"There are ogres incoming. Everyone in position to defend from the direction of the web." Karl warned the group.

"Already? I wasn't expecting to find another group of monsters for hours. They have a habit of wandering out of your path as you search for them." Doug muttered.

Thor gave a soft laugh, well aware of what was going on, and the Cleric immediately became suspicious.

"They lured them to us, didn't they? It won't be Thor, he would have just made noise. So is it Rae or Hawk that got bored and wanted to fight more?" The cleric wondered.

Karl gave him a startled look, which made the others laugh.

"You will find that he's pretty good with all things nature, including both plants and animals." Bob informed him.

The stomping sound of ogres was accompanied by the shrieking of monkeys, and the sound of Hawk's screech as he taunted the giant monsters.

"What in the world is the bird doing? Did I just see him throw a tree monkey at an ogre?" Danni asked, pointing at Hawk as he flew overhead.

They were in a sparsely treed area, where Hawk could easily attack from overhead, and the group could defend themselves without anything getting in the way, but with enough growth around for the wood Golems to easily grab weapons.

"Most likely. It's one of his favourite tricks to taunt monsters. He actually learned it from the tree monkeys, but he uses them as projectiles, instead of throwing nuts and sticks at people." Karl explained as the ogres stormed into sight and Hawk settled into the branches of a tree behind them.

The enraged monsters almost looked grateful for a moment, like they were thinking that the Hawk had lured them here to kill the humans, but then it turned to hatred for the humans, and they pulled out their weapons to attack.

None of the blades looked all that special, but there was a ring on one of their fingers that Rae and Hawk both recognized as magic.

With only three targets, the flurry of spells that came from the human team was overwhelming, and the ogres stumbled to a stop even before Thor hit them with an earthquake and knocked them to the ground to be finished off.

"That was easier than expected." Bob sighed as he realized that the monsters weren't even going to make it to him this time.

"I think they're on the weaker side of Awakened. Is that normal? I thought that the ogres were supposed to be nearly Ascended." Karl asked.

Everyone turned to Doug for an answer, and he just shrugged. "It varies. There are strong and weak ones, but I don't know enough about them to tell them apart. But what is that magical ring? That might be a useful item for someone."

Danni walked over and used her dagger to cut the finger containing the ring off the Ogre, then slid the ring free and wiped it clean on a large leaf.

"There is some sort of inscription on it. Give me a moment and I think that I can translate it. It should be written in the ancient Arcane language." She explained.

It took her a few minutes to decipher the faded inscription, but when she did, she had to resist the urge to laugh.

"It is a magical item that is supposed to increase wisdom. Either it is broken, or he was in the running for the world's dumbest person to chase Hawk into a trap." She joked.

Bob shrugged. "It increases wisdom, not intelligence. He figured out that Hawk wanted him to follow easily enough. He just wasn't smart enough to realize that we were too strong for him to handle."

The mage slid the ring over her wrist like a bangle, and frowned as she didn't feel any discernible difference.

"Well, it might add up. Maybe it is a long-term thing that will help with your mana growth." Doug suggested.

Once the bodies were cleaned of anything valuable, Doug cast a spell that caused them to sink into the ground, letting the forest absorb them as nutrients instead of leaving the obvious and rotting corpses out to attract more monsters and stink up the area.

"This is going to be a long mission, isn't it?" Karl sighed as Hawk updated him on the nearby monsters.

There were more than a few, and at least three groups of Goblins, one of which Hawk was taking care of now.

Doug gave him a soft smile. "They always are. But once we have cleared the area, tomorrow shouldn't be as heavy, and then it will just be maintenance. Some days we will barely get anything in an entire zone, and some days will be like this, where we will get dozens of them."

Bob led them toward a group of Goblins, while Rae joined Hawk in searching out the final group that he had identified. The Common Rank creatures were no threat to the two of them, and they could move through the forest much faster than the humans.

It was just the more powerful monsters that everyone was worried about, but Karl knew firsthand that if the Goblins weren't dealt with, they would be an existential threat to the regular townsfolk.

A single pair of fireball spells took out the small Goblin camp, and Bob paused a moment to mark the location on his map. They were almost to the far side of their zone already, and it was time to start turning back so they would get to their fort before dark.

Hawk and Rae were still scouring the area, but something was off. The area was far too quiet. Where there had been a variety of monsters in the area at the start of the day, not even the small ones were around this area.

Everyone could feel that something was off, but none of them could locate the source of the wrongness, and no matter how many times the two beasts circled the area, they didn't find anything that would indicate what could be causing the Everyone could feel that something was off, but none of them could locate the source of the wrongness, and no matter how problem.

Bob frowned in annoyance. "I will mark this area on the map for tomorrow. It might be a lingering problem, or something about the area's composition that is scaring all the monsters away. We should keep moving, though. We need to finish our route before it gets dark."

But the greatest travesty of the day was only now happening, and it was only when they reached the immediate vicinity of their fort that it became obvious.

[Some thieving bastard stole my snacks!] Rae shouted in Karl's mind as she searched her webs.

She could smell another monster, and it hadn't freed the creatures that had been trapped, it had taken advantage of her absence to kill them and take them for itself.

"Keep your eyes open. Something looted Rae's webs, and it might still be in the area." Karl warned the group.

"That's brave. It had to realize what or who those webs belonged to, and that they weren't long abandoned. If it was desperate enough to loot them today, it's likely starving." Doug noted.

"Or it's stupid and arrogant." Bob added.

Doug smiled. "That's always a possibility. But if it comes back to check again while Rae is here, it's in for a bad night. How much did it steal?"

Karl waited for Rae to answer as she inventoried her loot and threw the bodies into the beast space.

[Four webs, at least fifteen small monsters, all Common Grade, none of them Goblins.] She replied, outraged.

"She says at least fifteen small Common Grade monsters." Karl relayed.

For a moment, he thought that the mages were going to say something about those not being valuable creatures, but then they seemed to realize that Rae didn't care about the danger level. She was planning to eat them, and someone had stolen her dinner right off her proverbial plate.

"So, it's likely not a powerful creature, and it can navigate the webs well enough to not get entangled itself. We will have to watch for another spider tonight." Doug decided.

"And make sure that our fort is secure before we enter. It might have tried to move in, or leave traps for us. Some forms of monstrous spiders have poisonous webs to weaken their prey." Bob added.

Rae scurried up the tree and scented the area.

[It didn't come up here. But I know the scent now, and I will find it if it comes back to steal from me again.]

"She says it's clear, we can head up."