“Fire!”
While hiding among the trees that dotted the line between the Black Forest and the Croway Plains, we released a shower of arrows on a group of Khrasiel soldiers.
We pretty much never had to deal with return fire.
The enemy was in the plains with little to no cover, while we were invisible in the forest. We could shoot down infantry who tried to approach us before they got anywhere close.
Their cavalrymen didn’t have any better luck. Knowing that they’d be at a disadvantage on horseback in the woods, they refused to enter. That being said, they couldn’t simply move away from the tree line either. If they traveled deeper into the plains and outside the reach of our arrows, they would find that the sea of grass became a marsh.
How was it possible that the plains could retain enough heat from the summer to maintain the wetlands despite it being winter? The answer was simple—they couldn’t. However, we could just make our own marsh. This was an improvised tactic made possible by the water mages in our army.
Maybe the small groups of enemy soldiers that we had encountered had been ambush units trying to maneuver to our flank or rear for a surprise attack. They may have been ordered to retreat if they were discovered. In that case, all they’d have to do to avoid detection was travel through the Black Forest...which sounded like a good idea on paper. However, they couldn’t—and wouldn’t—do that, given that it’d be tantamount to suicide. The Black Forest was a den of monsters.
My platoon could skirt the forest due to special monster-repelling potpourri sachets I’d crafted for them.
Another win for my imported knowledge! Playing the “Item Master” job wasn’t a complete and total waste of time after all!
That being said, we only hid in the Black Forest during daylight hours. Staying until nightfall was reckless and completely off the table, as twilight was when the more vicious monsters would go on the hunt. When we took our rest, we made sure to be a good distance away from the forest for that very reason.
Since the enemy didn’t have their own way to repel monsters, it was impossible for them to travel through the forest.
At least, I had assumed so.
“Lieutenant, what—”
I silently raised my pointer finger to my lips, shushing the soldier. He immediately stopped talking.
I beckoned my men to follow me, and we crept between the trees, taking care not to make any noise that might reveal our presence. Though the sun was still blazing high in the sky, the woods were consumed by a dim gloom that thickened as we moved deeper in and away from the edge of the forest.
The sounds of ragged breathing and wet mastication grew louder as we slowly approached the source. In a small clearing where the sun had managed to break through the canopy above, a dzepel was single-mindedly digging up the earth.
Dzepels were C-rank monsters—gigantic boars with an ultramarine blue coat. Though this particular specimen was still a juvenile and not yet full-grown, it would still be difficult for the average NPC to bring down.
I judged that the Gaelian hunters would be able to kill it and had my men spread out to surround it. The impromptu “boot camp” I’d put my men through had been effective. They correctly interpreted the orders I gave them through hand gestures alone and moved without making a single noise.
Once everyone was in place and had prepared themselves, we waited for the perfect opening.
The dzepel pressed its face into the hole in the dirt.
Now!
I signaled to my men, and we all unleashed a volley of reinforced arrows on the creature.
Fire!
Of course, I’d been the one who improved the regular provisioned arrows for them. Thanks to my craftsman job, I could upgrade weapons as long as they weren’t made from metal. The hours I had whiled away into the night to improve our arrows had paid off.
Now covered entirely in fortified shafts, the dzepel whipped its head out of the ground and bellowed in rage.
Dzepel roars were stunning—as in they left a stun status effect on those who heard it. As you might expect, several of my men dropped their bows in fright, and others found their movements had become slow and clumsy.
But the roar hadn’t had any effect on me. Fitting an enchanted arrow to my bowstring, I aimed it directly at the dzepel’s wide-open mouth and released it.
Sorry, big boy! I reincarnated with my old character’s stats! No puny C-rank monster is gonna hit me with a status effect!
Well, maybe I was getting ahead of myself. I was only an S-tier crafter—my combat proficiency capped out at B. Still, given the clear difference in power between myself and the dzepel, I was sure I had the right to brag a little.
The fire arrow shot straight down the monster’s gullet and roasted it alive from the inside out, killing it instantly. Its legs buckled, and it fell on its side.
That arrow has also been the product of the time I’d spent modifying and improving its efficacy.
Anyway, I watched the dzepel for a moment to verify that it had completely stilled. When I stepped into the clearing and neared its corpse, my men also followed suit.
“No sign of any other monsters in the area. Lieutenant, what’ll we do with this beast?” asked one.
“I want it dressed down and butchered immediately—while others keep watch, of course. It’ll make for a pretty tasty meal, so we’ll bring it back and cook it up. Whatever we can’t finish ourselves, we’ll share with the guys back at the main camp. Maybe we can land ourselves some favors.”
The men’s excited cheers echoed throughout the clearing.
I quickly divided everyone into two groups; one group would handle butchering the dzepel while the other kept watch. The men quickly began carving up the massive beast into more portable chunks.
“Hurry up. The stench of blood will draw more monsters,” I warned.
“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Arowa asked me in a hushed whisper. There was concern written all over his face.
“I want to bring back proof that we encountered a dzepel,” I explained to him. “We can use it in our report—I don’t want anyone calling us liars. Besides, it really does taste pretty good. If everything goes well, we might even get ourselves a couple of bottles to go with our commendations.”
Excited cheers rang out around us. The men must’ve been listening in on our conversation. I smiled at the shrewd calculators and then turned back to Arowa.
“Hey, look at this,” I said, nudging a section of upturned earth that the dzepel had been pawing with the tip of my boot. “Do you know what these mushrooms are?”
Underfoot and covered in dirt were the crushed remains of some white mushrooms.
“No, I’ve never seen those back in Gaelius,” Arowa replied. “Do they only grow in the Black Forest?”
A nearby soldier joined our conversation. “Yeah. Looks like they’re a type of mushroom that can grow even in winter. I saw clusters of them at the forest line, although those ones were smaller than these.”
“I see.”
I nodded to the soldier in appreciation for the information and then knelt down. I picked up a mushroom that had narrowly escaped being eaten by the dzepel and carefully wrapped it up with a handkerchief so that it wouldn’t be crushed. Then, I stowed it away in the pouch I kept slung on my hip.
I’d recognized these mushrooms from my previous life, though I hadn’t actually seen them myself back then. I had just happened to see a screenshot of them on a strategy guide website dedicated to Golden Dawn.
Once these mushrooms grew to a certain size, they developed an ability to lure wild monsters. They were so powerful that they were essentially a narcotic. But if one of these mushrooms were damaged in any way, it would lose its potency.
This mushroom wasn’t endemic to the Black Forest, though. In fact, it wasn’t a naturally occurring mushroom at all. It was actually an item created by alchemy that was designed to attract monsters. Only A-tier alchemists could make them. And in Golden Dawn, NPCs were only B-tier alchemists or lower.
The only type of person who would have had the skills and knowledge to create these mushrooms and place them inside the Black Forest like this was a transmigrator.