As soon as the guard captain spoke, everyone's heart sank.
For explorers, it was common knowledge that one shouldn't spend the night in the wilderness, let alone in the notoriously dangerous Black Fog Forest; the situation was simply too dire.
"Mr. Marshall," Beaman cursed as soon as he opened his mouth, "you must have been poisoned in the brain. My brother's a Pharmacist, why don't you let him have a look at you?"
"I—I didn't want this to happen."
Marshall was at a loss for words, feeling utterly frustrated.
"Since Ivan is a Pharmacist, indeed, he should check you out."
"It might be best to pry it open with a sword, and see if you've actually got real eyeballs in there."
"Use a shield to smash it, knock off all the extra flesh from your face, then your eyes will be able to see."
Being frank to a fault was a common trait among mercenaries, and upon realizing they'd been trapped by outside circumstances into a dangerous plight, they said whatever came to mind. Their sarcastic comments were relentless, causing Marshall's face to turn beet red, which made him look even uglier.
Ivan touched his nose, feeling like he had been insulted as well.
"Enough," Leider interjected, silencing the mercenaries. "This is not the time to let our guard down. Keep moving. Even if we can't get out of the Black Fog Forest, we should try to get as close to the edge as possible."
His words rang true; the deeper one ventured into the Black Fog Forest, the greater the danger that lurked, and conversely, the closer to the edge, the safer it was.
"Exactly, exactly, Leider is right!"
Grasping at straws, Marshall quickly took stock and then continued to lead the way.
It took only a few seconds before he and his three subordinates turned back because no one had followed him, not even Leider, the Mercenary Group's captain.
Leider asked, "What's your opinion?"
He glanced at the mercenaries, finally resting his gaze on Glowe, the vice-captain.
Glowe looked around carefully, pondering for a moment before saying, "Captain, let's go this way." He pointed in a direction that deviated about thirty degrees from the path Marshall had chosen.
From among the crowd, Ivan was also trying his best to discern the right direction, but lacking knowledge in this area and unfamiliar with the Black Fog Forest, he wisely held his tongue.
"Let's go."
After a brief pause of two or three seconds, Leider signaled to continue on the journey, following the direction Glowe had selected.
This time, Leider led the way with everyone closely following behind, leaving Marshall and his men with no choice but to catch up.
Before long, the light filtering through the forest canopy began to retract, and as the fog thickened, the visibility of the group was severely hindered despite them still being within the boundaries of the Black Fog Forest, unsure of how far they had penetrated.
"Find a place to camp."
With Leider's announcement, the group reluctantly accepted the reality of having to spend the night in the Black Fog Forest.
The Giant Shield Mercenary Group, having traipsed across north and south, was experienced in setting up camp in shallow forests. They quickly found a relatively open and flat spot, commenced lumbering, cleared the surrounding obstacles, and prepared the timber.
They split the wood, drove stakes into the ground, and erected a double row of stakes with round logs in between, swiftly forming an enclosure reminiscent of a beast pen.
Some mercenaries continued to reinforce the wooden fence from the outside with stakes, while others added diagonal pointed poles, transforming the perimeter into a row of makeshift caltrops, and hung many warning bells beyond that. Some used their clothing to make several torches for later use.
In the center of the wooden enclosure, a pile of wood chunks and branches of various sizes had been gathered to make a bonfire.
By the time everything was finished, night had completely fallen.
All the people crammed into the wooden enclosure, thus creating a simple shelter for themselves.
The bonfire remained unlit.
Someone asked, "Should we light a fire?"
It was a question worth pondering. In ordinary woods or open wilderness, lighting a bonfire could undoubtedly fend off wild beasts; however, in the fog forest, no one knew whether it might attract some sort of monster.
"I have a glowstone here, bestowed upon me by the Baron in the past, it can provide a bit of light."
As the topic was brought up, Marshall found a sense of presence and took out a stone that emitted a greenish glow.
He stretched out his hand and revealed the glowstone for everyone to see.
But a hand reached out from the darkness, appearing in the greenish light, and in an instant, the light vanished, plunging the surroundings back into darkness.
"Where's the glowstone?"
The glowstone was taken, and when Marshall waited a while without it being returned, and he didn't know who took it, he was somewhat taken aback.
"Quiet."
"Lei---"
"Be alert, we'll talk about other things when it gets light tomorrow."
The darkness was so thick that they could only see a vague outline of the person opposite them, unable to distinguish who was who.
Without Leider's support, Marshall could only close his mouth helplessly and heave a sigh, recently nothing had been going right, even Miss Lisa, who had shown affection for him, had changed her heart.
Inside the wooden fence, the faint sound of chewing was heard as everyone ate their own dry rations.
Ivan was no exception, imitating Beaman, he placed his shield on the side with the wooden fence and sat beside it, eating a strip of dry deer meat in his hand.
He wondered, since they had built a wooden fence, why not simply build a wooden hut, just like the wilderness survival he had seen before, with everyone's strength it wouldn't be a difficult task.
No, that was wrong. In this world, there were tree monsters and flower spirits, it was very possible to be trapped without anywhere to escape. He found his own idea somewhat amusing, the world was different now, and experiences from before couldn't simply be applied.
'Ah, this is really bad luck, encountering such a mess on my first mission.' He sighed to himself, hoping that they could pass the night peacefully.
Just then, a hand behind him tapped him lightly and slipped something into his pocket, Ivan reached in without thinking, it was a stone, no bigger than a thumb, he had an idea.
He carefully pulled apart a small gap and sneakily peered into his pocket, to his expectation, it was the captain of the guard's glowstone.
Ivan smiled silently, feeling inexplicably settled in his heart, behind him was his father.
The night was not peaceful, with sounds from the jungle coming in waves, cries like those of an infant, sighs of an old man, and the bizarre chanting, forcing everyone to remain on guard.
"Ding-a-ling~."
Perhaps four or five hours later, a clear bell sound broke the existing atmosphere.
Everyone understood that something had approached nearby, probably a small-sized wild beast.
Possibly scared by the noise, the commotion ceased after a while. They thought the creature had left, until another bell sound came from a different direction, causing everyone to heighten their vigilance, many ready with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other.
There was a clear sound of something landing outside the wooden fence, followed by the beast lunging towards the inside of the fence.
Ivan noticed his father moving, several sounds of swords slicing through the air, the few who had prepared dealt with the intruding beast, then threw the beast's body back into the jungle.
"A mountain cat that didn't watch where it was going."
Leider returned to his position, Ivan heard his voice, it seemed it hadn't taken much effort.
Several more hours passed, and the time reached the late night.
In the meantime, beasts occasionally blundered through, some were scared away by the bells, and some foolishly broke into the wooden fence, only to be slain by the combined efforts of the mercenaries.
Ivan had not taken action because he and the mercenaries lacked coordination, and moving could easily harm others.
He thought it would continue like this until daylight.
Suddenly, everything around them fell silent, and those strange noises were no longer heard.