Erwin made it clear that the first few outings were for scouting areas where monsters or beasts nested and looking for alchemical supplies. The weaponized potions he would be using the most often would be the ones he could replenish on-site.

The first thing of note they came across was a patch of thick reeds near the side of a stream. Giving the others a light warning, Erwin put on his goggles and gloves and gathered a large bunch of stems, quickly and efficiently squeezing their milky sap into several vials. These would be his main weapons for the next few days, as each vial of concentrate could make ten bottles of corrosives that would eat into skin and flesh.

Half an hour later, they were on the move again, pushing ever deeper into the foliage. Otto had taken to marking trees with his knife, creating a series of directional aids for their trip back. Kynos was also doing his best to keep track of the camp's direction while urging Elise to keep up. She was trailing behind occasionally due to her interest in various plants and especially insects, and had already gathering quite the number of zombie bugs as they walked. This had elicited only the bare minimum of surprise from Erwin and Otto. The two were used to strange sights, Kynos supposed.

As Otto mentioned that they had roughly three hours before the sun went down, the group stumbled on a mass of irregularly arranged bramble and other shrubbery. Kynos instinctively felt a sense of danger from the area as he stopped Elise from crashing right into it. Otto and Erwin also stopped dead, and the grin on Erwin's face showed that they had discovered one major objective.

The alchemist turned and whispered, “this is a goblin nest. They gather nearby junk to make an enclosure for protection against wild animals and other monsters, where they bring back food for their larvae and sleep at night.”

He deftly uncorked a small bottle at the bottom of his potion bag and set it to drip slowly. Apparently the potion would leave a scentless mark which glowed when a certain chemical light was shined on it, making tracking extremely easy work. Still, as with many of Erwin's inventions, it was highly corrosive and they would have to be careful not to touch it. Erwin kept up his commentary.

“What a stroke of luck. Finding these types of goblin nests are rare, since they like to live in small caves. Those are much harder to invade for experiments.”

Erwin carefully backed away from the bramble wall and motioned for the group to follow him as he explored the size of the nest.

“Still, this nest is gigantic. Usually these host a dozen goblins and maybe thirty to forty grubs. This nest, just looking at it makes me think it's got at least a hundred goblins in here. The amount of unhatched young had got to exceed a thousand.”

Elise carefully drew her demilune as Kynos used a slight amount of magic to extend thin shadows in every direction. They would help him detect motion where his senses could only do so much; it was a trick he learned when training with Himi's tribe.

He had read up on most of the forest's creatures during his studies, and goblins were one of the weakest. They had sub-par hearing, eyesight, and smell, and were weak enough that any novice could fend one off. They had hard nails but would never be able to pierce even the lightest of leather armor, and they were quick, but only in relation to out of shape humans. Goblins were definitely on the stupid side of the intelligence scale as well. The real issue was that goblins were horde animals that cooperated for survival. Every adult goblin could lay young, and goblins were omnivorous to the point of being able to eat leaves and bark when other food was lacking. Their insect-like young was a bit more picky and required softer food, which meant their population surged and ebbed based on food. Usually when they ate up too much of the forest's bounty and spilled into areas near the border towns, adventurers and militia would be drafted up and vast amounts of goblin nests would be burned, giving the forest time to recover before their numbers surged again. As a result of their high population but disgusting taste, many carnivorous forest creatures ate goblins when other food wasn't available.

The large amount of goblin subjugation requests in the guild was a result of the current population upswing, something Erwin was eager to take advantage of. These surges happened only roughly once every fifty years, so the alchemist wasn't going to let this golden opportunity pass.

They left the brambles after finding one of the passage holes where a few goblins were lurking, making their way back to the encampment. On the trek, Elise had her large zombie insect army collect berries, mushrooms, and other items that looked edible for Erwin to sort through, while Kynos speared a few small animals with shadows. They would try to conserve the rations as much as possible, making do the first night with rabbit and mushroom soup and a side of berries.

Leaving the insects on watch duty, the four slept heavily the first night in the forest.