318 Returning to Life (1/2)
If Roland had the time to return to the Forest of Dreams across the waters, he wouldn't recognize it—it had changed by a significant amount.
The trees had grown taller, touching the clouds. There were even more strange green plants of all sorts. However, the biggest change of all didn't have anything to do with ”nature.”
”Ha! I managed to defeat a mutant zombie today. That was 10 Justice Points for me!”
”Nice, but I think there are only three Lesser Fruits of Strength remaining that can permanently increase your Strength stat. If you don't hurry and have enough points to exchange for one soon, you'll have to wait until next month.”
”There are only three left? When I checked yesterday, there were still five of them. It's only the tenth of the month. Why are they decreasing at such a quick rate?”
”Well, the Explosive Bear mercenary group returned with a great harvest. They exchanged for two Lesser Fruits of Strength, one for their leader and one for their main shield warrior. Ugh! I'm so jealous!”
”Damn it! I need to hurry! I'm still 200 Justice Points short. Else I'm just going to have to wait for next month.”
The biggest and most obvious difference from two months ago was that this place had become incredibly ”popular.” The Forest of Dreams was no longer a place for only the wood spirits.
Once the adventurers' guilds in Eich learned about the items available in exchange for Justice Points, even a disaster like an Undead Calamity would be unable to scare away these adventurers who risked their lives for treasures and riches. Temporarily constructed houses packed to the brim with people, with even more tents in the forests. Several hundred to several thousand people streamed into the Forest of Dreams by sea every day.
Seeing how popular this place was becoming, some of the early arriving adventurers even opened up their own taverns and hotels with the assistance of the wood spirits. Other adventurers started other businesses. Mercenary and adventurers' guilds opened up their own branches here, while smiths and alchemists opened up shops as well.
After Nightrain City was attacked by the undead, the adventurers in the Forest of Dreams received recognition from the Bardi government as well. This was a method for the Bardi Empire to reduce the pressure on their frontlines. Slaying the undead here would not only help these adventurers obtain Justice Points, but they would even obtain reward money from the Bardi government.
Having two sources of income from the same job, not to mention how the Forest of Dreams was constantly able to produce miracle potions capable of permanently increasing one's base stats? Countless powerful individuals were attracted to the Forest of Dreams and came to earn points and gold.
The undead were quite frustrated about this. It was quite annoying for them to be forced to fight at Nightrain City while simultaneously having to maintain a defense line at the Forest of Dreams. However, attacking the western Forest of Dreams was obviously impossible so they could only choose to further increase the pressure on Nightrain City and the dragon knights there. After all, that was their main target.
Since the undead finally declared war on the Bardi Empire, the people of Bardi started the undead extermination that they had been long prepared for. All the undead in the royal capital were immediately eliminated, and both sides had abandoned their former alliance. Aso's death caused the Tark Republic to lose control over the Bardi government's higher levels. So, in the end, the Tark Republic could only attempt at taking the land they wanted by force.
The main undead armies of six Undead Planes that had tens of thousands of years to accumulate in numbers and training weren't anything that ”Contract Heroes,” who were only scattered individuals or small teams, could deal with. Even scouting missions would commonly end with injuries and dead adventurers.
However, the new undead soldiers that continuously teleported to the mortal plane became the best targets for the adventurers. There were also some adventurers that teamed up into large squadrons that rivaled even military squadrons and could attempt at fighting against smaller squadrons of undead.
These ”hunters” that had gone crazy over the potential benefits indeed caused a great amount of trouble for the undead, forcing them to leave a significant portion of their forces to defend against the Forest of Dreams' adventurers. It also helped significantly reduce the pressure on Nightrain City. Many adventurers also greatly benefited from the items they were able to exchange for via Justice Points by slaying undead.
Of course, not every person was so lucky.
”What happened to them? They're so pitiful…”
”Shh, don't let them hear you, they probably don't want your pity. They're from the 'Eye of Justice' mercenary group, which was unlucky enough to meet with a Bone Dragon-riding skeleton general yesterday. Those two are the only survivors. Even their leader, the Gold-ranked Holy Knight named Ostia, perished. They're truly pitiful.”
A tarp was temporarily covering the ground. There, a young human warrior missing one of his arms clutched a blonde female's head and sobbed miserably, while a cat tribe female thief was tied on to the back of the young human warrior—her only surviving companion. This cat thief was missing her right eye and right leg, and the blank expression on her still-beautiful face made it obvious that she had lost the will to live on.
These two remaining survivors from the Eye of Justice had bandaged injuries that were still bleeding. The path they took to return here was covered with streaks of blood.
