Chapter 10: The Great Forest of Darkness

A year has passed, and I am now eight years old. Last year, I started my training in swordsmanship and magic with my elder sister, Louise. With my training in swordsmanship and magic, I also improved my overall strength and practiced my magic.

I continued to pretend to compose music and submit it to my teacher via Mary to popularize it. I used my real name as the composer instead of a pseudonym. The teacher said it was fine because they cannot hire an heir of a foreign territory to work for themselves.

The pieces that I composed were the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel for both piano and string quartet and Bach's Prelude in C. I postponed the emo song because there was a forbidden Dark Magic spell called Black Parade.

Even though we are still at Level 1, we already have the strength to lift a weight twice our own. In my previous world, it was almost impossible to do these kinds of things at our age.

Between the two worlds, there was a thing or two that made it possible. The essence of magic, mana, skills, techniques and more. With these, you can defy the laws of science and make the impossible possible.

Right now, in the middle of Gemini, me, my sister, and our parents were in front of the forest outside the city walls. We are currently at the entrance of the world's largest and most dangerous forest, The Great Forest of Darkness.

The forest was named The Great Forest of Darkness for several reasons. One is that it gets darker as you go further due to the shade of the absurdly large trees.

The deeper you dive, the thicker the vegetation of flora will manifest. Even if you cut down the trees to create a pathway, the soil in the forest is so rich and fertile that it only takes a few years for a tree to reach a height of 100 meters.

The fertility of the soil increases the nourishment of the plants it grows. The monsters who eat those plants become stronger and more powerful. The monsters that predate those strengthened monsters also become stronger.

The other reason was due to the thick black miasma that surrounds the center of the forest. The mana released by the powerful monsters in the forest condenses and forms a miasma.

That is the reason why there was almost no information about the forest. The thick concentration of miasma intercepted the transmission of information from the espionage related skills or magic.

Reconnaissance skills like Hawk Eyes were not effective for investigating the forest from a distance. Using this skill in the forest depths will intercept your vision like a television losing its reception or a phone with no signal.

Telepathy is also not effective. The transmission of messages will be interrupted by the contaminated mana in the air. But first, you'll need to go inside the forest beforehand. But you can go further and deeper due to the powerful creatures you encounter.

Flight Magic is not advised to survey the forest. The miasma in the forest made the flight magic unstable because flight magic uses mana. There are also flying monsters that will hunt you like griffons if they spot you flying carelessly.

Teleportation Magic is, like the Flight Magic, also unstable in the forest. The thick concentration of mana intercepts your destination.

It made the user unable to transfer or randomly change the coordinates of the destination. Being teleported to the lion's den was the worst-case scenario.

Clairvoyance was effective but also insufficient because the area covered by the skill was limited to the user's mana. Even the mana reserve of Mom, who was a Sage, was not enough to reach the center of the forest by Clairvoyance.

My God's eye abilities were also effective for surveying the forest. My Telescopic Eye can survey the forest clearly amidst the thick miasma.

Right now, I can only survey more or less a kilometer of distance. I also need to elevate myself above the forest because the gigantic trees are obstructing my vision.

The other reason it is called The Great Forest of Darkness is because of the speculated apex predator dominating the entire forest. A type of legendary creator that can be often heard in fairytales, a Dragon.

Dragons are creatures that have four limbs, majestic pair/s of wings, and tough scales. They had a massive body and a superior amount of mana.

But the dragon in this forest was not just a normal dragon. The dragon in the forest was a superior species of the dragon race, an Ancient Dragon.

This type of dragon had a massive size of at least 50 meters in length. Larger than my previous world's largest creature, the blue whale, which can grow up to 30 meters in length.

The older the dragon, the more experience they gained. The more experience gained, the stronger and more powerful the dragons are. Their size also increased as they grew older.

Due to its enormous size and monstrous strength, even the whole kingdom's army cannot slay or even captivate it. That's why the country did its very best not to provoke an Ancient Dragon or even the Archdragons, which had a lower rank than the Ancient Dragon.

An Ancient Dragon had the power to destroy multiple countries in one night. Its breath can annihilate an entire city in one blow. Its powerful concentration of mana can instantly kill any low-level creatures and intimate creatures that are weaker than it.

The only saving grace is that Ancient Dragons are intellectual beings. They can understand human language and have a conversation with them.

There were only seven Ancient Dragons in the whole world. Each of them represents the seven attributes of elemental magic. There were three living on this continent. One of them was living in this forest.

The Ancient Dragon that was living in the Great Forest of Darkness was the ancestor of all dark-type dragons, the Darkness Ancient Dragon. As the name implies, this dragon was the sovereign of all darkly attributed dragons.

