On the same day, Gray and the other two arrived at a small town near the Night Forest.
After resting for a night, they spent some money to leave the carriage in a tavern in the small town. The three of them bought a lot of things for camping and stuffed them all into their rune space bags. Then, they walked towards the Night Forest.
The benefits of the Rune Space Bag were evident at this moment. It was indeed a necessity for traveling.
The Night Forest lived up to its name. In the forest, the light was extremely dim. Above their heads, there were towering tree crowns that bloomed like giant umbrellas.
The three of them walked in the forest. It was as if they were walking under dark rain clouds. It was extremely gloomy and depressing.
However, the three of them were not ordinary people. Naturally, they would not be affected by the atmosphere. Following the markings on the map, the three of them walked straight into the forest.
Along the way, many ferocious-looking wild beasts fell under their sharp blades.
In the process, they also met some mercenaries on the outskirts of the forest.
They hunted wild beasts and sold their skins for profit.
Of course, there were also mercenaries who acted as bandits occasionally. They robbed and killed other mercenaries and turned the other mercenaries' gains into their own.
However, such things did not happen to Gray and the other two. Seeing the clothes that Gray and the other two were wearing, these mercenaries did not have the slightest intention to provoke them.
As mercenaries, they naturally had good eyesight. The clothes that Gray and the other two were wearing were obviously expensive. How could these people not see that Gray and the other two were not to be trifled with?
Gray and the other two did not bother to pay attention to them. They ran straight towards their destination, leaving a trail of wild beast corpses along the way.
"Hmm?"
While moving forward, Gray suddenly turned around and quickly rushed in the direction they came from.
Like him, Sophia and Teresa did the same.
After rushing for a few dozen meters, they saw five people in leather armor in front of them.
There were middle-aged men and young men among them.
Seeing Gray and the other two suddenly rushing over, the five people's expressions changed drastically. Their faces suddenly turned pale and they subconsciously retreated.
Whoosh!
Gray flashed out like lightning and appeared behind the five people.
The sword in his hand was placed on the neck of the middle-aged man at the back.
"No, don't kill us …"
The middle-aged man's body trembled as he spoke in a terrified tone.
"Speak! Why are you following us?"
Gray and the other two looked at the five with unfriendly gazes.
Gray and the other two had seen these five people before. Half an hour ago, they had encountered these five people in the Dark Forest.
At that time, they didn't pay much attention to them, thinking that they were just ordinary mercenaries. They didn't expect the five of them to secretly tail them.
The vegetation in the Night Forest was too lush. In addition, the five of them had been in the forest for a long time and were very experienced, so they did not notice it immediately.
"For … for … fur …"
"Fur?"
Gray and the other two raised their eyebrows as they understood the purpose of these five mercenaries.
Presumably, these five mercenaries saw that although the three of them had killed the wild beasts, they did not care about the fur of the wild beasts. Thinking of picking up the scraps, they followed the three of them all the way.
"You really value money over your life."
Teresa shook her head playfully.
He clearly knew that the three of them were not to be trifled with, yet he still dared to tail them all the way. He was simply a typical example of someone who valued money over life.
If it had been someone else with a bad temper, the five of them would have been killed before they even had the chance to explain themselves.
"Let's go."
Ignoring the five of them, Gray and the other two left without saying a word.
They thought that this trip to the ruins had been targeted by some forces. Since it was just five ordinary mercenaries, they were too lazy to pay attention to them.
As for the five of them having the intention of picking up scraps, they were even more too lazy to care.
Money was a good thing, but one needed to be alive to spend it.
After Gray and the other two walked away, the five people who were scared pale looked at each other. After a long time, someone said.
"Captain, should we … follow them?"
As the captain of the five, a middle-aged man looked hesitant. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said.
"Follow."
In just half an hour, they had already harvested no less than ten pieces of fur. This was almost equivalent to their previous harvest of a few days of hard work.
If they could continue to follow, the money they earned after this trip might be equivalent to their previous harvest of a month.
He really didn't want to give up such an opportunity.
Moreover, he also saw that the three of them did not care about their scraps.
The five of them followed Gray and the other two from afar, all the way into the depths of the Night Forest. After a few hours, they were already deep in the Night Forest.
The five of them were carrying the furs on their backs. The amount of furs was equivalent to more than a month's worth of furs. In addition, the wild beasts they killed were all killed in one blow, so the furs were extremely well-preserved. If they were to sell them, it would probably be equivalent to a few months of income.
The three of them were overjoyed. This time, they would definitely be able to make a lot of money. However, there was some uneasiness in their hearts. They felt that this depth was too deep.
"Captain, we are already very deep in the Night Forest. If we continue to go deeper, I'm afraid we will encounter blood fiends …"
One of the young mercenaries said worriedly.
