Chapter 12: Dante's Great Forest

"Are you better, Mrs. Anabiela?" Floriana asked giving the woman a glass of water before so tearful.

"I am, forgive this pitiful scene." Ana said rubbing the sleeves of her shirt over her face and smearing makeup on both of them.

"Fine, the important thing is that it made you feel better." The cat said with a sincere smile before asking "Want to talk about it?"

"There's a lot I'd like to say, but better not." The blonde averted her gaze to the ground staring at her feet as if they were more important than the adventurer beside her.

The feline didn't insist on the matter any longer, that would be insensitive of her. She had never lost an important family member, or even a friend who loved her dearly. She couldn't even imagine what her boss felt at that moment.

Naná had not lost anyone, she was mourning the hero himself, the savior of free peoples. Flor could only imagine how incredible it must have been for the other to fight alongside that man.

Unfortunately, no matter how excited she got to talk about the deceased, it would only cause more heartache to do so and so she had to change the subject. Work could even be a good distraction for the Guild Master.

There were many problems to be solved by that institution, especially considering the fact that they were the guild of Alighieri, the most important city in the Duchy of Sugran. Problems arose from all sides at all times for Anabiela to solve, so there was no lack of things to distract herself.

Thinking about it, the feline looked at some of the sheets on the table looking for a subject that aroused interest. There were complaints about the lack of security of border villages, requests for monster extermination, letters from the Grand Duke (which she definitely wasn't allowed to read), and reports of smuggling through Dante's Forest.

The smuggling problem!!

"So, since we're going to work today."

"You don't have to stay here, you can go home."

"No no, I'm worried about drug smuggling." Floriana lied as she donned a mask of concern. "Do we know anything yet?"

The blonde first mumbled some bad words, thinking about that problem incited hatred in her chest. Nights were lost trying to solve that problem and many lives were thrown away in an attempt to solve it.

She drummed her fingers on the table showing her impatience as she stared at her papers without really reading them.

"Apparently they use the forest to get these drugs into the country."

"The forest?!" The cat said incredulously and because of that feeling she asked again "Dante's Great Forest?"

"Yes." Was all the other said before moving on to rummaging through some leaves on the wood. She found the one she was looking for and spoke again "Risky of course, we are talking about the most dangerous place in the southern region of the entire Red Continent."

"But?"

"But it's such a large area of land that five countries border it. Using the forest that has no surveillance from any nation, it's easy to transport things through it that shouldn't be seen." Anabiela spoke in one breath, her huge breasts pressing into her shirt as soon as she was breathing again and Flor was sure she saw a button loosen by itself.

"But which one do they come from?" The feline asked, bending over and resting her elbows on the table.

"I don't know, it's not like we can send adventurers out there in droves and everyone we send... never came back."

"If our adventurers can't do it, how can the smugglers do it?" The adventurer from her own experience knew how deadly the southern tip of the continent was.

Dante's forest, territory never fully explored or mapped by any man. It receives this title because it is the name of the person responsible for the oldest record found on that land.

A geographer and writer who disappeared with an expedition party a few centuries earlier. Later, a group of adventurers found writing materials in the hands of mountain trolls and among them a torn piece of what was supposed to be a letter written by the geographer with only one legible sentence.

'O you who enter here, abandon all hope'

Attempts to go deeper have never been successful. The further into the center of that inferno, the more deadly he became.

They knew that on the edges lived goblins, slimes, kobolds among other weaker species. Even if they didn't explore deep into the woods, it was common knowledge that orcs, goblins, and trolls lived more in the center.

This was known, as these larger species ventured with unfortunate constancy outside their homelands, raiding human villages that made easy targets.

And what dwelt even further in the center? Nobody knew, maybe they never would.

"It could be a newly discovered safe route, it could be that they have some silver rank adventurer strong enough to protect the goods. I just don't know." The Guild Master admitted with regret in an exhausted sigh. "I rule out the possibility of any gold-class adventurers being involved, there are only a few hundred in the world and I doubt they would be risking their lives in a forest instead of making a name for themselves."

"Who knows? Peacetime is making the silver class and above kind of useless." And Floriana was grateful that she wasn't one of them.

It was difficult to stand out in the field she chose for her life. Most guild members would never surpass bronze class, which was something special in itself. Members of this group could handle medium-ranked monsters and were known to have the strength and skill of dozens of ordinary people.

For them, the silver class would be just a distant dream. Silver adventurers, as they were also known, could fight mid-rank monsters without difficulty and perform well against high-rank monsters. According to the popular saying, "A hundred bronze coins don't shine brighter than a silver one."

Those in the gold class, on the other hand, were known to have the strength of a hundred men and be able to make the main difference in a battle. Only the strongest monsters posed a threat to them. The rarity of its members was so great that fame and glory would be guaranteed to whoever reached that class.

Finally there were the unofficial classes, diamond and mithril. The diamond class wasn't official since those strong enough to be in it didn't tend to be adventurers. They were so strong that they made their careers leading armies into battle, facing deadly calamities and monsters so powerful they could threaten their countries. Rumors spread among the people told that a diamond could face a thousand men alone.

Flor has only seen one of this supposed class in her entire life, the woman in front of her.

And the mithril class, well, it didn't exist.

"So much power is kind of useless without wars, of course there's always an extermination mission, monsters appear like plagues, at least they fuck with the capacity of one." The cat spoke with disgust as she remembered those she had already faced.

The continent was still mostly unexplored, caves and forests scattered across the countries hid unimaginable terrors.

"The Grand Duke won't like this when he gets back, meeeeoow." The feline commented with a big yawn at the end.

"He already doesn't like it." She answered the blonde taking what Flor knew were letters from him and putting them in a drawer.

"I heard that the hero's son is with him, ah!" The cat almost screamed at the end when she realized what was said and unconsciously covered her mouth.

"Ha, it's okay Floriana." The boss said as she laughed at the comical scene. "I'm not going to start crying just by you saying his name, but I appreciate your concern."

"I'm sorry I talk about him all the time, it's just that I feel so much admiration!!" The adventurer counted almost jumping on the table with so much excitement.

"Yeah, you and a lot of other people." Anabiela said with a small and strangely sad smile, an expression soon replaced by a big excited smile. "Did I mention when we faced the swamp witch, ¹Cuca?"

"No!" And the woman almost jumped into the other's lap eager to hear a good story.

Floriana never saw the sadness in the blonde's blue eyes, a pain that contrasted with the fake smile used as a mask. The cat woman only thought about the great adventure she would hear.

The whole matter involving Dante's Great Forest was slowly being forgotten during that day, they could take care of it later of course. So they continued their afternoon, not imagining that the greatest horror of their lives would come out of that forest in the not too distant future.