“Leader, we’ve reached a spot where we can see the river,” a soft voice reported.
Hearing the report, Lambert nodded silently and moved to the front, taking Martina with him. Through a gap in the trees, the two caught sight of the scene ahead: a wide, pebbled riverbank swarming with what must have been over a hundred Big Ants.
Amidst the swarm, as in the town earlier, several other types of ant-like monsters clashed with the Big Ants. Additionally, within the river, there appeared to be transparent blue ant-like monsters—Water Ants.
“This means the monsters that came to the town likely spilled over from the group along the river,” Lambert analyzed.
“Indeed… That’s an incredible number. Still, judging from this scene, it’s highly probable that there’s a miasma pool on the riverbank. At least that’s a positive discovery,” Martina replied.
“Exactly. With so many concentrated here and fewer in the forest, the pool is likely near the river.”
After this discussion, the two quietly returned to the forest and informed the rest of their third squad of the next steps.
“We’ll head further upstream. There are relatively more monsters moving downstream here, so if there’s a miasma pool, it might be further up,” Lambert decided.
“Understood,” came the squad’s reply.
The group moved cautiously along the riverside forest, taking care not to alert the monsters. They periodically checked the river for signs of anything unusual, like the suspected miasma pool.
About an hour after their initial observation, they spotted a change in the monsters’ behavior. Unlike before, many were moving upstream.
“They’ve passed by,” Lambert said.
“Agreed. Let’s head back down a bit,” Martina suggested.
Nodding, Lambert led the team downstream, this time carefully observing the river to ensure they missed nothing. Five minutes later, their eyes fell upon it—a massive miasma pool.
Unlike the previous miasma pool, which was roughly the height of an adult human, this one was nearly twice that size. It spread from its base on the ground into a large spherical form. The team, having seen a miasma pool before, was left speechless by the sheer abnormality of this one.
“This… is impossible to eradicate,” a light attribute knight said, breaking the silence.
Other light attribute mages quickly voiced their agreement.
“Absolutely impossible.”
“Even the last one was barely manageable with ten of us…”
“And now we’re down to eight.”
The group’s voices trailed off into an uneasy silence. No one dared to voice any optimism.
Still, they knew they couldn’t afford to abandon the pool. If left unchecked, it would grow even larger.
“First, let’s measure the rate at which monsters are emerging from it. That’ll give us an idea of how many more will appear,” Martina proposed.
“Good idea,” Lambert agreed.
Spurred into action, the team focused on gathering data to avoid succumbing to despair. Soon, they had results on the emergence rate and types of monsters. All that remained was deciding whether to attempt eradication.
“This pool is expelling monsters faster than the previous one, and multiple monsters at once. It’s likely a higher-tier miasma pool. Do we retreat, or gamble on the slim chance of eradicating it?” Martina asked Lambert, leaving the final decision to him.
After some thought, Lambert decided to try eradicating it.
“There’s a chance that the size of the pool isn’t directly proportional to the magic required to destroy it. If we confirm that here, it’ll be valuable information. But don’t exhaust your magic entirely—we need enough to retreat safely. Let’s see how the pool reacts to our magic and what happens if we stop midway.”
The team agreed with Lambert’s reasoning. First, they cleared the monsters near the miasma pool.
“Focus on the Big Ants near the pool. The Water Ants in the river are dangerous underwater, but they’re weaker on land, so leave them for now,” Martina instructed.
The knights nodded and began their preparations with determined expressions. They divided into groups: one to keep the Big Ants away from the pool, and another to handle newly emerging monsters. Lambert finalized the assignments, and the knights quickly mobilized.
With coordination and efficiency, the knights cleared the area around the miasma pool within minutes. Lambert then gathered the light attribute mages, including Martina.
“Let’s begin. Is everyone ready?”
“Yes, we are,” the mages replied.
Positioned around the miasma pool, the mages channeled their magic. Light energy sparkled as it flowed into the pool, causing it to shrink gradually.
“Martina, how’s the shrinkage rate?” Lambert asked.
“It’s slower than last time,” she reported.
“Probably because there are fewer of us, so the total magic power is lower,” Lambert noted grimly.
As the mages continued, the pool shrank to about one-third of its original size. However, one by one, the mages began running out of magic and stopped. Eventually, everyone ceased their efforts.
“It’s no use,” Martina said. “The larger the pool, the more magic it takes to eradicate it.”
“Agreed,” Lambert replied. “But at least we’ve confirmed that the size and required magic are correlated. If this size remains stable, we can try again after recovering our strength—”
Before he could finish, the pool suddenly swelled, regaining its original size. The team could only stare in stunned silence at the overwhelming sight.
“It has to be eradicated in one go,” Lambert muttered.
Martina nodded with a grave expression. “Unfortunately, yes. But at least we’ve learned that much.”
“True. Everyone, retreat to the forest!” Lambert commanded.
“Understood!” the squad replied.
They quickly retreated and returned to the town before nightfall, where they shared their findings with the other knights. That night, they reflected on the implications for their kingdom’s future, knowing that the battle against the miasma was far from over.
