Supreme Monarch

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Deep inside the eastern parts of the ever-expanding Darknar forest...

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The thick grey clouds had cleared up slightly for the sun, which was almost at its zenith and shone brightly in the sky. Yet, it failed in Illuminating the dark and dense forest that was now covered in a layer of snow. 

The trees in these parts of the first were practically humongous, and their thick tree trunks stood tall, while their leafy branches spread wide. Because light could barely penetrate into the depths of the forest, there was a feeling that anyone inside would be swallowed by the blackness. 

There were no landmarks in the forest, and it was impossible to tell in which direction one was moving. A sense of unease filled everyone, as though they had been devoured by a monster. The sky-scraping trees further intensified that uneasiness, and most people would have been frightened by this scene.

However, the group of six that navigated this forest skillfully, were unperturbed by the scene. They were either used to this atmosphere or were well trained to survive in the wild.

Jarret leads the group as they advanced through the forest. His Mana wasn't unlimited so he couldn't use his ability often but thanks to the combined experience of the group and Tarka, the dragonwrought Kobold, being somewhat familiar with the forest, they were able to make it this deep into the forest without attracting any unwanted attention to themselves.

Although they still encountered some strays along the way, they were mostly weak monsters and were quickly dispatched. This was their first time working together so they openly challenged those weaker monsters without fear of attracting the attention of the scouts.

Albert had informed them of the observation tactics of the scouts so they had already used the anti-divination scrolls right before they entered the Forest. 

The spells the scrolls contained were around the Tier 3 and Tier 2 standards and would last for a full day so as long as they stayed clear of anything that would demand the full attention of the scouts upon them, they should be able to avoid the gaze of their monitoring spells. Their mission was to use Jarret's ability along with a divination scroll and observe the situation in the two safe zones closest to the castle as well as document the activities of the monsters in the area.

There have been several changes in the monster's activities in the forest so even the scouts would be too busy documenting the same information, so they had been presented with the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the chaos.

The Darknar forest was primarily divided into four sections, which were most commonly known as the North, West, East, and South, and was generally differentiated by the vastly different environment in each section. For instance, the eastern parts of the forest were more notable for their tall trees and rare herbs along with wild fruits and flowers.

The west was more notable for its dense hills and caverns along with the various underground labyrinths that housed several valuable ore mines. Naturally, these labyrinths were very dangerous and extremely hard to navigate through as they naturally weakened sensory-type magic.

The South was dominated by several marshlands and swamps and was generally home to dangerous reptilian predatory creatures. While the North was a mountainous highlands with several special lakes whose waters were known to have special properties like healing and improving one's physiques.

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The group had been inside this forest for a few hours now. Although they wanted to improve their teamwork by facing of against stray monsters, they were still only a team consisting of several ranged fighters and a single swordsman. They needed to do everything they could to avoid fighting and only engage when absolutely necessary.

It would still take them a while to get to the first safe zone since there wasn't an exact path leading there and the snow was also slowing them down. Jarret, as the appointed leader, organized their formation. He had Gail scout ahead for the group, making sure they were always headed in the right direction and avoided any large groups of monsters, while Tarka would hover a few feet ahead of them in case of traps.

Lora and Raz were stationed at the back due to their superior senses as beastmen as well as mages and Jarret were accompanied by Jin in the middle of the group. Jin was equipped with a composite longbow and a green quiver filled with arrows strap on his back. Their formation wasn't exactly the best formation for their team, but it would do for now.

They walked through the narrow pathway according to Jarret's directions and the information received from Gail. They were able to easily map their entire journey so far as not to get lost in the forest that at this point, had nothing but whites and the slight green to identify their location.

After confirming their location with his ability one more time, they finally came across one of the locations on their list. Walking out into the opening in the middle of the forest, they saw several lumps on the ground, that had been covered by some snow but sparse revealed the body of large furry creatures.

These were monster cadavers. From Albert's description and what Gail had seen last night, this was the previous location of the battle that occurred between the silver wolves and the yet to be identified wolves. The group immediately set up a perimeter for their investigation, there were corpses from both sides involved in that battle.

There were around fifty wolves engaged in battle last night and both sides seemed to be about even with the silver wolves having a slight advantage in numbers.

The group investigated the scene of the fight hoping to pick up the trail of both parties. According to Gail, the silver wolves had claimed this territory so they needed to ascertain how large their territory was and where the other party had run off to. Jin and Kaz studied the cadavers and were able to tell they belonged to both silver wolves and Dire wolves. 

Having identified the second wolf species, increased the severity of the situation because Dire wolves were usually found in the far end of the western parts of this forest and this was still considered the far end of the eastern parts of the Darknar forest.

