The day after Terrain Manipulation reached Level 6, Rei arrived at the Treant Forest, flying through the sky with Seto.
At first, he had considered landing near the lake and the Birth Tower to talk things over, but since he was currently trying to avoid being noticed by others, it went without saying that visiting such a place was a bad idea.
He felt a twinge of guilt when he thought about Zozo the Lizardman, who admired him so much.
If the Lizardmen were the only ones there, Rei would have happily dropped by.
However, near the Birth Tower there were also Lizardman children that had just been born there. The Lizardmen who had teleported in, starting with Zozo, possessed high intelligence and were recognized as demi-humans rather than monsters.
But precisely because they were such rare beings, there were many who would commission their live capture out of a desire to possess them. Others speculated that the materials harvested from such rare beings might differ from those of ordinary Lizardmen.
Furthermore, the lake that had teleported to the side of the Birth Tower was, in a sense, even more dangerous than the Lizardmen.
It had been teleported from another world, creatures and all, along with the lake itself.
To the people of Elgin, it teemed with unknown beings.
As if to prove it, the monsters inhabiting the lake did not possess magic stones—which monsters in Elgin invariably did.
For that reason, protecting the lake required a large number of adventurers. Not the sort who had only recently arrived in Gilm, but reliable adventurers who had been there since before the expansion construction and had been taking on commissions.
If those adventurers, the Lizardmen, the supply runners, or the researchers who came with Daskar's permission to investigate the lake, the Birth Tower, and the Lizardmen spotted Rei—what then?
The researchers, in particular, would be a problem.
There were many who wanted to investigate the Crystal Dragon that Rei had slain in the Forest of Magic.
Among them, there might even be someone who would demand that all the Crystal Dragon materials be handed over to them just to satisfy their own curiosity—just as Elena had told Rei through the Paired Orb the day before. That possibility could not be dismissed.
That was why Rei decided to skip the Birth Tower and head straight for the fairies' home instead.
Some of the Lizardmen admired him—or rather, had pledged their loyalty to him—so in that sense, he didn't feel entirely good about it.
Even so, getting tangled up in trouble was troublesome, so he asked Seto to avoid the area around the Birth Tower when they entered the Treant Forest.
Be that as it may...
"I haven't been here that many times, so I can only figure out roughly where the fairies live."
"Gruu."
Searching for the fairies' location from the sky was difficult, so they had landed in the Treant Forest and were searching on foot. Unfortunately, finding the place wasn't going to be that easy.
The fact that both Rei and Seto were slightly directionally challenged may have also been a factor.
At any rate, one person and one creature had managed to get lost in the Treant Forest—a place they knew well enough.
That said, getting lost in this case was different from the usual.
If all they needed was to leave the Treant Forest and head to Gilm, they could simply have Seto fly into the sky or have Rei use his Sleipnir boots to ascend high into the air, and they would immediately be able to figure out where Gilm was.
This time, however, they weren't trying to leave the forest. They were heading to the place where the fairies lived.
"If we get close to where the fairies live, they'll probably sense us from their side. ...When I think of it like that, it doesn't seem like it should be all that hard."
"Haaah," he sighed.
Beside Rei, who murmured as he surveyed the surroundings, Seto purred in agreement...
"Grrrrrl."
Seto's demeanor changed. He began to growl—not so much out of caution, but as a warning.
From Seto's reaction, Rei understood what was happening.
This Treant Forest was not a forest that had existed since ancient times.
A few years ago, due to certain circumstances, the forest had come into being.
Because of that, there were initially no animals or monsters living here, unlike a normal forest. But since it was by no means a poor habitat, many animals and monsters had since made their way into the Treant Forest.
In such a place, territories like those found in an ordinary forest had not yet been firmly established, and even now many animals and monsters were still fighting over them.
That was precisely why guards were needed for the woodcutters felling trees in the Treant Forest. For the adventurers protecting the Birth Tower and the Lizardmen living there, the forest was also a significant source of prey.
Ordinary animals and monsters, however, would basically flee the moment they sensed Seto's presence.
Despite that, the fact that Seto was issuing a warning growl meant one thing: either the opponent believed it could win against Seto, or it was too incompetent to grasp the gap in their strength—or rank. Of that, there was no doubt.
And what appeared in the direction of Seto's gaze this time was...
"Goblins, huh?"
Rei muttered, sounding annoyed.
Just as he said, what emerged from between the trees was a pack of Goblins.
Goblins—famous for being among the weakest of monsters.
Such Goblins couldn't grasp the difference in rank even when faced with the Gryphon Seto, and they charged right in.
Naturally, there was no way Goblins could beat Seto.
If Seto struck and they realized they stood no chance, the Goblins would scatter and flee immediately.
That was exactly why Goblins were extremely troublesome for Rei and Seto. More accurately, they were a genuine nuisance.
"For now... you're in the way!"
Rei hurled a spear he had pulled from his Misty Ring at the pack of Goblins charging toward them. It wasn't the Twilight Spear that Rei used frequently in combat, but a disposable weapon that looked ready to snap at any moment.
