A Forest Trip

(A/N: New cover art! It isn't my art, I just altered it in Photoshop. Art belongs to: Zainora Arts. But yeah, long chap.)

(POV: Zefrow)

After what felt like an hour or so, the little elf girl finally settled down. I knew she would shut up eventually, but damn it took a long ass time. But I mean who could blame her; being forcibly kidnapped would cause trauma even for adults, even more since she was only a little bit older than me, or rather my body I should say.

As Arthur sat down next to her, comforting her, or at least trying to, I realized how strange the situation was. Two four-year-old boys, who were strangers to each other, rescuing a kidnapped elf from a band of slave traders. People would think this is the type of wild events that would only appear within fairy tales. And they wouldn't be far off.

"W-What happened to those bad guys?" the little girl sniffled, her voice coming out a bit nasally.

Even though I could simply just tell her what truly happened to those "bad guys," I decided to stay true to my plan and let Arthur handle most of the dialogue.

"Er...they ran into a very unfortunate accident," said Arthur.

'Well damn, you're not wrong.' I thought.

She studied the hesitant expression on Arthur's face with the raise of a brow, only to look back down and whisper, "Serves them right."

I could tell Arthur was looking over her features, but not in a pedophile type of way. Simply examining and observing. I mean guess I couldn't blame him. Tessia did have the features to grow into quite the beauty. Long gunmetal hair, a pair of gleaming teal eyes shaped like rounded almonds and a perky nose.

'It's quite the catch Arthur. Fitting for the protagonist.'

Arthur helped her up to her feet before speaking again.

"Those people that tried to kidnap you aren't going to chase you anymore. That being said, do you think you can make it to your home by yourself?" Asked Arthur.

Instantly, her eyes retracted in fear as a panicked expression spread throughout the rest of her face. As tears swelled up and both her hands clenched tightly to Arthur's shirt, even an infant would be able to tell what her answer was through her actions. 'Did Arthur seriously think she was going to say yes?'

"Look, we need to get home, too." Arthur gestured towards me. "Aren't elves generally safe in this forest?" Arthur let out a sigh, trying to pry her fingers from his shirt.

She violently shook her head, much like a dog drying itself, and rebutted, "Beasts are only scared of adults...Parents warned me that children will get eaten by hounds or tree golems."

Arthur rubber the bridge of his nose, no doubt trying to come up with a sl=olution for all of this. While I was leaning on a tree a couple feet away.

"Hey help me out will you?" Said Arthur as he started pacing towards me.

"No you got it. I trust your judgment," I responded.

"You trust my judgment? We've barely introduced ourselves and you trust my judgment? Arthur said as he looked at me dead in the eyes, his expression practically speaking for him: 'you're lying.'

He started pacing back to Tessia, once again rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"How long does it take to get to where you live from here?" Asked Arthur.

"..."

'Solid answer.'

Tessia tugged on Arthur's shirt once again as she looked down and admitted, "...I don't know."

Arthur after a couple minutes of thinking decided to help her back home. I agreed to his decision, and with that we started our little journey to the Elven Kingdom of Elenoir.

According to Arthur, The Kingdom of Elenoir was quite a long ways north, so our only hope, or rather his only hope was that there would be a teleportation gate there that could take him back to somewhere in Sapin. Which wasn't the case, though he didn't know that.

Ever since Arthur and I had liberated Tessia from her "imprisonment," her and I hadn't traded a word. Nor had we made eye contact, and I decided to keep it that way, at least for the time being.

Arthur instructed the elf girl to wait inside the carriage while we gathered some necessities; the main reason being, we agreed we didn't want her to see the mangled carasses of the slave traders. In the end we could only find one backpack small enough for Arthur to carry.

I looked at Arthur, in a way signalling him. "Let's head out now," said Arthur, trying to sound more enthusiastic for the sake of Tessia.

"Eh!" She nodded, hopping out of the carriage as he led her away from the carriage.

***

Along the way I learned once again about the elf girl known as Tessia Eralith. Even though I knew all the information she was sharing, I tried my best to act as if I was taking in the information for the first time. I also started to slightly speak to Tessia, making sure she was somewhat warming up to me in a sense. After a little bit of time, Arthur and I introduced ourselves by name to Tessia. I simply said my name and nothing more.

