It's been a week since Cabrera and the boys began their expedition, and multiple things have happened since then.
The boys had their dose of monster hunting after their caravan was repeatedly attacked throughout the journey.
Two boys had died, one to too much blood loss and the other had been unknowingly poisoned and died in his sleep.
The others had collected souvenirs from the beasts in the form of various injuries. One had two fingers severed, while another lost three of his left toes.
Thankfully though, there had been no sign of either Raven Skull or Gold Moles.
This made Cabrera sigh in relief. His plan had worked.
It was actually very simple.
By putting himself in their shoes, he had concluded that his enemies would most likely attack them on the return trip, after they had spent energy on their expedition. He also hypothesized that the best scenario for such an event would be a surprise ambush.
For them to do such a thing, and have the best possible chance of success, they needed to meet some requirements.
Firstly, the knowledge of where they were going and the route Cabrera would take to get there.
Secondly, they needed to know the forces they would be facing, as well as their own forces.
Only after knowing such information would they make a plan for how the ambush would be carried out.
But…they didn't know their destination nor how much they had actually grown after the 45 days of training. And while Cabrera was still suspicious of some of the remaining boys being spies…it didn't affect the plan much.
He had mentioned the Semanis forest so loudly because of this. Now, all the forces looking to harm his gang, known or unknown, would think they were going there.
One couldn't say that only Raven Skull and Gold Moles were planning to get rid of them. And Cabrera's gut, the instinct that had saved him many times before, was telling him that they weren't the only ones. They were the only ones he currently knew about…but there were others!
And so he thought…
'If I wanted to plan an ambush…what would I do when my target moves faster than I can keep track of? What would I do if my target moved faster than expected and disrupted my carefully thought of plan? What would happen if the information about my target was partially wrong?'
And the answers came naturally…
'If my target suddenly disrupts my plans? Well, I'll be incredibly flustered and I would rush to keep track of their movements. And if the information was partially wrong…well…that would hinder my progress for days'
And with such thinking, he quickly ordered James to purchase 30 horses. He then went to buy enough water and horse food, before storing it in his spatial ring.
By now, the enemies would have figured out his ruse…but that was enough.
His loud claim of heading to the Semanis forest would have had his enemies sending scouts there to monitor their route and report back.
It would have taken two days at minimum and, if one thought of the unknown variables like beasts in the wild, it could take three to four days. Yet, even if it only took them a day, the distance Cabrera covered in that time would make it so that those chasing would only eat dust.
He had made sure to follow a road to Semanis at the start of the expedition to make sure the enemies fully took the bait. He then took another road and arrived at the opposite side, before moving towards Windless Peaks.
And even so, Cabrera made sure to keep lengthening the gap by stopping to rest about an hour before midnight and getting up an hour before dawn.
Such a low amount of rest was extremely taxing for the boys, whose expressions of vigor were nowhere to be seen. All of them had dead expressions and black circles under their eyes. But unlike what would be expected, they had their eyes wide open as if they were frozen.
But, looking closely, these eyes occasionally blinked to indicate that these eerie humans were alive, but maybe not well.
Beasts had attacked them multiple times, especially at night, since they didn't stop at any motel to recuperate and only camped in the woods.
The sound of hooves after sunset also attracted the attention of beasts all around. By the time they actually stopped, about thirty minutes to an one hour was wasted killing beasts before going to sleep.
Five people would also have to stand watch throughout the night, rotating every hour.
The incident of the boy unknowingly poisoned, as well as the one with severed fingers and toes, all happened during night watch.
Tension and stress had built up to the limit by now, and the only reason why no one had rebelled or revolted was because Cabrera was in a worse state than they were.
He would stay on night watch for two and a half hours, more than double what others did. He also expended additional energy whenever a dangerous beast appeared.
Yet, he still got up first at dawn.
He hadn't complained or said a word about the stress he was accumulating, but anyone could see that he looked dreadful. The black circles under his eyes were larger than those of his boys, his hair was disheveled and his clothing was rough.
For food, they ate the rations Cabrera had packed in his spatial ring or, sometimes, they cooked beast meat.
