SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 84: Briefing

When Lena arrived at the courtyard the next morning, the three mercenaries and six estate guards were already waiting.

Ollen stood to one side with his arms crossed. The guards stood in a loose line behind the mercenaries, looking tired and bored in the flat morning light.

Lena looked at the mercenaries first.

The one on the left was massive, taller than any of the guards. He had dark blue skin and thick tusks that curved up from his jaw. These weren’t for show; they were worn smooth at the tips from use. A long scar ran from his ear down into his collar, and a heavy, flat blade was strapped to his back. He leaned forward slightly, looking ready to move.

The man in the middle was shorter and built like a barrel. His skin was ash-grey with a scaly texture on his arms and hands. His eyes were solid amber with no pupils. He didn’t carry a sword or a bow, but his hands were wrapped in thick layers of cloth. Lena knew that meant his fists were his primary weapons.

She turned to the third mercenary and stopped.

He was a beastkin, leaning against the courtyard wall with his arms folded. At first, he looked like any other hired fighter. He had a medium build and brown fur with darker markings on his face. His ears sat high on his head, twitching slightly. He wore plain clothes and had nothing around his neck.

Lena recognized him immediately. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

She had seen him once in Ashfen. He had been standing near the market, looking like he wasn’t watching anything while actually seeing everything. Back then, she had ignored him because she didn’t want any trouble. Now, he was looking right at her. The look on his face told her that he remembered her, too.

She held his stare for a second, then looked away. She would deal with that later.

"Thank you all for being here," Lena said. Her voice was clear and carried across the yard. "I’ll keep this short. You’ve been dealing with these swarms for months now. I’ve only been here for one night. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert on how they fight. But I spent the night watching them, and I’ve seen a pattern. Because of that, we’re going to change how we do things."

She stepped closer to them, making sure they were all listening.

"We’re going to set up three positions along the eastern edge of the growth. We’ll spread out. Each group will hold their ground and manage whatever comes at them. But the goal isn’t just to kill the worms."

She paused, looking at the guards. "When the swarms start to pull back—and they always do—I need you to watch them. I need to know the exact direction they go. I want to know the angle they take and how deep they go into the growth before you can’t see them anymore. Do not chase them. Just watch, stay quiet, and remember what you saw. That information is the only reason we are going out there tonight."

Dren, the tall one with the tusks, gave a slow nod. He didn’t say a word, but he seemed to understand. Tok, the grey-skinned man, just stared at her with those yellow eyes. He didn’t look happy or unhappy; he just looked ready.

The beastkin— who introduced himself as Skall—said nothing at all. He just kept leaning against the wall, watching her with a neutral face.

One of the estate guards, a lean demon with bone ridges on his arms, shifted his weight. He didn’t try to be mean, but he looked skeptical. He raised his chin and spoke up.

"Ma’am, with all due respect, we’ve been out there for months. We hold the lines, we kill as many as we can, and they just come back the next night in the same numbers. It feels like we’re wasting a chance if we just let them walk away. Why watch them when we could be thinning them out?"

Lena looked at him. She didn’t get angry. She knew he was just saying what everyone else was thinking.

"You’re right," Lena said. "Killing them on the surface works for a few hours. I watched you last night, and you were efficient. You’re good at what you do. But like you said, the numbers don’t go down. You kill a hundred, and a hundred more appear the next night. You’ve been doing this for a long time. You know why that is."

The guard didn’t answer. He just waited.

"It’s because something is replacing them faster than you can clear them," Lena explained. "Every creature you kill tonight will just be replaced by next week. We are spinning our wheels. The only way to actually end this is to find where they are coming from and kill the source. That is what tonight is for. If this works, you won’t have to stand on this line for another month."

The guard looked at her for a long time. He eventually looked down at the ground, then back up, and gave a small nod. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but he was a professional. He would follow orders.

"Good," Lena said.

Ollen stepped forward then. He pulled out a large piece of heavy cloth. Two guards took the corners and held it up, revealing a hand-drawn map. Ollen began to point out the terrain.

He showed them the three positions on the eastern edge and the distances between them. He pointed out the specific patches of the "growth", that strange, dark vegetation, that had been the most active over the last few nights.

Lena watched the map closely. As Ollen pointed to the leftmost position, she raised a hand.

"Move that one twenty feet further north," she said.

Ollen stopped and looked at her. "That puts them closer to the dense section of the growth. It’s more dangerous there."

"It also puts them in a direct line with where the swarm retreated last night," Lena said. "The angle from that spot is much cleaner. If they stand there, they’ll have a longer sightline into the trees when the monsters start to pull back. They’ll see further."

Ollen looked at the map, then at the spot she was pointing to. He rubbed his chin for a second, then took a piece of charcoal and marked the change on the cloth.

The rest of the meeting went by quickly. They went over the signals they would use to talk to each other across the distance. They established a plan for what to do if a swarm got too big to handle. The answer was simple: fall back to the secondary line, stay together, and do not break formation.

When Ollen finally dismissed them, the sun was well above the horizon. The courtyard was starting to get warm. The guards broke off into small groups, heading back to the barracks to get some sleep before the night shift. Dren and Tok walked off together toward the eastern side of the grounds, moving in silence.

Lena stayed where she was. She looked over at the wall where Skall had been leaning.

He was already gone. He hadn’t made a sound as he left.

She stayed there for a few seconds. She couldn’t afford to be distracted. There were too many things to prepare, and the sun was already moving across the sky.

The day dragged on. Lena spent most of it checking supplies and talking to Ollen about the defenses. The hours felt long and heavy. But eventually, the shadows began to stretch across the stone floor. The sky turned from blue to a deep, bruised purple.

And then, quietly, the sun went down. The real work was about to begin.