“Places with foreboding names typically receive such names for a reason.” - Old folk saying.

“I kinda see why they named this place the Forest of Despair,” commented Mischka offhandedly as she swung her blade to partially clean the slimy entrails stuck to it. The convoy was on their second day within the Forest of Despair, and in those two short days – more a day and a night, really, since they entered pretty late in the evening on the first day – they had been attacked a good half-dozen times by the local wildlife.

Fortunately with multiple skilled scouts present, they always detected such attacks ahead of time and prepared themselves accordingly, so none of those attacks ended up being more than a nuisance to the group. Lili and Rózsa detected the ones coming from the forest with their sharp senses ahead of time, while those that went into the path itself were simply turned into pincushions from afar by Alva and his archers.

On the odd times that they were dealing with large creatures that could shrug off arrows, Mischka stepped forward and simply felled the beast in question with one swing of her own massive blade. Sometimes brute force was the solution to a problem, after all.

Their latest “trouble” took the form of a cornucopia of slug-like creatures, each easily ranging from one and a half to nearly three meters long. The creatures were clearly ambush predators as they dropped on the convoy from the branches of trees that hung over the path, but as the convoy was forewarned by Lili and Rózsa, they knew what was coming.

As such, when the slugs fell, they landed on the hard, unyielding surfaces of shields held up by the convoy’s shieldbearers, after which they were unceremoniously thrown to the ground where all sorts of weapons assaulted them. Other than the disgusting-looking slimy mess the slugs left behind on the group’s equipment, they practically caused no damage.

“What did the guide say about these?” asked Reinhardt. He had received a written guide from the merchant who gave him the information on the route to Paradise which also detailed some of the creatures they would likely encounter on the path. The guide also included information on which of the creatures were edible.

“Hmm… the brown ones are toxic to most and should be discarded, it says, but the immature white ones are not only edible, but supposedly make for good eating,” said Alycea as she thumbed through the pages of the small booklet. “There’s two that’s definitely white out of those that fell on us, and another two that I’m not sure about. They’re kinda light-brownish already.”

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“Tell them to discard those, no point taking risks. We can try the white ones later when we take a rest stop. Have the usual suspects give it a try first for safety,” replied Reinhardt with a nod. It was common practice for traveling convoys to forage from their surroundings, and the mercenaries similarly had such practices too. Even if Reinhardt always over-prepared and stocked up more heavily on rations than most, he favored keeping the rations for when they were truly needed rather than to rely on them for convenience.

As such, the convoy naturally made use of whatever edibles they ran into on their journey through the Forest of Despair. By chance they were attacked by a massive wild boar the previous evening which Mischka dispatched personally, so the boar had ended up delivering their dinner – itself – to the mercenaries instead.

These slug-like creatures would be treated the same way.

Fortunately the convoy went through the rest of the day’s journey without any further assaults or complications, and they found a larger clearing – likely intentionally prepared for rest stops – further along the path by the evening. As most of the mercenaries worked on setting up a temporary camp and guarding against the forest creatures, Reinhardt and his family were in the middle of the camp with Egil and Olyvee.

They watched the two cut some slices off the slug-like creature set before them and how they cooked them in several ways. Egil even took a slice of the gelatinous-looking meat of the slug and munched on it raw.

“Hmm, has a rather slimy texture, but actually tastes pretty good. Rich and sweet, like some bits of good fat,” he commented while taking another slice of the raw slug meat for himself. Egil and Olyvee were testing out the creatures because goblins and elves were famous for having iron stomachs that could eat most things, and that trait was always present in their descendants too as long as their blood was thick enough.

“Crisps up nicely when broiled, and I have to agree on the taste. This is pretty good once you can get past the looks, honestly,” added Olyvee with a nod. She was only a half-elf so she was not as adventurous as Egil who just went and snacked on the flesh raw. “That said, boiling is definitely a no-go. The taste gets worse and you just end up with a pot full of snot instead.”

“Any ill-effects from eating those so far?” he asked again. The two had consumed a smaller, simply cooked portion a while ago, to test for any potential ill effects from the flesh, and it had been around half an hour since. The mercenaries prepared medicine to deal with the more common poisons and illnesses as well, even if the two testers were the least likely to have issues with the food.

“Nope, nothing here,” said Egil cheerfully. “If anything I’d say that this is pretty easy on the stomach, lighter than most meats, though heavier than the greens.”

“Given what the guide you got said, Boss, I’m guessing that whatever made them inedible only shows up after they mature and turn brown,” noted Olyvee as she nodded in agreement with Egil. “I’d say that these are indeed pretty good to eat, though I can’t vouch for eating them raw like Egil does. His people always has better constitution to deal with raw things.”

“Guess we’re having broiled slugs for dinner tonight, then,” said Reinhardt as he nodded his head. “Got to admit that it does smell pretty good when you cook it like that.”