Traversing the sea of mist was already difficult enough when one was using a properly marked path.

If the mist was thick enough, a monster could be literally a single step away, and one wrong move could lead to getting killed and devoured in an instant.

Even while knowing that, a mixed group of Sloth soldiers, adventurers, and monsters, strayed off the path willingly, fully aware of the dangers.

Still, there were a lot of problems with the whole situation.

First of all, almost none of the humans present shouldn't be allowed to wander the sea of mist under normal circumstances.

The adventurers present, were the Dandelions, a group of four mid-level adventurers with moderate stats.

If it was a normal situation, they would never be even allowed to enter the Sloth territory...

Or return to the Sloth territory, as actually was the case with one of them.

As for the Sloth soldiers...

Three squads were selected to help with the Dandelions' special quest.

Gunners' squad, close combat squad, and the support squad.

Going by the composition alone, they were a properly balanced group.

...the problem was, they were all a bunch of kids that barely stopped being recruits a few days ago.

Some of them weren't even teenagers yet...

The truth was, the food supply of the Sloth soldiers was in a far worse situation than the higher-ups were leading the soldiers to believe.

With the irregular behavior of the monsters, none of the transports were going through, and the frontline had less than three days of rations left.

Their mission had to be a success.

But then why the ones sent to support the weak adventurers were only three squads of inexperienced newbies?

Well...

A major reason behind why an odd bunch like that was put up to an important mission of finding and retrieving missing supply crates, was the presence of the tamed monsters.

Six strong rare wolf monsters, shadow fangs, which came together with a peculiar tamer from the south.

Once the tamer agreed to lend the monsters, the plan wrote itself.

Instead of wasting more precious resources on arming and supplying two or more whole companies to kill anything in their path, a small, inconspicuous group could use the shadow fangs' natural sneakiness and skills that prevented detection to retrieve the missing supplies without ever getting noticed by the native monsters.

The tamed monsters were carefully examined and it was determined that the probability of success was plenty satisfactory.

Also...

Although none of the higher-ups were going to say that out loud, there was another reason why the small-scale operation was approved.

And that was...

"S-sir... I've seen something move in the fog on our nine o'clock...!"

A small Sloth soldier trembled and stuck to the short rat-faced man as close as they could.

"Calm down, kid, if we were in danger, the wolves would have warned us."

The rat-faced man, Shanks, assured the small soldier pointing at the six black wolves surrounding them while their bodies were glowing with skills.

"Right?"

He added a bit louder.

"Raa!"

The wolf with short jaws and ridiculously long claws barked in confirmation back at the man.

"Sir. Are we really going in the right direction...?"

Another young soldier, basically glued to the rat-faced man's leg, asked fearfully looking around.

Shanks's eyes and ears shone brightly, and he furrowed his brows, concentrating.

"Yes, according to my skills, the nearest food item that matches the ones listed on the report is ten hundred feet to the south, we're good."

He reassured the child.

"Fucking hell, that sure is an odd thing to see. I never fucking imagined that our Shan-shan will be so popular with kids."

The black-haired elven mage, Lairs, whistled to herself and muttered.

"Are you jealous, Lai-lai?"

The warrior a bit on the chubby side, Rotte, smirked and poked the mage's side.

"Kyah! Stupid! No, I'm not fucking jealous! Just...! Surprised..."

Lairs shrieked and jumped up, then she blushed and turned away.

"But that sure is a sight... when we were still on the marked path, they all seemed to dislike him and call him a traitor and a deserter."

The tank of the group, a large woman named Uresha, made sure that the supply crates that they found up until that point, are properly secured on the frame attached to her back.

"But as soon as we walked into the fog, they all surrounded him like a bunch of scared puppies."

She added with a soft smile, looking at her husband in the middle of a group of anxious young soldiers.

Their group composition was as follows.

Six shadow fangs were forming a large circle and using a skill that was erasing the presence of anything inside.

Then, on the inside were the three Dandelions, Lairs, Rotte and Uresha, and ahead of them, were three full squads of the Sloth soldiers focused around the Dandelion's leader, Shanks, as if he was some sort of beacon.

"Sorry for butting in..."

Suddenly, a Sloth soldier that was the closest to the three Dandelions, spoke up.

"...the fuck...?! Ah! I-I mean... what is it, sweetie?"

Lairs flinched and cursed loudly, but then hurriedly changed her demeanor and asked, making herself sound properly nice and composed...

"Pffft...!"

Which caused Rotte to snort, as he barely held back the laughter.

Seeing Lairs trying to imitate a woman who was singlehandedly running an orphanage where he, Lairs, and Shanks grew up, was quite the sight.

"..."

The young soldier looked like he was about to retreat.

"Don't mind him, sweetie. What did you want to say?"

Still, Lairs didn't lose her cool and proved that she can speak two consecutive sentences without cursing.

"You see... the thing with sir Shanks..."

The soldier, encouraged by Lairs's warm tone, decided to spoke up after all.

"It's a bit complicated..."

The young soldier looked around awkwardly, trying to find the right words.

"He's actually a well-known person amongst the Sloth soldiers... He did commit desertion and ran away from the Sloth territory, and was still considered a recruit back then! He has somehow managed to navigate and escape the sea of mist when he was younger than I am right now. Not only that - he's the only person ever to achieved something like that."

The young soldier explained sounding conflicted, stuck between disdain and awe.