The sun sank, and darkness swallowed the surroundings.
Even so, outside the forest, campfires kept the area lit.
Had this been a standard request, they would have chatted for a while before leaving a watch and turning in for the night.
But the crew assembled here was different.
More so than during the day, now—from nightfall onward—was when the real investigation began.
"...I've heard the rumors, but are they really coming? We went into the forest during the day and didn't see a single monster, right?"
One of the adventurers muttered as he stared at the Treant Forest, a campfire burning before him.
Clouds drifted across the night sky, completely concealing the moon.
During the day, there had been hardly a cloud in sight, and warm sunlight had poured down.
Despite that spring-like weather, now that night had fallen, the sky somehow took on an ominous quality.
(Maybe it just feels that way because we're near the Treant Forest.)
A different adventurer near the one voicing his complaints surveyed the area, muttering internally.
Some distance from the forest, several campfires burned.
The group had gathered by party or by the teams that had operated during the day, each tending its own fire.
Given the sheer number of people, the fires were inevitably numerous.
At first, someone had suggested building one large bonfire, but concerns about whether it could be extinguished quickly in an emergency led to the current setup.
"Hey, honestly, what do you think? I can't really trust that sort of thing."
Perhaps displeased that the man he'd spoken to stayed silent, the Adventurer Man who had been griping about the Treant Forest asked the question again, this time directing it at the man who'd be working with him.
This team consisted of one Alchemist and five adventurers—six in total.
More precisely, it was a collaboration between a two-person and a three-person adventurer party.
The Alchemist was currently away, exchanging opinions with the other Researchers, and a few of the adventurers were likewise absent, trading information.
As a result, one member from each of the two parties remained at this campfire.
The adventurer addressed opened his mouth, looking somewhat irritated.
"Even if you ask what I think... given that there are people who were actually attacked, it's a fact that enemies exist. ...Well, that doesn't mean they're here right now, though."
He didn't truly believe that himself, but sensing the instant he said "enemies," the man who had spoken to him would sour further, he hastily added the caveat.
The displeased man's mood seemed to improve slightly at that. He turned back toward the Treant Forest and opened his mouth again.
"...Acting all high-and-mighty when you don't know a thing..."
A short distance away, Thresha, who had overheard the conversation, muttered while suppressing her fury.
If there was nothing wrong with the Treant Forest, then what exactly was it that she... and her companions had been attacked by?
Having been personally attacked, Thresha found the whole exchange deeply offensive.
"Calm down. ...Here, drink this."
Luno, sitting beside her, offered a cup.
Inside was tea.
Naturally, tea brewed in a place like this wasn't made with genuine, carefully prepared leaves.
It was simply tea leaves boiled in a small pot set over the campfire with basic utensils.
For anyone who seriously enjoyed tea or black tea, the result would be utterly unacceptable... but for adventurers, it was a tried-and-true method of getting a decent cup.
...Though it was also true that more adventurers preferred alcohol over tea.
"Thank you."
Thresha accepted the tea and drank, but she still couldn't entirely quell the anger she felt toward the two men sitting some distance away.
"Settle down. If you're that tense now, you won't be able to perform when it really counts, you know?"
One of the adventurers on her team called out to Thresha.
Among this group, she had the lowest rank.
Naturally, she didn't originally hold a rank high enough to qualify for this investigation request.
Because of that, the other adventurers kept a watchful eye on her.
Of course, the fact that Thresha was a young woman undoubtedly influenced that as well.
If someone in her position had been an insolent man, the other adventurers would have had their eyes on him in a far different sense.
...Though whether such a person could have bowed his head to Luno and gotten him to travel together was doubtful at best.
"I understand. I know, but... I just can't help it..."
The words seemed to steady her, at least a little. Thresha murmured softly as she sipped her tea.
"Fools like that are everywhere. People who can't see reality for what it is. People who think their own common sense is absolute. ...Can't really say that sort is cut out to be an adventurer."
"Hah! What did you just say!?"
The adventurer who had been speaking with Thresha must have heard the voice.
The one who had just been insisting there were no monsters in the Treant Forest glared toward Thresha and the others and bellowed.
If they could hear the conversation from over there, it was entirely plausible that Thresha's group could be heard as well.
"Settle down, come on, you're drawing attention. Don't you realize what happens if you make a spectacle of yourself in a place like this?"
The one who spoke in that half-provocative tone was the Adventurer Man who had been encouraging Thresha.
But even if his tone was goading, what he said was by no means wrong.
If they caused trouble in the middle of a request, the Guild would certainly take issue with it.
Moreover, this request came directly from the Guild.
There was a very real chance it would affect the evaluations for rank-ups.
The adventurer who had shouted probably knew that too.
Still, for a man with a quick temper, silencing the one who provoked him took priority over reason.
He rose to his feet and started marching toward the campfire where Luno and Thresha sat...
"Whoa!"
Suddenly his throat tightened, and his body locked in place.
Did someone on his own team do something?
With that thought, he turned to glare behind him in displeasure—only to find another man's face frozen in astonishment.
Judging that at the very least the man hadn't been the one to do it, the adventurer tried to pry off whatever was strangling his neck.
But the thing coiled around his throat was so tight he couldn't even wedge a finger underneath.
A knife, maybe— The moment the thought crossed his mind, he was violently yanked backward.
The force was tremendous; it was all he could do to plant his feet and keep from being dragged away.
"Tch!"
