"Halt!"
Marcius issued a quick order, and the soldiers immediately obeyed.
"What is it, young master?" Ser Janus asked from besides him.
Even though Ser Janus didn't fully understand the function of the tablet in Marcius's hands, he knew it was used as some kind of scouting tool.
So, he realized that Marcius might have seen something dangerous on their path.
"There is a large number of demon beasts up ahead." Marcius didn't answer clearly, as he didn't want to frighten the troops.
"Everyone, maintain defensive formation. Leon, Ser Janus, with me."
Marcius led his two subordinates near the Archnide hive. They stopped and stood on the branches of a tree near the purple hive.
"Are these…" Leon trailed off.
"An Archnide hive." Marcius confirmed.
"By the light of Sol, they are too many."
Marcius heard Ser Janus muttered behind him.
"Judging by the size of their nest, I can estimate their numbers to be around 500." Ser Janus guessed.
"No, there are more. Half of the nest is buried underground. I would put their numbers around 800." The heir of Aemilia clan corrected him.
"What do we do then?" Leon questioned.
"For now? Nothing. We are simply not in a position to initiate an attack against such a large group. Even if we bring all the soldiers from the camp, we can't win." Marcius said.
"But with this much numbers, if they decided to target the settlement, we are done. We need to do something." Ser Janus gave his opinion.
"I'll be sending a messenger to my grandfather. If he can send reinforcements and stronger cultivators, maybe we can destroy the hive." Marcius replied, as he observed the movements of the Archindes around the entrance of the hive.
"Even if they try to attack the settlement, we can just retreat. I'm more worried about the city."
"You mean?" Leon asked when Marcius didn't continue.
"They can start a demon beast incursion with just their numbers alone. If other demon beasts join in, the incursion can become the most devastating one in our city's history." The heir of Aemilia clan replied.
"We need to solve this spider problem as soon as possible, before they can reproduce more. With this numbers, I'm certain they have a hive mother somewhere in that ugly purple nest." Marcius said as he prepared to leave.
As the three of them went back to their troops, Marcius considered the implication of a large Archnide hive in the middle of the Flavic forest.
Such a large hive of spider demon beasts could easily upset the ecosystem of the entire forest. Marcius wondered why the self-proclaimed guardians of the forest hadn't take action yet.
'The hive is at the very least two months old. Why have they not destroyed it since the start? Maybe I'm missing something here. There was no mention of an Archnide hive in the original timeline of the novel.'
Nevertheless, it was a delicate matter for Marcius. He needed to handle it carefully. One wrong move and his reputation would be severely damaged back at the city of Mediolan.
Right now, the citizens of Mediolan were looking forwards to his expedition with positive mindsets, because it could solve their population problem. There was no reason for Marcius to rush a decision and ruin his chance at the approval of the people of Mediolan.
*** *** ***
After Marcius directed his small army to pack up and return to base, the process went smoothly. The problem of numerous heavy corpses of the demon beasts was solved by the use of storage rings.
Marcius wanted to explore a little more, but the Archnide hive was very close to their location. So, he decided to be cautious.
As soon as he had arrived ack at the camp, he went into his tent and started drafting a letter to be sent to his grandfather back at the city.
After the letter was finished, one of the shadow guards took and letter and carried it back to the city.
Marcius told the guard to be careful, because there could be Sergia assassins waiting to ambush and intercept any messenger going to the camp or returning to the city.
After managing all that, Marcius decided to address the situation to all of his troops.
He ordered Ser Janus and Leon to gather the soldiers at the center of the camp. Everyone had to come except for those on guard duty.
"I gather you all here today, to announce a matter of grave importance." Marcius started, as soon as he saw the soldiers were gathered.
"Not only this matter important for our camp, it is also very important for the peace and security of Mediolan city."
The soldiers were listening intently.
"This morning, Ser Janus, Leon and I discovered a large Archnide hive east of our settlement."
At this news, the soldiers started freaking out and muttering to one another. All of them knew how terrifying a large host of Archnides could be.
Marcius threw his hand up to signal the troops to calm down.
"But do not worry. The hive has yet to reach its full maturity. And as of now, the Archnides are merely protecting their territory instead of venturing away from it. We do not need to expect attacks on our camp anytime soon."
He managed to calm the worried troops down.
"And I have written back to my grandfather of the situation here, and we can expect reinforcements and stronger experts in the following days. For now, we will make no move towards the hive. But, we will be increasing the security measures of the camp and we will also need to be more careful in our future trips into the forest."
Marcius did say a few more words to assure his troops. Afterwards, he dismissed them after informing them of the details of tightened security measures.
All of Marcius, Ser Janus, Leon and Toros would be very busy for the rest of the day.
'And tomorrow is the day of the trial. I'm still not as prepared as I want to be. Well, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. I guess I will just go with the flow.'
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Author Notes
Hello! MidnightMK here!
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