Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

"Nothing," Leo pulled himself together before quickly changing the topic, "Anyways, let's continue with the journey."

Hearing Leo's words, although Mayor Jong wanted to know why Leo reacted in such a way, he could only nod his head and continued with the journey.

To be honest, Leo wasn't actually intending to hide it from Mayor Jong, he just doesn't find the situation right now to be quite right to continue with the conversation.

Although the others with them were their own people, but still such a topic should be discussed in private, not in the middle of a thousand or so of people.

Moreover, he also can't just quickly and easily reveal to Mayor Jong that they have the same goal, right? He only knows this guy for like a day or two, so he obviously can't really trust him that much yet.

He needs further observation before he could continue discussing with Mayor Jong about the topic of cooperation to fight with the Gods. Until then, he would not reveal anything to Mayor Jong.

The journey to reach close to the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest took them more than a day, roughly around lunchtime the next day. In front of them, they finally saw some cobwebs, implying that they have finally reached half their destination.

As soon as they arrived, tens or so of ordinary Sandstone Spiders immediately started attacking them every now then, causing their speed to slow down as they need to make a path to reach their final destination.

After spending a few hours slaughtering Sandstone Spiders, they finally reached the location for their first outpost.

In their plan, they were planning of making 5 outposts that would act as their base of operation. The purpose of these outposts was so that every time they retreat they would have a proper base immediately to defend from the Sandstone Spiders.

Their current location right now is already pretty much against their odds, considering that the Sandstone Spiders have the home base advantage, that's why they needed to establish some temporary bases to counter such a situation, or to at least give themselves some small advantages during all the fights.

"Focus the defense in our front, while the tents and others would be set up at our rear." Leo said as he began setting up the first outpost. He continued, "Add more defense for this outpost since this would be our last line of defense in case if anything goes wrong."

"You've heard Prince Loki, go and start moving!" Mayor Jong said while using the codename 'Loki' as it was what Leo had informed them to call him.

Everyone has also been informed to use the codename 'Loki', so they were able to know that what Mayor Jong meant was 'Prince Leo'. They were informed that Prince Leo is currently on a secret mission, so his identity shouldn't be made public, especially to outsiders and those that aren't part of the Lionheart Kingdom.

"Roger that!"

"Okay!"

"Everyone, move!"

With that said, everyone immediately started making the first outpost.

The formation of the first outpost was, they made three walls, 20 meters apart from each other. While on top of the walls were 2 war weapons on each. The thickness of the wall was from thin to thick, specifically 10 meters thick, 15 meters thick, and lastly 20 meters thick wall. In between the walls was a 20 meters deep hole or otherwise commonly called as trenches with sharp stone spikes underneath. There were only 3 pathways to travel, which are located at the far right, far left, and at the middle, leading towards 3 different gates.

Inside the walls, specifically nearby the walls, were traps and wooden watchtowers. Then farther from that were finally the tents.

To build the walls, Mages used Earth Element Magic spells to raise some earth walls. Then, to increase the wall's durability, they turned the earth walls into smooth stones.

The trenches were dug out by Leo's Earth Elementals disguised as Golems, while the sharp stone spikes were made by the Mages.

Lastly, the traps and watchtowers were the combined effort of the Mages and those people that have knowledge about making watchtowers that came with them. Just for precaution purposes in case that the Sandstone Spiders still breakthrough from the walls.

Actually, Leo could have summoned some Nature Elementals and ordered them to make the watchtowers instead, but doing so would be unexplainable to Mayor Jong and his people. Although Nature Golems does indeed exist to use as an explanation, but such Golems are only capable of using Magic spells when they are made by powerful Mages, specifically weaker kinds, which is not something he is able to do yet. So, he won't be able to explain how his Nature Golem was able to use magic spells. He also decided to hide from Mayor Jong and the others from Sandy Town about the existence of his Elementals until the time is right, to avoid troubling himself considering that they are loyal to God Elementus.

Besides, there was really no need to bother him for such trivial matters, considering that there are over a thousand or so people with them right now.

With that many people, building a small outpost would only take a few hours, especially when there are a lot of Mages in the group.

Just like what Leo had expected. After a few hours, the outpost was finally finished.

"Leave 200 people here while the rest would go to the next location," Leo said before leading the way along with Cassandra and the others.

Hearing Leo's words, Mayor Jong quickly passed the order before following behind Leo.