”The Eye of Justice is finished…”
The somewhat famous Holy Knight mercenary leader Ostia had died in battle, and all of the group's main forces had become corpses that weren't even recovered. This legendary mercenary group from White Katlan was now finished. The two remaining novices that survived were unable to carry on the flag of Eye of Justice, not to mention how they were both seriously injured to the point of probably having to be forced to retire from being mercenaries.
However, the young human male warrior, whose name was Kait, didn't seem to think so. After crying enough, he wiped away his tears, bit into a bandage, and redid the dressing on his missing left arm's stump. His teary eyes seemed to be burning up with an inferno inside that indicated his determination to obtain revenge, as well as the heavy responsibility now upon him.
He handed his leader's head, the blonde female head he was just carrying, to his cat thief companion. Then, he headed to the Church of Law where all the quests were issued, intending to report on their own failed quest. However, someone blocked his way.
”With how seriously injured you are, you probably won't be able to work on any more quests. Still, it won't do to have you dying of starvation, unable to work. How about joining us? We'll take you in.”
A mercenary group greeted Kait at this moment, seemingly making him a kind offer. But, for those who really understood what this meant, this wasn't anything like appreciating his tenacity or anything like that. It was more of a nefarious way of taking advantage of the weak when they were down.
”Those guys are intending to take this chance to annex the Eye of Justice mercenary group into their own group? Making a big profit off of the dead? How disgusting.”
Even though the Eye of Justice was almost completely destroyed, that didn't mean that the mercenary group was now useless. The group's reputation and fame were the greatest wealth of all. After all, its past glorious history and record of successful quests undertaken were the best way to make potential clients believe in them and pay well. As for material riches, most mercenary groups would keep an account with the mercenary guild and even store some weapons, equipment, and items there as well. These would all be accumulated over countless years by mercenary groups.
”Don't be impulsive and confront them. That's the Slock mercenary group from Auland, or perhaps it would be more accurate to call them a bandit group. They have a terrible reputation. It would seem that they want to get rid of their infamous past and adopt a much better reputed group's name.”
A veteran mercenary stopped his companion who was filled with anger at this act of injustice. Taking advantage of a nearly destroyed mercenary group was obviously breaking a taboo, too—it was considered highly unethical by almost everyone. However, the Slock mercenary group had arrived with roughly forty or fifty well-armed, well-equipped individuals. Even if these two chatting mercenaries were dissatisfied with the Slock mercenary group's actions, they didn't dare to intervene.
But even though they didn't dare, someone else dared. In fact, this could even be called her responsibility.
”Please step aside.”
The young-sounding chilly tone caused everyone to pause in surprise, while her bright red hair gave everyone a deep impression. Everyone who was standing around, watching what was going on, immediately made way for her, as if she was a hero from legend.
This seemingly weak and small young wood spirit girl had executed a mercenary three days ago for committing the crimes of robbery and murder. She had such a calm expression as she slowly sliced off pieces of the criminal's flesh and kept inquiring as to how he felt. She collected the criminal's blood in vials and watched him finally die with such a calm expression that gave all who saw her an incredibly deep impression.
This was Temperance Samantha, the first leader of the wood spirits, the one who'd now obtained the nickname ”Bloody Rose.”
The wood spirit girl was currently standing there with a calm expression as always, and the Slock mercenary group's members hurriedly stepped aside for her.
Her punishments for all the outsiders who dared to commit crimes here helped everyone learn who was truly the biggest boss in the Forest of Dreams. Anyone unlucky enough to get on the wood spirits' bad side had learned the hard way. Not a single person of the Slock mercenary group wanted to taste the punishment of being hung upside-down several hundred meters high from the trees for three consecutive days and nights.
Meanwhile, the young one-armed mercenary named Kait adamantly stood there, without any signs of fear or hesitation in his eyes. A look of approval flashed in Samantha's eyes before she calmly asked him a question.
”How are the results of your quest to patrol sector D2?”
”…The quest has been completed. A secret undead scout base was discovered. This scout base had two small teams of black armor death knights and a skeleton general at the level of an Undead Lord. There was even a Bone Dragon. Our leader… Captain Ostia said that the undead's goal is probably to scout out all the routes by which we enter and exit the forest so that they can more easily ambush and slaughter us.”
Hearing this, everyone present felt pity for how unfortunate the Eye of Justice had been. This was only supposed to be a normal daily quest about patrolling, but the Eye of Justice just happened to run into an Undead Lord who had constructed a scouting base. No wonder the entire mercenary group was almost annihilated. Yet the fortunate part amongst all the misfortune was that there were still two survivors who managed to escape and tell everyone the news.
”Excellent job. Your mercenary group shall receive 100 Justice Points in your account as promised, along with the agreed-upon resources. Where's your captain?”