I went off in the same direction as yesterday and planned to venture deeper into the forest. I still hadn’t found any signs of a bear or deer so far. What if they didn’t exist in this forest? Would my blessing eventually force me out of the forest, or what was it designed to do?

Elysa, are there bears and deer in this forest?

I didn’t expect the blessing to actually answer. From my interactions with it so far, I had made out that all the information stored in the blessing was present from the beginning. This made sense because Elysa had left a message that stated the blessing was completely separate from her. I was interacting with information that had never changed. This, in my opinion, meant that it was designed to answer this specific question beforehand.

Will I need to leave the forest at any point to find creatures required for my evolutions’ achievements?

And there we had it. The good old “I have no idea what you’re talking about”.

At least my currently required animals were somewhat nearby.

I ran into all kinds of different animals as I ventured deeper and deeper. Unfortunately, they were not the kind that would give me experience. After an hour or so of steady walking, I felt like I would get lost if I didn’t turn around and start making my way back. I was about to turn around when I heard talking.

Talking?

I laid low and slowly approached the talking voices. They belonged to men, and rough ones, too, judging from the intonation. I made sure to stay hidden from sight, using the vegetation to my advantage. I may be quite large, but there were a lot of ferns and other plants in the area that still served to conceal me.

I managed to stay hidden as the voices continued talking. After creeping close enough, I managed to see through the vegetation and observed… humans…

That explained why I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I had no knowledge of the human language of this world. Fortunately, I had a blessing that would allow me to understand.

As I observed three lightly-armored men sitting around a campfire, drinking some kind of beverage, I selected the human language comprehension and confirmed that I wanted to enhance it.

As much as I hated humans for what they did to me, I still wanted to know what they were talking about. What were they doing out here in the forest in the first place?

“I’m serious!” The first man said.

He seemed to be some kind of archer. His armor consisted of light leather armor. What really gave it away was the quiver filled with arrows on his back, and compound bow at his side.

“You can’t keep the wares for yourself,” The second man answered before gulping down some of the liquid in his mug. “That’s bad for business.”

This man seemed to be a brute. His face was scarred, his forearms were muscled and he seemed to wear the best equipment out of all three. A mail armor vest with tough, dark brown, leather vambraces and leg armor. A large double-bladed axe was planted in the dirt next to him.

“I don’t think the boss would be happy with what you just said,” The third man chimed in. “Besides, we haven’t got anything yet.”

The last person seemed to be an older man. He didn’t wear much in terms of armor. Rather, he wore simple cloth armor. The staff that laid beside him in the dirt, combined with his apparel, led me to believe he was some kind of spellcaster.

They did not seem like the most friendly types, and their presence here was nothing but suspicious. What were these so-called goods they were talking about? It sounded like they were some kind of smugglers. These men were most definitely not honest merchants. I’d seen enough unsavory individuals to know them when I saw them.

“Soon,” The first man again. “We’ll do this bullshit scouting first before we get to the good stuff.”

Scouting? What were they looking for?

“I’m telling you,” The second man spoke. “Ain’t a soul around these parts. These poor elves won’t know what’s coming.”

He laughed deeply at his own statement and spilled some drink in the process.

His words had piqued my interest. Apparently, they were scouting the nearby area for people. From what I understood, they were preparing some kind of attack on... elves?

I knew they were scoundrels from the moment I saw them. I wanted to strike them down where they stood, but as it was, it was three against one. I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be able to beat them in a fight. Moreover, from their words, I understood there were more of them somewhere nearby. They would certainly come looking for whatever attacked these men. I understood I could possibly put Cellestra at risk by doing so, so I refrained from attacking.

I hated it.

I hated this feeling of powerlessness.

The three men laughed and drank more of whatever they were drinking while I cursed at myself.

It was obvious there were elves in danger, and I couldn’t help them. What should I do?

I had two choices. The first one was to follow them to try to understand what their plans were. The problem with that was that I wouldn’t grow stronger if I did that. I could get to know more about what was going on, but not do anything about it.

The second option was to leave them be for now and hope that I could evolve quickly and grow more powerful. My spells wouldn’t get stronger, from what I knew, but a larger abdomen would mean I had greater mana reserves to fuel those spells. I might have a fighting chance against these men, and possibly more. Another problem was that I would also have to try to track them down again.

I didn’t know what to do.

I decided to stick around, at least for a bit. With some luck, I would get some information as to where I would have to look.

Their conversation continued and covered a whole bunch of useless topics. Women, alcohol, the best ways to kill your enemy in the most dishonorable way, and more, were discussed. Then, finally, a piece of important information was leaked.

“We should get moving,” The spellcaster said. “We’re expected to be done with our part of the mission. Merely sitting around here won’t do us any good. We have but eight days to prepare, and I’d like to make sure we don’t fail this one. You know Ingo when he gets pissed.”

He shuddered. “I can still feel the whip, and I’m pretty sure you still know exactly how it feels, too.”

They went quiet as they seemed to reflect on past events. I still didn’t know much of what was going on, but I knew I had some time before their plans were to come to fruition. A week wasn’t much, but I hoped I could get through at least one or two evolutions before that.

I took a mental note to get here before the week was over, to try to track them down. It would give me a day to find them, which I hoped was enough. I noted that the second man was quite burly and that he left quite the footsteps in his wake. There was an easily recognizable trail behind him leading up to the campfire. If need be, I could try to track them that way.

I just hoped it wouldn’t rain.

I left them behind as I carefully skittered back in the direction of Cellestra’s home. I took a bit of a detour and hoped that I would run into something I could consider prey. Along the way, I decided I should tell Cellestra about what I had observed and overheard. Maybe she would know more, or be able to figure out what was going on.

All I knew is that they were talking about elves that didn’t know what was coming and some goods. They were likely robbers trying to get their hands on some expensive items.

I would try to stop them if I could. If anything, I at least wanted to prevent them from harming or even killing elves.

I didn’t know what Cellestra would think if I let them do as they pleased. Even if she was exiled, she still wondered how things would have, could have been if it wasn’t for her curse. She still had some kind of connection to her kin.

I walked for a few minutes more, when I finally ran into something of interest.

There, in a small grassy clearing, stood a large buck. His antlers were massive and would likely have intimidated anything that wasn’t a former elf.

And he was just what I needed.