Chapter 316
Chapter 316 – We Have to Hold Them Off (2)
With Ghislaine’s declaration, everyone was ignited with fighting spirit, except for one person.
Skoban raised his hands solemnly.
“I wish for a safe return!”
In response to his vigorous voice, the Forest of Monsters guards, including Ricardo, also raised their hands.
They all shared the same thought.
‘As long as we don’t go, we’ll be fine.’
‘Why do they keep poking around here recklessly?’
‘He’s a Grand Duke, so he’ll figure something out.’
They had no hobby of risking their lives. The events they’d faced up till now were enough to brag about for generations.
This is sufficient. Now, they wanted to live a comfortable life.
But Ghislaine looked at Skoban and said, “What are you talking about? You all need to come with us.”
“W-What? Why?”
“The more hands we have, the better.”
“But we have to guard this place!”
“I’ll sweep everything in front of us, so what’s there to guard?”
“…Can’t we not go?”
“No.”
Skoban pondered for a moment with his arms crossed. As he thought, he quickly came up with a reasoning.
“I belong to Perdium. I can’t move without the Lord’s permission.”
It was a complaint saying not to mess with him due to their different affiliations. However, Ghislaine was the kind of man who didn’t care about such trivial matters.
“Since my father is not here, as the heir, I’m the Lord’s deputy.”
“…But the Chief Officer is the Lord’s deputy.”
“Hmm… Don’t you want to retire someday?”
Once he inherited the territory, Perdium would also belong to Ghislaine. He could easily boss Skoban around until he died.
Skoban turned to Ricardo immediately.
“Hey… prepare… gather the kids…”
“B-But we haven’t received any formal orders!”
“If you’re confident, then just try to hold out. Don’t you know it’s scarier being closer to the Grand Duke than the Chief Officer who’s far away?”
“…”
“Since it has come to this, let’s take a look inside. Let’s think positively.”
The Forest of Monsters guards didn’t have many personnel, but having one more hand is better than none.
Ghislaine gave Skoban additional orders.
“Leave only the minimum security forces in the territory, and bring all the waiting troops. Also, gather laborers. Anyone wanting to join should come. The compensation will be generous.”
Skoban moved promptly. After all, with the main force already at the Northern Fortress, no one could stop this reckless guy.
Of course, Ghislaine wasn’t going to wait for additional troops and laborers to arrive. He needed to set up a base camp as quickly as possible.
“Now, let’s head in!”
Ghislaine and the Penris Army entered the Forest of Monsters through the path they had previously cleared.
The forest was still quiet. Even though there was a path, it was rarely used except for mining runestones, so no major changes would occur in the forest.
The area around the path wasn’t developed enough to say they had properly cleared the forest by building high walls. Still, Ghislaine was determined to secure this territory.
“Destroy everything!”
Boom! Kuuung!
As three thousand soldiers and knights moved, the high and sturdy barricades protecting the path collapsed in an instant.
A vast open space was created, and the command tent was immediately set up. This would be the center of proper development from now on.
“There aren’t many monsters at the entrance. Push forward as quickly as you can.”
They were still far from the domain of the Dirus Ent, which marked the true beginning of the forest. The area around this path had already been cleared long ago.
Since there was no worry about monster attacks, Ghislaine boldly moved the soldiers. Within three days, two villages worth of space suitable for settlement at the forest entrance had been secured.
Of course, there had been some monster attacks.
“Graaaah!”
Something with a massive size charged out in front of the soldiers who were chopping down trees.
The soldiers were shocked and screamed.
“Whoa! What is that?!”
“A bear? Is that even a bear?!”
“How can something be that huge?!”
What appeared in front of the soldiers was a grizzly bear, almost twice the size of an ordinary bear, covered in coarse gray fur.
With that size, it could easily be called a monster instead of just a beast.
It looked like it had lived fiercely in this rugged forest, with one eye long gouged out and scars all over its body.
Although it was driven to the outskirts of the forest by even stronger beings, it still possessed enough strength to tear a regular human apart in one go.
As soon as the bear appeared, it roared as if to claim this area as its territory.
“GRAAAAAAH…?”
Just after letting out its roar, the bear hesitated a moment. There was just too much food around. It could hardly call the food it saw as prey anymore.
The bear stopped and rolled its eyes around. Even an animal driven purely by instincts could grasp the situation.
“Grrr, grrr.”
After making its judgment, the bear nodded a few times as if to say it was done with its affairs and turned its body around. However, the Penris Army didn’t let the bear go peacefully.
They were quite anxious about the dangerous rumors surrounding the Forest of Monsters. That tension led to excessive responses.
“Shoot!”
Fwaaaam!
At the cry of the nearest Infantry Commander, hundreds of arrows flew toward the bear. It was an attack that could be deemed incredibly unfair.
“GRAAAAAGH!”
Instantly turning into a pincushion, the bear let out a final scream and collapsed.
Seeing this, Kaor rushed in and shouted.
“Hey! What are you doing attacking such a creature like that? You’ll ruin its hide!”
That huge bear’s hide would indeed fetch a high price. But it was now riddled with holes, turning it into little more than rags.
The Infantry Commander, flustered, replied, “But… it looks like a terrifying monster…”
“Ugh, how frustrating! That’s not a monster. It’s just a deformed bear! Don’t be scared. It’s nothing special around here.”
“…”
The Infantry Commander was at a loss for words. How could he call such a creature nothing special?
Kaor imparted his wisdom with a smug grin.
“I’ve been here before, you know? I know very well, so don’t worry. If things like that come out, just call for me first. Got it?”
Kaor had spent all day skinning monster hides and sending them to the territory. He had become genuine about hides, and every part of his outfit was now made from top-quality materials.
He immediately summoned the hunters.
