As the expedition team went further inside the forest toward the bizzare mountain, more and more wild beasts and monsters started to attack them.

Even though the group was overwhelmingly stronger than the attacking monsters, these beasts showed no fear.

At first, the count wanted to use brute force to quickly reach the mountain where the Earth Overturning Great monster was supposed to be. It was actually not a bad idea as he had a total of 11 official Knights in the team including himself.

But soon he had to abandon this plan. While getting constantly attacked by the wild beasts and the monsters, even the knights were getting tired. So they needed to rest or someone could very well die.

So, the count needed to use the expertise of the scouts that he had brought with him to find a relatively safe area. It was small lake located in the middle of the forest.

This area was not considered safe because none of the animals knew about it. It was safe because Count Falgur had just killed the crocodile Monster that lived here. So no other animals or monsters should come here for some time.

After constant battles, everyone in the team were tired. The difference in danger between the forest here and the forest outside the territory of the Earth Overturning Great monster was unbelievable.

So far, a total of seven monsters and countless wild beasts that attacked them. Three high level apprentice knights had even lost their lives in the hands of those beasts.

Fortunately, all the people that Weiss was acquainted with were still alive. They were a little injured here and there but they had suffered no major wounds.

This sudden spike in the danger was eye opening for Weiss too. Even she had no idea that the difference between outside and the inside of this area would be this much.

In the forest of the Souran territory, Weiss was trying to scout it whenever she had time. With her current level of strength, she had almost checked out everything that the outskirts of the forest had to offer and she was soon planning to go further inside.

But after this experience, Weiss was going to make more preparation before doing her Investigation of the forest next time. Who knew if the forest of the Souran territory also had an especially dangerous area like this or not.

But this was not a bad thing for Weiss's plans. With the forest being more dangerous than expected, the value of Karl and his strong perception would become even higher.

As long as the count was still capable of facing off against the Earth Overturning Great monster with the knights, Weiss's plan was doing fine.

...

As everyone rested, Karl and the scouts brought by the count started to investigate the forest in order to make a map. This was the best way to explore a dangerous region like this.

Among the official knights that the count had brought with him, no one had an exceptional perception other than Karl.

All the scouts that Count Falgur had brought with him were high level knight apprentices. There was not even one single peak knight apprentice among them.

The reason for this was very simple. Knight's secret arts that boosted perception were extremely rare. So obviously apprentice knights with a powerful perception were also very rare.

So Karl was made the vice leader of the current scouting party. The only reason why he was not the leader was because the count had doubts about Karl's decision making abilities with his current condition and also his inability to properly hide his presence.

Still, as he was the only official knight who was suitable for the scouting party, Karl was a very valuable existence. So, the count promised him many great rewards for this extra task.

As Karl went out scouting with the other scouts, some food was given to the tired apprentice knights. This food was also supplied by the count himself.

The menu was very simple. There were dried jerkies, some cheese, large biscuits and black bread. It was nothing luxurious but no one was expecting anything luxurious at the middle of the forest in the first place.

As Weiss got her hands on the food items, she immediately noticed there was something wrong with it.

She took a very small bite of each items and soon found out that this food had some kind of extra ingredients mixed in it. Weiss was not sure about what kind of effect this extra ingredient had but she was not willing to trust it.

After finding this out, Weiss secretly informed Feberend's group and the other two females, Peria and Eve about this matter.

Leila, as a noble's knight, was not eating the same food as the mercenaries. So Weiss judged that she was not being targeted as she was a subordinate of another count. So it looked like Count Falgur had brought so many mercenaries here not just for the manpower but he had some different plans for them.

But now there was a little problem. As the count was going to take care of the food, no one had anything extra with them, except for Weiss. Actually the little luggage that she had were mostly foods.

Not just that but there was another source of food present here. And that was fishes of the small lake. The apprentice knights would not be able to use fire here in order to not attract the attention of any beasts, but eating them raw was perfect fine.

Obviously eating raw fish was dangerous for a regular person and it could give them stomach trouble. But if an apprentice knight could not digest that, then they were training hard in vain.

So all the people who were warned by Weiss believed her and did the eat the food supplied by the count. Not only the fish but Feberend and his friends hunted a boar that was big enough to supply enough meat for all of them.

This was a bit dangerous as wild beasts could be attracted to the scent of blood so one of the knights working for Count Falgur came to scold them.

Feberend showed his amazing communication skills in this situation and befriended the knight by sharing the meat and some drinks brought by Weiss with him.

As the scent had actually not attracted anything, that knight went away after just giving them a light warning. Obviously he only left after filling his belly with meat and taking that alcohol away as a prohibited item.

As the eating session was wrapping up, Karl returned with the scouting group. They had managed to map out a relatively safe route that could take the group closer to the mountain with least amount of monster encounters.

All the people were feeling refreshed after getting a little break and eating their fill. So they did not waste any time and started walking again while staying cautious of the monster attack. Their energy was back again.

...

Seeing everyone eating the food with joy made the count to be satisfied. Now that he was almost done with his preparations and it was time to truly start the hunting of this mighty Earth Overturning Great monster.

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