The morning of the second day, Yuki and company stood in front of the forest. Maiko was the happiest of them all to know they had reached the forest she could soon bathe. She felt embarrassed, knowing that she still smelled of pee. But she had nothing to change into, so she could only wash her clothes while she washed up in the river.

Coming from a cultivation family where she hardly had to do much of anything. A place where she was treated like a princess. She was very much a person who was used to staying clean. If it was not for the three months she spent in the forest, she would not have lasted this long. So she was glad she was forced to deal with uncleanliness for those three months.

Fatty stood in front of the girls to plan things out. “Our first goal is to find a place for Junior Sister Maiko to wash up. After that, we will be looking for the river and heading west. As long as we can find the rank three horned snakes, we will be able to complete our mission. But prepare for some fights since demonic beasts roam all over this forest. If we get lucky, we will find them quickly. If not, we could be out here for a month.”

“Either way, we came all this way to give up easily. We will search until we can find at least a few scales and an egg.” Yuki did not want to fail her first mission.

“Then let’s head out!” Fatty took the large axe off his back and held it out to his side. This motion was followed By Nana, who readied her sword. When wandering in the forest, it was always best to be ready for anything. Even Maiko had her sword drawn.

The only one seemingly not ready for combat was Yuki, as she held her hands behind her head as she walked barefoot in the forest. The reason being was her sword type and skills relied on her blade being sheathed.

They slowly entered the forest, which had a dense canopy that blocked out the sun. Only small streams of light poked through the small spaces in the leaves. The undergrowth was only plants that could grow in little to no sunlight.

The sounds of demonic beasts could be heard all around. Maiko, who was not used to these kinds of places, jumped at every sound. She had only fought three rank one demonic beasts during her three months of training. So she was still skittish when it came to walking around the forest.

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“Maiko, relax. You are in the center of the group, so you will not be attacked first.” Nana found Maiko’s wariness amusing.

“I….” Maiko blushed she did not understand how the other three were so calm. But when she thought about it, Yuki and Nana had almost died and ended up deep in the forest in their training, while Fatty had been in the sect for a while.

“Maiko, if you have something jumped on top of you, the best thing to do is fall on your back with your sword sticking straight up. Use the weight of the demonic beast to your advantage, and if you are lucky, you will pierce them through the neck and kill them.” Yuki decided to give some advice from her own experiences. She had used this method to save herself quite a few times.

Maiko could only nod her head. She was carefully watching the area around her. While this was not a bad practice, she still needed to relax more, or she might not be able to react when something did pop out of nowhere.

They made their way deeper into the forest when Nana pulled Fatty to a stop. “We got company.”

“Hmmm? What is it?” Fatty readied his guard while Maiko began shaking, looking left and right. She wa starting to panic. But she soon felt a hand placed on top of her head, making her turn to look at Yuki.

“Relax, take a deep breath, and just guard our rear. Don’t jump into the fight unless you are sure you can retreat if you get into trouble.” Yuki gave a faint smile that stunned Maiko.

Yuki then looked to the front and snorted, and put her hand on the hilt of her sword. “We got ten incoming. Fatty, you take point, Nana and I will attack from the sides.”

“Got it!” Fatty licked his lips. He had not taken a mission in a while, so this was a good warm up for him.

While rank one spiked monkeys were not an easy opponent. They shot hundreds of thin needles from their backs at their prey, trying to take them out. Each one was coated in a poison that caused temporary paralysis.

“Giigii!” One of the monkeys could be heard calling out. This was followed by many replies. Nana and Yuki had already darted off to the sides to flank and tunnel them in towards Fatty.

Nana was on the ground, but her movement technique made good use of her natural strength and allowed her to shoot out like a bullet. Yuki, on the other hand, used her movement technique to get to the tree branches and was now going from tree branch to tree branch as if she was Booruto. Her speed was much faster than the spiked monkeys, which allowed her to have the advantage in many ways.

In less than a minute, both girls came in contact with the group of spiked monkeys.