1st Felerach of Secafiel 1206

Petrasha's POV

" Thank god you contacted me Lucy-nee..." I said while almost crying to the ManaCom. Through this one and a half years, I have been strengthening my receiver that it should be no problem to receive signals from anywhere from Astrea. I have used signalum as the metals at the receiver. Signalum is a special blend of metal that specializes in signal conducting and transmitting, not to mention it is actually tougher than iron and steel! With the receiver, we also used Manafused Steel as a mana conductor between the receiver and the actual ManaCom. Though this made this ManaCom immovable, it serves its purpose as a receiver from all other ManaComs from the rest of the world. Because of this, Lucy-nee can finally contact me without problems. Before the messages are always weak and sometimes don't even form sentences, with this the signal is enhanced and I can finally know what is she talking about.

" Now now, don't cry, I finally reached the Yskrasidria continent, currently I'm at the elven settlement on the south side of the continent. From there I will be heading towards the dryad's territory. Say Petrasha, do they even recognize your badge? They won't attack sight right? Like er, treat me as an intruder that is going to defile their place or something." Lucy-nee said.

" Don't worry, just show them the badge and you are safe. At the most just use the ManaCom to contact me and I'll help to negotiate with them. There is no need to worry at all. Don't even worry about things like the old generation new generation, those dryads, and treants have been there for more than a hundred years! So just don't worry about it ok?" I said to Lucy, this is one of her bad habits. Too nervous.

" Speaking of which did Christine came out of her room yet? It's been a year and a half so I'm sure she would have come out already right?" Lucy-nee asked.

Shit... should I tell her the truth that Christine ran away from me... or should I say everything is fine... 

" Er... everything is fine... she hasn't come out from her room though..." I lied... I lied just as if I am not a dwarf.

" You're lying. What happened to Christine?" Lucy-nee... I'm sorry...

" Christine she ran away from home. I even sent guards to find her but still cant... I'm sorry nee-san..." I explained...

" Should I go back to Zarcara first?" Lucy-nee asked.

" Well, I also found some replacement parts for the ManaCom to improve it, so maybe it would be good to come back first before going to the Desarrkti Continent," I said. Having nee-san to come back would be great!

" Very well then, after meeting with the dryads I'll come back to find Christine," Lucy-nee said.

Great! Lucy-nee will be coming back soon. It seems Christine can do something good after all.

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Lucy's POV

Christine, Christine, why can't you be more useful! Damn it! Now I have to make a detour again!

*Sigh*

" Old man, how long until we reach the forest borders," I asked the driver that is driving the wagon. The old man drives the wagon from here towards the forest two times per day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. It is a service that bring the foragers back towards the town. It is quite a clever move you know, in a place that doesn't have many wild monsters and animals, these kinds of services will help the foragers a lot. They wouldn't have to walk all the way through the fields just to bring their harvest back.

" Ahahaha doesn't worry girl, it's not that far, just enjoy the sceneries the fields give." One of the foragers told me, it is an elf that looks like he's in his 80's something (elven years). 

" She is right for wanting to be faster though, the forests look the best during the morning! Especially after a good rain. It would make a quite good-looking piece of art you know." Another forager said.

" Just don't go past over the fence and you are fine, over the fence is the territory of the dryads and treants. Best don't go bother them unless you have a nice enough reason." Yet another forager said.

" Ahahaha...." I laughed awkwardly... 

After what seems to be half an hour, we finally reached the border.

" I will come back at 5 young girl, be sure to be here by that time or I will leave without ya," the old driver said.

I gave the old man a nod and start to went inside the forest. What they said is true, the forest truly looks beautiful in the morning. Too bad I don't have any single artistic sense, maybe Adeline would love it here, she loves nature a lot and her art is always good... at least the best among us.

At first, I was wanting to rush through the forest and solve this quickly, but seeing this scene... I kinda want to stay here longer. When we are all free, I wanna bring Petrasha here. If possible all others too.

As I was walking through the forest, I realized that the trees start moving.

" Hello, Dryads, pretty nice of you all to welcome me that fast... I assume you know why I am here right?" I asked them.

" Yes, we do. Do not worry, Lord Petrasha helped us solve the problems of the settlements which made us quite happy. We still owe her one and we would gladly help her with finding her friends if they landed here." the dryads said... it's quite weird to hear so many people saying one single sentence at once.

" Well, I guess my job here is done then?" I said. It's still quite early, so I guess I will explore the nearby forest? The view is great so its not a problem.

" We do have some better sceneries deeper in the forest, if it interested you, miss vampire." the dryads said. I think I will never get used to the one body, multiple voices stuff. 

