Rei and Set landed on the outer edge of the forest and proceeded into the woods with cautious steps.
Their destination was whatever had been catching the light through the gaps in the trees—something clearly left behind by people.
Rei's suspicion soon materialized into undeniable proof right before his eyes.
"Is this... a longsword? And what else..."
A scan of the surroundings revealed a stick driven into the ground at an angle. Rei had also planted a disposable spear in the ground to mark how far the forest had spread, so for a moment he mistook it for his own. But this was clearly not where he had been yesterday.
What's more, the spear Rei had driven in was vertical. This one was tilted.
Intrigued, he gripped the stick and pulled.
It came free far more easily than expected. As the tip emerged, Rei spotted a spearhead—and realized for the first time that the stick he held was actually a spear.
"A spear, huh... But considering it was driven into the ground here, did a fight break out?"
"Grrr."
As Rei muttered to himself, Set suddenly let out a cry.
Rei turned toward the sound and spotted the remains of a campfire on the ground.
Someone had definitely camped here.
But whoever it was, they were long gone. Even so, one thing was certain from Rei's perspective: they hadn't simply packed up and left. They had been attacked right here.
The unnaturally planted spear was one clue, but the biggest tell was that their belongings had been left behind untouched.
For a fleeting moment, he wondered if they had just stepped away on some errand—but he quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought.
For one thing, the campfire remains made it obvious that a considerable amount of time had passed since the fire had burned out.
Which meant there was no doubt about it: whoever had camped here had been attacked and killed by the forest.
"But why would anyone camp in this forest in the first place... Was it for the achievement?"
The Guild had officially declared the Treant Forest devoid of monsters and animals, but plenty of people still had their doubts. Winter aside, there had been no sign of this forest in autumn—yet the moment spring arrived, a forest of this size had simply appeared. It was only natural that many found it suspicious.
Even so, since there was no money to be made, most people had no reason to visit the Treant Forest, and even those who did usually turned right back. At the very least, none of them had been making camp.
(Well, it's not like I know everything about the state of this forest. I can't deny the possibility that other adventurers may have wandered in.)
When there were clear traces of a camp like this, finding them wasn't difficult. Someone experienced with camping, however, would be very skilled at hiding their tracks. At the very least, spotting such traces from the air while flying overhead would be no easy task.
"...For now, I don't know which adventurer camped here, but there's no doubt they were attacked."
Based on what Thresha had told him, Rei could also guess that the attackers were likely Treants. Even so, scanning the surroundings, there was no sign of anything resembling a Treant anywhere.
"Set, can you tell if there are any Treants around?"
"Grrr? Gur, grrr... gur..."
Set's response was uncharacteristically uncertain. Normally, he would make it perfectly clear whether enemies were present or not. But right now, he was glancing around as if lost.
Rei possessed senses far sharper than any ordinary human's, and Set's senses surpassed even Rei's. Yet even with his Sense of Smell Enhancement skill, Set couldn't pick up a single scent.
That surprised Rei.
"You can't tell? Even you, Set?"
"Gurr..."
Set dipped his head in a small, apologetic bow. Seeing the regretful look in those round eyes, Rei gently patted his head.
"Don't worry about it. I'm not blaming you for this. Besides, this whole situation is full of mysteries. If anything, the fact that even your nose can't find the enemy is valuable information in its own right."
Rei had been saved countless times by the sharpness of Set's sense of smell. The fact that even it couldn't detect the enemy was a critical piece of the puzzle.
Deciding that he needed to report this to the Guild, Rei began storing the abandoned belongings in his Misty Ring. Since no one was left here, there was no issue with him taking the gear—but in this case, it would likely be used to identify whoever had camped here.
"It'd be great if there was a Guild Card... but that's probably too much to hope for."
Guild Cards doubled as identification, making them extremely important. Losing one meant paying a reissue fee, however small. Because of that, most adventurers kept theirs tucked in their breast pockets, carried on their person at all times.
Of course, that was only most, not all. Some found carrying it a hassle and left it with a companion, and it wasn't unheard of for someone to simply leave it in their bags.
Rei himself didn't carry his Guild Card on his person. ...Though in his case, he kept it stored in the Misty Ring, which was far safer than just carrying it around.
In any case, searching through the belongings probably wouldn't immediately reveal whose they were. Even so, carefully examining the tools left behind often made it possible to identify the owner. Among adventurers, there were quite a few who used matching equipment within their party. If something like that turned up, it would identify the owner in an instant.
"...All right, I think that covers this area."
He stored the spear in the Misty Ring as well in case it might provide a clue, then took another look around.
There were no bloodstains, and even if they had been attacked by monsters—probably Treants—there were no flesh or bone fragments either. Everything Rei could see was just an ordinary forest.
