As they went deeper, the ground turned wet, and soon his steps made squelching noises. A few times Handy slowed down and turned back to signal Jay, stopping him from stepping into a puddle, pond or mud.

Under command of Jay, Blue had sent Dark and its five underling skeletons further ahead to drive off any lights and clear a way through.

Lamp was even further ahead, but it was ignoring these elemental-like beings as it searched for a way out, or at least a safer area.

[20 Exp]

Jay received a larger exp notification and guessed that the skeletons had some success killing at least one of these beings. Though it could’ve easily been something else.

As he walked, more of the ground-leeches sprang up, but Red and Handy sliced them in half before they could hope to latch onto Jay’s legs. It was a good thing they didn’t possess immunity to slashing attacks.

While Jay moved, he couldn’t help but feel like he was walking into a trap. These things had swarmed behind them, cutting off their escape from the fog.

Perhaps they were curious or attracted to the bursts of flame and the subtle changes in ambient mana, but Asra said she heard them whispering.

“I guess it wasn’t some psycho-hypnotic effect of the fog. Maybe she truly did hear whispers.” Jay thought.

While it meant these things had intelligence and he could reason with them, it also meant they were capable of crude battle tactics such as this.

“But are they trying to lead us somewhere, or simply stopping us from leaving the fog?” Jay wondered.

So far, the bulk of them were coming from behind, and there was no sign that they were being funneled into a trap. They were not being pushed on every side.

As Jay passed by more of the gray dead trees with charred tops, he thought of ways he would escape this crude battle strategy.

He had a few advantages, which was that the skeletons could slay these things. His troops were much more organized and could respond to orders instantly. With enough mana he could re-summon and redeploy them at will, and none of these enemies had faced his spells or his helminth’s necrotic bolts. There was a chance they were weak to them.

He wasn’t sure how strong his goblin wand’s spells were either, but was sure it would be enough to take these low-level enemies down. Of course, he assumed they were low level as they couldn’t kill a level one skeleton.

So far, they were only a danger because of the non-healing properties they inflicted. They also had range on their side, and the cover of the fog protected them from being seen by human eyes, but that was it.

“If we head to the left or right, we may escape the fog sooner and leave their crude battle strategy. Going around the fog will suck, but it’s better than going wherever these things are trying to send me.” Jay thought.

Jay had Handy veer left, not going directly left from where they were standing but turning left enough so that Jay could dodge whatever could be ahead.

(Lamp travel further left.) Jay ordered.

As Jay went deeper into this foggy swamp-like land with dead trees, he wondered why the trees were scorched and dead, but the leeches, frogs, and lizards he had seen were left alive.

“They aren’t killing everything. Could they be attacking because of the skeletons?” he wondered.

While he could have shouted or tried to chase one down himself, the risk of attracting more light and getting an unhealing injury was too much.

“But if these beings are whispering, they are quiet for a reason. Either to ambush me, or because they’re hiding from something else in here…”

Jay marched on at a jogging pace for another twenty minutes. More stray fire balls assaulted them from behind, but there were much less of them around as they moved forward.

Yet the lack of enemies trying to guide them into a trap caused Jay to wonder.

“Maybe they just didn’t want us to leave the fog. But why trap us in here?”

Lamp had still not rejoined the party. It was doing a large circle around another area, which they would have walked right into if Jay didn’t divert his path to the left.

He sensed his scouting skeletons in front all had stopped. Cautious as he was, he slowed his pace to a walk.

(Blue, is it safe ahead?)

Blue nodded back, while Asra was in its arms, and only frowned from the pain she was in.

Jay moved them forward and soon found why Dark and the other scouts had stopped.

An enormous cliff stood against them like a high fortified wall. Some of the moss had tried to climb up the side, but even it could get no grip on its smooth surface.

“Dammit. A natural barrier.” Jay thought as he walked up to the cliff wall, pressing his hand against it. It was almost perfectly flat.

Looking up the wall, it was hard to tell how high it went in the heavy fog.

(Red, can you see the top?) Jay pointed to the cliff.

Red glanced up, but turned back with a headshake. Thankfully, Asra didn’t notice their secret communication as her eyes were closed from pain.

“Hmm…” Jay checked the blood compass, the [Guidance].

The cliff surface was pointing in the same direction as the red line on its surface.

With no other choice but to follow along the side of the cliff, Jay sent Dark and Blue’s five sub-skeletons forward first, both to scout and to drive off any of those lights.

Unfortunately, the skeletons were yet to bring one of the enemy’s dead bodies back, but Jay doubted they even had bodies.

They continued their journey, but after a while, the cliff curved right, sending them closer to the area that Lamp was avoiding. This cliff was like a natural barrier funneling them into the mouth of a beast waiting for its next meal.

Jay wondered if the lights planned this or if it was simply chance… but his paranoid nature had him cast aside the idea of it being a chance. It made sense why they only blocked them off from behind.

(Dark, I want you to go into the area that Lamp’s avoiding, and when you lay your eyes on what Lamp was avoiding, let Red know. Red, give me a nod when Dark is ready.)

Without a sound, Dark bolted off into the fog. Even though it didn’t have a class choice yet, it was much quieter than the other skeletons, which sometimes splashed through the puddles.

Both Dark and Lamp were his more clandestine, stealthy skeletons.

“It’s a shame Dark wasn’t there when the parasite knights were storming over the bridge above us.” Jay thought, remembering when he had gained the [Stealth] skill in the savage lands dungeon. “But I’m sure they’ll both get it in time.”

Lamp returned, but other than the large patch of fur on its back, it was still naked, missing its skin suit. Like some of the other skeletons, it had also suffered some charred bones, but despite the flames, it had preserved its fur patch.

Seeing that it was still fine, Jay sent it to assist Dark with its observation mission. He wanted to know what Lamp was avoiding.

Jay continued slowly, following along the side of the cliff, which was slowly turning right and guiding them nearer to what Lamp was avoiding.

“Seems like I’ll be heading towards Dark and Lamp soon, anyway.” He thought.

As he went, he noticed that the ashen-gray trees also had less and less burn marks, less charring. Previously, they seemed like a fire elemental had nested on the top of their trunks, but now some of these weren’t burned at all. Yet they were all similarly missing their branches and had died. Maybe they grew without branches, but it was hard to tell as they had been dead for some time.

“Seems that none of those lights want to live near here…” Jay thought, “There’s definitely danger ahead. Maybe I should just head back, fight through the lights and find a way around all of this bullshit…”

He glanced back along the cliff, wondering how badly these fireballs actually hurt. The unknown mana infused into the spells was causing more pain than a searing ember, but he didn’t know what Asra’s tolerance for pain was like. By the looks of it, she was fighting against it as she clenched her fists and jaw. A light sweat appeared on her forehead.

“Hmm. I’ll check on the enemy’s level first. The skeletons will reveal everything soon.”