The expedition group started moving out of Larim, they're all riding a horse to reach the destination quicker, the edge of Monoghriad Forest was quite far from Larim, since it was technically at the edge of the Latricia Kingdom's border, so for Larim City that is located at the middle, it would take a long time if the expedition group were to use their legs instead.
"Carfeld!" Said one of the special knights beside Carfeld.
"Rezio, what is it?."
"You've been to Monoghriad Big Forest before right? How long does it take you to get there from Larim?"
"Ah!! If i remember it correctly, i think it took me a week to reach there with a horse!!"
"Is that so!!"
"Yeah! but that was because i encountered many monsters on the way, so if our path is smooth with no obstacles on the way, i think it's possible to reach there in 5 days!"
"Alright!! I'll tell everyone else about it!"
Rezio slowed down just a little bit, until he was behind Carfeld by half, just like the other special knights.
***
A few hours later...
It is now night time, the moon is at its full phase, and monsters roar and howl can be heard from all direction, the expedition group stopped moving to get a rest, they're currently staying in a vast grassland, there's some trees and high grounds in the area but most of the time all they could see is just grass and mountains in the distance, fortunately Carfeld and the rest of the group found a shaded spot over a small curved mounds with a tree beside it, in there they all sat down and enjoys a nice meal with eachother.
"Like i said, i charged forward to that giant Troll with my axe and then cut its leg off!– It's a shame that only Artha saw it! Hahaha!!"
One of the mercenary named Deter, was telling the mercenaries and knights beside him about his heroic story when he was on another mission, everyone around him listened closely and clapped when they heard that Deter had defeated a Troll to save his friends from danger, and coincidentally, Artha who is one of Deter friend that was at the scene, was also in there listening.
"That is awesome! Deter you should join the knights hahaha!!" Said one of the knighths that is listening.
"How long have you been working as a mercenary? From your strength alone i guess it's more than a decade?"
"Do you usually train or does your training involves killing monsters?"
"Hahahaha!! I don't really have any interest in joining the knights order, and to answer all of your question, i have been a mercenary for more than 15 years at this point, Artha here joined my team 4 years ago and he is also a very exceptional individual! I trained this body through a set of harsh training that i have always done every morning, and the results are starting to show up!" Said Deter to all of people watching him.
They all laughed and continued talking with new topics.
While most of the people in the expedition group was at Deter's place, not far away from them, the 5 special knights are sitting infront of a different campfire with eachother while they waited for the meat they put into the campfire to be cooked.
"Carfeld, have you fought against the monsters in the inner part of Monoghriad Forest?" Said Davira, another special knights who is a friend with Carfeld.
"Oh, yea– Im also curious with you captain, I heard at the start of our journey that you once stepped foot into Monoghriad Inner Forest, and since there are barely anyone that have gone there, i hope its not rude for me to ask, but what is it like there?"
"Hmm— Well it is exactly like what you guys are expecting, that place is basically a death zone for humans, the monsters that roamed the inner forest is way more dangerous than the one that we usually see at the outer forest, goblins, orcs, kobolds, none of those common monsters exist at the inner part of Monoghriad forest." Carfeld said as he flipped his roasted meat on the campfire.
"Then, what kinds of monsters lived there?"
Carfeld chuckled.
"Didn't the military minister told you guys about it?"
"Well— There are monsters that weren't told by the minister that you know right?"
"I guess you're right– Other than Two-Headed Giant Snake, Wyverns, and everything else that were mentioned at the palace, there are one thing that the Military Minister didn't know."
"And that is?" Davira asked as she tilted her head, waiting for answer.
Everyone else were also eager to know and they are at the edge of their seat.
"There is— A Ruler there."
Carfeld's answer shocked everyone, but not because of the correct reason, they were shocked with how confusing his answer was, what he meant by Ruler, he didn't finish his words.
"What do you mean by ruler?" This time, Rezio asked.
"Its just like what you're thinking, there is a monster who Ruled the inner part of Monoghriad forest, every monsters who lived there obeyed the ruler— Back then.."
***
3 Years Ago..
"HUFF... HUFFF... SHIT, SHIT.."
Carfeld, who is doing a mission at Monoghriad Forest, found himself lost in the inner part of the forest, he was originally told to only search at the outer part since his mission is to catch a runaway criminal who were last seen running to the forest, the criminal in question had done various evil things throughout the years and the guards alongside the knights have called the criminal as The Arm Thief, his name came from his signature of always cutting off one of his victim's arm before running away with their valuable goods.
When Carfeld was searching through the outer part of the forest with other normal knights in the area, he heard someone calling for help deep inside the forest, at first Carfeld thought he was hallucinating, but after hearing it for the second time, he decided to check the source of the sound.
Initially everyone on the search team was being split into 4 people each, but since Carfeld is the only special knight in the group, he felt confident and was let to just search by himself, turns out it will be one of his many great mistakes he'd ever done in his life.
HISS!!
A Two-Headed Giant Snake was chasing Carfeld, its massive mouth opened, showing the sharp fangs that is ready to shoot out poison, there was a blood stain in the snake's mouth, indicating that it might had ate other people before meeting with Carfeld, he tried to fight the snake with his sword earlier, only to realize that the snake's skin is way too hard for his sword to cut through it, even with aura, using magic is impossible since Carfeld is not someone that is born with a mana heart, so here he was, running away from the snake and avoiding all of the poison that the snake shoots out of its mouth.
The deeper you go into the Monoghriad forest, the larger the trees become, in this inner part of the forest, the trees have grown to be more than 50 meters in length and 7 meters wide, this is because of how big the monsters and animals that lived here, so the trees naturally adapted to the environment in order to not get destroyed by the slightest touch from the monsters.
And because of the tree size, there are barely any cramped space or dense bushes except a few area, with this, its hard to stay hidden in the forest.
"AGGHH!! NO!" Carfeld screamed as he dodged the incoming poison spit that came from the two snake.
< FIRE BOOST >
He used aura to speed up his movement, so now Carfeld is running at an astonishing speed of 60km/h while his feet is on fire, but this won't last long, at the end of the day, Carfeld is still a human, he will get tired sooner or later and once that happen, there will be nothing he could do but wait for his imminent death.
'A WAY TO SURVIVE— THINK!! CARFELD THINK!!'
Just then, Carfeld closed his eyes because there was some dusts that got caught in his eyes, and because of that split second of blindness, Carfeld tripped over a protruding tree root on the ground.
THUD!
"AARRGGH!!""
'DAMNIT!! DAMNITT!!!! TO HELL, IM NOT GOING TO DIE HERE!!' Carfeld screamed as hard as he could in his mind.
The giant snake arrived infront of Carfeld in no time and he watches as the snake was about to lunge its jaw onto him, devouring him alive and possibly crushing his body in the process..
.
.
SLASH!