CH 183

The Great Forest of Roza

The next day.

After a doing an early shopping run, I left Edestor alongside Snow.

My destination was of course, the great forest of Roza to the South.

I had explored every nook and cranny of both the Peixa forest and the Carlisle forest, but this was the “great” forest of roza, much bigger and vast than the previous two.

According to the info I have gathered, it was many times bigger than the Carlisle forest and there were still things that hadn’t been explored or left unknown within this forest.

And so of course, a lot of rumours had been created when it came to a mysterious forest like this…….one of those was the one regarding the Fruit of Skill.

In Botanist Otto’s records as well, it was written that if the Fruit of skill could be anywhere, the great forest of Roza was the likeliest contender.

If this frit really could be found somewhere in the unexplored regions of this forest, then finding it would provide me the shortest route to becoming the ‘strongest’, no matter how much time it takes to find it.

Thanks to Ongneer, I have come to truly realize just how important skills are to a person’s strength.

Even common skills alone had enhanced my strength to a previous unimaginable level.

If I could learn how to get more unique skills, just imagine how strong I could get——–honestly, I couldn’t even imagine it.

Of course, I’m not going to put all my chips betting on a fruit that might not even exist so my first objective will be to find out the five main ability raising plants and if possible, another Ongneer as well………

As for new and undiscovered poisonous plants, of course I’ll be gathering those as well.

With all sorts of thoughts flowing through my head, I assigned Snow with handling the enemies on the way, as we travelled towards the forest.

.

.

Three hours since I left Edestor.

Thanks to us aggressively avoiding any monsters on the way as well as walking fast in general, we reached the forest a lot faster than I originally expected.

A sea of trees worthy of being called a great forest was spread out in front of me.

Unlike Carlisle forest, there was no presence of people here, and there were multiple a signboard on the way that said that this place was ‘danger’ or ‘off limits’.

Not just the size of the forest, but the dangers within it were also in a whole different level than the ones before.

I’d be lying if said I wasn’t nervous at all but, more than that I was excited.

“Snow, don’t let your guard down even for a second.”

“Aurf!”

Saying that to Snow at the entrance of the forest……..I stepped inside the great forest of Roza for the first time.

Sunlight still passed through the trees just enough, and the eerie feeling that I felt when watching it from outside also reduced when I actually stepped inside.

The sound of branches swaying in the wind, the cries of animals, and the footsteps of monsters; all could be heard coming from all four directions, showing it was a lively forest just like the Carlisle forest.

The noise did make sensing approaching monsters harder but if I had to pick between a quiet forest or a lively forest, I’ll take a lively one all day.

Once you got used to the Peixa forest, it was fine but at first I was scared to bone of staying there.

Too much silence makes your thoughts wander to various places, and it’s easy to let your mind run into a negative direction.

On that regard, a lively forest made me feel much calmer. Thinking that, I first began searching for a place to make into my new base.

Ignoring all the new plants I saw and monsters I sensed, I continued walking deeper into the forest to find a suitable location.

My current plan is to make  base and then start exploring with the base as the centrepoint. And depending on when the exploration of that area is done, I’ll then move to make a new base someplace else.

It would be like slowly expanding your territory inside the forest, and I am thinking I’ll have to make at least 10 bases to cover the whole forest.

And so my first base will be someplace not too far from the entrance of =the forest either.

As far as candidates for good bases go, the number one on my list was always going to be a monster nest.

That wasn’t my aim in Carlisle forest originally but, that’s how impressed I was with the goblin base that my thinking had changed.

Of course, to use a monster base meant having to exterminate an entire herd of monsters which wasn’t exactly safe but, the merits of doing that far too great compared to the demerits.

First I’ll look for a monster nest, if I don’t find one, then I’ll try to find a place close to water body to turn into a base.

While using [Life presence sense] [Perception enhancement] [Perception range enhancement] and [Hearing enhancement], I searched for a base for about an hour.

My detection skills didn’t catch anything but suddenly Snow howled while looking towards the southwest direction.

I still wasn’t sure if it understood my words or not but I had still told it look for a big group of monsters so………..it must have found one I imagine.

Giving the signal to not rush ahead and stick with me, I slowly began walking towards the southwest direction.

The cost on stamina was great but while using 4 skills simultaneously, I walked through the forest at maximum vigilance.

The moment I detect anything with my skills, I will activate [Silent Steps]——-while planning my actions, I too suddenly sensed a big group of monsters ahead of me.

“Even with all the skills, I’m still no match for Snow eh……….Snow, you really are amazing.”

I hid behind a tree for the moment, and praised Snow by patting its head.

The issue was the strength of the presences that I had detected but, perhaps it was because I wasn’t too close yet as the from what I could tell from here, this group wasn’t exactly too strong.

Anywhere between a goblin and a Venom Python, I’d say.

In the end I couldn’t make a final decision until I see with my own eyes what kind of monsters were they but, if the presence is only this strong, it should be fine to approach closer.

“Snow, be sure to not make any noise. Even if you see monsters, don’t rush ahead until I give the signal.”

“Au.”

After seeing it make a small soft bark in confirmation, I slowly made my way towards these presences.

Their numbers were around 18 total. Now their individual presence was strong, but not so strong as to make me worry.

After reaching a place from where I could see these monsters, I cautiously peeked to see the place where all these monsters were gathered.

In the middle of the forest, there was like a small village built here.

Well, I call it a ‘village’ but really it was just a bunch of house made of branches and straws that’s all.

And the residents of this village were……….a herd of Orcs.

It was the first monster I ever hunted all the way back in Peixa forest, and also the monster of the first emergency request I took in Oxter.

And now the first monster I face here in Roza forest was also Orc; seriously, I seem to have some mysterious connection to these things.

……..but with this, I had made the decision to take their base from them.

Compared to the goblin nest, this wasn’t exactly in a better condition by any means but it’ll suffice.

I could also see a water body nearby, and there was a cliff nearby making a wall on the south side of the base.

With a little work, it’ll turn into a nice enough base for us.

Having made the decision to attack, first of all I confirmed the overall strength they had here.

Ummm…….so 8 normal Orcs, 5 Orc Soldiers, and 3 Orc Knights.

And then there was one more Orc general and———one more Orc with a strong presence that I could sense.

Something stronger than a general………An Orc King I imagine.

I had never seen one and had only heard rumours but, it is the monster that leads and keeps an Orc army together, and was by far the strongest type of Orc in both raw strength and ingenuity.

Orc King also a possessed a special skill that could raise the strength of all allied Orcs as well, so the bigger the number of Orcs it had under its rule, the more problematic it was to deal with them.

On its own, the subjugation rank was said to be Mithril but, if its leading an army, it would be a diamond rank request, or so I’ve heard.

If it had like a hundred Orcs under it ro something, I’d be already running away but, if it’s just 18 total, I can make this work.

I ordered Snow to slowly circle to the right to corner them from both sides, meanwhile I, cut in straight from the front and headed towards the Orc herd.