Chapter 7

The following day...

"Good morning, little dragon," Dryad said as she left her tree body as usual and appeared in front of Elvis, tapping him gently.

"Uhm...good morning," Elvis responded as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Little dragon, I..." Dryad wanted to say something before Elvis cut her off.

"I thought hard last night about what you told me, and I want to go out exploring to know if the legend is true," Elvis told her as he stood up and stared at the clouds.

Dryad smiled and said, "That's great; look at you acting all grown up; you have gotten bigger; you weren't so little when we first met."

When Elvis heard those words, he felt shy before clearing his throat and speaking, "But..."

"Hmm....but what?" she asked.

"I want you to come with me," Elvis said, staring at her green pupils.

"You are a funny little dragon; I can't go with you," she giggled.

"Why?" Elvis asked, feeling disappointed already.

She patted Elvis' head and pointed to her tree, saying, "This tree is my body, and my spirit can't stray far from it; besides, I am the forest guardian."

Elvis felt bad; he has gotten attached to Dryad already, maybe because she was the only one who can communicate with him for now.

Dryad noticed Elvis' sad face, which made her feel down and made her also wish to leave the forest for once and explore the world with him.

"Don't feel sad, little dragon; wait, I have a gift for you," Dryad told the sad-looking Elvis, and she went into her tree.

"Hmm?" Elvis was curious and waited patiently for her to come out.

It didn't take a minute before she came out with a necklace.

"Here, have it." She handed him the necklace.

"What's this?" He asked as he checked the necklace that has a little green pendant.

"It's a good luck charm necklace for your journey."

"Good luck charm?" he asked. "I mean, thanks; I will treasure it with my life." He felt touched that someone cared about him.

"You should get going, little dragon," Dryad hurried Elvis to get going.

"Alright, but first, can you put this on my neck?" Immediately, Elvis said that he noticed Dryad's confused expression, so he showed her his paws, which lack thumbs.

"Oh!" Dryad quickly realized this and helped Elvis put on the necklace.

"Now get going already," she hurried him.

"Thanks for the great time we had together in the past few days; I will come back to see you again," Elvis said and flew toward the sky.

Dryad just stood there and smiled in Elvis' direction until she couldn't see him anymore. "It's been fun knowing you too, little dragon; I hope you come back bigger and stronger one day," she said silently to herself.

She then faced another direction in the forest, staring angrily.

"I don't know what they are doing here, but it's a good thing I managed to get Elvis away from here before they destroyed my spell."

***

"We have managed to break the spell; I can't believe that we got trapped in an illusion spell," the leader of the adventurers said to the knight next to him, who also appears to be in charge of the knights.

"Sadly, yes, the forest is indeed as dangerous as it seems, but good thing we discovered it on time," the holy knight replied.

The man in charge of the adventurers is a huge, bulky man with tanned skin and a scar on his face, while the leader of the knights is a holy knight, a man with an average physique and blonde hair.

The whole team looked at their leaders, and both of them nodded their heads as a form of a go-ahead signal.

The team moved around the forest and began to search for anything that seemed dangerous or might look unique and powerful to them.

They searched around, but all the beasts were giving them the normal vibe; nothing seemed dangerous—even the most powerful beast in the forest was nothing to the high-ranking adventurers.

An hour later...

"Sir, we searched around the entire forest, but we found nothing that seems rare, unique, or gives us a powerful, dangerous vibe," a knight reported back to the leaders.

"Then we only have one option left," the holy knight said as he faced the leader of the adventurers, who nodded his head in approval.

"Cast a spell to seal off the whole forest!" The holy knight commanded, and immediately the whole team cast a high-rank magic skill that covered the whole forest with an invincible barrier.

"Destroy the whole forest; leave no stone unturned!" The leader of the adventurers commanded the team.

The whole team began massacring the beasts; corpses filled the ground as blood splattered everywhere.

Within a few minutes, the whole forest was in chaos; the forest had been set ablaze, and some of the knights and adventurers were enjoying the feeling that they were allowed to go wild and crazy to relieve tensions, all in the name of humanity.

"Arghh!!" Screams from some adventurers and knights could be heard deep in the forest.

This caught the attention of others and they paused temporarily.

(Swoosh) A bunch of tree roots moved swiftly, piercing the adventurers and knights in the chest while they were unaware.

Huge plants were also appearing underneath the ground, swallowing up humans.

"Men, stay on guard," the leader commanded.

The team all became wary of their surroundings and were in confusion about what was happening.

"Is this being caused by a creature that his majesty said to be a threat to humanity?" Various thoughts ran through their minds; being able to kill half of them in a matter of seconds is not an easy feat, not when most of them are high-ranking knights and adventurers.

A voice sounded in their minds, saying, "I am the guardian of this forest; you humans came to destroy this place for no reason and kill the animals living in it."

The voice was hollow and became louder, sending chills down their spines with the last word: "You all shall not be spared!"