"So, this is the Shulls Great Forest..."
It had been ten days since I’d said my goodbyes to Reinhardt’s group in the Gana Forest. After traveling southeast, I had finally reached the entrance. I’d researched everything I could beforehand, but standing here in person, I realized that the Great Forest was a different world entirely.
I stood right on the border where the forest began. Massive trees loomed before me and to my sides, so thick that ten children like me wouldn't have been able to encircle a single trunk even with arms outstretched. Up close, they felt more like walls than plants. I estimated them to be about forty meters tall.
It was an imposing sight, but remarkably, these were still just saplings. Apparently, the further you traveled toward the heart of the forest, the older and larger the trees became. Mature and ancient specimens could reach heights of 150 meters with diameters of forty meters. At that scale, you’d be lucky to even see the canopy. When I’d first caught sight of the forest from a distance, it had skewed my sense of perspective so badly I thought I was hallucinating.
The vines and broad leaves tangling around the trunks were distinctly tropical. The air was thick with moisture and heat, sticking to my skin in a humid film. Yet, if I turned around, a serene landscape of rolling plains and mountains stretched out behind me. There were no giants there, no tropical flora, and the air was crisp and dry.
It was uncanny. In the span of a few meters, everything—the climate, the vegetation, the scents, the very calls of the insects—transformed completely. This abrupt shift, combined with the way the trees formed a literal wall, made it feel as though the interior of the forest existed in another dimension. Fernobelia had described this place as an experimental ground; perhaps it really was more of a greenhouse or a giant miniature garden.
"Time to go."
I couldn't stand around forever. Keeping my guard up, I stepped into the jungle. Since a fair number of adventurers ventured here, a faint trail still existed near the entrance. It was little more than a game trail, and the massive leaves and hanging vines made for poor visibility, but the sheer size of the trees meant the trunks were spaced wider than I’d expected. It seemed like it would be easier to swing a weapon here than in a cave or an abandoned mine.
I hadn't even been walking for five minutes when the sound of rustling grass reached my ears.
"Detection."
I sent out a wave of mana to probe the area. A group of creatures was flanking me at high speed, intent on surrounding me. Ten of them.
"That didn't take long."
"Gyat!!"
I ducked under a set of talons lunging from the brush on my left, delivering a single, fluid strike with my tachi as the creature soared past. The coppery scent of fresh blood filled the air as a shadow roughly the size of a pony tumbled across the forest floor. It was a Raptor—a monster that looked like a bipedal carnivorous dinosaur.
Another lunged immediately after the first. Raptors were small by monster standards, but they were clever. The first one had tried to mask its presence for a surprise attack, but when that failed, the pack instantly shifted tactics. They used their numbers to surround me, snapping with powerful jaws and slashing with sharp claws in a coordinated assault. It was a simple strategy, but a lethal and exhausting one to defend against.
"Grrrrrr..."
"Gyat! Gyat!"
"Gii!"
I found myself in a one-on-ten scenario. Their green scales blended perfectly with the foliage, making them hard to track, but there was no need to overextend. I remained calm, dealing with each attacker as they came. I parried and dodged the strikes coming from every direction, methodically taking heads with each counter-stroke.
Seeing their comrades pile up so quickly must have shaken them; the pack suddenly turned tail and scattered like startled spiders.
"Five kills before they broke."
I wondered if their morale was always this low. They seemed quick to retreat once they realized they were outmatched, but constant skirmishes like this would eventually drain my stamina. Raptors were far from the only threat in this forest. I needed to stay sharp.
For now, I decided to harvest what I’d killed.
"Dimension Home."
Keeping an eye on my surroundings, I summoned a Grave Slime to collect the carcasses. Generally, adventurers and hunters buried or burned the parts of their prey they didn't need. Leaving rotting meat around was an invitation for disease or larger predators.
However, according to my research, people usually just left carcasses where they fell in the Great Forest. The area was already so densely packed with predators that there was nothing left to "attract," and monster corpses from territorial disputes were a common sight. Spending time and energy on proper disposal was considered a needless risk. Still, leaving them behind felt wrong to me.
"They're back already."
