The moment that they heard that, everyone tensed up. They were finally going to face the first wave of monsters.
This was the biggest problem in the Evil Lands. Endless hordes of evil beasts that were nothing like the normal beasts. They never fought each other.
The Evil Lands did not have the law of the jungle. Instead, every single evil beast seemed to answer to a higher power. And the highest power was someone that every player would eventually get acquainted with. The Evil God.
Jake knew not to make the mistake of mistaking him for the devil. That was another existence in the game that was also a god, but much stronger, and was completely enraged by players who thought of him as the same as the Evil God.
Beside him, he could see Annie's mouth moving slightly. All he could hear was murmurs, but the book that was in her hands started glowing.
She was chanting an enchantment. Or maybe she was praying to god? Jake never understood how NPC priestesses and priests worked. He just knew that for some reason, they always had much more power in their hands than player priests and priestesses.
Even if a player took this class, they never did it any justice.
As they kept walking forward they could hear bellows from deep within the dark forest that they were encroaching. Jake clutched his sword even tighter, his right hand turning red.
He was tensed. Although the guards said that it was a horde of Evil Beasts of the first rank, meaning Jake could deal with some of them, he knew that for every horde, there was always a horde leader.
And that horde leader was going to be of the second tier, at the least.
"You are surrounding by experts who are in the third tier or higher. Calm down." Jake told himself as they kept walking.
The pace of the caravan had slowed considerably the moment they stepped into the dark forest. Ganshin was careful. He kept making sure that there was no one around them.
That made Jake curious as to why they were not brute forcing their way inside. The goal was to retrieve the devilish rock and purify the Holy Grounds. For that, wouldn't they just have to rush to the Holy Grounds.
But Jake couldn't exactly ask anyone right now. And he didn't resent Father Joseph for forcing them to stay silent.
Father Joseph was right. One could not be sure if there were spies around. And the exact wording that the Father used made Jake introspect. The trees and bushes had ears? But what if they could come alive?
That would make the entire forest their enemy. And that was a terrifying thing to even think about.
Once again, the caravan stopped. And this time, Ganshin took out his sword from his sheath, the only one who didn't do so, and looked back at the caravan.
"They are here. I can feel it. The forest cannot be this silent if not for an ambush. The cries of the monsters have stopped." He said.
"Beware. Look through the bushes. If you see even a hint of an ambush, call it. Even if it is a false alarm, that should be okay. We cannot afford to take a risk." He said.
Then, the caravan resumed, but this time, with a snail's pace. At this point, they could just be crawling and they would be moving faster.
Jake didn't particularly enjoy this approach of taking the perfect defense. He felt like the best defense was offense, and that they could always storm forward and take the ambush head on.
That was better than this slow arduous path.
But then again, he had multiple lives, and these poor sods only had one.
They continued their way forward, and Jake just shook his head, not saying a word. As the weakest here, he didn't exactly have the right to speak, and his vote didn't count for much.
It was absolutely silent, except for the murmurs of the priestesses. They seemed to be chanting protecting hymns, or at least, Jake thought.
Hearing at least some sound comforted Jake in this silent ordeal.
And then, someone cried wolf.
"Enemy attack! Flank from the left side! Gear up!" Someone shouted.
Jake finally heaved a sigh of relief. He would rather have this battle now rather than walk in constant fear and tension.
"Let us do this." He smiled as he geared up. He was on the right flank, so he peered through the bushes. If there were enemies on the left side, there could be enemies on the right as well.
And lo and behold, they were there.
Multiple shadows jumped out of the shadows and toward the caravan.
"Almighty God! Protect your servants who offer you this small prayer." Sister Annie next to him started chanting in what seemed to be latin.
The bright light that came from her book had this golden glow that strengthened and had direction now. It went toward the evil beasts that they were facing, and swept them with this holy feeling light.
As the light swept the evil beasts, Jake could look at them properly.
They were terrifying beasts. They felt like wolves, but they weren't. Down on all fours, with fur that was pitch black except for purple streaks in the middle that gave these beasts the feeling that they were of the lightning element.
And their eyes were red, glowing red. It was a characteristic that most wolves seemed to share. These red eyes glowed so much that as these wolves jumped at the NPCs, and Jake as well, a red line tracked their path of movement.
Clang!
Jake raised his sword, which was quickly pushed back until it stopped mere inches away from his face.
He was face to face with one of these evil beasts, it's claws pushing back at Jake's sword.
Roar!
The beast opened its mouth wide open, roaring at Jake, spitting disgusting saliva at him and giving his nose an assault of the worst possible smell he had ever smelt.
"You damned thing." Jake cursed as he pushed back.
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