21 – The Wizard’s Forest (2)
The most difficult part for first-time visitors to the Wizard’s Forest is finding the way.
Trees that look similar wherever you go and an environment where light doesn’t come in well.
Most of all, it is difficult to find traces of people who have passed by because it is a place that is almost deserted.
Even the academy cadets are no exception to that.
In the first place, most of the cadets here belonged to aristocratic families.
How many times have they done pioneering forest roads and exploring unknown places?
Chew.
“Uh, I don’t think this way is the road either?”
Namsaengdo Bren frowned as he cut through tree branches and bushes with the dagger in his hand and checked beyond them.
Blocked by trees and rocks, it looked like a road that even animals, let alone people, wouldn’t pass.
I was thinking of using magic to remove at least the rocks, but I couldn’t bear it because I was worried about the monsters living around.
“What? You said you were this way!”
At this time, Meryl, a female student in the same group who heard him talking to herself, raised her voice as she widened her eyes.
Maps given to each group.
When did you take it away as if you were taking it away and confidently tell me to follow you?
I couldn’t say anything because it was ridiculous.
If it was going to be like this, it would have been better if we had checked the map together while walking.
Why do you make people suffer in vain by pushing unfounded confidence?
“You said it was like this side, did you say it was this side? Do you think you can follow everything just by looking at the map in the first place?”
But when Bren got annoyed at the thought that it wasn’t the path she believed in, she couldn’t say anything good.
She
She, of course, she was aware of the fact that she made a mistake and took it too easy.
But it wasn’t that I had such a good result, but I got angry when I raised my voice without hesitation.
Besides, he wasn’t wrong.
In a forest with a similar structure like this, even if you think you are walking while looking straight ahead, it is often not the case.
In fact, there are many cases where they are spinning in the same place or heading in the opposite direction at some point.
However, the current action was clearly against the law.
“If that’s the case, why did you take the map! I’d rather look for it together!”
“I know you can see it!?”
“How do you know if you know or not!”
Now, the two of them stood up and started screaming at each other.
At the moment when they had been arguing for such a long time.
Wi-ing.
Somewhere, a strange sound resounded, like a large dragonfly passing by.
“… For a moment. Did you just hear that too?”
“D, I heard you. What was it?”
Forgetting what they were fighting for, the two of them turned their heads toward the source of the sound, quietly narrowing the distance.
There stood a tall tree that was ten times the size of an adult man’s waist.
The sound definitely felt like it was coming from beyond.
“It’s not like a beast or a monster… ?”
“Then couldn’t you hear something like crying? Well, it’s not a spirit though.”
Spirits other than the intermediate spirits who are guarding the blessing of Astesia cannot approach the two people who have the hand of the Spirit King.
They thought they would be able to defeat the other beasts and monsters somehow, so they didn’t take their eyes off the tree.
Ugh.
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Something surrounded by light appeared with a strange sound.
“Spirit of Light!”
A sphere-like shape covered in light except for the hand-like shape protruding from both sides.
Intuitively recognizing that it was a light spirit, Bren reflexively grabbed the dagger and prepared for battle.
In the first place, what use would a dagger like this be to an elemental body that does not work at all with physical attacks?
“You fool. Why are you scared We have this anyway.”
On the other hand, Merrill, who kept her cool, tapped him on the arm and showed the blue stone in her hand.
“Ah…. It was, indeed.”
Confirming this, Bren shamelessly scratched his cheek and put the dagger back.
It’s not even a goldfish, it’s a subject that I thought a while ago that spirits don’t matter, and I forgot about it all of a sudden.
His own stupidity was embarrassing.
During the confrontation with the spirit of light, as if having a snowball fight.
Bren suddenly realized a fact and tilted his head.
“Hey, Meryl.”
“Why?”
“But wasn’t this stone preventing the spirits from approaching? He keeps coming towards us.”
“… Is that so?”
Still ugh. The spirit of light slowly approached the two while floating in the air with a flying sound.
Meryl felt strangely uneasy at this, and she instinctively began to take a step behind her.
Above all, the most strange thing was that the spirit’s body was getting bigger and bigger.
Of course, it’s natural for things to look bigger as they get closer, but that’s not what Merrill is talking about.
Literally means that the spiritual body itself wrapped in light is inflating like a balloon.
It’s not just an illusion of the eyes.
Weeing!
Within seconds, the movement of the spirit intensified and the spiritual body moved as if threatening.
Sensing that the sight was unusual, Meryl carefully took Bren’s hand and dragged her behind her.
“Bren. If you do one, two, three from now on, you will run away at the same time.”
“You ran away, why?”
“Don’t talk nonsense, listen to me. That guy, the appearance of coming towards us is unusual.”
“Yes, yes.”
At Meryl’s assertion, Bren nodded her head with her stiff face.
Before long, her mouth opened and a countdown started that was so small that the light spirit couldn’t hear it.
“One, two…. Three!”
Dig.
As soon as they recited three, the two new models quickly jumped out in the right direction.
That moment.
Giing.
White particles began to gather in front of the light spirit’s spiritual body.
His body, which had begun to swell a little while ago, had grown to be twice as large as Bren’s before he knew it.
Meanwhile, Meryl’s complexion turned pale as she turned her head to see the scene as she ran away, becoming more certain.
“As expected, that guy was an intermediate level spirit!”
