#219. The Last Forest (1)
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“Stay here and defend Rael Row and the World Tree. There’s a chance enemies, including homunculi, might appear after I leave.”
“Alright, understood, kid.”
At Ray’s request, Curiosa replied without much hesitation.
His gaze remained fixed on the World Tree and Rael Row.
Curiosa, because of the curse placed on him, was a being who felt curiosity hundreds of times stronger than ordinary people.
An enormous castle and tree, whose true nature remained elusive even after days of persistent observation—there was no way such a subject wouldn’t consume all his attention, making everyday life impossible.
“If enemies do appear, work with Parun and the elders. They’ll be a great help. I heard they’ve expanded the defensive facilities since the last attack.”
“Got it.”
“It won’t take long for me to get back from the Last Forest.”
“Understood.”
“And if possible, I’ll stop by other ruins on the way to look for space stones.”
“I understo─”
Curiosa, who was about to reply thoughtlessly, suddenly froze.
“─Why the space stones?”
“Because I’m thinking of establishing more spatial paths. Like linking this place—where the World Tree and Rael Row are—with the mansion. It’ll make expanding future destinations easier. Plus, it’ll allow faster response to enemy attacks.”
“And who’s supposed to build those spatial paths?”
Tilting his head, Ray answered casually,
“You are.”
“Kyaaaaagh!”
Watching Curiosa writhe with joy, Ray felt sincerely relieved.
Having finished packing, Ray boarded the bus, which—after receiving farewells from the dwarves—sped across the wilderness beyond the distortion field.
Jang had already returned to the mansion through a spatial gate, so Ray once again took the driver’s seat.
Clatter, clatter.
Beyond the shaking windows, the endlessly repeating landscape of the wilderness whirred by.
In the rearview mirror, he could see the towering World Tree gradually shrinking into the distance.
“By the way, Ray,” Veronica spoke with concern, “are you sure it’s okay? About the World Tree, I mean. What if people spot it? It’s going to be the settlement for the elves and dwarves, but if it draws too much attention…”
“It’ll be fine.”
Ray answered, steering the bus to avoid a boulder.
“The human sectors are really far from here. If anything spots it, it’ll just be some wild animals. Besides, once the elves move in, they can help expand the distortion field. Elves are highly skilled in illusion magic, after all.”
“That’s right. It’s why the Last Forest was never discovered by other races until now,” Grine agreed, nodding.
As they chatted about the distortion field, something crossed Ray’s mind.
“By the way, if you originally planned to return to the Last Forest alone, were you planning to head back to a sector to get a car?”
“No? I was planning to leave directly from Rael Row. I can’t drive a vehicle, after all.”
“You were going to leave directly?”
“Yes. On foot.”
Ray wondered if he had misheard, but judging from Veronica’s flustered face, he realized he hadn’t.
“Grine, is the Last Forest close enough to reach by walking?”
“Well, I left the forest using a teleportation magic circle, so I don’t really know the exact distance… but if I walked diligently, I think I could reach it within a year?”
Ray nodded.
He decided to abandon any attempt to understand the elven sense of time.
After that, the bus sped across the wilderness under Grine’s direction.
“At the next fork, turn right. The children standing over there are pointing the way.”
The “children” she referred to were withered trees and patches of grass scattered across the desert.
“Elves never lose their way back to the forest. No matter where they are, the plants will show them the way.”
“How do they show the way?”
“Watch carefully. The plants lean their bodies to point in a certain direction.”
“I don’t see it.”
“How can you not?”
“…….”
“I don’t get it. *Tsk tsk*.”
The smell of jerky wafted over from beside him.
Ray seriously contemplated whether he could knock down this reflexively agile elf by slamming the brakes.
“Ah, I finished all my jerky already. Anyway, race doesn’t matter. What’s important is how much you can communicate with the plants.”
“…Communicate.”
It was still a concept he couldn’t fully grasp.
Two days of travel later—
“I think we’re almost there.”
A massive curtain of colorful mana appeared on the horizon.
At Ray’s words, Grine asked in surprise,
“How did you know? I haven’t told you yet.”
“I can see the distortion field.”
“Ah…! Right, you said you could see mana. So that’s how it applies.”
Grine gasped in amazement, then spoke after thinking for a moment,
“Seeing mana with your eyes… That means no illusion magic could ever fool you. Maybe… it’d be better not to tell the other elves about this.”
“Why?”
“The elves take great pride in the distortion field protecting the Last Forest. They won’t be happy to hear that someone saw through it at a glance.”
“Got it.”
As they chatted, the bus reached their destination.
Grine approached what seemed like an empty stretch of wasteland.
“Above the protective pillars, dozens of layers of distortion and perception interference magic are stacked. Even a mage with extraordinary sensitivity to mana would find it nearly impossible to notice the distortion field.”
Veronica nodded vigorously.
No matter how much she focused, she couldn’t detect even a hint of magical phenomena in the empty air before her.
Of course, Ray could see the distortion field clearly with his eyes.
Ray glanced at a section of the distortion field a little off to the side and asked,
“What’s the chance that someone just passing by might accidentally discover the distortion field?”
“Practically zero. Unless someone already knew of its existence. And without knowing the access pattern—”
Grine reached out and placed her palm against the surface of the distortion field.
Wuuuuung──!
Mana flowed into the surface, tracing intricate, complex patterns.
Soon, part of the magic dissolved, and a small door-shaped opening appeared, revealing a glimpse of the interior.
