[Wilderness]
Once the news of the planned expedition spread to most of the ogres in the tribe, the rest of the day went smoothly. After spending the better part of the day between the chief's announcement and noon on breakfast, savoring the fact that they had a well-made meal after three days of travel with only rations carried in spatial storage and whatever they could scavenge in their vicinity, the group around Darganth also started preparing for the coming days.
Unlike the ogres, however, they've already been ready for an encounter with one of the apex beasts or monsters since they set out into the wilderness. That meant that they didn't need to prepare for the fight that was likely to break out once they reached their target, but could instead focus on what followed after. Because while the easiest way to use a mana spring was to increase one's own power, Darganth's vision for this particular one wasn't so limited.
As such, Darganth spent the few hours before they'd meet up with the expeditionary force of the ogre tribe on various magical items.
The most numerous among these were discs made from various metals, with sizes ranging from barely larger than a palm to a few that were as much as two meters across. Across their surfaces, Darganth had inscribed runic patterns in multiple concentric rings that closely mirrored the spell circles of magic casting. Through this, he inscribed specific effects into the item, allowing them to be activated whenever its user wished, for as long as the carving remains intact.
In contrast to that, the few hundred daggers that formed the second most numerous category of items had the spells directly imbued into the material. Though faster and easier to create, this method also didn't last as long. Not only could it not store mana as well and thus needed a constant stream of it from its user, but the enchantments themselves could fade with time if spell and material weren't perfectly compatible or the former was incorporated badly.
Though for Darganth's, this was perfectly fine in the case of the daggers. Linked to the network of ethereal tethers that connected the discs he had created, their only purpose was to transfer energy to help power the discs.
Thus, one of the first things Darganth did upon getting to the meeting point in the late afternoon was give out these daggers. Or rather, he had the chief give them out to whomever he believed would be best served with them, as Darganth didn't know the individual ogres. This was also why he had only imbued the enchantment into the daggers, as he didn't want to risk a permanent version of the enchantment inside them getting into the wrong hands.
With this last part of the preparations then taken care of, the by then rather large group set out toward where Darganth had estimated the mana spring to be. But while the increase in fighting power the ogres' presence offered would be helpful once they arrived there, their large group moved far slower through the lifeless stone desert in which the tribe had made their home.
Part of the reason for this were the wagons that followed near the rear of their disorganized marching formation. Pulled along by an ogre each, they were each fully loaded for one of two purposes.
The first one was to ensure that the target of their hunt couldn't escape and also could be transported afterward. To achieve that, the tribe brought nets, chains, and harpoons along with them on these wagons, each one massive even for the ogres' already large proportions. And though they weren't enchanted, the mana-rich environment at the base of the towering spikes that dotted the landscape allowed any even remotely competent magical smith to create a far better weapon than would be possible without mana.
By slamming his own magical energy into the mana that was trapped in the unrefined ore, they could force it to fuse with the metal and strengthen it in the process. Not to the extent that it had turned into or was rivaling the magical metals like Mythril or Adamant, but enough that it would still be able to resist the physical might of a mythical rank beast.
The second and larger group of wagons was meanwhile filled with supplies. In part, this was meant to keep the ravenous ogres in line and focused on the task. Their more important purpose, however, was to keep the feral beasts that flanked the columns of wagons on both sides fed and obedient.
Tamed by the ogres either through the abundance of food they could offer, because they were raised by the tribe from a young age, or simply kept in line with threats of physical force, these creatures were both weapons and sources of pride for the tribe. In turn, handling or riding them into battle were positions of great honor among all ogre tribes that could afford to keep beasts, granting not just great social standing but also giving an ogre a chance for one of the highly coveted animal-bond evolutions.
But with this honor also came a great deal of responsibility, both for the ogres handling the beasts and for the tribe as a whole. For the former, this was because the loss of their beast due to neglect or death in battle was a great shame. So while an ogre whose beast passed away due to old age or because it grew too strong for the tribe to keep sustaining would have their achievement honored long past their death, an ogre who lost a beast would be an outcast in the tribe and typically only have a chance to redeem themselves if they managed to capture a new beast on their own.
Similarly, the loss of too many beasts in a tribe was a sign of weakness to other ogres. And though that wasn't a concern for the tribe Darganth's group was traveling with as they had no rival groups of their kin, that didn't mean such an event wouldn't be without consequences. From tracking prey to brawls with creatures who surpass even an ogre's monstrous physical strength, there were many aspects of hunts that such tamed beasts made easier.