Almost reflexively, he ripped the longsword from the sheath at his waist and slashed blindly behind him.
From the resistance traveling through the blade, he realized he'd severed something of moderate thickness.
From the moment he registered that something was wrapped around his neck to this point—only a few seconds had passed.
That split-second accuracy of judgment was likely the reason this man qualified for a rank-restricted request.
"Enemy attack! We're under attack! Monsters are coming out of the Treant Forest!"
Luno, who had been watching the whole exchange, shouted—but by then, nearly everyone nearby had already drawn their weapons and braced for combat.
The man who'd been strangled gripped his longsword and spun toward the forest.
At last, he laid eyes on what had been crushing his throat.
It was a vine.
Even after being partly severed, it still writhed on the ground like a snake.
"Damn it!"
He ripped away the remnant of vine still clinging to his neck, not caring that his nails gouged the skin in the process.
"Look out!"
The man had just slammed the vine's remains onto the ground when that warning reached him, and he threw himself clear on reflex.
That ability to react in an instant—short-tempered and quick to brawl though he was—proved he had the skill to take on this request.
Either way, something crashed down onto the spot where the man had been standing a heartbeat prior.
"What the—!?"
The man shouted as he looked skyward, and what he saw was... a giant flower towering higher than the surrounding trees.
If Rei had seen it, he probably would have shouted, "A sunflower!?"
And indeed, the flower closely resembled one.
But naturally, there were plenty of differences.
For one, a sunflower was never this massive.
The flower before the adventurers stood roughly ten meters tall, its bloom exceeding three meters across.
Inside the flower were seeds... and those seeds were what had just rained down.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! When did a flower like that grow?! There wasn't anything like that during the day, right?!"
The man, who would've been struck if he'd dodged a beat slower, cried out in panic.
How powerful were those seeds? What happened if one took root in a person? The mere thought was enough to grasp roughly how dangerous they were.
"More of them coming!"
One adventurer's shout coincided with Treants emerging through the gaps between the trees.
True to the name Treant Forest, there were a great many of them.
What's more, vines like the one that had strangled that man slithered out from among the Treants, threading through the forest in thick, twisting ropes.
"Look! Trees are sprouting from the ground—fast!"
Another adventurer shouted, and when those nearby reflexively glanced down, the words proved true: trees were shooting up from the earth at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Growth at a rate that defied all common sense.
A sight that revealed exactly how the Treant Forest expanded so rapidly.
But however astonishing that was, the adventurers' job wasn't to observe the Treant Forest—it was to deal with the horde of monsters pouring out of it.
...Even so, the Researchers paid the adventurers no mind, huddling in their own clusters and observing the forest with rapt fascination.
"Look—at this rate of growth, it's unquestionably drawing on the mana flowing through the earth."
"I'll grant you that, but what about the monsters over there?"
"That giant flower raining down seeds? It must be drawing on the mana flowing through the earth to grow that large, don't you think?"
"Hmm... but enough mana to sustain a forest spreading at this scale? It might manage at first, but wouldn't it eventually run dry?"
"...You're suggesting they're obtaining nutrients or mana from some source beyond the ambient flow?"
"Come to think of it, several adventurer parties have gone missing around here, haven't they?"
"Even factoring in the numbers, I think that'd be a stretch."
The adventurers grew more and more irritated at the Researchers' idle chatter while they were the ones fighting for their lives.
Those who had stayed behind as the Researchers' escorts rather than joining the battle felt it most keenly—How can they stand there chatting so leisurely...
Still, considering the Researchers' true dispositions, each one would have far preferred to wander off to whatever intrigued them and spend their time observing and collecting samples at leisure.
The fact that they were suppressing that urge and staying bunched together so the adventurers could guard them easily was, in a sense, quite cooperative.
...Whether the ones doing the guarding saw it that way was another matter.
As the escorts stewed in frustration and irritation, the tide of battle gradually turned in the adventurers' favor.
That was because adventurers stationed farther away were arriving one after another to reinforce them.
This request carried a rank restriction to begin with, and the adventurers who had signed on were reasonably skilled.
Given that, the monsters emerging from the forest—including the Treants—weren't much to fear as long as they didn't catch anyone off guard.
Nearly every adventurer here could hold their own against a Treant... no, more than hold their own, even fighting solo.
"Alright! Reinforcements keep coming at this rate, and victory's a lock!"
One adventurer bellowed as he pulverized a Treant's trunk with his hammer.
His shout drew roars of agreement from the others.
But... a voice cut through the bravado.
"Our combat power is high, but we have no idea how much the enemy's packing! This isn't the time for a quick finish—we need to fight a war of attrition!"
As he shouted, the man chanted a spell and swung his staff.
What erupted forth was a volley of stone needles.
More than thirty stone needles riddled the Treants emerging from the forest and the vines snaking across the ground, punching hole after hole through them.
He was a Young Mage renowned for his proficiency in earth magic.
The way he cut down enemies while conserving mana marked him as a seasoned mage.
But the adventurer who had been shouting so confidently a moment before snapped back in displeasure.
"If you've caught a case of the shakes, then step aside!"
"...I wouldn't be so sure about that."
With that reply, a silhouette swept past the man who had shouted, swinging a massive weapon in a single arc.
That alone cleaved a Treant clean through the trunk, and it collapsed to the ground under its own weight.
"Given how unnatural this forest is, preserving your strength over a quick fight isn't the wrong call, I'd say."
Shouldering his massive weapon... Death Scythe, Rei muttered as much.