Jack and the 100 soldiers left the capital again and besides some curious people, nobody cared about it because it was normal to see a large group of soldiers entering and leaving the capital every day.
But what happened next was not normal, as soon as Jack's group left the capital the guards who took care of the main gates started to close the gates, this was something that attracted the attention of all the people who rarely saw the main gates close.
After a few hours that all the citizens of the capital knew that the king had decided to close the capital's gates to better protect the citizens, it left everyone thinking that a war could have started and made many people anxious.
The noble families who had more information knew that the kingdom was not under attack and had no major threats and did not understand why the king had the guards close the main gates.
But with this order from the king, it was no use for other families to ask the reasons for the king's decision, the king warned that he would not explain and that the gates would remain closed until he decided.
Jack was more relieved when he saw that Captain Max had managed to get the gates of the capital closed, so he was sure that the thieves on the mountain would not receive information and would not know that one of their groups was almost exterminated.
Jack and the soldiers left the capital and walked towards the mountains, the soldiers did not know where they were going, they knew that they should be going to face the thieves at their base, but they knew nothing else.
Captain Max decided not to tell the soldiers about the information he received from the thieves' interrogation, he decided it was best if Jack told them after the capital's gates were closed.
After the soldiers had walked far from the capital and had been walking for a few hours up the mountains, Jack asked everyone to stop walking, Jack decided to tell the soldiers some things about this mission.
"I know that you must be curious to know more about this mission that we are going to do, now we are going to the mountain thieves base to make a surprise attack, our goal is to kill or capture all the thieves."
"But don't worry, if I realize that the mission is too dangerous and that many soldiers could die, Captain Max has already ordered our group to back down to try a different plan."
"We received some important information from the thieves that we captured in the last fight, it seems that in the thieves' base there are between 200 and 270 thieves, probably at least 50 of those thieves have fighting skills like mine."
"Another piece of information we received is that some people may be passing information from the capital to thieves, so these thieves managed to rob so many traders, and yet they were never arrested."
The soldiers were surprised by various news that Jack had given them, they did not expect that they would have to face more than 200 thieves on this mission, they thought that Captain Max had been very cautious in sending 100 soldiers on this mission.
Even more that, in the group of thieves they had warriors more skilled than they, this was certainly a fight much more difficult than they expected, and in that order that Captain Max had given was very great the chance of somebody to die during this mission.
After that Jack still said several things to the soldiers who were more courageous for the next fights, Jack called Paolo who came quickly because he was waiting for Jack to call for him.
"Paolo, you will be very important for the success of this mission that we will have, we are walking in the mountains and you will have to guide us on the best path to the highest part of the mountains."
"You have to choose a path that has less wild animals and that soldiers can walk normally, I know that thieves did not make a path, but there must be a place that is better for our group to walk."
"You can leave it to me, Private Jack, I will find the best path I know and that path must have few wild animals, it is not the best path, but it is what I can do to help."
Jack saw that Paolo was being sincere and seemed excited about it, this was important because Jack did not want to risk meeting many wild animals on the mountain and so the soldiers would have to fight and be injured.
Jack was sure that those 100 soldiers who were with him formed a much stronger group than the group he had when he hunted on the Royal Road, but if they had to face several bears the skilled soldiers using the sword would not help much.
Against the Bears, Jack would have to depend on the archers, in which case the situation of his group was almost the same as the group he had on the hunts, after all, even though some soldiers chosen by Captain Max were better using the bow they had years of experience fighting animals.
So after they started walking again Paolo was in front of the group beside Jack guiding the way, Jack also knew how to walk well in the mountains because of his experience as a hunter and Jack would notice before Paolo if wild animals appeared.
The soldiers walked for many hours until it was almost dark, Paolo found a place that would be good for them to camp, and on the way, they found no wild animals.
Paolo said that in the lower heights it was difficult to find wild animals from the mountain because they were still theoretically in the forests, so only in the next few days could they find wild animals to contend with.
Fortunately, some of the rivers that passed through the forest started on this mountain, so the soldiers would not have much trouble finding water to drink, yet Jack made the soldiers carry two large bags of water and various fruits.
After all, different from what happened in the hunts, Jack did not intend to camp near rivers because he wanted to avoid wild animals and not hunt these animals, Jack also asked soldiers to bring dozens of pieces of meat and bread to feed themselves in emergencies.
They ate something like dried meat that wasn't very tasty, but it did have some of the necessary vitamins soldiers needed to walk, of course, Jack intended to find fruits in the mountains and kill animals for fresh meat.
But since this time they intended to avoid wild animals and had 100 soldiers, Jack knew that he could not expect the meat of the animals they hunted and the fruits they found to feed the soldiers for the weeks that they would remain on the mountain.