"Follow for another half an hour."
As the captain, the middle-aged man gritted his teeth. In the end, he was still overcome by greed.
After half an hour, they once again harvested quite a lot. They already had a vague feeling that something was wrong. The frequency of wild beasts appearing was too high. Just as they were about to retreat …
"Look, that's, that's …"
In front of them, there was a huge monster that was close to three meters in length lying quietly in a pool of blood. It was already dead.
"It's a blood fiend, it's a blood fiend!"
The five of them were ecstatic. Their eyes were filled with surprise. Without hesitation, they ran over.
They took out their water bottles to collect the blood and painstakingly peeled off the blood fiend's overly sturdy fur.
"We're rich, we're rich!"
The five of them were extremely excited.
As long as they sold the blood fiend's blood and fur, they would immediately become rich. In the future, they would no longer have to be dangerous mercenaries. They could spend some money to open a shop and become small merchants. The rest of their lives would be comfortable.
Roar —
At this moment, a roar was heard. The five of them looked up in horror and saw a tiger-shaped blood fiend appear.
Puff!
Before the five of them could react, one of their heads was bitten off by the tiger-shaped blood fiend. Fresh blood spurted out like a fountain from the neck where the head had been severed.
The remaining four screamed in horror and fled in panic. The two young men even smelled of urine.
However, it was extremely difficult to escape from a blood fiend. In just a moment, their screams of horror and terror had stopped.
"What's the use of money if you're dead?"
Hearing the screams of horror and despair behind them, Gray and the other two could naturally guess what had happened. However, the three of them had no intention of returning to help. Instead, they walked straight ahead.
They helped the villagers because they had suffered an unexpected disaster. As for the five mercenaries, they had brought it upon themselves.
After a few hours, the sky gradually darkened. Gray and the other two stopped, set up a tent, and lit a bonfire.
They had to prepare dinner before the sky turned dark. Otherwise, when night fell, the bonfire would easily attract wild beasts.
The three of them had barbecued meat for dinner. They roasted the Thunder Eagle's meat that had been processed in town yesterday. Teresa was the one who cooked it. Although she had a big beard, she was quite good at roasting meat.
After dinner, the three of them were assigned to guard the night.
"As usual, we'll take turns to guard the night. Each of us will guard for four hours."
Gray was responsible for the first half of the night, Teresa for the middle, and Sophia for the morning.
At night, the purple moon in the sky sprinkled down strands of purple moonlight. However, the moonlight could not penetrate the Night Forest. The Night Forest was dark, but it was not as peaceful as one would imagine.
From time to time, the roars of beasts could be heard. Those were nocturnal animals hunting and being hunted.
Gray was wearing a thick overcoat. He was sitting on a green rock near the tent.
In his hand, there was a simple rune lamp, but he did not turn it on.
Beside him, there was an hourglass. When the scale in the hourglass dropped by four scales, he could wake up Teresa and change shifts with her.
"Sigh, it's really unbearable!"
The wait was long. After waiting for a long time, he looked at the hourglass and realized that less than two scales had passed. It was extremely unbearable.
"At times like this, the benefits of corpse control are revealed."
Gray could not help but think of using corpse control to replace the night watch.
Although Gray was unable to control the four blood fiends due to the distance, he could break the connection with one blood fiend and regain control of the others.
However, he was still somewhat wary of the two of them. Hence, he was unwilling to reveal his corpse control ability, even if it would make them think that he had a magical weapon that could control corpses.
Otherwise, he could use corpse control to replace the three of them on night watch.
Rustle rustle rustle!
Suddenly, the sound of leaves being pushed aside was heard. Gray looked over. Even at night, his infrared perception allowed him to clearly see the approaching creature.
"An ordinary leopard?"
In his infrared perception, the silhouette of a leopard appeared in front of him. Judging from its size, it should be an ordinary leopard.
Whoosh!
Gray, who was sitting on the stone slab a moment ago, pounced over and appeared beside the leopard in the blink of an eye.
"Woo —"
Crack!
The sound of bones being broken was heard. This unlucky leopard did not even have time to make a sound before its neck was broken by Gray.
He did not use a sword because it would create the smell of blood and attract more predators.
Dragging the leopard back, Gray threw the corpse of the leopard in the camp and prepared it for tomorrow's breakfast.
He sat on the stone slab again and continued his night watch. After enduring for more than two hours, Gray woke Teresa up and went into his tent.
A wave of tiredness came over him and he fell asleep in a daze.
However, in the middle of the night, he suddenly heard a huge commotion.
Awoo —
A roar seemed to be right in front of him. He suddenly quivered and jumped up. He rushed out of the tent and looked outside.