"Useless thing. So what if you have the money? Hmph. Did you really think invasion portals are child's play?"
Liam could hear the bulky demon ranting once again behind his back, but he did not dilly dally and quickly walked away, putting everything in his inventory.
He knew that he could possibly be attracting some unwanted attention by purchasing so many scrolls at the same time. However, he had a few plans in his mind so he purchased in bulk.
"Portal… check. Now for my recruits…" Liam walked over to stand in the square beside the other leaders. "Recruiting for invasion!" He shouted at the top of his voice.
He was even louder than the other leaders.
However… once again he was completely ignored. None of the demons even turned towards him or threw a glance at him.
"Are these guys avoiding me because I am a new leader?" Liam chuckled helplessly. He did have a backup plan so he wasn't too worried.
He changed his tactics this time around and shouted again. "Recruiting for invasion quest! Need 5 soldiers! Paying 10 silver each!"
"Huh?"
"What the hell?"
"Who is this new guy?"
All the demons finally started paying attention to him. A few even gave him the stink eye as he was clearly bribing others into helping him.
But Liam didn't care as he got the result that he expected!
Almost instantly, a group of demons rushed over and started lining up in front of him. "Oops. I only need 5!" Liam chuckled.
He took a look at the group gathered and a sudden thought popped into his mind. He was not yet sure if he would be able to forge some sort of long-term contract with them.
But if he could…
"You. You. You. You and you!" Liam pointed at five young demons who looked considerably weak and inexperienced. "How many missions have you guys been on before?"
"None, leader."
"Same here. None leader."
"Me too."
"Me too."
"I have also not joined any quest before."
They looked worried thinking that Liam was going to reject them. 10 silver coins was a lot of money for them.
But he instead gave them a thumbs up. "You guys are hired."
"What? Why would you choose a complete beginner? Leader! I have already completed several missions. You should take me."
A few demons started complaining, disgruntled with the situation. Liam, however, simply shrugged. "Next time!"
He did not engage them further and quickly started activating the invasion portal inscription. As soon as he did, a notification popped up.
[Ding. New Limited Quest available]
[Ding. Survive the mission and bring back adequate resources]
[Ding. Reward: +500 contribution points; +50 contribution points for each surviving soldier; +100000 experience points; +10000 experience points for each surviving soldier]
[Ding. Do you wish to accept the quest? Yes/ No]
It looked like the rewards for being a leader were double that of being a mere soldier. Moreover, there were also sizable bonuses which made this whole thing extremely rewarding.
"Yes!" Liam grinned, rubbing his hands together. He was feeling both nervous and excited at the same time.
For the first time in this new life, he truly had no idea what was going to happen next and this pumped his body full of adrenaline!
"1… 2… 3…"
A big mark of blood appeared around them, entrapping them in a circle and the next second, Liam and his group appeared on another vast grassland.
As soon as they were transported, the demons started to run in all directions. Even though they had no experience, they seemed to still act on instinct.
"Stop. Don't run." Liam immediately commanded them. Unlike the other squad leaders, he decided to be more hands on.
He only had 5 soldiers to begin with so he couldn't afford to let them run wild. And even if he had 20 soldiers staying in the group formation or smaller groups was far more productive.
After hearing his orders, the demons immediately stopped running and came back to stand next to him. Liam also still had the 2 undeads with him and his 2 pets.
Including him, brought their ragtag team to a total of 10 members. "Not bad," Liam muttered, looking around the grasslands.
They were already lucky not to have landed in the middle of a sticky situation. So he didn't have any complaints.
He first took a few seconds to observe everything around them and when nothing appeared out of the ordinary, he immediately gave the order. "Move. Follow me."
He wanted to keep the pace of this expedition as the portal was only going to last for a couple of hours. They did not have much time.
Liam started by systematically exploring the area on his right. "Fly ahead and tell me if there is any danger." He gave the wind ripper its usual command.
The bird would have been able to contribute much more if he were to visit the beast association. Both of his pets were ready to evolve.
And all he needed to do was visit the beast association in any city and buy the required ingredients for their evolution.
This would give them a significant boost in their stats. They would become a lot stronger and contribute more actively in battles.
They would also be able to learn skills, or at least the wind ripper. The fox spirit beast was already able to learn skills after all.
Liam, however, decided to take care of this when his 96 hours window ended.
He was able to enter and exit the nether realm at will, but he wanted to use this golden opportunity that fell on his lap to the maximum that he could.
Things could change at any given moment, so he didn't want to take any unnecessary chances and test his luck. Then, later on, he could only regret this missed godly leveling opportunity.
"Let's go! Move!" Liam commanded his small motley group of five repeatedly. The level 15 to level 18 demons could barely keep up with him, so he had to reduce his speed quite a bit.
But Liam had his own plans.. Despite its disadvantages now, he had a feeling that in the long run, it would play to his advantage.