Ch.391Traces Left at Ogre Hill

Despite a minor incident where Anastasia showed an unsightly appearance due to severe 3D motion sickness, tracking the trail of treasure proceeded relatively smoothly.

This was because there was a simple solution: stop in place, scout with Aquila, and then move.

“If you had told me a little earlier, I wouldn’t have had to compromise my dignity.”

“Well… I thought we should try to cover as much ground as possible before sunset.”

While grumbling, Anastasia diligently performed her duties and discovered new traces a short distance away.

“We should head this way next. About 200 meters away, there’s a large hole in the ground with broken debris scattered around.”

“The intervals between traces are getting wider.”

“Still, we can track them somehow. Let’s hurry.”

This was the seventh trace they had discovered.

Although gold wasn’t found at every site, the consistent trail leading southeast strongly piqued the curiosity of Seti’s group.

Ogre Hill.

Once notorious as a dangerous hilly area where fierce giant monsters called “ogres” roamed true to its name,

the danger level had significantly decreased after extensive monster subjugation operations conducted around the establishment of Moon Lake.

However, due to its rough terrain, it had no value as a shortcut between Hopmill Farm and Moon Lake,

and while the once-fearsome ogres had drastically decreased in number, they weren’t completely extinct…

“I heard it’s a place no one would bother visiting unless they’re monster hunters seeking ogre horns.”

“Oh? You’ve done your research diligently. How admirable.”

“…It was just written in the Adventurer’s Guild guidebook.”

As Phyllis scratched her cheek in embarrassment while answering, the other four looked at her with warm gazes.

With Will and Jessica absent, the role of temporary party leader had been assigned to Phyllis.

Phyllis herself had argued that Seti, who had been in the party before her, should take the lead, but,

‘I can only see enemies when fighting. A leader needs to be someone who can grasp everyone’s situation.’

Seti countered that fighting on the front line made it impossible for her to command as she couldn’t see what was happening behind her.

And with Mina and Iris also recommending Phyllis, who had been a Guardian unit captain, the decision was made by majority vote.

‘Iris unnie is recommending me even though she’s never seen me in action as a Guardian!’

Though Phyllis realized this belatedly, it was already too late.

Given the situation, she had followed Jessica’s example by focusing on information gathering, allowing her to inform everyone about Ogre Hill’s history and characteristics… While secretly feeling proud, Phyllis’s excitement quickly cooled when they arrived at the location of the next trace.

“This is…!”

“Signs of battle. Seems fairly old.”

As confirmed through Aquila, there was a large crater in the ground and broken debris scattered about.

The debris consisted of rusted and damaged blades, fragments of shattered wooden shields, and flattened helmets. The question was who these damaged armaments belonged to.

Settlers would have had firearms, and if they were Yamyo tribe members, their traditional weapons called Runka would have been found.

“Most likely humanoid-type monsters like goblins or orcs.”

“Perhaps they stole valuables from settlers, fled, and were eventually caught and eliminated?”

“Then our treasure hunt ends here. Whatever they dropped while fleeing is lost, but everything else would have been recovered.”

The brief adventure that began with an unexpected windfall seemed to be ending, but…

“…No. There were others fighting here.”

Mina’s words as she examined a flattened helmet changed that thought.

“Look at the state of this helmet. It may be rusted now, but it’s still made of iron. Could goblins, orcs, or settlers crush it like a dog bowl like this?”

“That’s… certainly true.”

If this helmet belonged to a monster, it wouldn’t have ended up like this against settlers.

At most, it would have bullet holes or slight dents if struck by something.

Conversely, even if it belonged to a settler, the strength of goblins or orcs wouldn’t cause this much damage.

Therefore, the only conclusion was that a being capable of such destruction was involved in the battle,

and this place, Ogre Hill, was named after “such beings.”

“So there was a battle here between small humanoid-type monsters and ogres.”

“There’s a possibility of a three-way battle or consecutive fights, but probably?”

