Chapter 473: Into the Forest Depths (1)

"–Okay, Rir is all set. With this, it should be easy to blend in with the trees. Yuki is… ready too, but still a little unstable. If you let your guard down, you will be noticed immediately."

"I'm sorry, I thought I had practiced just as much…"

"Ku, kuu…"

Rir lived in the forest every day and understood the wild. In that respect, it was only natural that he would be better suited in adapting his mana to his environment than I was.

…Well, that's to be expected, he was technically a monster after all.

And besides, I was not very good at it.

Rir, on the other hand, was dexterous in all sorts of ways after all, despite being a wolf.

The difference between the two of us was obvious in this situation.

"If you're careful enough, the monsters won't notice you so easily. However, if you enter the depths of the forest, be careful. There are countless others of the same or higher rank than you over there, and they would hunt you down regardless of your current status."

"Yes, I'll be very careful. I'm going to go now."

"…Go on, then."

"Kuuu."

"I'll be waiting for your safe return. Take it easy."

Lefi sent off me, Rir, and Enne.

–Our destination was the depths of the Demon Forest.

We had never been in the deep area in the West Area.

◇◇◇

The sun.

It was always hot, summer all year round, in this forest.

We were used to this climate by now… but from here on, it's uncharted territory even for us.

–Our current position was just a few steps into the entrance of the western area of the Demon Forest.

We had fought monsters around the border of this area several times before…but the area beyond this point was truly a land of monsters outside the borders of mankind.

The heart of the forest, so to speak.

Today's goal was to get as far as we could.

I was so thankful that I didn't have to think about the way back, because there was a dungeon return device.

"Let's go, Enne, Rir."

[…hmm]

"Kuu."

Enne's voice sounded enthusiastic, but Rir's was unusually nervous.

This guy, who spent his days in the magical forest, probably understood the danger of this western area better than we did.

–So we entered deeper into the area.

A little later, I noticed a difference.

… the magic elements in the air were really dense.

I'd been told many times by Lefi that I was slow at this sort of thing, and I thought so myself, but even so, I could tell that the magical elements in the air here were different.

It's so dense that it might even be a bit suffocating.

…Was this the kind of environment that strong monsters like?

I could see why the humans would build their country in a location far from this kind of place.

Of course, the primary reason was that the monsters here were strong, but this was simply not a comfortable environment for the humans to live in.

So far, there had been no close encounters with these monsters.

The Evil Eye was filming in all directions, constantly checking a four-kilometer radius, and changing direction as necessary.

There were many monsters in this area that were comparable to the Pluto Corpse in terms of power. Moreover, even if they were not as big as the Pluto Corpse, there were many monsters that resembled the hideous appearance of the Pluto Corpse.

Of course, there were also those that were considered to be stronger than that.

So, fighting was basically nonsense.

The best way to deal with them was to run and hide.

This forest was as crazy as ever.

What could have caused this to happen?

It's a relatively small area – well, not that small really, but the concentration of strong monsters in this particular area for hundreds of years had created a state of monster infestation.

"…Rir, two and a half kilometers to the northeast, Evil Eye was crushed by a quadrupedal monster. It's probably hungry, and it's pretty irritated. I don't want to get in a fight, let's get out of here."

"Kuu."

Rir cried out in agreement.

I couldn't afford any unnecessary fighting, so I avoided most of them like this – but not all of them.

After leaving the quadrupedal monster behind….

"…Kuu."

"Yeah, I know. That monster got the Evil Eye, right? I'm not sure if it knows where we are yet, but…"

[…Want to go at it?] (Enne)

"Let's do it. Right now, we can get a head start."

The monster that was now chasing us was something we had previously avoided, but it must have thought we were a weak bunch.

It sensed our tracks and was slowly but surely getting closer to us.

However, if it was similar to one that we encountered before and we were in the same state as that time, we would have been caught by it long ago, and a battle would have ensued.

Thanks to the fact that we had learned how to suppress our presence, or rather, how to disguise it, we were still able to maintain a distance from it without being noticed in safety.

However, as things proceeded, the enemy would notice us soon…but now, it was possible for us to set up the stage and have preemptive measures.

Along with the combat techniques that we learned in the Demon Forest, we could use other things to our advantage in battle.

–Traps.

Since this was not in my dungeon area, traps by dungeon were impossible to set up, however, if it was a trap by primordial magic, it didn't matter.

I didn't use those things outside the forest at all, but in this forest, there were many creatures of the same strength or stronger than me, so in order to fill the gap in strength, I lured the enemy into the trap zone in an area that I had already turned into part of the dungeon and would attack them when they were caught in it.

I didn't know how well this strategy would work in the west area…but it was a good opportunity.

Let's give it a try here.

Rir and I concentrated our nerves and blended our presence into the space to the utmost limit.

Enne, too.

Enne had been undergoing the same training as us from the beginning, but she had mastered it easily.

Apparently, the reason for this was that she was not an ordinary creature, but rather her body was a sword.

She seemed to have a more objective view of magic power and presence than we did, and because she could see things from a third-person perspective, she was able to quickly learn how to manipulate her presence.

Wasn't our kid way too brilliant?

And so we lay in ambush in the trap area I prepared – eventually, that guy showed up.

It was a bipedal.

It looked like a tyrannosaurus, with a jaw so burly that it could crush a large rock with a single bite.

It sniffed around the area, eagerly looking for us.

We waited, suppressing our mounting tension, and the right time finally came.

Tyrano stepped into the trap zone.

Instantly, the ground exploded with a bang.

At the same time, dozens of harpoons, linked by chains and with spikes on them, were released, piercing the Tyrano and pinning it to the ground.

A roar of agony shook the air.

A moment later, we launched an all-out assault on the "Jurassic Park" beast.

First to arrive before me was Rir.

Using his divine speed skill, he bit one of the monster's legs with his fangs.

With one of his legs taken away, the Tyrano was knocked down, and I, with Enne at the ready, charged at it.

I flashed a single strike to the neck.

It's hard.

The skin was as hard as iron…but with Enne, even iron could be cut….

There was a moment of resistance, but her blade was not repelled, and she cut off its neck.

We won.

However, we could not let our guard down here in the Demon Forest.

The smell of blood was very likely to attract monsters, so after quickly converting the carcass to DP, we left the place.

I was checking afterward with an Evil Eye, and sure enough, the monsters started swarming around, and there they were, devouring each other.

"Phew, that's scary. But we made it, Rir…now if we can just be careful, we should be able to fight our way out of this place."

We now knew that as long as we could make the first move, it was possible to kill a monster of this level.

As long as we could make the first move, that was.

The current opponent was also killed so easily because I was able to successfully ensnare it, but I wondered what would have happened if I had fought it head on.

"Kuu, gah."

"Ah, the same as ever, we do it carefully."

[…Hmm. It felt like the old snake uncle, when moving forward…] (Enne)

"Yeah, the snake uncle is a pro at stealth. I'll have to learn from him."

Now I wonder if I, too, could reach that state if I worked harder.

So, after a few hours of traveling in the western area, being vigilant to the best of my ability, I came upon a man-made structure deep in the woods.

–I found what seemed to be an artifact deep in the forest….