"
The giant Electro Vanguard stepped forward. "Yes, Captain."
"Move these four into Tent Number Three," Captain Bracing ordered. "Give them a double ration of hot soup tonight. And as of right now, this skinny Anemo recruit is their official Squad Leader. If his squad messes up, I will hold him personally responsible."
"Yes, sir," the Vanguard grunted.
"Dismissed," the Captain said. He turned around and went back into his warm tent.
Pyotr let out a huge breath of relief. Ivan smiled widely. They had survived, and they had been promoted from the worst tent in the camp to a slightly better one.
'Tent Number Three is closer to the fire,' Ilya thought, doing the math in his head. 'Double rations mean more calories to repair our muscles. Official Squad Leader means I have total control over these three assets. This was a massive win for our first quarter.'
They followed the Vanguard to their new tent. It was slightly larger than their old one, and the ground was covered with thick, dry furs instead of wet dirt. A few minutes later, another soldier brought them four bowls of hot, greasy meat soup.
It was the best thing Ilya had ever tasted. He ate slowly, making sure his body absorbed every single drop of the warm broth.
When the other three boys finished their soup, they immediately curled up on the dry furs and fell asleep. The adrenaline had worn off, and their bodies were totally exhausted.
Ilya did not sleep.
He sat in the darkest corner of the tent. He reached into his heavy coat and pulled out the secret item he had taken from the dead monster.
The Whopperflower Nectar glowed with a soft, beautiful blue light. It felt cold in his hands, but not a painful cold. It felt like holding a solid piece of cool mint.
'Time to invest my personal profits,' Ilya thought.
He relaxed his eyes and turned on his magic sight. He looked at the nectar. It was full of rich, thick elemental energy. It was raw power, waiting to be used.
He looked down at the green Anemo Delusion strapped to his chest. He had fixed the broken wire, but the cheap metal was still getting very hot when he used the wind magic. If he used too much power, the stone would overheat and burn his skin.
'This nectar is pure Cryo energy,' Ilya analyzed. 'Cryo is cold. If I apply it to the metal casing of the Delusion, it should act as a magical coolant system. It will stop the engine from overheating.'
He held the glowing blue nectar right over the green stone. He focused his mind, turning the energy into a liquid.
He squeezed the flower. A single drop of glowing blue liquid fell onto the cheap metal casing of his Delusion.
Hiss!
A tiny puff of steam rose into the air. The metal instantly turned cold. Ilya watched through his magic sight as the blue ice energy wrapped around the spinning green wind magic. They did not fight each other. The cold simply created a protective shield around the hot engine.
Numbers flashed in his mind. Cooling system online. Maximum safe energy output increased from fifty percent to seventy percent. Overheating risk eliminated.
Ilya smiled. The corporate ladder in the Fatui army was steep, dangerous, and full of people who wanted him dead.
But he was climbing.