None of them could hide their curiosity as they waited on the hero's reply—they wondered what sort of sophisticated method the hero was going to employ.
But it was quite the opposite of what they expected.
"We should not step onto the bridge until tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we should come up with ways to make nose masks to shield our noses from inhaling the everlasting crimson fog."
Alister responded, causing silence to prevail over the gathering for a short while.
"At night, the chances of us facing corrupted humans are really high. Corrupted humans are basically corpses—they cannot be affected by the hallucinogenic content of the crimson fog. Since they only attack at night, we should go by morning."
Alister explained.
The eyes of the crew brightened in realization.
"I can't promise these masks will block all the crimson fog, but some protection is better than none."
Silence continued for a few seconds after he was done explaining, as the crew began to realize how effective the simple method the hero had suggested was to their current predicament.
"This is brilliant," King Julian said. "How did we never think of this?"
Back in the Muzez Kingdom, both his advisors and the True Light Wizards had spent long, exhausting hours racking their brains yet still failed to devise any viable solution to prevent the calamities at the bridge. Even with more than enough time on their hands, they could not produce an effective plan.
And yet, this hero, who had only learned the bridge's true nature less than an hour earlier, managed to propose a simple but genuinely brilliant plan that no one else had conceived.
"We should start with the preparation now," Alister prompted.
The crew nodded in agreement.
The crew ventured back a little bit inside Darkwood Forest to set up an encampment for the night, as staying in plain sight would be more disastrous.
After they were done setting up tents, the wizard pulled out enough fabric from his spatial pouch for the crew to make nose masks from.
However, there was an issue—no one knew how to actually make an effective nose mask, and they had no needle or thread available.
The crew turned to Alister, who appeared to be lost, calmly staring at the beautiful evening sky. They brought his attention back to their current situation.
"You don't need needle and thread to make these masks."
Alister lectured them, he took the long yard of fabric and summoned his sword. With the blade of his sword, he cut out square pieces—each the size of a handkerchief.
The crew stared at him curiously, waiting for him to perform some miracle with the ordinary-looking clothing piece—but there were none.
Alister took the piece he had cut out and distributed it to the crew.
They could only stare at the ordinary piece of clothing in their hands which looked nothing more than an ordinary handkerchief.
"How is this going to prevent us from inhaling the fog?"
One of them asked curiously while staring at the ordinary fabric, but he got no verbal response.
"Hero, we're confused. How is this supposed to help us?"
Theobald asked politely.
"Fold them like this."
Alister stood up and demonstrated—he folded the simple piece of handkerchief into a triangle. Then he brought the folded fabrics up to his nose, placing the bigger side of it over his nose and tying it to his face with the two tiny ends.
The crew followed after his demonstration and did the same. They were pretty amazed by how simple it was and how effective it was.
The place they set their camp stank a little bit, but with the fabrics wrapped around their noses, they smelled nothing but fresh air. It was as though the mask filtered out the bad particles of the air—the realization was followed with compliments to the hero.
A few minutes passed and nighttime finally arrived. The sky was dark, only the lonesome moon hanging provided a dim glow over the quiet, dangerous world.
At that moment, several campfires had been set by the crew. Soldiers could be seen sitting around them, holding their food over it for it to warm.
The encampment was busy and noisy: crackles of wood burning, sounds of insects and birds singing, as well as the noise of the soldiers discussing, filled the area with a cacophony of sounds.
At the royal camp, the major members of the encampment held a meeting over dinner. Their discussions were mainly elaborations of their plans so far.
Thanks to their meeting, they were able to touch certain parts of their plans once again and fix the flaws in those plans thanks to the ideas of the hero.
For example, Alister suggested they leave the horses behind while crossing the bridge.
His suggestion was first met with concerns and worries—none of them thought it would be a good idea to complete the rest of the journey on foot considering how long it was. Even Alister thought the same.
However, his reasons were that—the everlasting crimson fog would affect the horses and they would misbehave. They might even become rageful creatures and knock the soldiers off the bridge into its belly.
Also, crossing such a dangerous bridge with horses even without the everlasting fog was a bad idea.
Placing his reasons right after his suggestion, he convinced them to let go of their only means of mobility.
Their discussions went on for several minutes before they left the royal tent.
Alister and Theobald decided to stand guard over the encampment while the others had their rest. Both of them took turns—theobald patrolled for the first half of the night while Alister took care of the final hours.
While patrolling, Alister interacted with his system to spend his time more effectively. He learnt about certain components of the system and even tried convincing the system to tell him about its origin—of course it didn't divulge any.
Several hours passed and the night sky began to brighten bit by bit, signifying the natural invasion of a bright morning.
WHISTLE!
Alister was strolling back to his camp when he saw a rainbow-colored bird, about the size of an eagle, flew by and let out a loud, strange-sounding whistle—the same one that woke him up yesterday.
The whistle from the rainbow-colored bird woke up the encampment as usual.
The soldiers proceeded out of their tents, stretching and yawning while exchanging greetings.
Theobald came out of his tent which was beside Alister's. He gave the hero a small salute before instructing the soldiers to start preparing for today's journey.
The preparation was hurried. They had to start crossing the bridge and ensure to finish crossing before nighttime.
Breakfast was prepared and eaten in a hurry and the soldiers geared up as fast as they could.
In less than thirty minutes, the crew was set to proceed onto the feared bridge of the south.