316 – We have to stop them.
In response to Ghislaine’s declaration, everyone’s spirits were ignited, except for one person.
Skoban solemnly saluted.
“I wish for your safe return!”
In unison with his spirited voice, Ricardo and the Forest of Monsters’ guards also saluted.
They all had the same thought.
‘As long as we don’t go, it’s fine.’
‘Why do they keep stirring up trouble here?’
‘The Grand Duke will manage somehow.’
They had no hobby of risking their lives. The incidents they’d faced so far were enough to brag about for generations.
This was enough. Now they just wanted to live a comfortable life.
But then Ghislaine looked at Skoban and said.
“What do you mean? You all have to come along.”
“Excuse me? Why?”
“The more hands, the better.”
“But we have to guard this place!”
“I’ll clear everything up front, so what do you need to guard?”
“…Can’t we not go?”
“No.”
Skoban pondered for a moment, arms crossed. After racking his brain, he finally came up with an excuse.
“I’m affiliated with Perdium. I can’t move without the Lord’s permission.”
This was an appeal to not mess with him since their affiliations were different. But Ghislaine was a man who didn’t care about that stuff.
“Since my father isn’t here, as the Heir, I’m acting on behalf of the Lord.”
“…Isn’t the Chief Officer the acting Lord?”
“Hmm… Don’t you want to retire later or something?”
Once he inherits the territory, Perdium would belong to Ghislaine as well. He could use Skoban until he kicked the bucket.
Skoban immediately turned to Ricardo.
“Hey… get ready… gather the kids….”
“W-we haven’t received any official orders!”
“Think you can hold out if you’re confident? Don’t you know the Grand Duke is scarier than the Chief Officer from afar?”
“…….”
“Since we’re at it, let’s go take a look inside. Let’s think positively.”
The Forest of Monsters guards may not have many personnel, but it’s always better to have at least one more hand.
Ghislaine additionally ordered Skoban.
“Leave only the minimum security troops at the territory, and bring all the reserve troops. Also, gather laborers; anyone who wants to come should come. The pay will be generous.”
Skoban moved without hesitation. After all, the main forces were all at the northern fortress, and there was no one who could stop this reckless guy.
Of course, Ghislaine had no intention of waiting for the additional troops and laborers to arrive. He had to set up the base camp as quickly as possible.
“Alright, let’s head in!”
Ghislaine and the Penris Army entered the Forest of Monsters via the path they had previously made.
The forest remained quiet. Even with a path, they rarely used it unless they were mining Runestones, so there wouldn’t be many changes in the forest.
The surroundings were in no state to say that they had properly developed the forest with high walls built around the path. But Ghislaine was now determined to secure this territory.
“Destroy everything!”
Boom! Crash!
As the 3,000 soldiers and knights moved, the high sturdy barricades that were protecting the path crumbled in an instant.
A vast open space was created, and the command tent was immediately set up. Now, proper development would finally begin centered here.
“There aren’t many monsters at the entrance. Push through as quickly as possible.”
“Yera.”
There’s still a distance to the Dirus Ent’s territory, which could be deemed the true beginning of the forest. The paths around here have already been cleared away a long time ago.
With no worry about monster attacks, Ghislaine boldly led the soldiers. Within three days, an area suitable for a couple of villages was secured right at the forest’s entrance.
Of course, it wasn’t that there were no monster attacks whatsoever.
“GRAAAAH!”
Something huge burst forth in front of the soldiers who were logging.
The soldiers gasped in surprise and screamed.
“WAAAH! What is that!”
“A bear? Is that a bear?”
“What kind of size is that?!”
In front of the soldiers stood a grizzly bear, nearly twice the size of a regular bear, covered in coarse grey fur.
With a size like that, it could be called a monster, not just a wild animal.
This beast had clearly had a fierce life in this rugged forest; one of its eyes was gouged out, and its body was scarred all over.
Though it had been pushed to the outskirts of the forest by stronger beings, it still possessed enough strength to tear apart any ordinary human in a single swipe.
As soon as the bear appeared, it roared as if to claim the area as its territory.
“GRAAAAH…?”
Just after its roar, the bear hesitated for a moment, looking around. It was overwhelmed by the abundance of food. At this point, it was more than it could handle.
The bear stood still and rolled its eyes back and forth. Even a beast driven by instinct could comprehend the situation.
“Grrr, grrr.”
After making its judgment, the bear nodded a few times as if to say it was done with its business and turned around. However, the Penris Army wouldn’t let the bear go that easily.
They were quite tense about the dangerous rumors surrounding the Forest of Monsters, and that tension led to an overreaction.
“Shoot!”
THWACK!
With the infantry commander’s shout, hundreds of arrows flew at the bear. It was a rather unfair attack, to say the least.
“GRAAAH!”
The bear, instantly turned into a pin cushion, let out a final scream and collapsed.
Seeing this, Kaor rushed over, shouting.
“Hey, hey! You can’t attack something like that! It’s going to ruin the hide!”
For such a massive bear, its hide could definitely fetch a high price. But now, with countless holes in it, it had become nothing more than rags.
The infantry commander, flustered, replied,
“But, it… it was such a terrifying monster…”
“Ha, how frustrating! What kind of monster is that? It’s just a freak bear! Don’t get scared over nothing here.”
“…….”
The infantry commander was left speechless. How could anyone say that creature was nothing when it just showed up?
Kaor gave a condescending warning.
“I’m not new here, you know? I know this place very well, so don’t worry. If anything like that appears, call me first. Got it?”
Kaor had spent the whole day skinning monster hides and sending them to his territory. Having become a man genuinely passionate about hides, he had upgraded everything in his attire made from leather to top-notch quality.