After quite a while, I noticed the sun starting to set as well as the fog thickening which reminded me of my uncompleted daily quest. 'Shit I forgot.'

"Hey, we should set up the tent here, the fog is thickening," I said, Arthur nodded in agreement.

After setting up the tent to the best of our abilities, Arthur took out a couple of dried rations and handed some to me and the girl.

"Thanks," I said, nonchalantly.

"...Thank you very much." She gave a sight bow.

"You know, you don't have to be so polite to me. I am younger than you and I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you weren't so on-edge," replied Arthur, his cheeks full of dried food.

"O-okay, I'll try!" She let out a shy smile as she held back a chuckle.

I leaned in next to Arthur and whispered, "I need to go out and do a little bit of exercise, it helps me sleep." I lied.

He looked at me with a confused expression. "No, are you crazy? What about the beasts out there?"

"It's just a jog and a couple push-ups. I'll be back in a couple minutes. You can hold the fort down while I'm gone, can't you?" A slight smirk formed on my face.

"I would say no again, but who am I to tell you what you can and can't do," replied Arthur.

'Quite grown up of you.' I got up on my feet and stretched out my arms. "Alright, I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Don't die."

"Yeah, you too." Arthur sighed, and after a couple of seconds I was gone.

'This should leave time for them to talk and get to know each other, while I do what I can to not get transported to a desert.

***

'Tti-ring.'

[Total distance ran: 10km.]

[You've completed running, 10km.]

[You've completed 'Daily Quest: Preparations to become strong'.]

[Completion rewards have arrived.]

[Would you like to confirm?] (Y/N)

A satisfied smile showed on my sweaty face, 'Yes.'

[The following rewards are available.]

Reward 1. Full recovery of the current physical condition

Reward 2. Three additional Stat points

Reward 3. One random box

[Would you like to collect them all?]

'Confirm.'

My body was getting more and more used to the Dail Quest, so using status recovery after completing the quest was no longer necessary, I could now keep it for later, for better use.

'Tti-ring.'

[Level up!]

'I leveled up huh? We're in the double digits now.'

'Stat Window.'

Name: Zefrow

Level: 10

Class: None

Title: Gravedigger

HP: 1045

MP: 118

Fatigue: 30%

[Stat]

Strength: 34

Stamina: 31

Agility: 31

Intelligence: 31

Perception: 32

(Available points to distribute: 3)

[Skills]

Passive skills:

- Tenacity Lv. 1

Active skills:

- Dash Lv. 1

- Intimidation Lv. 1

'One point in Stamina, Agility, and Intelligence.'

[Stat]

Strength: 34

Stamina: 32

Agility: 32

Intelligence: 32

Perception: 32

(Available points to distribute: 0)

As I started trying to make my way back, thoughts about me killing the two men back at the carriage surfaced in my mind. 'Oh that's right, the penalty quest was never issued.'

After thinking on this a little more, I speculated that the reason for the emergency quest not popping up was due to me killing the targets immediately. Therefore the quest wasn't needed, or just didn't have enough time to emerge. But I could be wrong.

Within a couple minutes I was back to our small campsite. Arthur was posted up on a tree overseeing the campsite and everything in near proximity. Or at least he was trying to, as the thickened fog no doubt made it hard for him.

"That was well over a "couple of minutes,"" Arthur spoke out, quoting my previous statement.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I got lost within the fog. It's really hard to see, let alone tell my left from right."

"That's why I didn't want you to go out, but whatever," Arthur added, trying to prove a point.

"I know, I know. Anyway, where's Tessia?" I asked even though I knew she was sleeping or possibly waiting in the tent Arthur was guarding.

"In the tent," he replied, descending from the tree he was posted on. "We should get some sleep, it's been a long day"

"Yeah," I agreed.

As we both entered the tent, I spotted the elf girl holding onto herself tightly like a ball. She was caught by surprise and let out a small yelp. "Arthu-" she cut herself off as she spotted me making my way in. "Hi... Arthur said you went out for a run, d-did you make it back ok?" She asked in a shy manner and tone.

"Yes, I'm fine," I replied as I slowly moved myself to the farther corner away from her. Her face brightened as she set her eyes on Arthur entering the tent behind me.