As such, Darganth had at first been surprised when he had seen how many beasts were accompanying them. Taming even the most animalistic feral beast was difficult, something that only got worse with the more intelligent ones. That meant that, in stark contrast to the ogres of the tribe who could reproduce quickly as long as they had enough food and who'd throw themselves into near-certain death for the chance of glory, losses among the tamed beasts weren't easily replaced.
Initially, he had also been worried that the feral beasts might become troublesome once the terrain changed, as they lacked the innate transformation capabilities that normal beasts gained upon reaching the mythic rank, but that worry quickly alleviated itself.
Having marched the entire night, they arrived at their crossing point over the mountains at noon the next day. But unlike the narrow and winding paths they had taken on their way toward the ogres' camp, here Darganth's group found themselves before a canyon that cut the mountain range in two.
Through this gap, Darganth could also see the marshy swamp that lay beyond. Formed from the overflowing water that streamed down the mountain range, it flooded the edge of the adjacent forest. This was in fact the exact same forest that Darganth and his group had traveled through two days earlier, with it stretching along the mountain range for a significant portion of its width.
From there, these numerous small streams of water then merged one by one the further one followed their path away from the mountains. Due to this, just two or three kilometers past the canyon's other end, the marshy terrain that had been in between the individual streams slowly cleared as more water pooled together, ultimately turning into a lake that filled the space in between forest, marshes, and the wide greenery on the other side.
As the ogres then started lifting their wagons on the backs of the tamed beasts, Darganth, Scalladras, and the rest of their group decided to fly ahead. Briefly speaking with the chief to learn that the tribe would move counter-clockwise around the lake, avoiding the forest section in the process, they then rose into the air and made their way toward the river on the opposite lake shore.
"We're just following the river after this, right?" Yldra asked as she landed on a small strip of sandy shore.
"Should be. At least it isn't one of the rivers that flow into one of the towns adjacent to the wilderness, so there are good chances that this is the source none of the explorers before us could find. And as the mana spring isn't here, that would mean the theory that it is at the mouth of the river is probably correct one of the two." Darganth said.
Though she hadn't been the one to ask, Jennia also nodded in response to his confirmation. While she had already known that the mana spring was likely next to a river, only Darganth and Allaire had memorized the maps in more detail. As such, she hadn't been sure before whether this was the river Darganth and the chief had agreed to be the destination for the day.
And with the confirmation that it was, she didn't waste time before sitting down and leaning back.
"How long do you reckon it'll take them to catch up?" She asked a few moments later.
Hearing her, Darganth turned back toward where they had come from. There, he could see ogres struggling against the ever-deepening swamp on their path. Though even the shallow sections went as deep as three meters and the water reached far up their torso, they pushed through. Thanks to their physical strength, even the grasses and other plants that blocked their path and entangled their limbs became little more than annoyances, with only the water pressure affecting their movements. And even then, it only did so barely.
Instead, most of their problems came from the loose, shifting soil below. Regularly, ogres would briefly vanish from Darganth's view as their feet sank into the muddy seabed, causing their heads to dip beneath the surface as they either stumbled forward or just sank straight down.
To add to this, the mix of running water and dense plant life formed great conditions for all manner of life-forms. Combined with the mana rich environment created by the overflowing ambient magical energy from the canyon, this led to the water being filled with swarms of mana attuned creatures.
Though most were weak on their own, at least compared to the ogres as Darganth could sense even the occasional third rank amid them, their numbers and terrain advantage meant that at least the common ogre hunters still had to watch out for them. Especially because mixed in among the normal plants, there were a few that had also evolved from the high ambient mana. While it wasn't to the extent that any of them were sentient or could move on their own, though that was possible, the grasses among these were more resilient and didn't all break when the ogres tried to free themselves, causing more than one of them to get stuck under water and be swarmed by creatures until their kin could get them out.
"Depends on the effort they're willing to expend. At the current pace, I'd say two hours, but I'm gonna guess that they're already organizing a group of everyone with a useful earth element power."
With these words, Darganth joined Jennia and sat down, with the rest of their group joining them to also pass the time. Waiting to see how accurate his prediction was, they talked and occasionally glanced up toward the ogres until, a little bit over an hour later, the tribe's hunters arrived where they were.
Seeing the ogre being exhausted from a full day of marching and their trek through the swamp, Darganth couldn't help but groan in response to their arrival. But despite his best hope, it soon became clear that they wouldn't manage to continue their journey before the next morning. This was only further confirmed when the chief made his way toward them, or more accurately Scalladras, soon after. As such, they had a moment to discuss it among themselves, leading to only a short discussion with the chief before they relented and agreed to the delay.