After finishing the patrol on the western side of the territory, I regrouped with Alec and the others, shifting our area of operations to the forest around the eastern outpost, but… yeah…

The forest surrounding the eastern outpost does have a higher frequency of medicinal herbs growing, but in terms of basic vegetation, it’s not all that different from the First Forest.

Well, maybe if we went all the way to the First Mountain, it would be different, but aside from the presence of a river, there’s not much change in the terrain. I guess that’s just how it is.

That said, the types and strength of monsters that appear are gradually changing.

Starting from the First Forest, only small monsters show up in shallow areas, so even if they’re monsters from the Demon Territory, it’s not like they give us much trouble.

I can’t take them down in one hit, but if I coordinate with the snakes, we can defeat them relatively easily.

However, once we pass the shallows, larger monsters start to appear.

Like Orcs mixed in with Goblin packs, or magical beasts with bodies larger than those found in the shallows…

And today, we finally ended up in a fight with a major -class monster—an Ogre.

◇

“Hah! Agh… it tanked that?!”

I activated 【Scarlet Bee Needle】 in my right leg and kicked the back of the Ogre’s head, but its skull didn’t explode, and it didn’t die. Although its upper body swayed heavily, it still withstood the blow.

Akame and the others followed up with an attack, but even then, it was still breathing.

I’ve defeated Ogres many times in dungeons, but I don’t have much experience fighting Ogres in the Demon Territory, so I can’t make a fair comparison… but this one is strong.

Now that I think about it, even dungeon Ogres were pretty tough. I guess it’s to be expected.

So… what do I do?

“You want me to take over?”

As I stood before the Ogre, uncertain about my next move, even though it was staggering, it didn’t take its eyes off me. From behind, Zighart—having cleared the surrounding monsters—called out.

I didn’t even need to turn around to know that not just him, but the others too, had already finished off their enemies.

They’re waiting on me, huh…

“No, I’ll finish this.”

It’s not like I was holding back, nor was I trying to hide anything from my own troops, but up until today, I hadn’t used the 【Shadow Sword】.

My kicks, tail, and the snakes had been enough to handle things.

Besides, the 【Shadow Sword】 is kind of overpowered…

For most creatures, a stab or slash is enough to end it.

But against a tough opponent, the 【Shadow Sword】 is the best.

“Alright, let’s do this!”

With a breath of focus, I extended a blade from my claw.

Even though I’ve enhanced it, I’m more accustomed to this version, so this should be fine.

Accelerating with the 【Floating Orb】, I closed in on the Ogre from the front. Maybe because of accumulated damage, its reaction was dull, and it couldn’t follow me as I slipped around behind it.

And then—

“Heave… ho!”

With a swing of my right arm, I cleanly lopped off its head.

◇

Once the hunt was over and we finished preparing the monster bodies for retrieval, we decided to return to the outpost.

The sun was still high, and if we were hunting near the territorial capital, we might have kept going, but unfortunately, this place still has too many undeveloped areas.

Even just carrying the monster corpses back to the outpost is a major task.

Since wagons can’t reach the area where we hunted, we stack the monster corpses onto a simple sled made from cut trees, and use a horse to drag it all the way back to the outpost.

We can’t go fast, and we need to keep the surroundings well-guarded, so we can’t let our guard down.

Incidentally, my position is right on top of the sled!

“An Ogre showed up too. I wonder if there’s a den around here or something?”

Ogre corpses exuded presence from the sled below me.

To that comment, Alec, who was riding a horse beside the sled, replied:

“It could just be that it came down from the mountains and ended up living around here. It’s hard to say for sure.”

“Agitating the forest and provoking an attack on the capital would be a disaster. The area hasn’t been fully surveyed yet… but there’s no need to rush.”

That was Zighart, positioned on the opposite side of Alec.

“I see…”

From the recent hunts, I’ve come to understand that compared to the shallows, monster encounters here are actually less frequent.

But that doesn’t mean the total monster population in this area has decreased.

So what does it mean? It means the monster packs are getting bigger.

And not just of a single species—they’re forming multi-species groups.

Likely, a particularly strong or intelligent individual is acting as the boss and leading them.

If we carelessly cut a path to the outpost through an area like that, those packs would probably charge straight through it.

And if the outpost falls, their next target could very well be the capital, since it’s connected by the road.

We spend our nights in the capital, and there’s no guarantee that the outpost always has enough forces to repel such groups.

The capital is developing a response system to handle emergencies, but whether it can respond in time is another matter—and ideally, we don’t want such emergencies to happen at all.

It’s not just monster population surveys—it’s the same for how much of the surrounding area has been cleared. We’re steadily securing safety step by step.

It may take a bit more time… but playing it safe is the best approach.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Sera ・Blessing・【Hideout】 +1 【Prayer】【Mira’s Blessing】【Wind’s Garment】

Blessed Item・【Floating Orb】 +1 【Shadow Sword】 +1 【Scarlet Bee Needle】【Fairy’s Eye】【Dragon’s Lung】【Amber Sword】【Danrem’s Thread】【Serpent’s Tail】【Ankle Bracelet】【Amber Shield】【Purple Wings】【Red Sword】【Monkey’s Arm】・13 cards

Seriana・【Area Identification】・【】・0 cards

Elena・【】・【Green Fang】【Amber Sword】・4 cards

Alec・【Heavy Strike】・【Red Shield】【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・10 cards