The spear cut through the air and flew toward the pack—then shattered the body of the Goblin running at the front.
Not pierced—shattered.
Naturally, that wasn't the end of it. The Goblin running behind the one whose body had been shattered was likewise broken apart. The spear then punched through the flank of a third Goblin, buried itself in the torso of a fourth, and finally stopped.
...Rather than saying it stopped, it was more accurate to say the spear itself couldn't withstand the impact.
Given that it had been on the verge of breaking to begin with, the result was hardly surprising.
If he had used a spear in better condition—or even the Twilight Spear—things might have been different.
In that case, he could have killed many more Goblins.
"Geegy? ...Gegyaah!"
Yet despite their comrade being killed in an instant, only about half the pack fled. The other half continued charging at Rei and Seto.
Since almost no corpse remained behind, they probably couldn't fully grasp that one of their own had just died.
Or perhaps they didn't even try to understand—focused solely on bringing down prey, eating its meat, and filling their stomachs.
Whatever the reason, they were undoubtedly a nuisance.
"Then one more shot—"
Rei reached for his Misty Ring to pull out another fragile spear, but Seto stopped him.
"Gruu."
Seto indicated that he would handle it.
Rei thought there was no real need for Seto to bother with Goblins, but since Seto wanted to do it himself, there was no reason to refuse. He nodded.
"All right. Then go ahead, Seto. They're just Goblins, so I doubt you'll have any trouble. Still, I'll stay ready in case something happens. Be careful."
In a fight between Seto and Goblins, there was zero margin for error.
Even if a Rare Species or High-ranking Species Goblin were among them, Seto losing was unthinkable—he wouldn't even be slowed down.
That was the overwhelming gulf in strength between Seto and Goblins.
And so...
"Grrrrrl!"
Exactly as Rei predicted, without any particular trouble, the surviving Goblins that still wanted to fight were swiftly cut down by Seto.
It's not that I wanted something unusual to happen... but given that Goblins appeared out of nowhere and attacked like that, I figured it wouldn't be strange if something else was going on. ...Not that I wanted anything to happen to Seto, of course.
Thinking along those lines, Rei stroked the head of the returning Seto.
"Gruuru."
Seto purred happily.
Leaving the Goblin corpses behind, they moved on.
Normally, abandoning corpses was far from advisable due to the risk of them turning into Undead.
However, many monsters and animals were currently active in the Treant Forest, so if they came across the Goblin remains, they would likely clean them up entirely.
To Rei, Goblin meat was utterly inedible, but for monsters or animals on the verge of starvation, Goblin corpses would be a welcome meal.
Besides, even if the Goblins rose as Undead, they would be exceedingly weak ones.
Given that, the monsters operating in this area—or even ordinary animals—would dispatch them with ease.
Above all, this was quite deep within the Treant Forest. The likelihood of anyone from Gilm wandering this far... was not impossible to rule out entirely, but the odds were undeniably slim.
"Well, that takes care of the Goblins. It's about time we found where the fairies—hm?"
Rei, who had been walking and talking with Seto, suddenly stopped.
He sensed something approaching once more... and for a moment thought it was another enemy.
This time, however, Seto stopped him for some reason.
"Gruu."
"Seto?"
Rei didn't understand why Seto was holding him back.
But under the circumstances, Seto wouldn't do such a thing without a reason.
So he watched Seto's demeanor and waited—before long, a pack of wolves burst from the underbrush.
"Awoooooo!"
The wolf pack moved to surround Rei and Seto.
Seeing them, Rei was puzzled.
Unlike the Goblins from before, wolves should have been fully capable of gauging an opponent's strength.
So why weren't they fleeing with Seto right there?
What's going on? It doesn't seem like they've failed to sense how strong we are...
Even to Rei, it was clear the wolves felt fear in the presence of Seto, who was biologically far above them.
That much was obvious from the fact that while they had surrounded Rei and Seto, they made no move to attack.
If that was the case, then what were these wolves?
Thinking it over, Rei suddenly recalled that the fairies had once used wolves to guard the area around their home.
The fairies' settlement was primarily protected by a Magic Item called Fog Sound, but they also supplemented that defense by taming wolves.
However, as far as Rei knew, most of the wolves that had guarded the fairies' home back then had been killed by adventurers who'd clashed with Rei.
Even so—maybe... With that thought in mind, Rei called out not to the wolves, but to any fairies that might be lurking nearby.
"I'm an acquaintance of Nielson! I've visited the fairy settlement in the Treant Forest before! The Fairy Chief promised to hand over a Magic Item, so I came to check on it!"
At Rei's sudden shout, the wolves visibly hesitated.
This reaction, too, was not what one would expect from ordinary wild animals.
If they were truly wild, they could have taken his shouting as an opening to attack—and it wouldn't have been strange at all.
The fact that they didn't only reinforced what Rei already suspected: these were wolves tamed by the fairies.
"You can hear me, can't you, fairies? If you don't know who I am, call Nielson or the Chief. I'm the one behind the snacks and food Nielson brought you as souvenirs last time!"
As he called out... whether it was Nielson's name that did the trick or the word "snacks," a single fairy eventually showed itself.