" I guess I will take up on your offer then. It would be a good change of plans since it ended early." I said. Exploring sounds good, especially in a place where normally people cant get into. The scenery there must be great.

---

Note to self: Dryad's sense of beauty differs greatly from average human being... no living beings...

There is literally no such "better sceneries" I bet if any YouTuber from Earth came here, it would work as a great green screen.

" Do you like the scenery dear guest," the dryads asked...

" Er... it's quite... special..." I answered quite honestly. I mean, it's not wrong, it is special. This place is literally just green everywhere. Plain old green. I can't even see the brown wooden tree trunks. It's all covered in green moss. There is no light that came through the canopy too! Making the entire place very dark! 

" Then we are sure you would like the innermost sanctum too, dear guest." There's more... send help please Petrasha...

Should I just deny them outright from the start? But it would be disrespectful right... but now I'm in this mess... 

Submitting to my fate I continue to follow the dryads. 

After 30 minutes of a tiring greenscreen, we finally went out of the never-ending jungle. And what appeared is truly... what I wanted to see! Now, this is true scenery. I don't know how do the dryads put the one before and this one in the same category but, for me, one is just a literal greenscreen while this one is literal art! The sunbeams that shine down onto the lake, alongside the trees that still have some droplets on them make a literal godsend art. Not only that, but there is also a beautiful vampire standing next to the lake... wait... isn't that me? I'm the one next to the lake right? 

" Say dear dryads..." I asked them.

" Yes?" they replied.

" Why do you have a mirror here..." I asked them.

" That is not a mirror dear guest," they answered. If that thing is not a mirror, why the heck is it reflecting what I'm seeing right now!

" It is a type of plant that uses reflection to prevent other people from coming near." so basically... a mirror plant... Plants in another world are... amazing...

" I guess there would be a lot of plants here that aren't even cataloged by the elven herbalist foundation right," I asked the dryads.

" They actually have all of the documents of every single plant in Astrea. It is provided by us dryads after all. Though it is stored in the royal library for safekeeping purposes. Normal citizens would not be able to access the complete gallery, and in fact, I believe the complete gallery is not even known to the common people." they answered with a proud smile. Great... suddenly I know one of the top secrets within the Estaria Kingdom... Dryads also love to info-dump people huh...

" Dryads... if my friend came, please tell them to find us immediately if possible. Although it would be the best to meet them soon, I don't really want to rush them to come to us." I told the dryads while still enjoying the scenery.

" Don't worry, we dryads know the pain of losing the dear ones we love. We also lost a lot of our brethren in the war against the humans. The moment they used their massive weapons on us, our island up north is totally annihilated. Thousands and thousands of dryads and treants are killed in a single moment." the dryads said. Oh yeah! The anti-mana bomb did hit here too! Maybe I could get some info from them.

" Do you know what happened when the explosion happened? I want to know the details as close as possible. I am working with Petrasha to work on a solution to negate these explosions!" I said excitedly.

" When the explosion occurs, we could feel that the mana in the surroundings is forcibly gathered together as if using a spell. But the magnitude of it is equal to hundreds the most advanced spell that we dryads have ever seen before. Then all of a sudden, the mana in the center suddenly changed and started to pushes the surrounding mana outside and when that happens, the changed mana in the middle suddenly collapsed and the explosion occurred. Then we got cut off from our brethren in the island." the dryads said.

Hrmm, forcibly gathered, it seems to be some sort of long-range spell or a mana containment field. The former is impossible but the latter could be formed by using anti-mana. By using anti-mana to force the mana to gather within a small area, it is possible to make it very condensed. But how would they even deploy such items to control the mana... and the mana collapsing part. Could it be possible that the mana is being forced out too fast that it started to become unstable and collapsed? Or could it be the concentration of anti-mana is too high that it started to decay back into normal mana... There are too many unknowns within this. But this should be good info to be brought back to the council members. Maybe they would know better what does this means.

" Thank you dryads. Let's hope we are able to form a solution against this deadly weapon as fast as possible so we could live in a better world." I said towards the dryads while standing up, preparing to leave.

" We thank you too for wanting to assist us in protecting this world, may your journey run smoothly dear guest." I heard the dryad said and I was suddenly at the entrance of the forest. Strange, wasn't I deep within the forest moments ago? How did I get here so fast? 

Well doesn't matter, this change of plans proves to be really good. Not only I can go back and upgrade my ManaCom so I could have better contact with my cute little imouto, but I also gained a better insight on the mana bomb incident that could help us in fighting it! What's left is the rest of them to come here. If our calculations aren't wrong, the next one of them would be coming within 4 years. I wonder who is it... I hope it's Adeline, I missed her... and she surely wouldn't be happy to be left last.