Quickly, 200 people volunteered to stay while the 800 or so others right after followed behind.

Leo and everyone didn't bother wasting any time as they continued making paths by killing tens or so of Sandstone Spiders every now and then and making outpost every time they reached the location where they would be making them.

Each outpost was separated by 10 kilometers distance, so the journey from one outpost to another took them a lot of effort.

The people with them slowly decreased by 200 as well every time an outpost was finished building as they needed those people to be stationed in that outpost. Though a few others, unfortunately, died as well from fighting the Sandstone Spiders.

They repeated such action until they finally finished making the 5th outpost, which was located 30 kilometers away from the entrance of the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest.

In this location, the Sandstone Spiders attacking them were already at the 1 Star to 3 Star level with some occasional ordinary Sandstone Spiders. Their numbers were reaching hundreds or so, making it more difficult compared to the previous journey.

That wasn't really strange though, considering that the 5th outpost was already pretty near the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest.

What was very strange instead, was the fact that they still haven't encountered any Sandstone Knight Spiders.

Just from the amount of Sandstone Spiders and their cultivation level that they have killed so far, it's already very obvious to see that Sandstone Knight Spiders does exist. But, until now, they still haven't encountered any.

Moreover, they have already killed thousands of Sandstone Spiders, so it's easy to guess that the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest should have already noticed their presence by now. But yet, there was actually still no evident retaliation from them or at least any reaction. They haven't even sent a few powerful Sandstone Spiders to stop them from disturbing their nest; it has always just been those nearby Sandstone Spiders attacking them.

Seriously, it was very strange.

Just to be sure, they have checked everywhere. From their ceiling, sides, and even underground, yet there were no ambushes or anything of the likes. It was as if like the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest is fearful of them or something along those lines that made them not retaliate against them.

Of course, such a situation was actually very fortunate for Leo and everyone else, but still, they can't help feeling cautious, because they can't help but feel that it's like the calm before the storm.

"Everyone, be extremely cautious. Don't let your guard down and always pay extra attention to everything you've noticed in the surrounding." Leo ordered everyone cautiously.

All the war weapons on top of the walls, specifically 2 war weapons on each, were fully focused to their front with the Mages on high alert, hands ready to cast a Magic spell once something suspicious appeared on their sight.

"This is really strange," Mayor Jong also noticed this strange situation. Any other Magical Beast Spider's nest would have long sent out their powerful spiders to fight against them and not let them easily reach near the entrance of their nest, but curiously this Sandstone Mother Spider's nest didn't actually act similarly. Of course, he is aware that there is always an exception, and that there is a chance that not every Magical Beast Spider's nest would react in the same way. But still, that doesn't explain why there are still no signs of any retaliation.

"Did something perhaps happened in the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest that we are unaware about?" Cassandra can't help herself from asking.

They have already stayed here for nearly an hour now, but aside from those Sandstone Spiders nearby them, there were not that many Sandstone Spiders attacking them anymore. It was always just in similar numbers of a hundred or so with the same kind of Sandstone Spiders, specifically ordinary Sandstone Spiders and Sandstone Soldier Spiders.

"Don't tell me that their retaliation is actually by only sending a hundred or so of Sandstone Spiders every now then?" Elizabeth assumed.

"Maybe they are testing the waters. Like they want to determine just how strong exactly we are before sending some of their powerful spiders," Angel replied.

"We could have used that reason if we are still far from the Sandstone Mother Spider's nest, but we are already in close proximity, just 30 kilometers away," Veronica shook her head.

"How about let's just check it out ourselves? Sitting here while assuming things wouldn't get us anywhere," Ash suggested.

"Okay," Charlotte nodded in agreement before adding, "I'll check it out while the rest of you stay here,"

After saying that, Charlotte prepared herself to fly off, but seeing that Leo had actually shaken his head, she decided to not go and instead shoot him a questioning look.

"Let's rest for a few hours while the others remain on high alert. After a few hours of rest, let's form a team to scout the situation ahead," Leo said before turning around and going into a tent.

They have already expended a lot of energy and stamina to reach this point of location, so going any further, especially alone or even with a few others to scout ahead, would be dangerous, since they aren't in their topmost condition anymore to counter whenever something bad happens.

Cassandra and the others also understood what Leo meant, that's why they didn't bother disagreeing and just silently followed behind him to rest.