“Anyone who can skin hides should step forward and take the lead! Got it?”
“Yes!”
This was an order from Ironcliff’s ‘King of Hides’. The hunters responded with valor.
When it came to monsters or beasts with hides to skin, Kaor and the hunters would respond. They skillfully obtained the hides with their excellent skills.
This small acquisition of hides was one of the benefits. Naturally, there were more bizarre-looking creatures than those with hides.
Since this was still the entrance, the monsters they encountered sporadically posed little threat. Still, people couldn’t completely relax.
The rumors they had heard about the Forest of Monsters and the dark ambiance inside kept them on edge.
Especially the emotions felt by the guards of the Forest of Monsters were far more complex than those of others.
“Numbers really are bullies. I never thought today would come when we’d push through this forest like this.”
“Surely real dangerous monsters won’t show up, right? It’ll be alright to keep going, right?”
“The Grand Duke swept through this entrance before, so it should be safe. It has to be safe.”
For the people of Perdium, the Forest of Monsters had long been a source of horror. Even though Ghislaine had once succeeded in developing the Forest of Monsters, that fear had not dissipated.
Still, there was a strict ban on entering the area except for when mining runestones, and they had to guard the entrance in case monsters emerged.
So, even while Ghislaine led an overwhelming force to sweep through the forest, the guards couldn’t let their guard down.
It was the same for those coming here for the first time. While the frequency of sightings was much lower than the rumors suggested, the size and appearance of the monsters were quite threatening.
If such monsters were to appear in large numbers all at once, it could undoubtedly become dangerous.
Only Kaor and the hunters were excited. They gradually started to loosen their tension and look down on the Forest of Monsters.
“Wow, what’s this? There are fewer monsters than in the Shadow Mountain Range. This isn’t even worth mentioning.”
“Isn’t this just all overhyped? We’ve been avoiding development because of this?”
“No matter how much they were cleared before, if there are this few monsters, it wouldn’t be fun.”
In the Shadow Mountain Range, the monsters quickly filled back in after being cleared. They were really abundant.
Even if the strength of each individual may be greater here, the numbers were simply too few. It would diminish the thrill of the hunt.
As they were giggling, formidable monsters finally appeared.
Swoosh…
The first to spot them was a soldier stationed at the outskirts.
The soldier, seeing the monster emerging between the trees, gasped and shouted.
“M-Monster! Another monster has appeared!”
The soldiers, still alert, immediately took on a combat stance upon hearing the sentry’s warning.
When they finally laid eyes on the revealed monster, they were taken aback.
“Ugh! What is that? Why is it so big?”
“Fall back! Quickly, form up properly!”
“Wizards! Call the wizards!”
The monster that appeared was a giant mantis resembling a grasshopper.
The giant mantis was larger than humans, with forelimbs powerful enough to shred steel into pieces.
Just one of them could tear dozens of soldiers to shreds; that was the kind of monster the giant mantis was.
And now, more than 50 of such monsters had appeared. With that many, even a small army of armed soldiers could be wiped out in an instant.
“Gather! Quickly gather!”
“Raise your shields and form ranks!”
“Laborers, evacuate!”
The noise escalated, and the soldiers clustered together. This wasn’t like the monsters they had sporadically encountered before. This time, proper monsters were showing up in their dozens.
The laborers also stopped working and stepped back. The soldiers watched the giant mantises with tension.
“There are no small ones here, no small ones at all.”
As someone mumbled this, those around nodded slightly in agreement.
Normally, a giant mantis is only slightly bigger than a human, but these ones living here seemed to be twice that size.
Even the ones of average size could easily slice through the shields of heavy infantry with a swing of their forelimb, so one could only imagine how strong the larger ones would be.
Faced with such overwhelming size, everyone could only feel fear.
Swooosh…
The giant mantises also seemed to feel threatened by the greater numbers on the opposing side and cautiously surveyed their surroundings.
They weren’t the type to just turn around like a bear. Giant mantises were famously known for their fearlessness.
Although the enemy had the numbers, upon confirming that their size was much smaller, they seemed to gain confidence and began to approach with their forelimbs raised.
All the soldiers raised their shields with tense expressions. It wasn’t only the soldiers. Knights, hunters, elves, and mages felt the same.
No one thought that they would be overpowered by such numbers, but considering they had never faced a giant mantis, they couldn’t help but feel anxious.
It was well-known that the monsters living in the Forest of Monsters were much stronger than those outside the forest.
If they weren’t careful, they could suffer significant damage. They couldn’t afford to lose any soldiers so close to the entrance.
As Vanessa approached the soldiers, gathering her mana, she said, “Everyone, get ready.”
The giant mantis was known to be an extremely fast monster. Not knowing just how fast it could be, she prepared for a preemptive strike.
As the soldiers were about to attack first, Ghislaine interjected.
“Oh, they were still around? This area was their territory, wasn’t it? I thought we had cleared them out back then, but it looks like they’ve repopulated.”
Gillian stepped forward, wielding his axe.
“I’ll clear them out again.”
“Hey, old man. I’m going to catch more than you this time. Don’t get too cocky.”
Kaor stepped forward with a cheeky demeanor, and Gordon followed suit, flexing his muscles.
“So many of my friends died against those guys back then. I lost so much muscle back then from the struggle.”
Following their lead, several knights also drew their weapons and joined in. It seemed nostalgic as they each murmured a word.
“Those are just distant memories now.”
“Back then, those things were incredibly scary.”
“Just focus on your work. We’ll take care of it.”
Everyone in their group had faced those monsters before. There were more than a few amongst them who had fought them to the bitter end and returned alive.
With Gillian and Kaor leading the charge were the knights.
These were all mercenaries who had experienced the Forest of Monsters and survived rigorous battles.
