After dinner, as night fell, the atmosphere in the forest became even more eerie.

Despite the exhaustion piling up from daily battles, the mercenaries found it difficult to fall asleep. The distant, occasional terrifying howls grated on their nerves.

Only after they lit a campfire and hung up lamps to brighten the area did they manage to get some rest.

However, Ghislain didn’t lie down. Instead, he quietly sat by the fire.

“You’re not going to sleep, young master?”

“There’s something I need to check.”

“What’s that?”

“Monsters.”

“What?”

Belinda furrowed her brow, confused. Ghislain answered quietly.

“The monsters that kept attacking during the day haven’t shown up at night. There must be a reason for that.”

“No way...”

Belinda quickly caught on to what Ghislain was implying. Just two days ago, monsters had been attacking them day and night.

But for the past two nights, no monsters had attacked after sunset.

“You’re saying there’s a creature that only comes out at night in this area.”

“Exactly. The other monsters are too afraid to move because of it.”

The nearby mercenaries overheard their conversation and swallowed hard.

If this had been the first day, they might have laughed and dismissed it as the naive musings of a young noble. But after witnessing Ghislain’s abilities over the past five days, they knew better. His words carried weight.

Whoooosh.

As time passed and the surroundings became completely enveloped in darkness, an ominous wind began to blow.

When Ghislain stood up, Gillian, Kaor, and Belinda followed suit, their faces growing tense.

[They watched us from the shadows of the night.]

“Lord.”

Gillian called out, and Ghislain nodded in acknowledgment.

There was something out there.

Those sensitive to their surroundings could feel the suffocating presence of many eyes watching them.

Several mercenaries, uneasy, rose from their spots and scanned the surroundings.

Beyond the reach of their lamps, it was impossible to see clearly, but they could sense something lurking in the darkness.

Ghislain stretched out threads of mana, letting them extend in all directions to gauge the numbers of whatever was observing them. His brow furrowed slightly.

‘This is more than expected.’

[There were about two hundred of them... and they followed us relentlessly until we were exhausted. The enraged Count Balzac managed to kill only about ten of them by himself.]

What Ghislain counted was over three hundred.

It seemed the timing had changed, so the information he had wasn’t entirely accurate anymore.

“Don’t move.”

The mercenaries gripped their weapons tightly, nervously glancing around.

Swish!

Something like a whip lashed out from the darkness and snatched one of the hanging lamps.

The lamp was pulled into the shadows and soon lost its light.

But in that brief moment, they caught a glimpse of a vaguely human-like figure.

[They began stealing our light and our sight.]

Swish! Swish!

More whip-like lashes came, snatching away several more lamps.

[Later, we learned they had an ability to blend with the darkness and had an extreme aversion to light.]

As the lamps dwindled, the area around them grew darker and darker.

Kaor, with a furious expression, seemed ready to charge out with the Cerberus mercenaries. His instincts were triggered, as if they were the prey being hunted.

But Ghislain reached out and stopped him, his gaze fixed on the darkness.

Kaor growled, “What is it? If they’re hiding and watching us, they’re probably not that strong. Let’s go and crush them so they won’t dare mess with us again.”

“We stop here for tonight.”

“Stop here? What do you mean?”

Just then, the ominous presence surrounding them began to fade.

Krrr... krrr...

A strange, unsettling laugh echoed, and then the creatures were gone.

[Every night, they would come to observe us. The soldiers could never rest, and we slowly lost our light.]

Sensing that whatever was out there had retreated, the mercenaries reached for more lamps to light the area.

But Ghislain shook his head.

“Keep the lights as they are.”

“Why? Shouldn’t we make it brighter?”

[We regretted it later. We should have dealt with them when we first noticed them at the lake. But by the time we realized it, it was too late. We lost both the day and the night. We had no time to rest. We had wandered too deep and lost our way.]

Ghislain spoke firmly to the mercenaries.

“If we’re going to deal with them here, we need to do it this way.”

The mercenaries looked baffled.

“Deal with what exactly?”

Ghislain answered in a low voice.

“Pallor.”

[These were once a proud, intelligent race that had fallen into corruption and lived as ‘Hunters of the Dark’ in this forest. They were the descendants of the ancient Pallor people.]

The group stopped clearing a path or moving forward. Instead, they made a clearing near the lake by cutting down trees, resting there.

While the mercenaries took their rest, Gillian approached Ghislain and asked, “What’s your plan, Lord?”

“We’re going to take care of them here. Otherwise, they’ll keep following us.”

“And how are we supposed to catch creatures that only watch us from the dark? They’ll just run away if we try.”

“We’ll find out tonight. Have the mercenaries ready their bows and arrows.”

“Understood.”

Gillian nodded. If the enemies were just watching them, unleashing a barrage of arrows might be a good tactic.

Nightfall came again, and whether due to luck or the presence of the Pallor, no other monsters attacked during the day.

With their strength restored, the mercenaries stood ready with their bows, watching the darkness.

Krrr...

That eerie sensation of being watched filled the air again.

In the tense silence, Ghislain suddenly shouted.