“—they could never open it like this. If they tried to force it open or attack it, an alarm spell would activate, and the elves inside would move to defend.”
The door was just big enough for a person to crouch and pass through.
A green glow spilled out, hinting at the scenery within.
“We’ll have to leave the bus behind. The size of the door I can open at once is limited. Also, others inside might not like seeing artificial constructs like vehicles in the forest.”
Ray and Veronica grabbed only the essentials from the bus.
Then, they noticed Grine carrying a pair of large boxes under her arms.
“Elves.”
“Yes?”
“You said they dislike artificial things.”
“That’s right.”
“Jerky is an artificial food.”
Grine’s ears twitched shamelessly.
“This is unavoidable for a balanced diet. Once we’re inside, we’ll only have plants to eat. That would mess up my nutritional balance.”
“Didn’t you say elves can survive perfectly on a vegetarian diet?”
“Hmm, I don’t remember saying that.”
“Elves have truly lost the ability to tell the truth since the glory days.”
“What did you just say?”
“Alright, alright, both of you, stop it.”
Veronica intervened to put an end to the childish squabble.
“Then, I’m going in first!”
Veronica bent over and slipped through the door.
Following behind, Ray glanced at the surface of the distortion field and asked,
“Grine, do the elves of the forest pass through the distortion field often?”
“Not at all. Unless they have a special mission like I did, they almost never leave the forest. Elves are extremely reclusive.”
Nodding, the boy slipped through the door, and the elf followed after.
The door, slowly shrinking, eventually disappeared completely.
Wuuuuuuung—Snap!
Only silence remained in the empty wilderness.
The bus, covered in trails of sand, stood alone, bathed in hazy sunlight.
And on the surface of the distortion field where Ray’s gaze had lingered—
There were traces.
Clear signs that someone had recently opened and closed the door.
Poorly concealed, but impossible to hide from Ray’s eyes.
*
Veronica could hardly keep her mouth closed at the sight of the forest she encountered for the first time.
“Wow…! Wow…! Wowww…!”
Wherever she looked, trees, flowers, and grasses she had never seen before filled the landscape.
Bright scenery and fresh scents.
The endless chorus of animals and insects sounded like a symphony.
The sunlight filtering from above sparkled like grains of golden sand.
“Ray! Look at that! Look!”
“I’m already looking. And Veronica, you don’t have to keep hitting my shoulder every time you’re excited.”
“Over there! That’s an animal I’ve never seen before! Not even in books!”
“It looks like a mouse. Fluffy-tailed and carrying an acorn.”
“Over there! There’s a mushroom with incredibly beautiful colors!”
“Looks poisonous.”
“That one’s flying!”
“Birds fly.”
The boy’s dry responses.
Normally, Veronica would have sulked, but she was too busy marveling at the scenery to care.
As she excitedly kept slapping Ray’s shoulder—
“Huh?”
She suddenly felt a cool sensation on her palm.
On Ray’s shoulder, Laqria had appeared without a sound.
“Kyaa! Ah, I’m sorry! Did that hurt?”
Laqria flicked out her tongue.
She hopped down, brushed lightly against Veronica’s foot as if saying she was fine, then disappeared into the depths of the forest.
“Is it okay to just let her wander off like that…?”
“She’ll come back when she’s ready.”
As he watched Laqria’s back, Ray turned his gaze around.
*‘A forest like this actually exists.’*
Though he didn’t show it outwardly, he was just as astonished as Veronica.
Especially from the perspective of a boy who still found it difficult to imagine unfamiliar scenes, the sense of wonder was even greater.
An expanse so vast that its end could not be seen.
Animals and plants he was seeing for the first time in his life.
But more than anything, what surprised him the most was the density of mana in the air.
Compared to the Sector or the Wastelands, the concentration of mana here was far thicker, and…
At that moment, as if reading his thoughts, Grine spoke to him.
“Mana. It’s pure, isn’t it?”
“…Very much so.”
“One of the reasons I was so shocked when I first left the forest was because the mana outside was so much more turbid than what I had known.”
Grine continued, explaining her bewilderment at the time.
“It was much harder to use as well. If the mana of the forest feels like soft water, the mana of the outside world feels more like cheese about to harden. I had a hunch. That using magic with it might cause some negative effects.”
“Mana poisoning.”
“Mana poisoning?”
“It’s an illness that occurs when you overuse mana from the atmosphere. It causes mental disturbances. You lose control over certain emotions.”
“…To think it actually leads to an illness. So my intuition was right.”
In any case, Grine said she had to practice using the mana from her mana circle while she was outside.
“In the forest, there’s almost no need to use the Circle’s mana. The air is filled with high-quality mana. That’s also why elves don’t put too much effort into Mana Circle cultivation.”
Listening to Grine, Ray reached out and wrapped the mana of the forest around his hand.
Of course, it couldn’t compare to the mana that had been refined through many stages within the Circle.
However, with this limitless amount of mana—
*‘That shortcoming might easily be offset.’*
And the fact that a vast array of different types of mana spread out endlessly meant—
In other words—
It was a battlefield where a boy who could wield every kind of element could unleash a power stronger than anyone else.
*‘The mana is clean, and its quality is high. Is it because of the forest’s properties?’*
While he was pondering that question—
Swoosh.
Grine extended her finger into the air.
A butterfly fluttered its wings and gently landed on it.
Tilting her head, she whispered softly,
“Could you tell them I’ve returned?”
—
