Chapter 238 - You Jinxed It!

The caravan was now deep into the mountains and everyone was resting for the night. The party leaders and Kil'na were gathered together in discussion at the caravan's main tent.

"We should be halfway up the mountain now. We're at the first rest stop that the Empire created. There should be another near the summit and one more on the other side of the mountain." Kil'na informed.

"Does that mean we'll be taking 2 days to pass through the mountain?" Cecil asked. He wasn't familiar with how the caravans travelled in the empire, but estimating that it'll take at least 2 days just to pass over the mountain was a little too fast in Cecil's opinion.

"We might take even longer...who knows what kind of monsters might pop out to attack us," Another party leader said.

"That's good, we shouldn't rush things. It'd be bad if we prioritized speed over our safety. So, if we don't make it to those rest stops, where will we be camping?"

The distance between the base and summit of the mountain was pretty far and Cecil doubted if they could make it to the summit in just one day. Since there were no other 'rest stops' in between, just where would they camp out at?

Unlike other mountain ranges, this particular one that the caravan was passing through didn't have any safe mountain passes. Actually, it didn't even have a mountain pass at all! The only way through to the other side was to go up and over the mountain.

Kil'na pointed at the blue marked areas on the map on a large table in the middle of the tent and explained, "These blue areas are the places we should try to make for before sundown. Those are the relatively safer zones on the mountain."

Cecil nodded in understanding. He saw half a dozen blue areas marked on the map just on this side of the mountain. There was also another concern that Cecil wanted to ask about.

"I heard that there was a SS ranked creature living near the mountain tops. What are the probabilities of it appearing on this route?"

"You mean the 'Night Plague'?" Sak'arh asked.

"Yeah, the big spider monster. It is a spider, right?"

"...yeah, the spider...well, it's called the Night Plague because obviously, it only attacks during the night. As for the plague part, it's because it attacks with its little offspring before coming out itself."

"Okay."

"The probability that it'll come out during the late-summer season is highly unlikely. The Night Plague loves the cold and it lays its hatchlings only during the winter. That's why all travel is prohibited during winter season because of the Night Plague and other high ranked monsters' increased activity."

"I see...but then again, aren't there rare cases of something like a Night Plague attack happening during the summer? I did read about it before participating in the quest."

"Yes, those stories are true...but then again those were only exceedingly rare cases!"

"...I see."

For references' sake, the Empire was actually divided into 2 sections by a large mountain range which spanned through the entirety of the Empire's lands, thus separating the vast lands of the empire into 2 sides, the eastern and western side.

And during the winter, communications between the two sides was literally cut off since the blizzards and snowstorms near the mountain range heavily impacted travel. Not to mention the rise in activity of all the higher ranked monsters in the mountain range during this time.

The mountain range was called the Beast King Mountain Range since many high ranked monsters inhabited the mountain tops. Since time immemorial, the monster activity would only rise during the winter season and for some reason would lower during the summer season.

However, there were some instances where high ranked monsters such as the SS ranked Night Plague, which was a monstrous spider of incredible size and deadliness, would sometimes roam around the mountain range during their, supposed, inactive period due to some force of nature.

It was hard to predict when these 'disasters' would come about, but Cecil just wanted to stay on his toes. The route they were currently traversing on was the territory of the monstrous beast and who knows, it might actually pop out during his trip to the Empire's Capital.

Although he wasn't actually hoping for it to come out, but he was a little interested in fighting it. One of the reasons was because he wanted to at least harvest one of its eggs and have Lucia cook it for him.

There was a small passage in the Empire's Bestiary that stated that the Night Plague's eggs, legs and eyes were a tasty delicacy. It did freak Lucia and Serilla out when they heard that he wanted to try tasting it at least once.

Cecil did live his childhood on his family's private island and there were times when he couldn't secure any game. So when he was desperate enough, he would resort to eating all sorts of bugs found on the island.

At times he'd get sick, but he would always tough it out. Luckily enough, he never died from eating those insects, but he did develop an iron stomach and now anything could go down the hatch.

It was only recently that Lucia and Serilla found out about this weird side to Cecil. Even during Cecil and Lucia's journey together before coming to the academy, Cecil never ate anything weird and would only eat Lucia's cooked meals.

It was the first time he actually demanded something from Lucia, so the girl reeled in her disgust and decided to cook him some of those Night Plague Eggs, Eyes, and Legs...IF they happened to meet one and kill it.

Although it was a little unsettling, but at least the two now knew that they wouldn't have to worry about what to feed their future husband. After all, anything could go down into his stomach!

Of course, they would never try and feed him something weird and disgusting. They were only relieved that he wasn't picky with his food.

******

After a couple more rounds of discussions, the meeting disbanded and Cecil returned to his camping area. Lucia had just finished cooking a couple servings of broiled ursa meat when he arrived back.

She exchanged some gold for the ursa meat from the Gorux adventurer party. They had an excessive amount so Lucia lightened their load a little.

Lucia also made a broth using wheat, wild mountain vegetables, and ursa meat. She was able to season it pretty well and it helped warm the party's bodies. It was pretty cold and windy in the mountains, especially during the night when the summer heat radiating from the sun was no longer present.

While he was eating with relish, he couldn't help but notice something odd.

"...How come there are only 2 tents left..."

Lucia and Serilla looked at each other in confusion before replying.

"Hm? What're you talking about, Cel?"

"Yeah, darling, aren't you remembering wrong?"

"I REMEMBERING PITCHING 3 TENTS!" Cecil replied fiercely.

"Eh~?"

"Uhm, darling...there are only 2 tents here..."

"You two obviously took down the other one!"

"But...I was cooking!"

"And I was helping Lulu cook!"

Cecil frowned and turned his head over to look at Silver and Yuna.

Yuna only looked back at him like he was stupid, while Silver had just awoken from his sleep and was staring deep into the trees behind their camp area.

"...IF that Night Plague actually attacks us, I'm going to force you two to cook and eat its eggs, legs, and eyes with me later!"

"Eh?!"

"Hey, no fair, we didn't do anything darling!"

Cecil's brow twitched at how shameless these two girls were. It was obvious that they were the culprits of the missing tent...

"Grrrr..." Silver let out a low growl and turned his head to look at Cecil.

"Rah!"

'Master, there's something in the forest!'

"!"

In the next instant Cecil's eyes widened in shock, he had picked up something on his radar when he suddenly spread out his mana sense into the forest after Silver had warned him of something.

Cecil dropped his food and quickly moved next to Lucia and Serilla. He grabbed onto the girls and quickly lunged away.

"C-Cel?!"

"Uwah!"

The area where Lucia and Serilla were previously sitting at had been demolished. The earth had ruptured and formed a large crack in the ground.

"Wh-what was that?!" Lucia yelled.

"...It's the Night Plague..."

"Huh?!"

"N-no way...righ—" Just before Serilla could complete her sentence, the sounds of people screaming and yelling rang throughout the camp.

"MONSTER ATTACK!!!"

"I-i-i-i-it's...IT'S THE NIGHT PLAGUE!!!"

Lucia and Serilla looked towards Cecil who was now visibly excited.

Cecil smirked and licked his lips upon seeing the large pitch black spider leg extending from deep within the forest which struck the previous location that Serilla and Lucia was at.

"Huhuhu~ Lulu, Seri, we're having Night Plague Legs tonight!!!"

"You idiooottt!"

"Darling, you jinxed it!"