Jackal felt his mind go blank at the absurdity of what was just said. The Aseth forest had gone empty? That was ridiculous. In fact, he had heard quite the opposite; most of the routes and baronies around the forest had been dealing with a crisis of monsters from the forest.

  The thought that something could cause that ancient place to go silent, with its demonic beasts and monsters that had seen kingdoms rise and fall, was even more terrifying. Something like that could easily destabilize an entire country with just its presence.

  And if that was happening, why send them? Those barbarians knew that forest more than probably anybody else in the kingdom, except maybe the powerful mages in the towers and colleges. When he met one of the stranger abominations that lived there, what was he supposed to do, swing his sword?

  None of this made sense. It felt too much like they were sacrificial lambs or pawns.

  “I am sure,” continued the baron, “that you all are familiar with the kinds of trade those villages provide. Valuable materials for alchemy and enchanted meat. I am sure that you can understand why the clients of these valuables are worried.”

  Jackal could see why. He had no understanding of alchemy, though he had used health and mana potions in the past. They were like condensed spells and miracles.

  The enchanted meat though was something that he was familiar with. He had only had the low quality enchanted meat three times in his entire life, and he felt they were the reason why he had a successful career as an adventurer.

  Just one small meal of them was enough to keep a hard laborer full and energetic for the entire day. They improve constitution, mana, and every other attribute of a person. The incredible knights and mages of the big cities and high nobles were fed on a diet of these. The small scraps of meat that he had eaten had given day’s worth of blessed training, and even after that his body had permanently improved.

  “Now, I get what you all are feeling. Why are people like you assigned to such a consequential mission?” The guild master smuggly said, hiding an insult in his words. “We are not asking this party to figure out what was going on.

  “We need you to simply inspect and report back to us. I am sure that you all have noticed how many of you aren’t considered ‘combat experts,’” he said, gesturing to a few of the adventurers with them.

  Jackal looked and noticed that two of the adventurers were, in fact, scholars. One looked to be a biologist, and another looked to be some sort of cartographer. Neither one looked like they could fight a sheep much less any of the kinds of beasts that make the forest their home.

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  “People more qualified for understanding what is going on with the ancient forest are being contacted. What they need though is a basic understanding of what is going on. The only source of information about what is going on are the reports coming in about the areas around the forest and the villagers. The villagers are a weird bunch; we need more accurate and tailored information.

  “Get to know each other. You all are now a party and will set off early tomorrow. Adventure Jackal,” the guild master pointed, “will be the leader. Prepare and rest well.”

  The meeting was over and the group were guided out to a nearby tavern. They all awkwardly sat at a table as cups full of ale and booze were placed near them. This hadn’t been the first time he was a part of a party with people that hadn’t known each other.

  Normally, he would try to break the ice and get them talking about themselves. He wasn’t in the mood now.

  He and the cartographer were looking over the poorly made map to the village and both of them wanted to slash out their eyes. The map was next to useless, made by a family of traders with all of the information hidden by codes. Even with the codes coerced from them, the map was only useful to someone who had already done the journey. In other words, it was made for people already familiar with the path.

  None of them had been anywhere near those villages. The traders that visited them either went missing during the mass fleeing of the forest monsters or were otherwise unusable. They were going to have to figure it out themselves.

  Jackal was a scout and tracker by trade, but that became less useful the closer to the Aseth forest a person got. That place was full of magic, the kind really good at getting a person lost. It could even warp compasses into giving false norths.

  He guessed, though, that was why he was being brought in. Was the forest still like that? The entire situation of the forest needed to be discovered and recorded, including the more strange aspects of it.

  Each of them were there to help the guild understand what was going on. He was there for survival and navigation. There was a magic apprentice, a cleric, and a bowman, the latter having connections to the villages and can speak their dialect. Combined with the biologist, who turned out to be an alchemist apprentice, and the cartographer, this party was incredibly versatile.

  They were also dumb sheep ready to be killed by any decent monster. The only person here who could do real damage was the magic apprentice. Jackal and the bowman could use bows to help if that happened, but without some sort of armored fighter there wasn’t anything they could do. Though, even if they did have one there still was a good chance they would die.

  That meant that this journey was going to be very slow, as he and the others would have to be exceptionally cautious to avoid any monsters. From the message he got, the village appeared to be in dire straits when the message was sent. Who knew how well they were surviving.

  Jackal sighed and retreated to his room. He really needed to sleep.