Also, on the first day, the boys had all taken off most of their armor, leaving only the most vital parts. It was only slowing them down and, as soon as Cabrera noticed, he collected it into his spatial ring.
They would be putting it back on at Windless Peaks.
Ah, the Windless Peaks.
Sadly, Cabrera and the boys didn't achieve their target of reaching it in seven days, but they were less than a day away.
A commendable effort if one might say.
The boys had sharpened themselves during the 45 days of training, but the past few days had shown them that they had a long way to go.
Right now, one third of them were 2-4 star adepts, while the rest were 3-5 star journeymen . At least according to Cabrera's assessment, that is.
Cabrera felt extremely drowsy at the moment, but he used mana to keep himself awake.
Naturally, the boys couldn't do this, but they had been given herbs that recovered stamina to keep their body awake, else they would just fall down and sleep on the ground with the amount of stress they had accumulated. Which was why their expressions were like those of frozen fish.
The atmosphere of joy and vigor was now replaced with a still and stale one.
No one spoke and the only sounds to be heard were the rapid stomping of the moving horses.
Each boy was having his resolve tested, which was the second reason why Cabrera brought them on the expedition.
Hearing and experiencing could not be more different.
They had heard of beasts, but after being attacked again and again for seven days straight, they had all felt the fear of death at one time or another. Two of their comrades had even died.
Now, they were at another crossroad on the path to power…would they face death head on or would they rush back to safety?
Cabrera knew that there would definitely be those who would choose the second option, and while that would lessen his force once more, it was necessary for two things.
One would be to purge any remaining traitors within his group.
The other would be to…well…to get rid of bad rubbish.
The road after this event wouldn't be smooth at all. Rather, it would be the beginning of a long journey down a road of thorns.
When the time came and he had to rely on the members of his guild, what would be the use of a coward?
What use would a weakling be? At a time when, according to Ezra's plan, they would likely be contending with the big guns of the world…someone with a weak heart was not at all needed!
Cabrera wouldn't be giving any speech this time, because to him, it wasn't needed.
His speech a little more than 45 days ago was more than enough. In it, they were warned, and now…they were being tested!
'So…what will you do now?' Cabrera thought while on the move.
At that moment…
'Were here'
A small town came into view. The fence was wooden and the guards were also lackluster, but Ezra had told him why it was so.
'Whittown'
Yes! Ezra was the one who thought up the plan, but Frederick was the one who highlighted this particular town.
And then Ezra seemed to remember something, before telling them information about things even Frederick didn't know.
Thinking about it now, Cabrera became puzzled as a question struck him.
'He said that he hadn't stepped out of Kingsmere before. How the hell did he know about this place? Hmm…maybe…nope, that's not it!'
He tried to think of an answer, but nothing came up. In the end, he could only give up.
'You know what, let's just forget about that'
He took another look at the town as he reminisced about what he was told.
'A town full of monsters' he thought as he stopped and turned around to address his boys, who were on the verge of falling from their horses.
"BOYS!"
"Y-Yes!" all the boys simultaneously woke up from their stupor at the ear wrenching scream.
"Listen closely and carefully to what I'm about to say" he paused and looked at his boys, who rubbed their black eyes to wipe the drowsiness away.
"Firstly, I say thanks to all of you, who have persevered with me since the beginning of this journey. And the good news is that we are less than a day away from our goal!"
"YESS!" The boys cheered, before Cabrera continued…
"But wait, there's still more. As a leader, I can't have my men sleepy when we go hunt monsters tomorrow, and so…we'll be sleeping here tonight!" Cabrera said as he pointed towards the town in the distance.
"Woah!" most shouted, feeling ecstatic, while others sighed in relief.
"And, as you have seen, with the potion, killing those beasts will be a breeze"
The boys nodded in agreement as they vividly remembered the effect of said potion after Cabrera's earlier demonstration.
"Now, this is where things might get tricky. We have to do things in secret" Cabrera said as his voice took on a serious tone.
"Now, this is what we'll do…"
Cabrera began to explain the plan.