“Monsters fighting each other… certainly, such things do happen.”

Monsters don’t always get along with each other.

While they often remain indifferent to one another, sometimes territorial disputes or meaningless predation occurs.

And monsters that use weapons can imbue them with black mana to penetrate other monsters’ physical resistance.

Ogres are known to be among such monsters.

“Just as Master always did, let’s organize the situation based on the information we have so far.”

Iris, who had been lost in thought, raised her hand and began speaking.

“If the items we found and these battle traces are related, we can assume that medium-sized humanoid-type monsters were adorning themselves with ornaments they obtained from somewhere.”

“Yes. Whether these were items stolen from settlers at different times or excavated finds from somewhere…”

“So they were happily wandering around until they ran into an ogre and got killed?”

“But there are too few dropped items to assume the entire group was annihilated.”

“They must have fled while their comrades were being killed. Neither goblins nor orcs are brave enough to fight to the death against vastly superior enemies.”

Whether some successfully escaped to their base or were eventually caught and wiped out,

they would need to continue tracking the battle traces to confirm.

And regardless of the outcome, there was one prevailing hypothesis.

“Hey, wouldn’t there still be a ton of these items left at the base of those goblins or orcs?”

“What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing.”

“Even setting aside greed for money, it would be a shame to let such quality items lie around in the nest of uncultured monsters.”

In short, they were suggesting a raid.

Of course, they were missing two S-class forces in Will and Jessica, but…

“Ogre Hill has almost no human traffic anyway. We don’t need to insist on subduing them with just our current members. We can just locate their position and come back after Will and Jessica recover.”

Moreover, if it’s just reconnaissance, they could easily use Aquila without revealing their presence.

If by bad luck they were chased by a group of monsters?

They could evacuate the other members to the Stone House and escape using Ancestor’s sprint.

In the worst case, they also had the Book of Adventure as an emergency evacuation method.

“That’s our plan, but sunset is approaching. How about we camp around here tonight and start the full search tomorrow?”

Everyone agreed with Iris’s suggestion.

Unless they were planning a night raid on an enemy whose position they already knew, searching at night would limit their effectiveness to just Phyllis and Iris.

Seti added one more suggestion.

“The enemy might not be goblins or orcs but nocturnal monsters. Even with barriers set up, let’s take turns keeping watch tonight.”

“Good idea. If we’re lucky enough to spot a night patrol, we could follow them to find their base.”

Having decided this, Seti’s group set up camp in the crevices of Ogre Hill to avoid being detected by monsters.

It was the most challenging camping environment since the camping wagon had been created.

~~~ That night, in Will’s dream ~~~

‘Yahoo! Will, are you feeling better?’

After suffering from a cold all day and finally managing to fall asleep, I met Seti in my dream.

No, “met” isn’t quite right.

I didn’t appear in the dream myself; I was just watching a video message sent by Seti.

Only then did I realize this was the message transmission function of the “Ring of Connection.”

‘…I see, so this is how it works. We can’t have a direct conversation, just send messages. I understand.’

With a slightly disappointed expression, Seti began talking about their current situation.

‘Situation report. We left the Third Eye tribe’s dungeon and were passing through Ogre Hill when we found treasures scattered on the ground and started collecting them.’

‘We also found traces of a monster group that was carrying treasure being attacked by ogres.’

‘So before retrieving the wagon, we decided to search Ogre Hill for just one day.’

‘Tonight we’re taking turns keeping watch as a precaution. Phyllis and Anastasia are first, and Iris and I are second.’

‘And this ring seems to have a time limit for each use.’

‘I’ll try again during our second sleep shift, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll contact you again tomorrow.’

‘Sleep well. Get better soon. Love you. Mwah♡’

Seti’s video message ended with a coy air kiss.

I’m not sure how people who went to retrieve a wagon ended up treasure hunting, but…

‘We should do fun things like that when we’re together!’

It was a night where disappointment outweighed concern.