Chapter 157: An Endless Search

Late Afternoon - Late Winter : Banvænn Desert

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Just after getting directions from the stray halfie, I took to the skies and hauled ass to the west. 

Cruising through the atmosphere at Mach 20, I watched as the wide strait of ocean under me steadily moved to the horizon behind me. -Now.. lets see if we can find this damn place..-

I quickly got lost in thought as I set course for the horizon. 

Although the past few months had been painful, I didn't let them go to waste.

With my biological limits on my mana control being removed, I made great strides in both casting speed and volume control, with only my aura reading barely improving. -If only reading it was as systematic as controlling it..-

But training wasn't the only thing I did in my spare time, I also made sure to stop and spend a couple hours in the libraries of each city I passed by.

The libraries were all fairly lackluster, but I did occasionally find rotting books about Siratha dating back several thousand years. 

Although I found it odd that the only books and information I could find on Siratha were super old, the more I flew over the desert, it started making more sense. -They've just isolated themselves from the rest of the world for thousands of years..- All they had to do to completely stop interaction with the rest of the world was to stop trade and sea travel.

It was pretty incredible to think about, but it was a quick reminder that I needed to take the information I learned with a grain of salt.

But even though I knew the information was probably inaccurate, I still gave myself a short refresher.

From what the books stated, the nation was divided into two regions, a north and a south, with the south being elf, treant and dryad dominated and the north being mostly made of demihumans.

Each section was composed of solely independent 'cities' and towns but according to most of the texts, the way everything was constructed and how it all functioned were complete guesses. 

That wasn't the only section that was inconsistent though.

There were all kinds of rumors jotted down in the texts ranging from things involving surprisingly accurate depictions of dragons, to gods and religion but none of them went into any extensive depth or detail.

It was a bit of a shame and a missed opportunity to get some juicy information but it was about what I expected. -But even rumors can sometimes be true..-

As I continued to fly, I continued to sort through everything I knew about the nation but, before I knew it, a massive forest crested the horizon.

-Holy sh*t..- The trees lining the horizon were absolutely massive, being even bigger than those in Bahamut by a considerable margin.

It was truly a sight to behold. 

-So that's where that saying originated..- There was a phrase that I heard all around the western continent from the folk who I got directions from, that clearly originated from Siratha. 'The bigger the trees, the bigger the monsters.'

It was a phrase that definitely held some truth to it, but I couldn't help but question it. -I'd be astonished if any other region in the world could compete with Bahamut in terms of creature sizes..-

As I continued to fly closer and lowered altitude, I felt the mana density steadily increase.

It wasn't quite as excessively heavy as Bahamut's mana, but for a place that wasn't composed of several thousand dragons, it was ridiculously dense.

Flying around, about two kilometers above the treetops, I tried to look down through the canopy but couldn't really see anything. The canopy was simply too dense and there wasn't a single clearing in sight. -Am I really gonna need to change to my humanoid form and move under the canopy?-

It was basically my last resort since, being as comparatively slow in my humanoid form, I could go months or years without finding anything in the forest.

-Lets just stay in the air for now..- I wanted to check for anything on a larger scale first.

That was wishful thinking though.

I ended up spending the next two weeks flying just above the treetops, using light magic on the edge of my aura to show me what was beneath the canopy, but, although I ran into tons of monsters, I didn't find anything humanoid.

It was the middle of the night when I started second guessing myself. -Do I need to go south?- But right as I thought that, I looked up and saw a very faint glow beneath the canopy.

As I flew closer, I changed to my humanoid form and plummeted through the canopy.

*Smack-Crunch-Russle-Crack*

After getting pelted by branches and leaves for a second, I finally got through and got beneath the canopy.

-Wow..- The area under the trees was well lit by light artifacts and spotless with the exception of a few rocks. The wild brush that grew around the tree's bases had all been cut to the point that it just looked like grass.

-What.. is this place..- 

*Thud* 

Finally making it to the ground, I looked up at the towering trees and noticed the rope bridges spanning between branches with entire buildings built on them.

-But where are the people?- As I wondered where the people were though, an arrow came zipping towards my thigh.

*Fwip*

Casually catching it, I lifted up my hand and got ready to fire a steel marble at the assailant, but I stopped myself just prior to firing. -Its probably best if I try and be friendly first..-

Lowering my hand, I glared at the archer who was hidden by basic light magic. -Now that I know what to look for, you can't hide from me..-

"If you stay hidden like that, I might really kill you." Seemingly not responding, I got ready to use force against the archer but was stopped when I felt someone sneaking up behind me.

*Shing*

My blade rang out as I unsheathed and pointed it at the person sneaking up on me. "Is that any way to receive a guest?"

Immediately releasing their cloaking magic, the person sneaking up on me turned out to be a female elf with a whip-like rope and a dagger in her hand.

She was quite attractive, but her strength was what I found most fascinating. -A low nation rank right off the bat… This'll be fun!- "Much better, now how about you get everyone else to do the same."

Pulling my sword away from the woman's face, I casually stabbed it into the ground. *Shing*

Almost immediately though, another arrow was fired at me.

Being unable to fully hold myself back for a second time, I launched a steel marble through the leg of a different archer.

*Fwip-CRACK*

Their cloaking magic instantly dissipated and they fell to the ground before they even realized what happened. "Ah.. AAHHHH!!" The male elf let out an instinctual scream as a majority of his leg was relocated across the forest.

"Whoops, my hand slipped." I turned back to the woman next to me with a moderately annoyed look. "You want to get your people to uncloak themselves now?"

"Tch.." With an angry look, she gritted her teeth and dropped her weapons.

Almost immediately, a group of nearly 40 elves and demihumans uncloaked themselves.

-Are these just the warriors?- I glanced up to the treetops. "Are the people up there cloaked as well, or are they just hiding?" I asked with a genuine curiosity, but none of the warriors took kindly to it. -They can understand me right?- "Can you guys understand me?"

Once again, there was no reaction.

Walking up to the elf woman, I lifted up her chin and made her look me in the eyes. "Oi, just shake your he-"

Interrupting me, she grabbed my arm and tried to use martial arts to throw me to the ground.

To her surprise though, my arm didn't even budge.

"You really have a death wish huh.." Unable to hold back my irritation, I tightly gripped her neck and lifted her off the ground.

"Forgive her.." A mature woman's voice rang out from behind me.

Glancing towards the voice, I saw a mature elven woman likely upwards of 100 years old. "She attacked me first, twice. Why should I forgive her."

"Because she is but a child who knows not of the outside world." Her way of speaking was extremely formal and old-timey, matching the style of the older books I had read.

-An older dialect?- "Could you say something in your native language for me?"

"Sir, but why?" She looked quite troubled.

"Just say something."

She gave a judgemental look. "B̴u̴t̷ ̴t̴h̸e̶n̵ ̷y̷o̷u̶ ̴w̸o̵n̶'̷t̷ ̷u̶n̴d̷e̶r̸s̴t̵a̸n̴d̶ ̴u̶s̴.̷.̴" The language was a bit different from what I knew from my knowledge inheritance, but it had the same framework.

-Not like it'd take long to figure it out even if it was a whole new language anyways..- Trying to quickly adjust to the dialect, I gave a short response. "How about this?"

The woman's face immediately paled with a mix of awe and fear. "H..how.."

Seeing she understood, a slightly crazed grin came to my face. "Good, now that we can understand each other.." I slowly turned back to the elf in my grasp who had a pale face. "How about I start with a few questions."