The forest at night.
A forest filled with dangerous creatures.
Filled with creepy night noises.
Filled with predators of night that wait for their prey and hunt them with their unique powers.
The great forest near the Moongold town was one of the places that people, even players, avoided at night since the main creatures that give good Exp were all mostly only daytime creatures.
They avoided the night forest mainly because of the night and the presence of the dangerous creatures that were more adapted to the darkness than the players and the natives.
Only a few people and players wandered through the forest at night and knew the paths that one needed to take to reach certain places.
Alex was not one of them– she did not mind day or night as long as there was something to hunt in a hunting ground but still, she had only been here for a few weeks.
She should not have known about the night paths that one needed to avoid the creatures of the night that would attack the players or the group at these hours.
There was a certain kind of creature in this place called (Mantis bat), a nocturnal creature that especially enjoyed the human meat, but they were territorial creatures and did not come out of their houses even if they were driven out by the external forces.
Unless one intruded into their areas, they were pretty useful creatures that the guards had used many times.
They were experienced with this place, but even they did not know what might have happened to the forest after the dark mage's intrusion.
They were going to take it seriously and be careful with each of their movements.
-Swissssssssh…
The Recon teams were divided into three parties with each party having no more than nine individuals.
They needed to avoid the fights or any kind of external interaction as much as possible and since they were only the recon team that knew what they were doing here, they had to avoid the eyes of the minions of evil and the dark creatures that the mages could feel the presence of.
They were going to be as covert and stealthy as possible, that was one of the reasons the guard captain had chosen not the high level players that were strong, but the relatively lower level players that knew how to move through the terrain.
The main reason he recruited Alex was certainly because of how good and unique hse was with her strength control.
If she could beat up people tens of levels higher than her and even had some way to possess items containing strong spells, she was indeed an invaluable key to the operation.
And, though he had not thought there was anything special about Elio at first, the fact that he was carrying around a Mana slime during their first meeting and then a Mana beast during their second meeting certainly made him even more special than the girl he was with.
Additionally, if the two of them were able to deal with the Red Hob as they had reported to them, he knew they were capable of much more than what he had expected.
He wanted to give them some tasks to test them out, but this happened out of the blue and somehow, both of them were closely connected with this incident.
[{ "Area 3A." }]
[{ "Wait for team-3. Team-2 will wait in Area 3B." }]
He was gambling by taking them on the recon mission, and he was gambling even more by taking responsibility for both of them… he knew the chances of getting something in return were small, but that was just how gambles were.
Sometimes you get something, sometimes you get something good, sometimes you get fucked over, and sometimes you hit a jackpot.
[{ "Team-3. Arriving in area 3A." }]
And his gamble this time had hit the jackpot.
[{ "Reporting surveillance from Area 3B." }]
The girl that he thought was merely a strong foreigner was in fact an experienced leader- one even better than someone like him who had decades of experience.
She asked him if she could take charge of the teams all by herself and explained to him an unorthodox method that he was impressed by just listening to.
She suggested that she would take the complete charge of the situation, take charge of all three teams, and assign one 'captain' each team.
These captains will relay her commands to the rest of the teams, and follow her instructions.
They will do as she says, and she explained to him in detail how by doing the things that she was suggesting, by taking the paths that she was suggesting, and by following her instructions– they could avoid any manner of fighting and directly reach their target area for the surveillance.
The way she assured him that they can do this without any kind of loss or any kind of casualties seemed like a joke to him at first, the kind of authoritative spirit she had, the kind of eyes she had and the kind of plan she had devised for the entire battle afterwards was… well, he could only describe it as something unparalleled.
Working with her the first time did not feel like he was working with some inexperienced newcomer who knew little about this world.
This was one of those rare cases where he was seeing the eyes of a person who knew more truths about this world than he might ever be able to.
The eyes are as bright as the guardians who had stopped the advance of these evil dark mages and much more in the past.
[{ "The dungeon entrance is open, however it is a trap.
It seems like the real dungeon entrance is hidden by a strong illusion barrier, and there are beasts surrounding the entire dungeon area, suggesting the possibility of an ambush.
The footprints on the ground and the scratch marks on the tree suggest that they are beast type creatures with non-elemental skills.
The way they are set up in a triangular formation suggests they are expecting guests. And from how roughly the front ground has been cleared, it seems like there are bigger creatures with a little too much strength behind it.
We should be ready to fight a pack of Hobs, or at the very least humanoid creatures like Green goblins that we find in the dungeon of Arrbo." }]
They were using the party chat since it was a feature that the natives could use as well. And the one relaying all this information was Elio, not Alex.
[{ "From the data we have, we know of a secret entrance to the northeast of the dungeon.
There seems to be six beasts gathered in that area, so team-2 will distract them, team-1 will go there first and open the secret entrance, and then team-3 will join." }]
The guard captain did not expect Alex to be such a great leader, but what he expected even less was how Elio, the one with two unique creatures, was in fact a very great observer and strategist.
If it was thanks to Alex that they were able to work so organized despite being made up of individuals from various areas, it was thanks to Elio that they were able to avoid most of the undetectable traps of the dark mage.
He had saved their life a few times already, but since they were finally at the dungeon, their main task was just starting now.