Witt and the others continued their search through the forest. When they found herbs, the specialized members would be responsible for picking them, while the rest would stand guard. Since their numbers were quite substantial, Witt didn't need to be overly focused on vigilance. While the others gathered herbal plants, he would also scout the surroundings.
This time, he discovered large monster footprints near an herb patch. Seeing him crouch on the ground for a long time without moving, Barton, the captain of the other adventurer team, approached him worriedly and asked, "Sir Witt, what's wrong?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Witt turned and responded to Barton, then measured the monster's footprints on the ground again and said, "I'm just wondering if these are the footprints of the Wise Forest King."
"The Wise Forest King," Barton had, of course, heard the name of one of the three rulers of the forest. He slowly crouched down and compared them, then made his own judgment. "These don't match the footprints of most monsters. It's highly likely to be a legendary monster. It seems we should avoid this direction."
"..." Witt glanced at the adventurer captain, a slight hesitation visible on his face. But after a moment's thought, he began to explain to Barton, "Sir Barton, actually, my other purpose for coming to the forest this time is to seek out the Wise Forest King."
Barton stared at Witt in surprise and said, "Why are you looking for that monster? Are you going to challenge it?"
There were many ways for adventurers to gain fame, and one of the most common was to challenge powerful monsters and then successfully defeat them. So after Witt stated that he wanted to find the Wise Forest King, Barton subconsciously used an adventurer's mindset to gauge his intentions and considered this possibility.
Although Witt and the others were very strong, perhaps even having reached the Adamantite adventurer tier, it might be dangerous to challenge the Wise Forest King, a magical beast that had been renowned for hundreds of years, right?
Thanking Witt and the others for saving his life, Barton prepared to persuade these young people who had only recently entered the industry but were improving incredibly fast. However, before he could speak, Witt shook his head and said, "We are not challenging it, but we are following the will of the God to find that great monster."
"Eh... the God?" Barton was momentarily stunned. They had learned that Witt and the others were from the Church of Destiny. The God worshipped by the Church of Destiny was not only powerful, but had also recently resolved the city's crisis. Many people were curious about that God.
The reason why Barton and the others were willing to follow Witt and the others into the depths of the forest was not only to repay their debt for saving their lives and to assist Witt and the others in completing their assigned tasks, but also to establish a relationship with the Church of Destiny, a powerful organization that had just emerged.
"Yes. Because there might be danger on the road ahead, and we are not sure we can handle it. For safety's sake, Sir Barton, could you please leave the forest for now?" Witt expressed it politely.
These believers of Destiny were blessed by the Gods and were not afraid of death. However, Barton and the others did not have the power to protect them. It was too dangerous to continue following them to seek out the traces of the Wise Forest King. Therefore, Witt hoped to act separately from Barton and the others here.
Barton understood what Witt and the others were thinking, and he was also keenly aware of his own burden. He knew that continuing to follow would only be a burden to the other party, so he nodded and said, "Alright, I wish you all a smooth journey."
After the communication, the two teams separated. One team followed the footprints to search for the Wise Forest King's whereabouts, and the other team returned via their original route and exited the forest. Given that Barton's team wasn't very strong, Witt kindly allowed a team member to accompany them.
After they had completely left the herb field, Ainz Ooal Gown and his companions, who had been hiding in the darkness and watching them, emerged from behind a large tree.
Looking at the two completely opposite directions, Momonga couldn't help but feel confused. "Why did they split here? Did they sense something was wrong?"
Earlier, Aura had proposed using monsters to drive away all those adventurers. Given the issue of secrecy, he deliberately asked Aura to control the native monsters in the forest to execute this plan instead of summoning monsters himself. Now that the targets had dispersed their teams, there were only two targets to attack, which was really troublesome.
At this moment, Ainz noticed the monster footprints on the ground and the direction Witt and the others had left. An idea flashed through his mind. So he turned to Cocytus and asked, "Cocytus, is this the cave where the Wise Forest King lives?"
Cocytus looked around, confirmed the distance, and replied, "That should be correct. It seems the purpose of these humans coming here might be the same as ours."
"So that's it..." Momonga fell into deep thought.
After the Great Tomb of Nazarick's defeat in the last E-Rantel battle, he was determined to increase his own strength. Because according to Demiurge's analysis, Kael was also a very ambitious person, and he would definitely continue to use his unknown enhancement abilities to recruit more people from other worlds to serve him in the future. At that time, the organization called the Church of Destiny would become enormous.
Currently, Nazarick had officially declared war on Kael and the unknown organization behind him. If they allowed the Church of Destiny to continue growing without making any progress themselves, they would undoubtedly be waiting for death. That was why Nazarick formulated a plan for Cocytus to lead his troops into the Great Tob Forest to conquer the tribes in the forest and use them for their own purposes.
Now that the Church of Destiny had also sent people into the forest, and their target was also the Wise Forest King, one of the rulers of the forest, it meant this was a competition for resources. Even if Nazarick ultimately couldn't bring the Wise Forest King under its wing, it could never allow the people of the Church of Destiny to successfully conquer the Wise Forest King.
With this thought, Ainz made a decision in his heart. He immediately activated message magic and contacted Aura, who was about to gather monsters.
Beep beep!
"Lord Ainz, do you have any instructions?" The magic communication successfully connected, and Ainz asked Aura on the other end, "Aura, where are you now?"
"My location shouldn't be far from yours. What's happening?"
"The situation has changed now. I want you to immediately control the gathered monsters to attack the human adventurer team. This will buy us time to conquer the Wise Forest King," Ainz commanded Aura.
After thinking about it, he felt something was missing, so he added, "When the time comes, try not to show yourself, and don't attack the other party. Just disturb the monsters' emotions and let them fight the humans."
"I understand, Lord Ainz!" Aura replied with full energy.