With Wade's undivided attention Marcus told him about how he had help escort a group of merchants past the ice ant hordes, his one man stand against them, and the forceful recruitment methods of Lieutenant Drevon.
Nodding his head Wade looked impressed at Marcus before saying, "So you are the one who caused that spectacle outside the city gates. It caused a huge uproar in the guards and soldiers since they watched you churn out powerful spells one after the other while being cloaked in a shroud of darkness. You were even one of the topics of the meeting I was just in since no one knew exactly who you were, and now you have delivered yourself to me on a silver platter."
At that point Marcus was starting to regret his decision to rely on Wade when Marcus noticed Wade looking at him like he was a prime cut of meat.
Of course, Wade picked up on Marcus' wariness and said, "Sorry it is not every day I get such a valuable pawn drop itself right into my lap, while the city is currently in a bit of a crisis everyone is still looking to achieve their own agendas. Also, there is no need to worry since you will be joining us royal investigators, you will not be used as a common foot soldier."
Marcus began looking at the exit wondering if he could get away when he felt Wade's grip on his shoulder. Resigning himself to being Wade's pawn until this crisis resolved Marcus followed him into his office and sat down.
"Now then I suppose that I should explain to you exactly what is going on. It all started around four weeks ago when the people that inhabit the villages to the north came running down to River Landing in droves. They told us of the impending ant swarm that had descended from the Great Gome Woods. Apparently, the swarm was discovered by the soldiers during their yearly cleaning operation around the periphery of the woods and those soldiers managed to evacuate all of the villages down south to River Landing."
When he heard this Marcus' face contorted into fear as realized that the group he had sent Lillia with, should have been on their way back to those northern villages and would have run into the ice ants.
Wade noticing the sudden fear on his face said, "If you are worried about the group of people that were kidnapped by the Ander Slavers that you rescued, you do not need to worry. The adventures that were escorting them got them into the city safely since the ant hoards were not as active at that time. Now back to what happened, after the people from the villages up north told us about the ants, a battalion of soldiers was dispatched to eliminate them but were unsuccessful and had to retreat. After that the ants tried to overrun River Landing but failed to break through our defenses, so instead they set up just past the range of our mana cannons and have been slowly wilding us down."
Wade then gave pause for Marcus to ask some questions since he could see the quisitive expression on his face.
"Has anything like this happened before and are you telling me that even with all the strength here in River Landing you cannot just overrun these ants."
"No this has never happened before, while there are some experts from past explores saying that they had run into ants that shoot ice, those reports detailed that they lived far further north. As for your second question no we can not simply overpower them. Even the strongest fighter in the town the general in charge of the army here is only level forty-one. As strong as he is he cannot defeat the queen of those ants since we know she is above level forty as well as being an intelligent monster."
Surprised to hear this Marcus could not contain himself and asked, "How do you know she is an intelligent monster I thought that they were pretty rare."
Wade nodded his head in agreement before saying, "Yes they are rare but not unheard of, and we know she is intelligent because of the strategies she has employed. That bitch has actually completely put River Landing under siege. She sent a large group of ants across the river by freezing it over in places and has made it impossible for us to escape south. Of course, we could try to break through, but it would take a massive amount of manpower, and she has station some of her flying ants to inform her of our movements, so if we congregate our power to the south the ants will overrun us from the north."
Understanding how dire the situation truly was Marcus then asked, "So what is the plan, certainly we are not going to wait to be rolled over."
At this Wade sighed before saying, "That is exactly what we are doing, although we are not waiting to be overtaken but waiting for reinforcements from the capital. The only problem now is if our supplies will run out. We are currently running out of magic cores to fuel the city's defenses and when they run out the ants will be able to crawl right over the wall and into the city."
Seeing the desperate look on Wade's face Marcus opened up his item box an allowed a flood of magic cores to come out. He currently had more than two thousand cores and other than the hundred strongest like the one he had obtained from the boss of the third layer Marcus was willing to share.
Wade looked out in surprise as over two thousand magic cores flooded the room before he gave an angry look at Marcus, since while he was happy to have the cores there was no need for Marcus to put on such a show about it.
"Where the hell did you get all of these, while most of them are only the lowest or second lowest grade the sheer volume is impressive. However, it was not necessary to fill my office up with them so if you could store them back in your item box, we can take them to the storeroom and replenish our supplies. This should at least let us hold out another two days and hopefully by then reinforcements will arrive."
Of course, Marcus did not plan to give away all of these cores for free and began rubbing his fingers together indicating his wish for compensation.
Sighing Wade said, "Yes you will be properly paid for the cores, but right now we are in a crisis so your payment will have to wait."
Nodding his head in agreement Marcus then followed Wade out of his office and to the stairs where they descended all the way to the building's basement. Once down there Marcus could feel that the temperature had risen a few degrees.
As they walked forward Marcus soon saw a door leading into massive room that had a single guard posted in front of it.
Seeing the two of them approaching the guards called out saying, "Who goes there and what is your business."
At that point Wade responded saying, "I am Royal Investigator Wade Ophiria, and this is my subordinate Irene. We have found a large collection of over two thousand cores and have come to deliver them."
Hearing Wade's name and title the guard's face stiffened, and he quickly stood aside before saying, "You are free to enter sir, thank you for procuring much needed cores in our time of need."
The guard lowered his head as Wade passed by doing his best not to offend someone of such high rank.
Once inside the room Marcus could feel the temperature rise once again as he stared at a massive furnace made out of a vibrant crimson metal.
"Impressive isn't it, this mana furnace provides the energy that powers almost ever defensive formation and installation in River Landing. Now let us store those cores of your and we can be on our way."
Wade then tracked down one of the dozen works that we keeping the furnace running and told them about the new supply of cores. When the workers heard this all of their faces had smiles on them as they brough empty boxes to Marcus.
Marcus began emptying his magic core stores into each box filling them to the brim before moving onto the next empty box.
When he had finally finished emptying the over two thousand cores and only kept ahold of his top one hundred Marcus gave the signal that he was out, and he and Wade left the furnace room.
As soon as they made it out of the room Wade sighed in relief and said, "Ah it is really too hot in there for me, but now we can figure out how to incorporate you into our group."
However, before Wade could say anything else Marcus said, "Actually there is something I need to do before that.. Could you tell me where the people I rescued are right now, I need to talk to one of them urgently."