Surprise

From our camp roughly two hundred feet above the outer Winter Wood, all one had to do was look ahead and they could see the area of Melpomene's map marker. Not just because we were elevated to about the height of the neighboring trees around the hill but because I was right.

The area of Melpomene's marker was one giant pile of rubble and sparse vegetation that looked like a mountain in the mountain range had crumbled.

This ruined mountain stretched out in every direction for roughly three miles of ruined forestry in which only shrubbery and 'winter vines' could grow. The few trees that did find proper purchase for their roots were gnarled and twisted from exposure to the elements despite having adapted to the region already. The fact that they were managing to grow at all probably spoke somewhat of their value.

The burls, or the conjoined or misshapen growths, of some trees actually had a great deal of value in the making of artistic woodwork because of the randomly ruined grain patterns and discolorations of the wood. Even if many of those trees were just basic plants without any real grade or magical value, the way they grew made them wooden gold mines.

Aside from these trees that could potentially rake in a bit of money just from the coincidental rarity of their region and growth, there was not much else to see. All the massive boulders and compounded clay making up much of the area had been snowed and frozen over in numerous layers. Even if one of the superficial areas had a gold vein I would never see it.

In order to find what we were looking for, we would probably have to comb through or fly over the entire area while looking for anything 'that stands out'. Did I think a supposedly buried city would really stand out? Not at all.

However, I did think that an area like that in conditions such as the Winter Wood would distort the distribution of the world around it so to speak. Since the place was completely wrecked to stop an army of demons and cultists, it was entirely possible that there would be one big mile-sized area that was about ten feet deeper or higher than everywhere else. Or, more likely, some species or multiple species of monsters had made the place their home in the couple hundred years since Sir Pence.

Even though I could not claim to know a lot in comparison to how this world was made or the way its inhabitants behaves, I did know the general theme of things and how situations like this functioned. The event that caused it all was a massive summoning of demons and sacrifices. Bad juju like that does not simply disappear.

If anything, we were looking for a place inhabited by darkened or undead versions of Winter Wood's inhabitants. Cursed beasts and undead simply went hand-in-hand with demonic ruins and collapsed societies in almost any fantasy setting. Sadly, no matter what we were looking for, we would never see it from here.

Because of the weather and general conditions, there was not much to do around the camp so that we could keep ourselves busy and awake. Likewise, it was too dangerous to simply send out a few pairs or solos of people to go scouting or fleeing even with our small flock of birds for support. So, I took the entire group trailblazing.

Leaving the camp in the very capable hands of Cweeper, Hermes, and Dew who was on buff duty, I personally led my team down the hillside with mounted scorpions in front clearing trimming and tossing our way through. Because our main scorpion troops included our two main healers, our row formation was a little off. This was easily amended by Stonewall taking up the very rear position to be the target of ambushing.

Only a few minutes after descending the hill, we came upon out first confrontation. This time it was a combination of insects as if we had disturbed a nest. The main body of the enemies were once again sting kings but from the trees behind them came what looked like large crystalline wasps or hornets.

There were fifteen scorpions and a dozen ' Ice Hornet' creatures that were below fifty-five in level. Luckily, the attack came from behind which allowed Stonewall to use a provocation skill for his class to draw all targets to him. While he dismounted his lizard that curved around behind him to support his flanks with tail and breath, the rest of us organized accordingly.

By the time the first scorpion was met with a massive explosion from a simple bash of the mobile fortress shield, Agnes had sent out her few fire elemental summons to act as suicide bombers after jumping in the air. Their sacrifices acted as high-propulsion buffers against the incoming wasps that were easily scattered from the three fiery deaths. Luckily, these were actual summons and not her original bound elemental familiar.

During these few moments of distraction, the original back line of Merch, Oleander, Papi, and Conansson spread out to let the rest of us move forward with Papi. Agnes and Lil remained in the back with Oleander as magical support while Conansson, Merch, and Ivana stayed behind for further ranged support and protecting the supporters.

Everybody else rushed forward on their mounts to support Stonewall who was returning and reflecting attacks in every direction with and occasional explosion that kept the hornets at bay. Most of the scorpions were already dead or close to it, I I simply let the others move in for clean up while turning my attention to the hornets. They were new.

New mobs obviously had to be captured for study and merchandising when available. It was bad enough we only had one troll in night hunter armor with Stonewall's previous eighth-tier shield but we also missed out on capturing wolves due to poisoning. I would be a fool if I simply let the others farm these new guys for experience.

However, I was not greedy and only ensnared three of these hornets to place in the clan store. And, as I expected, they brought me ten thousand contribution points apiece. These creatures could be used as flying mounts.