I could simply teleport myself to the kamui dimension and sleep there, but that would leave the two soon-to-be love birds alone, and they would probably be worried about me. So therefore, I decided to stay in the same tent as them.

'So far everything seems to be in order.' I thought to myself as I got my body in a resting position.

***

I was the first one to wake up. I noticed Tessia's head on Arthur's lap, her body curled up comfortably. With them both still soundly asleep, I decided to go on look out and make sure nothing was going to attack us.

While I was looking over the tent I started doing my daily quest, deciding to save the 10km run for later, as I didn't want to leave the tent unguarded. As I finished my squats, I heard a faint sound from the tent, so I decided to go check it out.

"Tessia, we should head out now," whispered Arthur. Upon hearing him talk, I peeked my head through the tent making Tessia twitch in response. "Morning," I said in a relaxed manner.

"You know, for a second I thought you left us," Arthur's brows were slightly furrowed.

"No no, just keeping a lookout from above," I raised my hand, my finger pointing up.

"Right, right. Anyway, we should take down the tent and get moving."

"Yeah, the faster the better," I agreed. We began packing everything up before resuming our journey.

***

Almost two more days had passed by fairly uneventfully, the only things I was doing was my daily quest and hunting small mana beasts, using them as dagger and kamui practice. Whenever using mana, I always tried to hide my abilities the best I could. Sometimes killing beats slightly away from Arthur and Tessia so that they couldn't see me.

Continuing our trip, everything seemed to be going ok. But out of nowhere, Arthur seemed to be in deep pain.

'Right. This should be around the time Arthur begins to feel the aches from his mana core.' I thought. I could see from his face that the pain had disappeared soon after, but I knew it was only going to get worse. It was night time and I had just finished my 10km run, Arthur was waiting for me to return. After I showed up, we both went inside the already setup tent.

Night passed.

The conversations between Tessia and Arthur were beginning to become more natural and open. Tessia was also slowly but surely warming up to me even though I was somewhat keeping my distance, but that wasn't a problem as she seemed to be fully clinging to Arthur.

Over the trip I continued to guard us from mana beast and Arthur continued to get the occasional pains from Sylvia's beast will, Tessia started to worry about him but he denied her claims about him not being ok. He asked me to help convince her so I tried my best, but she seemed like she still didn't believe him or me.

One morning of the fifth day of our trip, I had decided to fully complete my daily quest now rather than later. I would run in front of the tent in circles until the 10km would be done.

After completing my daily quest I thought about how I should distribute my points.

'Stat Window.' I said in my head.

Name: Zefrow

Level: 10

Class: None

Title: Gravedigger

HP: 1045

MP: 118

Fatigue: 10%

[Stat]

Strength: 35

Stamina: 35

Agility: 35

Intelligence: 35

Perception: 34

(Available points to distribute: 3)

[Skills]

Passive skills:

- Tenacity Lv. 1

Active skills:

- Dash Lv. 1

- Intimidation Lv. 1

'One point in Strength, two in perception.'

[Stat]

Strength: 36

Stamina: 35

Agility: 35

Intelligence: 35

Perception: 36

'Nice.'

After clearing out the campsite and getting back on the move, Arthur asked Tessia, "Can you tell how far we are from Elenoir now, Tessia?"

Her elongated ears twitched as she began surveying her surroundings. Suddenly, she ran to a particular crooked tree and ran her fingers over the trunk. A few minutes of silence went by before she came, visibly excited.

"That tree is the one I used to come to with my Grandfather sometime! I remember carving my name into the trunk of the tree when he wasn't looking. We're not too far anymore! I think that if we quicken our pace a little bit, we'll be able to make it by tonight!" she said, pointing to the tree.

'Thank goodness.' I thought.

"Sounds good," answered Arthur, following behind her.

"Arthur? You said your family and the people close to you called you Art. I feel that, through this journey, I have gotten close enough to call you that as well." We were crossing a stream atop a moss-covered log bridge when she suddenly stopped. "So...can I call you Art as well?" Tessia turned around, revealing a wide smile.

"Hmm? Sure, I don't mind," said Arthur, returning a smile.

"You 'don't mind'? Tch, you could sound a bit more enthusiastic…" she sucked her tongue out at Arthur. I was starting to feel like I was third wheeling, which in this situation I didn't mind.