No one had ever seen the dragon and its appearance. It is because no one has reached the heart of the forest, where the Darkness Ancient Dragon lives. It is known to live in the forest because another Ancient Dragon said so.

Some Ancient Dragons had been living with humans in peace. One example was the Lightness Ancient Dragon of the Primaria Theocracy. It is said to be resting at the tallest mountain in the continent, inside the domain of the theocracy, purifying the land.

The other Ancient Dragon on the continent was the Earth Ancient Dragon. According to the Lightness Ancient Dragon, it is still slumbering at the Dragons' Valley west of the Dwarf Kingdom.

If you want to see the Darkness Ancient Dragon, you must first deal with the monsters in the forest. The dragon was located at the center, so the monsters around the area must be powerful enough to withstand the dragon's deadly aura.

The monsters in the forest were more powerful than those in other areas. Because of this, the raw materials and resources from the forest were of top quality.

The medicinal herbs were more effective due to the forest's rich soil. The materials and meat from the monsters were of high quality and quantity.

Other materials, like lumber, also had high quality and toughness. These woods were in high demand, especially among the nobility and royalty.

The thick concentration of mana does not always have bad results. The mana is also absorbed by the magic crystals dropped by dead monsters and becomes another material.

If the magic crystal absorbs enough mana, it will transform into a data crystal, a magic stone, or even a dungeon core.

Some metal ores in the caves also absorb mana from the air. In rare cases, some silver and gold ores strengthen their toughness by absorbing mana and evolve into Mithrill and Orichalcum respectively.

We are at the entrance of the forest right now to level up and gain combat experience. Our parents only support us and only come to our aid if things go wrong.

The area we will explore today is only the shallow parts of the forest. Weak monsters like slimes and goblins were lurking in the area. Sometimes, stronger monsters come to the entrance only to be subdued by nearby adventurers and sell their materials.

With our parents at our side, we can go all-out and slay whatever weaker monsters we encourage without worrying about our surroundings. Mothers also give us advice and tips while we train.

Mom is the one that will guide and support me while my sister is cared for by my mother. I became more proficient with magic than my sister. On the contrary, my sister is more skilled at swordsmanship than I am.

In my arsenal, I have the shortsword that my parents got from a 30-floor dungeon; my sister has the same. It was a unique-grade weapon made out of mithrill for better magic output.

We equipped with a customized light armor crafted from the hide of a B-ranked monster called Tyrant Lizard. It was lightweight and durable enough to withstand a Level 3 Sword technique with an iron sword.

My sister had a magic bag hanging on her slender waist, while I had none. It is also a unique-grade item looted from a 40-floor dungeon.

It had a space that can hold 27 cubic meters of materials in volume. The flow of time inside the bag was reduced by half so it could prevent the spoilage of materials in a short period of time.

There's no need for me to bring a magic bag because I have the extra skill Inventory. It can hold materials without limitation and adjust its temperature and time flow.

When I showed this skill to my parents, they widened their eyes as if seeing something unusual. And yelled in disbelief when I said it was an extra skill called Inventory.

Inventory has unlimited volume capacity, unlike mom's Level 6 Space Magic: Item Box. Item Box had no flow of time, and the capacity was proportional to the user's total mana reserve.

One mana is equal to one cubic meter of volume. So Mom's Item Box has a capacity of more than ten thousand cubic meters, but it is almost full of monsters' carcasses, like dragons.

"It looks like the preparations are ready. Are yourselves also ready?"

""Yes, mother.""

We replied in unison to Mother's question. Mother was in her purple armor, and she equipped her legendary-grade weapon, the Demonic Sword of Mammon.

Her armor was relic-grade and made of Lavandine, an inferior material to her sword. The armor consisted of a cuirass that covered her upper body, a pair of gauntlets, a mantle, and a pair of boots. The armor set was durable and had an auto-fitting function.

Her inner garments are also of high quality. The garments were all white and made from the silk thread of a monster. The monster was an A-ranked arachnid monster called Queen Evil Tarantula. The silk was durable and had a high resistance to magic.

"Alright, then let's proceed to our designated areas. Let's go, Raphael."

"I understand, Mom. See you later, mother and sister."

"Yeah, see you later."

"Let's see who'll level up higher, little brother of mine."

I waved my arm as we walked to our designated area. My sister challenged me to see who would level up the most. Too bad for my older sister, but I was blessed by the Goddess to have a body that gained experience faster.

With my mom, I dove into the world's most dangerous forest, The Great Forest of Darkness, and began my first monster kill and combat experience in another world.