He immediately summoned the hunters.
“Anyone who can skin the hides, step forward first and get ready! Got it!”
“Yes, sir!”
This was an order from Ironcliff’s ‘Hide King.’ The hunters nodded boldly.
Uncle Cliff’s “Leather King” has issued an order. The hunters responded gallantly.
If monsters or beasts capable of shedding skin appeared, Kaor and the hunters took them on. They skillfully obtained the leather with finesse.
Acquiring leather along the way was also one of the benefits. Of course, there were more grotesque-looking creatures than those with skin.
Since they were still at the entrance, the sparsely appearing monsters didn’t pose much of a threat. Still, the people couldn’t completely relax.
The rumors about the Forest of Monsters they’d heard and the dark atmosphere inside continuously pricked their nerves.
Especially for the guards of the Forest of Monsters, their emotions were much more complex than others.
“Numbers truly are a bully. I never thought a day would come when this forest would be cleared like this.”
“Surely, a truly dangerous monster won’t show up, right? It should be fine to continue?”
“The Grand Duke once cleared the entrance, 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 fear. Even though Ghislaine once succeeded in developing the Forest of Monsters, that fear hadn’t vanished.
Access was still restricted except for the path to mine runestones, and they had to guard the entrance in case monsters popped out.
So even as Ghislaine led overwhelming troops to push through the forest, the guards couldn’t let their guard down.
It was the same for those who were coming for the first time. The frequency of appearances was much lower than the rumors, but the size and appearances of the monsters were quite threatening.
If such monsters had appeared all at once, it would have undoubtedly been dangerous.
Only Kaor and the hunters were excited. They gradually began to relax their tension and started to underestimate the Forest of Monsters.
“Ah, what’s this? There are fewer monsters than the Shadow Mountain Range. This doesn’t even tickle.”
“Are the rumors just too exaggerated? They were too scared to even develop a place like this?”
“No matter how much they cleared it in the past, if so few show up, it’s boring.”
In the Shadow Mountain Range, even if they swept the monsters away, they would quickly refill because there were just so many.
Although each individual might be strong here, the numbers were simply too low. This made the thrill of hunting diminish.
Just as they were joking around, real threats finally appeared.
Swoosh……
The first to notice was a soldier standing guard at the outskirts.
As the soldier saw the monster emerging from between the trees, he gasped and shouted.
“M-Monster! Another monster has appeared!”
The soldiers who hadn’t eased their tension immediately took combat positions upon hearing the sentry’s shout.
They were soon startled by the monster that revealed itself.
“Ugh, what! Why is it so big?”
“Fall back! Quick, form a proper line!”
“Mage! Call the mages!”
The monster that appeared was a giant mantis, resembling a praying mantis.
The giant mantis was larger than a human, and its front limbs were strong enough to tear through steel like paper.
One alone could rip apart dozens of soldiers.
And now, a staggering fifty of them had appeared. With numbers like this, even hundreds of armed soldiers could be wiped out in an instant.
I could kill it in one blow.
“Gather! Hurry, gather up!”
“Shield up and form ranks!”
“Laborers, evacuate at once!”
The noise around increased as soldiers clustered together. Unlike the scattered monsters that appeared one or two at a time, real monsters finally showed up—dozens of them.
The laborers also halted construction and retreated. The soldiers watched the Giant Mantises with tension.
“There are no small ones here, none at all.”
As someone murmured, those around nodded slightly.
Typically, Giant Mantises are just a bit larger than humans, but the ones in this area seemed to be twice their original size.
Even a normal-sized one could cut through a heavy infantryman’s shield with a single swipe; just imagine the strength possessed by one this size!
Given the overwhelming size of the enemy, everyone couldn’t help but feel fear.
Sssssss…
The Giant Mantises also seemed to sense the numerical advantage of their opponents and carefully surveyed the surroundings.
They weren’t just going to turn around like bears. After all, Giant Mantises are famous for their fearlessness.
Although their opponents were numerous, they seemed to regain confidence upon confirming that their foes were much smaller.
The soldiers held their shields with tense expressions. Not just the soldiers, but also the knights, hunters, elves, and mages felt the same way.
No one thought they would lose against such numbers. However, since they hadn’t experienced just how strong these Giant Mantises truly were, they couldn’t help but be on edge.
Monsters that live in the Forest of Monsters are known to be much stronger than those outside the woods.
If things went wrong, they could face significant damage. They couldn’t afford to lose soldiers this early in the area.
As Vanessa approached the soldiers, gathering her mana, she spoke.
“Everyone, get ready.”
The Giant Mantis is also known to be extremely fast; since there was no way to gauge their speed, she prepared for a preemptive strike.
She aimed to reduce the enemy’s numbers before the soldiers were attacked.
As the mages began to chant their spells to launch an attack, Ghislaine said,
“Oh, they’re still around, huh? This area was their territory, right? I thought we had wiped them out back then, but it seems those that survived have repopulated.”
Gillian stepped forward with his axe.
“I’ll clear them all out again.”
“Hey, old man. This time, I’m going to catch more. Don’t show off,” Kaor added, swaggering ahead. Following him, Gordon flexed his muscles.
“A lot of my friends died back then. I lost a lot of gains from muscle loss due to how tough it was.”
A few knights followed behind them, wielding their weapons. They seemed to reminisce as they muttered.
“Now it’s all just memories.”
“They were really scary back then.”
“Just work as usual. We’ll handle it.”
Everyone hadn’t faced those monsters for the first time. There were those here who had fought them and returned from brutal battles.
Leading the knights were Gillian and Kaor.
These were over 50 mercenaries who had experienced the Forest of Monsters and survived vicious combat.
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