But last night—or perhaps not last night, exactly—adventurers had undeniably been attacked by a monster here.
(Given the location of this campsite, I'm guessing it was last night.)
Even knowing that, there was nothing he could do about it now. The incident was already over. All Rei could do was bring the belongings to the Guild.
If there were survivors like Thresha, someone might come to claim the gear... but Rei was well aware, as an active adventurer, that the odds of that were slim.
Even so, just in case...
Having finished everything he needed to do, Rei mounted Set and temporarily left the forest.
He headed for the place where he had felled trees yesterday. If it was just about cutting down trees, he could have done it right where he was. But to check how much the forest had encroached compared to yesterday, returning to the same spot was the quickest method.
Set seemed to remember the location as well, heading there without any hesitation.
They flew through the air for a short while, and before long, they arrived near the spot where Rei had done his felling.
Though the forest's encroachment had completely erased any trace of yesterday's work.
"Hmm, about fifteen meters now? Yesterday it was around ten, so that's roughly a fifty percent increase. That's a big jump. Don't tell me those adventurers were the cause?"
The campsite he had just found—the adventurers who had likely been attacked by the forest there. Perhaps they had become nourishment for it.
The thought crossed his mind, but it was pure speculation with nothing to back it up. Even if it were true, there was no way to verify it.
(Well, if you used criminals to test it or something, that would be a different story...)
Pushing those thoughts aside, Rei moved on to his next task. After all, he had come to this forest not only to measure its expansion, but also to fulfill a request to fell its trees.
The more trees he cut, the more he'd be paid. This was essentially a bonus for him.
Normally, cutting down a tree meant swinging an axe over and over. But Rei?
"Hah!"
He simply poured magical power into the Death Scythe retrieved from his Misty Ring and swung.
The Death Scythe flashed diagonally. The first tree it struck showed no sign of movement at first.
But then a warm spring breeze blew through, and perhaps triggered by it, the tree began to shift under its own weight and toppled to the ground. Its diagonally cut tip pierced the soil—but a moment later it toppled completely, leaning against a neighboring tree.
What remained was a trunk with a sharply pointed tip aimed at the sky.
"Couldn't this actually be kind of dangerous?"
He muttered the thought to himself. But then again, the only person who came here was him. This area wasn't near the highway, so the odds of anyone showing up were quite low. Anyone arriving from the highway would end up near the campsite he and Set had just found.
"Well, better safe than sorry."
He channeled magic through the Death Scythe once more and swung.
This time it wasn't a diagonal cut, but a perfectly horizontal one. The triangular severed section dropped to the ground.
He didn't know what the wood would be used for, but a flat cut was better than a pointed one. That was the reasoning behind this strike.
After storing both the leaning tree and the triangular piece in the Misty Ring, he searched for his next target. Not that he had to look far—this was a forest, after all.
"Hey, Set. I'm going to be cutting trees for a while, so feel free to do what you want."
"Gurr? ...Grrrr."
Set purred in response and lay down a short distance away. Normally, he'd be running around and playing... but the fact that he was lying down where Rei could see him meant he was definitely sensing something wrong with the forest.
The failure to detect any monster presence back at the campsite had clearly shaken him.
His beloved Rei—he would protect him.
With that resolve, Set settled down, closed his eyes, and focused everything on his senses of smell, hearing, and magic detection.
Rei understood how Set felt. He smiled and readied his Death Scythe.
"Hah!"
Another strike, charged with magical power. Unlike the first, this was a horizontal slash.
Without the slightest resistance, the Death Scythe sheared through the trunk.
With the follow-through complete, he reached out and touched the tree—and in the next instant, it vanished, stored in the Misty Ring.
All that remained was a cleanly cut stump.
"I should've done it like this from the start. That way I wouldn't have caused any collateral damage."
His gaze drifted to the surrounding trees—specifically, the ones that had been broken when the first tree, cut at an angle, had fallen against them.
They'd recover in a night, so it probably wasn't a big deal. He told himself that, but it still clearly bothered him.
"Well, no point dwelling on it now. This is a forest that devours adventurers, after all... though for some reason it's only spreading toward Gilm."
Why it was growing toward Gilm, he had no idea. But the fact that it wasn't spreading toward Abuelo was a stroke of luck for Abuelo's residents.
Because it was encroaching on Gilm, they could handle it calmly for now... though as he had just seen, a few people had apparently gone out of their way to enter the forest on their own.
If it had been spreading toward Abuelo instead, the adventurers there would never have been able to respond calmly. Abuelo sat on the border with the frontier, and its residents understood the terrors of the frontier better than anyone.
Counting that as a small mercy amidst the danger, Rei channeled magic into the Death Scythe and moved on to the next tree.