The dawn of the third day found a pile of dead goblins in a corner of the camp, in such bad condition that not even insects wanted to approach them.

The four had the usual breakfast in unusual silence. Erwin hadn't been able to figure out a way to effectively experiment on the grove, and actually, he had never expected to find such a thing. Kynos had shot down his suggestion that they fling a few random poisons into the water supply of the grove with a simple but very convincing 'no.' Erwin had been forced to concoct potions he could directly throw at the creatures, but Otto mentioned very clearly that dealing with enraged grove guardians could cost all of them their lives.

Now the alchemist was quiet, deep in thought during the trip, something Kynos was grateful for.

As they neared the stream, Erwin was struck by inspiration. He stopped the group.

“That's it! Everyone, gather around and listen. We're going to kill two birds with one vial of acid today.”

Kynos did his best to pay attention as they all sat down to hear the new plan.

“First, we'll head back to camp and sleep some more.”

Kynos almost fell off of the rock he was sitting on, and even Otto looked visibly surprised.

“See, we'll go visit the goblins at dusk, when they're all coming back to the nest. What we want to do, is alarm all of them.”

The other three were rapidly growing apprehensive about fighting a massive swarm of goblins in the dark.

“Listen, goblins can barely see in the dark, but we have this chemical lamp. We can have the kobold carry it to attract the goblins, and we'll lead them all the way to the living grove.”

Elise nodded uncertainly. That plan would reduce the risk to the group, but excluding the goblins, how would they see in the dark?

“We'll all drink these potions I made, which will dilate our pupils and augment our vision at night. We should be able to see moderately well, and with the goblins causing a ruckus in the grove, we can get away with throwing some of these potions at the treants.”

Erwin crossed his arms as he finished, pleased with his genius.

Otto sighed, knowing that the plan was bound to go wrong somewhere. Still, the warrior stayed true to his convictions, ready to give his life to make Erwin's plan a success. Elise thought that the plan sounded strangely reasonable, so she readily assented. For his part, Kynos was used to that level of danger, and once Elise gave in, he had no objections at all.

They all returned to camp to get some more rest, eating another meal and setting off once again as the two suns began their descent.