Setting out

The rose knights left the city of Muno with people cheering and waving at them as they crossed the city gate. The rose knights left with determined eyes as they went out the other side of the city.

The rose knight trainee platoon left together but after a few minutes of quick marching, they all started to split apart into their respective teams.

It took a few minutes for all of the teams to sort themselves out and for the team leaders to gather all of their members.

Finally, everything was sorted and Charlie signaled for the platoon to stop. He looked at the entire platoon solemnly and said

"This is where we part ways, stay alive"

The platoon responded with a loud yell and split off. The red barrack along with a few teams of blue went north and south to where the villages were. The green barrack quickly dashed off deeper into the valley where the dense mazelike forest awaited them.

Jason looked to his left. There stood the rest of the blue 2 team casually standing. On his right was the entire pack of wolves. They were happily frolicking around as if the fast-paced march they had just done was non-existent.

Charlie looked at them and asked

"you ready?"

Colby nodded silently, Ethan and Mark both grinned and gave a half salute, Lyle answered sarcastically

"ya think?"

And Jason awkwardly gave Charlie a thumbs up since he didn't know what he should do in response.

So the Blue 2 team also set off. with the wolves walking side by side with them. The Blue 2 team was completely comfortable with the wolves after spending a long period of time with them in the training center. In fact, they were loved by almost everyone in the training center.

They were always up for cuddles and head pats for a bit of food. And they brought life again to the seemly empty training center after most of the personnel left for other missions.

As Jason hurried through the valley he realized that the kingdom must be in a sorry state currently. If they were willing to send out a trainee platoon to fight a campaign and leave an important training center with little to no personnel. Then either the people leading this kingdom were extremely desperate or extremely crazy.

Persues had been gathering information about the Belusian kingdom while he was busy in the City of Herdita. From what he had reported it was the former reason. From what Perseus knew, Bandits and monsters were plaguing the entire kingdom simultaneously and the kingdom was desperately bringing out as many forces as they could even recruiting adventurers and mercenaries to fight off the monsters.

Jason looked at Charlie who was in the front of the group he was leading the group with calm concise commands while simultaneously fending off Lyle and his random antics. He truly did look like a knight in the stories. His brown curly hair seemed to give him a friendly aura. He had a dazzling smile and he could simultaneously be friendly and strict.

Jason could already picture Charlie on a white horse with shining amour riding off to save some random damsel in distress or something. Plus from all of the leadership that he had shown made Jason start to respect him even if he was an NPC.

The group of 6 humans and the wolves next to them soon reached spotted the forest. Even from here, it seemed like it housed mysterious and scary things. Unlike the forest in the training center which gave off a calming and more open atmosphere. The forest in front of them looked dark and menacing.

It looked extremely dense and let almost no light go through its big canopy. The light that was able to barely make it into the forest gave the forest a dark grey color showcasing the withered and twisted trees underneath. The leaves on the forest floor looked dead and withered. Jason tried to look further into the forest but nothing but darkness could be seen. It was a huge contrast with the bright sun shining in the sky.

The forest in front of them truly looked like a haunted forest.

The Blue 2 team looked at the forest worriedly, they two could tell that this trial might get a lot harder, than they had thought.

But the wolves strolled casually past them and walked towards the forest like it was nothing. They had lived their entire lives in the forest, they had been on the run from monsters for years living each and every day, ready for an ambush. This slightly scary forest was nothing to them.

Jeffery noticed that the Blue 2 team wasn't walking with them and turned around perplexed

"HOOMANS WAT YOU DOING??"

The Blue 2 team was confused as to why Jeffery was barking at them as they couldn't understand wolf language. But Jason understood it and gave a light laugh.

He yelled out to Jeffery

"coming"

And walked towards the pack of wolves that were waiting for them at the entrance of the forest.

The Blue 2 team couldn't understand "wolf" but they did understand what it meant for a wolf to stop and bark at them when they were about to head into the forest.

Lyle took it as ridicule and walked towards the forest with his hands resting on the back of his head.

"eh no big deal"

Lyle ended up at the entrance of the forest and grinned at the rest of the team members with a cheeky grin

"ya'll coming?"

Now the team members all got slightly annoyed by Lyle's provocation and hurried to the entrance.

Ethan looked at the ceiling of the forest only small leaks of light could seep through the trees. He didn't want to imagine what it would be like at night if he could barely see anything in the forest in the daytime.

He reached down and pet the horse that he was sitting on. He had taken it from one of the bandits in the last battle and had wanted to take it with him. The horse had also gotten attached to him also. It had been given enough food and care to make any horse happy.

Ethan sighed and got off his horse. There was no way a horse could traverse through a forest as dark and dense as this one. He looked at the horse that was confused as to why he got off. He looked at the horse directly in the eyes and said

"I'll miss you, return to Muno and stay there until I return"

Ethan also added gestures that he hoped the horse would get. The horse looked at him confused after he finished his little speech of how much he would miss him and nudged him again as if it was asking what it did wrong.

Tears were already in Ethan's eyes as he pointed towards the city and gave the horse a shove. He really didn't want to do that, but bringing a loud horse into the forest wouldn't endanger the entire team.

The horse still didn't move, looking at Ethan curiously. So Ethan had to do what he must do.

He raised his hand and gave the horse a hard slap. With a loud neigh, the horse ran off towards the direction of the city. Ethan looked at the horse running away and stretched out his hand and grasped at the receding figure of the horse all dramatic like. He said softly to himself

"we will meet again"

And Jason and the rest of the team who were were witnessing everything, tried their best to hold in their giggles and laughs.

Ethan turned back to them with a tear in his eye. The rest of the team had tears in their eyes for entirely different reasons.

Charlie quickly turned his head away from Ethan so that he couldn't see his face and said to the rest of the group with his back facing them.

"Alright let's go"

And so the entire group of humans and wolves moved into the forest as they traveled deeper into the forest it looked as it enclosed around them.

The wolves seemed to form a protective circle around Jason and cautiously sniffed the air every now and then, even though they were the most relaxed beforehand they also knew of the dangers of forests like these.

Any ambush that came from here would be deadly and silent. Many of the wolves had fallen to ambushes like those and the remaining ones learned the lesson quickly.

Deep in the forest. Were numerous pairs of glowing eyes, darkness was everywhere, without a single shred of light. But the beares of those pairs of eyes seemed to become able to live normally without having to rely on their eyes. One of them lifted its head up and sniffed the air. By sacrificing its eyesight. It had enhanced its other senses, that monster smelled something he hadn't smelled for a long time. It was a smell it only remembered smelling before he went into the forest.

It was humans.