"I would be honored to be called Art by you, your highness," Arthur bowed.

"Hehe, and you may also have the honor of calling me Tess," she giggled.

She then switched her attention to me. My face, straight as a board. "And you too Zefrow. Is there a nickname that your family calls you?

"No." I blatantly answered.

"Hmnnn," She looked as if the gears in her head were turning at maximum efficiency. "Zefrow, Zefrow, Zefrow…" at that moment I could almost see a lightbulb beaming above her head.

She looked up at me, "I've got it...Zef"

"Zef?" Arthur repeated what Tessia said.

"Yes. "Zef,"" that can be your nickname from now on, if you are ok with it.

"No."

"Oh come on, pleaseee!" Arthur chuckled at Tessia's puppy-like actions.

Seeing as she wasn't going to budge, I sucked up my pride, "Fine, but don't go around shouting about my "nickname.""

"Ok-Ok." She smiled brightly, "And you may also have the honor of calling me Tess." She turned around with a satisfied look on her face.

"Yeah, ok."

We continued on the rest of the day, with only a few quick stops to rest ourselves and replenish our stomachs.

It was dusk now and the fog around us seemed to be getting thicker. And without my sharingans activated, my sense of direction was all but useless.

Tess suddenly turned around to us, her face a mixture of happiness and hesitation before she muttered, "We're here."

'Finally.' I sighed.

Looking around, the only things visible were clusters of trees and fog. I saw Tess placing both her palms on a tree, muttering a chant.

Suddenly, the fog around us was sucked into the sme tree and what came into vision was a giant wooden door that seemed to be propped up by itself on the ground.

Tess grabbed both our hands and pulled us towards the door. When she opened it, I was reminded of the portal Sylvia had put Arthur and I through. As we softly landed on our feet, arriving at our destination, I saw Arthur immediately rummage through his bag. He soon after looked up and took in the same scenery I was seeing.

'It's beautiful.'

Seeing it through the comic was one thing, but seeing it through my own eyes, feeling it through my own body, it was something completely different.

While Arthur and I stood, slaw-jawed, still processing the world around us, a shadow whizzed in front of us suddenly, jolting Arthut and I awake.

Tess wasn't holding onto my hand anymore as I had shaken off her grip, but Arthur was still caught by her when a group of guards arrived out of nowhere. These elven warriors all dressed in coordinated black suits with green trimmings and a golden shoulder guard on their left shoulder.

From what I could remember, I believed Arthur was not able to sense their aura, but that was not the case for me. I could sense their aura, or at least some of it.

The guards ignored both Arthur and I's presence as they suddenly kneeled in front of Tess in unison. "We welcome back the royal princess."

"..."

Of course, I wasn't shocked as I already knew, but that wasn't the same for Arthur. His gaze flicked back and forth between the guards and Tess.

"You may rise," Tess' voice was almost unrecognisable.

They stood up with their right fists still crossing their chests when the knight in front spoke. "Princess, we arrived as soon as we saw that the royal teleportation gate had been used. The King and Queen are…"

Before he could finish speaking, I heard a cry not too far away.

"My baby! Tessia, you're okay! Oh, my baby!"

Running towards us was a middle-aged man and woman. 'The King and Queen.'

The mother's cheeks were lined with tears as the father had a tense expression that looked like he was holding back tears as well.

Arthur let go of Tessia's hand and gently pushed her towards her parents.

Tess landed in the arms of her parents and they started sobbing uncontrollably.

The last to arrive was an old man well past his prime, a man that I was quite familiar with. 'Virion.' He didn't say anything, but his eyes did warm up a little when he saw Tessia.

It took several minutes for Tess and her parents to settle down. In the meantime, the guards were glaring daggers at both me and Arthur. Even Virion was eyeing us curiously.

The King finally stood up and while his eyes were red, he still carried an air of dignity. "As the King of Elenoir and the father of Tessia, I must apologize for this unsightly appearance of mine and more importantly, I wish to thank you for escorting my daughter back home safely. Please accompany us to our home so that you both may rest. After, you can tell us what happened.

We simply nodded in consent. Tess came to Arthur and grabbed his hand again, filling the surrounding people with expressions of shock.

As we started making our way to the carriage, I heard screams coming our way.

