The road ahead was smooth.
Since it had already been made into farmland, there was a proper path, and all we had to do was walk through it.
When we reached the base of the mountain, I thought it was just a small hill.
But the size of the mountain was different from what I had seen before.
To be exact, this mountain was actually the tail end of the Main Mountain Range.
When I used the Search Skill, I saw that the mountains continued on and on behind, and that on the occasional flat area in the mountains, groups of Monsters were living there.
Maybe because my Skill level was still low, I couldn’t figure out exactly what kinds of Monsters they were, but judging from the vague shapes and sizes, they weren’t large Monsters—just medium and small-sized Monsters and a few Mountain Pack Beasts.
“At least it’s a relief there are no large Monsters.”
Whether Arnold heard my words or not, he spoke up beside me.
“In that case, what will you do?”
I replied naturally.
“Of course, I’ll follow your advice. Our goal is to reduce their numbers so much that even in winter, they won’t come down to the village. We don’t need to think about annihilating them all.”
What I wanted was to create a safe zone from the entrance of the mountain to a certain radius.
Once we secured a safe zone, we could use that as a base to build walls or fences, couldn’t we?
While we’re at it, we could hunt some Monsters, gather their parts and Magic Stones, and finally invest some time in Artifact Creation, which I’ve been putting off.
“Hmm… Very well.”
After thinking for a moment, Arnold’s strategy was simple.
Rather than focusing on hunting Monsters, we would first make a path up the mountain.
It was about securing a retreat, just in case a large Monster showed up or if there was a group of Monsters we couldn’t handle immediately.
“That’s a good idea.”
Securing a retreat was advantageous in many ways.
Literally, it meant we could secure our way out, plus we could chop down trees nearby to get timber, and most importantly, it would guarantee a safe zone.
“All right, I’ll divide the area starting from the first group. Cut down the trees!”
Thus, the logging operation began.
Kong, kong, kong.
The soldiers began chopping down the trees.
Just in case, Smith had prepared several axes for us, which we immediately put to use.
For a while now, Smith had been gradually taking on more work, from maintaining weapons and armor to making miscellaneous goods.
He would make several axes a day, ranging from simple farming tools to firewood axes and logging axes.
Wilson and Jenny had gone out on an errand outside the territory.
They had gone to bring Smith’s friend, who was a Building Expert.
It had only been three days since they left, so I didn’t know when they’d return, but they would surely come back safely.
“It’s falling!”
Kiiiii, kong.
One by one, the trees began to fall.
And my Slaves were all gasping for breath.
“Huff, huff!”
“This is several times harder than Swordsmanship Training!”
“Ugh, I’m dying here.”
Complaints of exhaustion spilled from several Slaves’ mouths.
I only laughed at their grumbling.
Using a sword and using an axe are different from the grip to the posture.
Since I never taught them how to use an axe, they were just hacking away with brute strength, so of course, it was never going to be easy.
“Well, this is training in its own way too.”
And so, the first day of the so-called Monster Subjugation expedition ended with nothing but logging.
But we did manage to gather a good amount of quality timber.
***
As the logging operation went on, the mountain became noisy. People were constantly coming and going, making a ruckus, and soon, fearless Mountain Pack Beasts began to appear one by one. Each time, the Slaves all shouted the same thing as they charged toward the Mountain Pack Beasts.
“Meat!”
“Meat has appeared!”
The average age of the Slaves was fourteen.
At that age, when they were growing the most, the appearance of meat made their eyes go wide.
At first, it was chaos.
When small mountain rabbits or pig-like creatures showed up, the Slaves would grab their issued weapons and dash after them like madmen.
Of course, mountain rabbits were so quick they were nearly impossible to catch, and the wild pigs sometimes even fought back, injuring a few of the Slaves badly.
Up to that point, I thought it was all within expectations.
But after that, something surprising happened: the Wolves, who lived in packs in these mountains, appeared.
At first, the Slaves charged at them recklessly and nearly died, but thanks to Arnold’s help, they barely managed to survive. If Arnold hadn’t been there, we might have lost a few Slaves.
After getting a scolding from Arnold and me, the Slaves stopped charging in blindly and started responding more calmly.
When I used the Search Skill, I saw that there were a bit over three hundred Wolves living here.
They weren’t all one pack, but several packs scattered throughout the mountain, detected in various locations.
One of those Wolf packs, which lived close to our area, came down—probably to defend their territory from being taken over.
Naturally, I ordered the Slaves to fight.
It was eighty Wolves against eighty Slaves.
Arnold and I never interfered in the fight. Although we gave the order, we never issued instructions from beginning to end; instead, we only provided guidance on how to fight the Wolves.
Rather than teaching them the perfect way to hunt from the start, we only pointed them in the right direction. This was for one reason: to encourage their growth.
Doesn’t even a lion throw its cubs off a cliff to toughen them up? I was doing the same.
