Even though the sun was high and the air was starting to feel a little hot, there was still a white mist dancing among the bushes of the Bog forest.
Trees as high as 23-25 meters can be seen everywhere, their thick and tall leaves block the sunlight that wants to hit the ground.
The sound of birds chirping, gibbons shouting, and the rattling of insects filled the bustling forest that afternoon.
The tall bushes made the hairs stand on end, imagining what creature they were hiding.
The steep and slippery road made it easy for those who passed it to slip, but the orc hordes passed it like they were crossing a flat road.
Their strong legs and heavy bodies gripped the ground firmly, making them not afraid of slipping.
Several orcs were seen jumping from one tree to another following the square formation below. They move from tree to tree with ease like they can beat monkeys in that.
Anna felt like she was in deja vu. It had been almost two months since she last entered the Bog forest. Anna will never forget her first experience and it gave her a valuable lesson.
But this time she wasn't accompanied by human teenagers and human adults, but rather a horde of big green-skinned orcs.
"ouch!" Anna's pained voice as she slipped.
"Nevare you okay?" Mige helped Anna to her feet.
"Nevare you always slipped because wearing that stupid thing. Why are you covering your feet with... leather? bark? What is this thing made of?" Swa pointed at Anna's shoes.
"Yeah you've slipped twice because of that stupid thing. If you cover your feet how can you walk?" Torgan supports Swa's opinion.
"These are called shoes, they are used to protect my feet!" Anna explained.
"Protect??!!" Swa, Torgan, and Kagan were shocked with wide eyes, then they laughed out loud while holding their stomachs.
"Don't tell me humans are so weak that they have to wear that thing to protect their feet when they walk?" Kagan wiped the tears that fell from laughing too hard.
"Uuhhh.." Anna couldn't say anything.
"Hey! What's going on down there? Did something happen?" Laya's voice was heard, he standing on a tree branch.
"Nothing happened! Nevare just slipped again!" Swa replied.
They heard the sound of the wind blowing behind them. Torgan who was at the rear quickly turned around and saw Moku.
"Why did you guys just get here? Speed up your movements, the orcs that have spread out have already arrived at Glittering Meadow and are waiting for you." Moku asked.
"Sorry Ku! we have a little problem" Mige reported and glanced at Anna.
Moku who understood they were late because of Anna, turned to her "Nevare, you still wearing your shoes? Bog forest is very slippery, lots of moss and wet soil everywhere, you better take it off.
Then you also don't need to wear clothes and leather armor at the same time. Bog Forest is very humid rather than cold, water will be trapped by your leather armor and can cause skin damage. So you better let it go.
You now have the endurance of an orc. You won't get sick just from a slight cold or a sore on your leg." Moku advised.
"Shut the fuck up! Don't you to tell me what to do!" Anna screamed, took off her shoes, threw them at Moku, and ran away.
"Nevare, wait for us!" Swa ran after her, as did Kagan, Torgan, and Mige.
Moku who was standing still while holding Anna's shoes could only look on with stunned eyes. He didn't feel like he was doing anything wrong but he was suddenly told to shut up and was pelted with shoes.
"I don't know why, but it seems you are not as smart as they say brother" Laya shrugged his shoulders and jumped another branch to chase Anna and the other orcs.
"If I know what woman think, I will become a god" Moku took a deep breath.
Not far from where the confused Moku was, Swa managed to catch up to Anna. Even though Anna already had a body on par with orcs, she still wouldn't be able to run away from the young orcs that were born and grew up in this forest.
"Anna don't run aimlessly you can get lost." said Swa.
"I know the way! I know the way!" Anna kept running without stopping.
"Actually you've been running in the wrong direction from the start" Kagan who had arrived chortled.
Anna stopped and caught her breath.
"I understand why you always run when you see Moku, he's scary.
You know? When I was a kid, Moku gave me a colored mushroom that made me convulse until I fainted.
After waking up, I saw Moku who was holding his chin and muttering strange things. Such as '...the body's immune system works...', '...muscle contractions occur...', and '...the dose is sufficient...'
Then he forced me to eat the same looking mushroom again, of course I resisted but he was very strong, and his eyes when he did that looked like he wasn't looking at an orc but a guinea pig.
Since then I've always stayed away from him and never ate anything he gave me." Torgan said with a frightened face.
Actually, at that time Moku found a dangerous mushroom that could make the animal that eats it die with a body full of the same mushroom.
Moku, who was infatuated with research on orc resistance, thoughtlessly ate the mushroom. He also fainted from convulsions, but after waking up he did not find his body cover by the mushroom.
He hypothesized that if the symptoms still occurred but the orc's strong immune system quickly killed the harmful elements and returned the body to its original state.
Therefore he couldn't test his hypothesis on his own body, because he wouldn't know what happened to his body when he fainted.
Moku was looking for a guinea pig, he found an orc kid with an innocent and stupid face. Moku tricked him by saying if this mushroom can make him fly into sky.
Torgan was very happy and ran screaming 'I'm going to fly! I'm going to fly!'. After calming him down, Moku gave him the dangerous mushroom.
The results of the experiment confirmed his hypothesis. Torgan's body had time to grow mushrooms but quickly withered and died. Moku forced Torgan to eat the noxious mushroom several times to make sure it was true.
Based on that, Moku concluded that the orc body seemed to have its own consciousness and would fight back when there was a foreign object that wanted to seize control of their body.
"We better get back before a mutated animal smells us" Kagan interrupted Torgan's sad story.
Anna nodded. They also changed direction and re-formed the square formation with Anna in the middle.
"By the way. Nevare, how do humans classify mutated animals?" Swa suddenly asked.
"Why do you want to know?" Anna was suspicious, she had never heard Swa ask a question like this. Usually he always asks a childs questions like 'where did the baby come from'.
"Well... I...I ju..just want to know" Swa replied stuttering.
Anna looked at the back of Swa's head sharply, "It's not because you were asked by Moku to ask me that right?" Anna narrowed her eyes.
"Eh? Eh? I..I really just want to know hehehe" Swa scratched the back of his head which felt cold.
"Hmmm...." Anna grew suspicious.
The orcs glanced at each other, but neither of them helped Swa. Moku who was eavesdropping from afar was dripping with cold sweat.
Actually Moku asked his brother Swa to ask Anna. Previously, Anna had talked about the Golden Vulture which was classified as silver tier danger mutated animals.
But at that time Moku was more curious about how humans became mages and wanted to ask about it later. However they had a fight and Anna would stay away from him when he got close, so Moku lose his opportunity to ask.