"Our babies! Have you-have you seen them, Princess Tessia?" An elven woman shouted our way as she ran towards us, accompanied by a male figure who I guess to be her husband.

The guards blocked the way of the two coming at us. "Please! Our babies! We told you about them! That one day, th-they got lost and we haven't seen them since! Please, Ezra! Evelyn! Have you seen them, Princess?!" The woman couldn't stop her crying and shouting as she broke down to the ground. Her husband came to her side, giving her a hug.

Upon hearing the names of the children the couple was looking for, I could only freeze in place. Guilt completely washed over me as I stood still, wide-eyed. 'Ezra, Evelyn…

...it seems I have found your family.

....Perhaps I will be able to give them closure.'

The husband looked up, true pain in his soulless eyes. "Have you? Hav-have you seen her?"

Tessia loosened herself from her father and mother's grip, she came closer face to face to the despaired couple. "I am truly sorry, Mister and Missus Voland, but I have not encountered your lost children. Once again, I am truly sorry, I hope only the best for you, and that your Ezra and Evelyn find their way home. The look on Tessia's face was full of empathy and sympathy.

'As much as I want to speak to them now, I will have to explain the Tessia situation to the royal family first, and then when I have free time, go and have a talk with them. The Voland family.'

The despair on their faces only seemed to grow and grow. "I understand...thank you Princess Tessia," the woman bowed, soon after burying her tear-covered face in her shaking hands.

***

After a strenuously awkward ride that seemed a lot longer than it actually had been, we arrived at the castle.

Arthur and I had agreed that we would rather tell them what had happened as soon as we arrived and then rest later.

We all situated around the rectangular dining table downstairs. Arthur and I were sitting right next to each other, parallel to the Elven Royal Family and guards.

With both his elbows resting on the table, fingers intertwined, the king was the first to speak. "Children. What did you say your names were?"

"Forgive me for the late introduction. My name is Arthur Leywin, and I come from a remote town in the Kingdom of Sapin. A pleasure to make your acquaintance King, Queen, Elderm and gentlemen." Arthur stood up and bowed slightly at each of them individually before sitting back down.

Both the King and Queen as well as the guards in the back showed evident looks of surprise from Arthur's mature behavior. Virion had an amused smirk on his face.

Everyone in the room then switched their undivided attention to me, waiting for my introduction. I stood up, I knew everyone was expecting me to bow, but I decided against it and simply stood. "Hello, my name is Zefrow. It's a pleasure to meet you all." I sat down. Even though I found nothing wrong with the way I introduced myself, the annoyed expressions of the guards proved they thought otherwise.

After clearing his throat, the king spoke once again. "It seems you two are much more mature than your age. Forgive me for assuming. My name is Alduin Eralith and this is my wife, Merial Eralith and my father Virion Eralith. As for what happened, please tell us. We would like to hear your side of the story.

Arthur looked at me, I gestured for him to go first.

Clearing his throat, Arthur began telling the story. He was vague in how he and I came to meet and everything after that, which I definitely preferred. I told them that I simply got lost in the forest, similar to Arthur, but something told me that they didn't fully believe me.

Inevitably, Arthur had to tell them we were mages. I would have rather him tell them only about him being a mage, but since Tessia saw me killing beasts it was going to happen one way or another. This was followed by another wave of looks of utter disbelief from everyone.

One of the guards told Arthur he was a liar and to prove that he was actually a mage when unexpectedly, Viron shut him down. "I can tell that you are a mage. But you," he slightly pointed at me, "prove yourself."

"..."

'Damn it.'

I stood up and demonstrated the mana blade technique I had learned from Arthur. The King, Queen, and guards were wide-eyed, but not Tessia or Virion.

"Hmnnn," Virion caressed his beard. He gestured to Arthur, "Go on."

Arthur quickly moved on, telling them how he and I had spotted a carriage and observed them carrying a tied up child into the back of a carriage before going off.

'Here it comes.'

The King slammed both his hands on the table, his eyes narrowed into a menacing glare.

"I should've known it was humans…"

Arthur corrected his mildly racist comment and said, "They were slave traders. Them and bandits alike prey on not just elves, but humans as well, speaking as a victim myself."