“Fire!”

Whoosh!

More than a hundred arrows were loosed all at once, flying in every direction.

The mercenaries, arranged in a circle, fired toward the edges of their camp without holding back.

But...

Krrr... krrr...

The only response was that strange, mocking laughter.

The mercenaries were baffled.

“What the...?”

“Not a single one hit? That’s impossible!”

They could clearly sense that something was out there. It was just hidden, blending into the darkness.

The creatures deliberately exuded malice so that even those with dull senses could feel it.

There were so many of them, and yet, not a single arrow had hit.

“What kind of monsters are these...?”

“How can none of those arrows hit anything?”

The mercenaries, gripped with fear, began to step back in panic.

Gillian, displeased with their reaction, grimaced and began gathering mana into his arrows to fire a stronger shot.

But before he could release it, Ghislain stopped him, grabbing his arm.

“No. Don’t use mana yet.”

“Lord?”

“If you do, things will get much worse. We need to keep our mana hidden.”

“I don’t understand...”

“I’ll explain soon. It’s clear that physical attacks won’t work.”

[The Pallor, having merged with the darkness, could allow all physical attacks to pass through them. Only those who could wield mana, like Count Balzac and his knights, were able to harm them. It was a blessing and a curse given to this ancient race...]

Whoosh!

More lamps were suddenly snatched away.

As the light disappeared one by one, the surroundings grew darker, and the mercenaries huddled closer together in fear.

Ghislain didn’t move. He merely watched as the lamps were taken, calculating his next move.

[The Pallor always aimed to extinguish the light first. But what they didn’t account for was that weapons infused with mana could emit their own light.]

When mana was infused into a weapon, it would glow with light.

While it could be suppressed, most people didn’t bother to hide it completely.

To fight the Pallor, they would need to use mana-infused weapons.

These creatures were skilled at dodging attacks in the dark, but once illuminated, they were no longer invincible.

If they used their mana-wielders to chase down the Pallor, they could probably inflict some damage.

But Ghislain shook his head inwardly.

‘That would only make things worse.’

[Count Balzac, one of the strongest warriors in the kingdom, was overconfident in his power. When the Pallor couldn’t defeat him, they began kidnapping his soldiers.]

More than half of the lamps they had lit on the first night were now gone.

Left in near-total darkness, the mercenaries grew more and more anxious.

Krrr... krrr...

The Pallor seemed pleased with their terror, their laughter echoing eerily before they vanished.

Their strategy was clear: wear down their prey’s morale and fill them with fear before making a move.

“Gather around. I’ll explain what’s going on.”

After the Pallor disappeared, Ghislain called the mercenaries together and shared everything he knew.

Their jaws dropped in shock as he described the creatures they were facing.

Monsters immune to attacks in the dark? It was hard to believe, but after their futile arrow barrage, they had no choice but to accept it.

“So, we should set up more lamps and torches, right? Surround the camp with as much light as possible?”

“That’ll only buy us some time. Eventually, they’ll take all the lights.”

“Then how about this?”

Belinda grabbed a dagger, and soon a soft blue glow enveloped the blade.

If they could sense the creatures’ presence, even if their forms weren’t fully visible, they could still strike.

The moment a weapon got close, some part of the creature’s body would be illuminated by the light.

“As expected, Belinda is smart,” Ghislain said, praising her.

Belinda lifted her chin proudly. “I graduated from the Royal Academy, after all.”

“You’re a terrible liar. But anyway, we can’t use mana just yet.”

“How’d you know that was a lie? And why can’t we use mana?”

“If we do, they’ll change their hunting tactics.”

[We found traces of the kidnapped soldiers. They had been eaten alive. Count Balzac, enraged, unleashed his full power, blasting the surrounding area, but the Pallor, knowing his strength, had already retreated. They stayed hidden in the shadows, avoiding exposure to the light. In the end, we were left watching helplessly as our soldiers were taken.]

If the Pallor decided to stop fighting directly and instead began abducting them one by one, they would be doomed.

They had too few mana users, and not enough manpower to fight back effectively.

As Ghislain’s explanation continued, the mercenaries’ faces grew paler and paler.

They had been moving deeper into the forest, facing increasingly dangerous monsters. The casualties were rising with every battle.

But the thought of being stalked every night by these creatures, who would abduct them at any moment, was overwhelming.

“So, what do we do? Haven’t they already marked us as prey? Shouldn’t we just turn back now?”

One of the mercenaries asked, his voice filled with fear. But Ghislain shook his head firmly.

“We fight here.”

[With this many people, there’s no way out. We could have won the battle, but the Pallor weren’t interested in a direct fight. We failed yet again. It wasn’t until Sir Alois, the royal mage, and his wizards arrived that we were able to wipe them out.]

In his previous life, even stronger forces had failed multiple times to conquer the Forest of Beasts.

It wasn’t because they lacked strength but because they had no information.

The fact that the Pallor were highly intelligent monsters only made matters worse.

But Ghislain was different.

‘I’ll wipe them out here before they catch on.’

He had the knowledge, and he was prepared.

Everything was going according to plan.