“What!?”
Thinking that her own ears were wrong, Bren opened her eyes.
Why is the middle-class spirit that is supposed to be protecting Astesia’s blessing appearing here right now?
But if that was true, then I could understand why the Spirit King’s touch didn’t work.
“Meryl! Damage!”
Before long, Bren, who was keeping an eye on her spirit, spat out a warning voice like a shriek.
The spirit’s head turned and turned her direction towards Meryl, who split in the middle.
However, it was too late when I realized that fact.
Reflexively, Meryl tried to move out of the forest while infusing magic into the Spirit King’s hand, but the situation was so desperate that even the magic couldn’t be released properly.
The moment she was in the middle of confusion.
Paang!
The particles of light gathered in front of the spirit were shot out.
As it was, Meryl’s body seemed to be helplessly swallowed by the flow of light.
At that moment, the voices of a man and a woman were heard from somewhere.
“Rone!”
“Okay!”
At the same time, Meryl fell into the sensation that someone was grabbing her body.
Quaang!
“Meryl!”
I hear Bren’s voice with a deafening roar.
Meryl opened her eyes, her body feeling no shock for some reason.
“Are you okay?”
What you see there is a man with a rather sharp and wild impression.
While Meryl was searching for her memory at a somewhat unfamiliar face.
She eventually recognized that she was Belle D. Now, a cadet from class E who had introduced herself this morning.
“Ugh, yes. Are you okay.”
“That’s good. Lorne! How about that one?”
“Your vision is covered! He must have returned too!”
Bell asked Lorne, who was at the bottom, a confirmation question, and nodded her head in satisfaction.
Flutter.
Then, holding her Meryl, he came down lightly from the branch of her tree and sat her down on her grass.
Judging by the trembling of her shoulders and hands, I could have guessed that she wouldn’t have the strength to stand up.
“Meryl! You’re not hurt!?”
“Yes…. I’m fine.”
Bren, who came belatedly, hurriedly checked Meryl’s condition.
No matter what, we became close friends by sticking around for a month after entering school.
That’s why she regretted not being able to save her by throwing her body at that moment just a moment ago, but to think that a cadet from another class she saw this morning saved her.
It is safe to say that it is truly a hand of salvation from heaven.
“Thank you for saving Meryl. Class E cadets.”
Bren got up from his seat and bowed deeply, thanking Bell.
In response, Bell indifferently turned her head away without even looking at her.
Since he is aware of the situation she is in, she can’t afford to hang around here even for a moment.
“Thank you. Rather, get out of the woods.”
“What? But….”
“Do you intend to continue even when the same group has reached that point?”
Bren tried to protest, but she kept her mouth shut and nodded at Bell’s sharp point.
That’s right.
Above all, there is no guarantee that Meryl, who has been traumatized by her, will wake up again and continue her exploration.
“… Okay. Meryl, give it to me.”
“Yes.”
Bren, who took over the spirit king’s hand, stared blankly at Bell’s profile before quietly opening her mouth.
“I will thank you again later. First off, I’m going to show Meryl to her professor.”
“Yes.”
Bell shook her head, as she had no intention of receiving her thanks.
Jiing.
Eventually, blue light radiated from the touch of the spirit, and a magic circle appeared under the feet of the two, and the two disappeared.
‘Damn it. It’s already started.’
Leaving behind the two who had disappeared, Bell spat out curse words inwardly.
This is obviously quite far from the area where Astesia’s blessing grows.
That means that the light spirit you just encountered is not an intermediate level spirit that protects that place.
In this wizard’s forest, there are no intermediate spirits other than flower guardians, so in this case, there are only two possibilities.
In that short period of time, I encountered a special case of growing from a low-level spirit to a mid-level spirit.
Or, the spirits or someone intentionally evolved a low-level spirit into a medium-level spirit using some method.
Among them, if you recall the original episode, the possibility that Bell can infer is narrowed down to one.
‘Warter. That son of a b*tch.’
Pudeuk.
Grinding her teeth, Bell remembered the order in which Barther tried to plan in the original story.
At first, lower-level spirits are forced to run wild, turning them into intermediate-level spirits, then making them attack the cadets.
And the plan must be to leisurely watch until the flowering time, then sneak away and bring only flowers.
Although in the original work, Aden and Lorne’s Joe arrives unexpectedly quickly to the place where Astesia’s blessing is located and tries to take the flower, but Barter surprises them and fights.
‘What’s the point of going into a tiger’s den on my own?’
Bell didn’t even like the situation.
In the first place, a surprise attack has too many variables.
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Above all, since Barter uses a special magic that allows him to hide himself in objects around him, it must be difficult to figure out when and where he will attack.
Then Bell decided to use the method that Barther used when he attacked Aden in the original work, this time around.
Anyway, their goal is Astesia’s blessing.
After all, if you’re going to take it, you’ll have no choice but to show up, whether you like it or not.
If we can aim for that moment and defeat it in a single blow, it might be possible.
“Rone, listen carefully to what I have to say from now on.”
“Yes. What?”
Bell began to deliver instructions in a whisper to Lorne, who had approached before he knew it.
Astasia’s Blessing is good enough to use as bait, but the bigger the bait, the higher the chance of being caught.
Particularly, as a hunter, it is not easy to suspect that you will be hunted.
Bell decided to aim for that blind spot.