The scale of the battle was also huge and it didn't seem they started here. Unfortunately thanks to the snow, they were unable to pick up the trail of the dire wolves and only located the trail of the silver wolves. When their investigation was complete, Jarret brought out a storage box and placed all the monster cadavers into it.

Even if— the now frozen flesh wasn't particularly useful, the beast cores within them were still valuable, and so were their furs.

After storing the cadavers they proceeded to track the silver wolves, mapping the area around their territory. Along the way, they saw some killous, rodent-like creature the size of a raccoon. These were worthless tier 1 creatures whose only ability was to spit out mildly acidic needles. Of course, any creature that lived in the Darknar forest was deadly in its rights.

The killous however, was only dangerous in massive numbers, but due to the extreme cold, they would naturally be hibernating at this time of the year so they only met a small number of them.

The group easily disposed of them and discarded their remains. Since the territory had already been claimed there wouldn't be that many monsters here.

They soon found the pack of silver wolves, as expected, they stayed close to their water supply so, using Jarret's Spirit vision, they mapped the wolf's territory without attracting their attention.

There were only about Twelve wolves left in the pack which was a little different from Gail's report last night. But it also looked like their alpha was wounded, so maybe they had lost a few more of their kins in a recent scuffle.

If they acted now, they might be able to tame the pack but they couldn't make that decision themselves and Jarret didn't want to waste a valuable communication scroll on a suggestion.

However, his thought process was suddenly interrupted when someone tugged him on his shoulder. It was Lora whose sharp ears and nose had picked up something from behind them.

Due to the miserable state the pack was in, they couldn't afford to be careless, so they must've only sent out a few wolves to hunt and unlucky for their group, the hunting party just happened to be returning at this exact moment. Three were about six or seven silvers wolves carrying some dead killous in their maws back to the pack, which meant they were now trapped in between them.

Jarret's ability allowed him to see through objects, and also through low-level invisibility spells. He could also see from a distance but he did not have a bird's eye view so his field of vision stayed the same.

It was unlucky that he had tasked Gail and Tarka to map out the surroundings ahead of them and not behind. The forest naturally didn't allow for easy movements and with the addition of the snow, it would be harder for the group to escape the incoming wolves.

'Unlucky huh... Aren't I just useless, was I really the best person for this job? How can I lead anyone if I couldn't even save her.' 

Jarret had never once dreamt of being the heroic type, he had always prided himself for being able to make the best of what he was given. He had never complained a day in his life and he never felt sorry for himself. He was a decently skilled swordsman but he did not have the strength of Hart or the endurance of Talen.

He also did not have the natural fighting ability of Kela neither could he ever outwork her, but he never cared. He was the only one amongst his formal party members with an innate ability so he studied it in order to become useful to them. He made calm and precise decisions based on the situation and had never doubted himself before.

Not until quite recently. 

Jarret cared deeply for his previous hunting mates, but amongst them, there was one person he always wanted to impress, someone he truly cared for, but up until the end, it never happened. He wasn't even sure if she ever noticed his feelings for her. He had never been able to confess his love to Callie, and now that she was gone, he would never be able to.

He didn't know why he blamed himself for her death. Perhaps, if he was stronger, he would've been able to save her. No, perhaps all he needed to do was master his so-called gift. If he had full awareness of that battlefield, he would've been able to save her.

Maybe if Lord Ty had arrived just a few minutes earlier she would still be alive today. He would be able to look forward to seeing her beaming and mischievous smile again. "No" Jarret snapped himself awake, he couldn't be thinking such blasphemous thoughts about his savior and current master.

He also couldn't afford to be indecisive at this critical moment. Amongst all the members of his current party, he was the only one that would not be able to escape through the treetops as he was a warrior, not a scout neither did he have any skills that would help him avoid the wolves so they had no choice but to fight.

He remembered what lord Ty had told him in the castle, if ever they were in any tough or impossible situation, all they needed to do was contact him and he would come and save them.

With that, he was filled with renewing confidence in himself and an ignited respect and loyalty towards his master. His brain then began to dissect their situation, while coming up with a plan.

Silver wolves tend to attack in numbers so if they were going to survive, they needed to land a fatal and decisive strike on the weakest group on their first attack. And while the alpha silver wolf was wounded right now, it was still a magic beast and their team was too unbalanced to take it on.

Besides, they were selected for their survivability and not their attack power, naturally, they were not expected to capture or tame any Monsters at the risk of their mission. With that his decision was made, they would launch an attack on the six silver wolves returning to their pack, after a successful hunt.