Keeping this news to myself even though any of the others could figure it out just by the fact I listed it in the store at one hundred thousand contribution just like the crowned ice bird, I simply led the team once more in trailblazing. Most of the work was uneventful despite frequent high-number confrontations because we were perpetually finding all kinds of plant life and regional byproducts with magical properties or crafting purposes.

Until it started getting dark and we unanimously decided it was time to return to camp, then we let the scorpions once again lead the way home. This time, though, it was to let them set the rushed pace back to camp. Which, of course, was brought to a halt only a minute or two later.

A compass point had appeared between us and camp, one that looked like a cave with unrecognizable tracks leading into it. When I inspected it, I received the simple name, 'Dire Den'. It did not take a genius to figure out that a random den of dire wolves had sprung up between us and camp. However, I would have preferred to have one to consult with.

It honestly felt like the game itself was screwing with me. I personally recognized the dire wolves as our second biggest threat behind trolls and now an event location containing them and an almost certain boss version had appeared. It was like the godly AI behind the game had come together with the sole intent to test my patience and will.

Do we farm the event or do we run back to camp while it's still technically safe? Regardless of whether we do it or not, the location will be gone by tomorrow and will not bother us again. Except whenever passing up such an obvious golden ticket would come back to haunt me.

Putting it to a group vote was pointless, everybody who had seen my moments of indecision were already dressing their weapons with new administrations of All-Tox. With only our mounts to worry about, it seemed they were fairly confident in the increased combat efficiency granted to them this morning. Thankfully, the webbing medium used to contain and introduce the poisons kept the blades wet for hours.

Just for administering the poison to swords, a single bottle could keep the content level of the scabbard and sword high enough to keep a webbed blade venomous for. For weapons like Lil's spear or Go's ax or Papi's hammer that was not even designed for poisoned attacks, though, two or three treatments a day would be required. In this climate, though, Papi's pick hammer stayed crusted in poison at most times so even if the skin does not break the virulent aspects still trigger.

Following their example by topping off Hauntings' fullers and scabbard with a simple two-ounce vial, I go ahead and rearrange the formation so that Stonewall and I were in point. Behind us rode Papi, Merch, Go, and Lil while behind them rode Oleander and Agnes on either side of Ivana while Skooma and Conansson protectively flanked the rearguard.

Because of the nature of this operation and our enemies, I felt it was better to have a stronger offense that could keep the enemies away from the back line rather than a stronger defense in the back line itself. Conansson was hampered by a lack of his updated class skills without a class trainer for a magic berserker and had proven to have a sloppy style of combat. He mostly focused on using his ax while using his sword based on opportunity.

If he could trade the favorability for power per strike to favoring the speed of slightly lighter attacks, Conansson's abilities would double just by using one strong attack of his ax in a decisive moment. However, he lacked the actual knowledge behind the use of a sword beyond the basic gripping and edge alignment in strikes taught by class trainers when receiving their initial skills after tutorials. While everybody had been taking turns raising teaching him the basics, nobody really had the time to sit down with him and show him how it was done.

He was only eight years old and I mostly brought him in for his brain more than anything else, but he had proven capable of surviving thus far.

With the formation in line with a slight V from Stonewall's and my positions that kept Conansson and Skooma at side point positions, we quickly started making our way down the broad roadway we had cleared. Then, as if to spite us, we came into a confrontation with a small swarm of hornets numbering more than twice my party. They came at us from all sides at once as if they were an ambush lying in wait on the path to the event.

Dealing with them was not that hard, Stonewall used on of his new class skills from Melpomene to trigger a full power explosion from his shield at a heavy mana cost. Aimed mostly straight up in the air, this initial retaliation was enough to disrupt two thirds of the incoming bodies. Then the main mages of our party followed suit with brilliant flashes of paralyzing electricity.

Roughly half of the hornets were crippled in the first few seconds, leaving me distracted by whipping silk onto six of the hornets while the battle raged around me. By the time I had saved a little less than one fourth of the enemy lives, the fight was over and my level had risen to sixty-one. I was now extremely grateful for how easy capturing mobs had become.

Moving forward from the confrontation after storing the new hornets in the clan store, we quickly covered the distance between us and the Dire Den. It did not take long at all considering it was only about two hundred yards away from the end of our trail, but I was tense and on high alert the entire way. It felt like a sudden wave of a dozen trolls would suddenly pop out of the icy forestry at any moment.

Considering how one chose to look at it, the loot from a dozen semi-elite mobs like the ice trolls could be seen as a windfall. Except, one needed to be alive in order to actually collect that loot. Trolls could evade my spells so far with a fifty-percent success rate.

If even just one of us died and had to respawn at the village outside of Winter Wood, we would all be screwed for at least a week while the rest of us had to travel backward to meet them in the safer outer regions of the forest.

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