Another pack had appeared, likely drawn by the smell of blood. This group was twice the size of the last, pushing twenty. I didn't want to waste time fighting at this rate.
"Fear."
"Shaaaatz!?"
"Ah, it worked. Good."
A wave of dark magic radiated from me. This was the same spell I'd used to make a guild examiner pass out and wet himself. It worked just as well on monsters; the charging pack skidded to a halt and scrambled away in a panic. If I could drive them off this easily, I’d use this as my primary method for avoiding unnecessary combat.
I briefly wondered if I should have tried to contract one. A Raptor would make for a fast mount... then again, they were built for speed rather than power. Their light frames probably wouldn't handle my weight well, and I hadn't trained in riding bareback. Their scales looked a lot more slippery than horsehide, too. Probably more trouble than they were worth.
"Thanks for the help. You really are handy."
I turned back to the slime. During my preparations, I’d discovered that the Grave Slime’s Corpse Deposition skill didn't just store bodies; it actually slowed the rate of decomposition. My Goblins were already waiting inside the Dimension Home, so if I handed the carcasses over to them, they could handle the butchering and material processing alongside the slimes. Having them automate a process that would have taken me hours alone was an incredible help.
"I'll be counting on you."
I sent the Grave Slime back and resumed my trek. Almost immediately, the sky opened up. It was a torrential downpour, as if a giant bucket had been overturned above me.
"Whoa! That came out of nowhere. The environment is definitely a bigger problem than the monsters."
Torel Canyon had been dangerous, but the heat, the humidity, and these unpredictable squalls were on another level. I’d set up a Rain Shield barrier in advance so I stayed dry, but the rain turned the air into a gray curtain, muffling every sound. It was the perfect cover for an ambush.
"I can see why this catches people off guard."
"Shaa!?"
Another Raptor lunged through the sheets of rain. I drove it off with a Fear spell. I was holding my own thanks to Mana Perception and my slimes, but anyone relying solely on sight and hearing would be under immense pressure. I was grateful for the training Sieber and the others had put me through in the Town of Ghosts.
The rain tapered off as quickly as it had begun. The ground had turned into a muddy mire, making every step a chore. If I hadn't been protected by magic, my sodden clothes would have started sapping my body heat. Then there were the leeches and poisonous insects lurking in the brush. Most travelers used repellent, but a squall like that would wash it off in seconds. Heatstroke, hypothermia, exhaustion—it was a brutal cycle.
"But still, it's truly amazing... for the environment to change this much."
I looked at the massive trees surrounding me. They were called Heat-Radiating Trees. As they grew, they vented heat as a byproduct of photosynthesis, making them the architects of this sweltering climate. Individually, a tree didn't put out much heat, but in a forest this dense, they turned the jungle into a low-temperature sauna. The rising heat created updrafts, which formed cumulonimbus clouds, which led to the constant squalls—an endless loop.
Worse yet, these trees were like an aggressive invasive species. If they found the right conditions, they would rapidly expand their territory outside the forest's borders.
"Fear."
"Gyat!!"
"They just keep coming. No wonder the guild recommends small groups."
Most monsters here were hyper-aggressive. Traveling in a large party only increased the risk of detection and escalated the scale of the attacks. But the danger didn't stop with the travelers. If a large group fled the forest with a horde of monsters in tow, they risked spreading the forest itself. The monsters carried the seeds of the Heat-Radiating Trees in their droppings; a mass exodus of monsters meant a mass expansion of the jungle.
This ability to repel intruders and occasionally counter-invade had earned the place the nickname "The Forest of Retribution." The guild’s C-rank requirement was a safeguard against a national disaster. It was all a perfectly designed system—and I was currently walking right through the middle of Fernobelia’s design.
"Hide."
I activated the concealment magic Remily had taught me. I pushed forward, intent on reaching the first base—a safe zone established by adventurers. There were several bases scattered through the forest, though they grew sparse the deeper you went. My ultimate goal, the Kormi Village Site, lay well beyond the final outpost.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Even with the monsters, I should reach the first base in a few hours. This was just a warm-up. Every step took me deeper into a world of peril and mystery. I could feel it in my bones, but instead of fear, I felt only anticipation. My steps were light, my mind was clear, and I moved forward into the green deep.