I wanted the Slaves to grow quickly and get stronger as they fought, and Arnold agreed with this approach.
One fortunate thing was that the Wolves never ambushed or made sudden attacks.
“Awoooo!”
While logging, sometimes the Wolves would announce their appearance with a howl, and from that moment, the Slaves would drop their axes, draw their weapons, and prepare to fight the Wolves.
Soon, a fierce fight to the death began.
“Damn it, behind you!”
“Grrrrr…”
“C-c-c-c-c!”
They cursed at each other, growled, and it was quite a spectacle.
There were even Slaves who would wrestle the Wolves, rolling around on the ground as if it were some kind of wrestling match—what a sight.
Honestly, if I had to judge, the Wolves had the advantage over my Slaves.
There was a reason for that: the Wolves knew very well how to deal with their enemies.
They must have picked up the basics of survival by fighting in these mountains, even before encountering us.
Their formations were spread out, they’d hit and run at just the right moments, circle around looking for openings to attack—things like that.
Compared to them, my Slaves couldn’t do much.
All I’d taught them were the basics of swordsmanship, and all Arnold had taught them was that when facing Wolves, you should watch your surroundings and make sure your allies are covering your back—just the basics.
Besides, even a skilled fighter found it hard to keep up with a Wolf’s movements, so the Slaves were mostly on the defensive.
The only consolation was that there were still no casualties. The same went for the Wolves.
From the first day of fighting until now, about a week had passed, but still, no one had died.
After a week of fighting, they’d adapted somewhat to the Wolves’ movements and started to counterattack and strike back.
Even so, no one had killed or been killed yet.
Both the Slaves and the Wolves, whenever they were in mortal danger, would instinctively retreat or have a comrade cover them, maintaining this fierce but non-lethal struggle.
“They’re growing day by day.”
At Arnold’s words, I nodded in agreement.
“Well, they’re growing, sure… but still lacking.”
Arnold only smiled slightly at my complaints.
We used to talk casually, but after the Knight’s Oath, things changed.
I spoke comfortably, while he addressed me respectfully, but the sense of camaraderie, consideration, and respect between us hadn’t changed, and we still joked around as always.
“They haven’t even held a sword for a full month yet.”
“But you know what my training is like, right?”
“Hahaha. True enough.”
Arnold had already been trained by me once.
To be precise, it was the Aura Techniques. And not just any, but the Darkrai Aura Techniques.
Thanks to my training, Arnold had grown tremendously.
He already had a solid foundation as a Knight, so he quickly became a high-level Aura user. He was at a level similar to mine, and in an actual sword duel, he showed skills on par with me.
However, when it came to maintaining Aura, I definitely had the upper hand.
Through our duels, Arnold had grown again, and so had I.
If anyone were to ask who the strongest in the territory was, the answer would be me and Arnold.
“This can’t be. Why am I the only one growing so slowly?”
Irene grumbled from the side.
That was to be expected, since I still hadn’t used my training Skill on Irene.
I was curious about how fast she would grow naturally, so I was just watching for now. That’s why I didn’t really care how much Irene complained.
No, for a Slave who does nothing but Swordsmanship Training without doing any actual work, she’s being rather cheeky, grumbling like that…
“It’s all because you’re not working hard enough.”
With that, I ignored Irene’s words and kept watching the Slaves fight.
The end of today’s desperate battle would not come.
So today, we’d be eating vegetable soup again. Nothing special about it.
“Maybe I should hand out a bit of carrot starting today?”
I waited for the battle to end.
After thirty intense minutes, I shouted.
“Stop!”
My Skill shout echoed, and both Wolves and Slaves froze on the spot.
Then, a sound came from the other side.
“Awooo!”
The Wolves’ side had given their signal as well.
And so the battle ended.
“It must have quite a high intelligence.”
The fact that when I signaled, the Wolf leader would call off its subordinates—despite being a beast, I thought it showed impressive intelligence.
Thus, the fight ended.
The Slaves tended to the wounded on their own and cleaned up the traces of the battle.
When their heavy breathing finally calmed, I spoke to them.
“Looks like there’s no meat today either…”
Whether my disappointed tone got to them, there were some who trembled with frustration and others who looked utterly dejected.
During morning runs lately, except for the first three finishers, everyone else had been stuck eating vegetable soup.
So, only a lucky few got to eat meat, and their craving for it must have been overwhelming.
“All right, from now, I’ll give you an hour. Go into the mountains and gather whatever edible things you can. But don’t go too deep.”
“Yes, Sir!”
As soon as I finished speaking, the Slaves replied quickly and scattered to forage.
They seemed at least twice as fast as I remembered.
“This will be a good experience too.”
Finding food in the mountains is one of the most important survival skills.
Would they get used to it right away, from day one?
A few days of hardship would naturally teach them.
Their teamwork and camaraderie would grow as well.
I waited for an hour, and when the Slaves returned empty-handed, I only laughed and headed home.