'Well said Arthur, well said.' A quick flashback of when I had gotten kidnapped surfaced my thoughts.

Arthur then asked about what caused Tessia or "the Princess" to be left alone outside.

"Luckily, we had caught the slave traders by surprise and managed to dispose of them before untying the princess and escorting her here," continued Arthur.

"So two four-year-olds managed to 'luckily' kill off four adults, one being an augmenter at that, and you simply wave it off like it's no big deal," chimes in the Virion seated across from Tessia.

"Yes. Half of them were asleep and the two were simply not on guard so disposing of them was not too challenging," I spoke up, lying about them being asleep.

Virion's eyes slightly widened, followed by a lazy shrug of his shoulders.

After finishing the events, Arthur asked what he came here for. "As I have mentioned, it has been almost two months since I have seen my parents. I do not plan to intrude on your Kingdom for long as I wish to meet them quickly, so I was wondering if you guys had a teleportation gate that could take me to the City of Xyrus or anywhere inside Sapin."

"You're going to leave already, Art?!" Tessia shot up from her seat, face stricken with panic.

"Are you going to leave too, Zef-I mean Zefrow?" Tessia swung her face towards me.

Virion shot a snide grin at this and chuckled, rocking his chair.

"I don't think it's appropriate for humans such as ourselves to be inside this Kingdom for too long, Princess. Besides, I wish to make sure that my family is safe and tell them I'm ok as well," Answered Arthur with a sheepish smile.

"He's right, Princess," I added.

The King responded back. "It has been a couple hundred years since the last human has stepped foot into this Kingdom of Elenoir and you two, Arthur, Zefrow, are the first humans to be in the capital of this Kingdom, the city of Zestier. However, saving our daughter and taking the trouble to accompany her all the way back to us entitles you with a proper reward…"

"...Unfortunately, the teleportation gate linked with the Kingdom of Sapin opens only once every seven years, for the Summit Conference between the three races. Since the last Summit was two years ago, it'll be another five years until the gate will function," the King continued.

Arthur let out a deep breath of disappointment.

"However, we are more than willing to send a group of guards to escort you back to your respected homes," the king gestured to both Arthur and I. "You are correct that it may not be wise to stay in this Kingdom for too long. While some are tolerant, many hold animosity towards humans because of the war long ago." He showed a brief sorrowful smile.

We nodded in agreement.

"For now, please make yourselves at home here. We will have your escorts prepared by tomorrow morning. I don't advise you not to wander around outside in the city though, for the reasons mentioned earlier."

Soon after, two elf ladies in maid uniforms rushed out and led us to our separate rooms.

***

The room I was led to was the same as Arthur's. Down to the design and furniture.

While I really wanted to take a shower, there was a more important topic in mind. After finally being left alone, I had time for myself, and there was something I needed to check out before speaking to the family of Ezra and Evelyn.

'Kamui.' I teleported my entire body to the kamui dimension. I wanted to get out of the Kingdom of Elenoir because of a matter I needed answers to. I had a theory I needed to test out. And this theory couldn't wait. Leaving through the gate or even asking to leave through the gate wouldn't be the best idea. And seeing that I could teleport back into the kingdom through the use of kamui, this was clearly the best option.

'Kamui.' I teleported my entire body out of the dimension and found myself in the place I had intended to go to. Back outside of the Kingdom, in the Elshire Forest. I immediately found myself near mana beasts.

"Hello," I said, as if the mana beasts could understand me.

"Let's get started," I said, pulling out my daggers from my inventory.

*"SLICE"*

***

My two hearts were beating as I stood on leaves covered by blood, surrounded by corpses of mana beasts.

'It's just as I thought,' my breathing intesified.

Realization started setting in. My body tensed up as nervous thoughts started showering over me. 'Why is this happening? I don't understand.'

My body slightly paled as a cold sweat passed through me leaving my eyes widened.

'I wasn't sure at first, but now...now there was no doubt about it.'

As it felt like I was going to choke on my own clogged up saliva, I forced a gulp to refresh my mouth.

'I...I can't level up.'

***

(A/N: 5k words, and yes, like before a lot of the text is from the novel, just slightly altered. But I hope you still enjoyed the chapter. I know Arthur was speaking for the most part, but I found it natural that Zefrow would try to lay low.

Till next time.)