“Vilsom, Haitiri. Welcome.” 

The moment we left the RV, a group of blond- and green-haired men and women with long, sharp ears climbed down from the top of the trees at the edge of the forest. Equipped with bows, daggers, and magic rings while wearing similar-looking green linen clothes with chitin and bark armor covered up in a leaf cloak, this five-man group looked not only organized but also intimidating.

With Whisperia on her shoulders, Muraina greeted the saluting elves by waving at them. This casual response contrasted with her current outfit.

Wearing dark green chitin armor over her green clothes, her black cloak would give her a rogue-ish aura if she were to wear the hood up. With a short blade and dagger sheathed on her hips, a green magic ring on her right hand, and an enchanted bow with a blue shimmering bow thread, she looked prepared for any situation.

“Hail, younglings, may spring bequeath your groves with new life.” 

As Murina spoke with the elves, I asked Tasianna for a translation.

“‘Welcome, Stalker of Phantoms,’ I believe, Lady Hestia. ‘Haitiri,’ should be Miss Muraina’s nickname, similar to Dame Yorshka’s ‘White Winged Dragoon’ moniker.” She then pointed at the group of elves in front of us. “It is an elven wordplay on the Saelari’s ranger faction, the Haireti—the Forest Phantoms.”

… Rank A? I stared at her back for a moment before turning back to my friends.

Only Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, and I chose to leave the RV, since Grimnir, for some reason, wanted to stay inside his smithy until we departed for the hunt. Once we knew where to go, we could call him.

As we approached the elves, though, their eyes flicked from Muraina to our group, specifically Ellaine. It felt awkward and our group stopped for a second before the elves returned their glares to Muraina, who seemed to have noticed it.

“Don’t act so cold, you five. Like I said in my letter, Krymdar won’t be coming and I will bring in more ‘appropriate allies’ to help.”

“But, Lady Muriana, the hu—” One of the elves wanted to say but Muraina interrupted him by wagging her finger.

“This is one of the retainers of the missing Kargryx Meoschaera, Lady Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor, who was recently ‘found.’ Do I need to say anything more?” 

The revelation struck the elves hard. Their stone-cold poker faces broke as their eyes widened and they let out an audible gasp before turning around and bowing before me. “We apologize for our indiscretion!” they shouted. They would have kept kneeling like that if Muraina hadn’t prompted me to forgive them.

Once Muraina asked them to lead us to the outpost, she told Saori to hide the RV somewhere at the edge of the forest, since the path forward would be too rough for it to traverse. As such, we took the [Room] runes with us, taking advantage of our newly made mobile base.

As we were following the elven rangers, I asked Muraina, “I wanted to ask this before, but why are you and these, uhm, Haireti showing so much favor towards me? I know the elves are allies with Kargryx and Loatryx, but they shouldn’t be bowing that deeply to anybody but their own monarch, right?”

“Allies forged through blood, Lady Hestia,” Muraina answered. “All elven ancestry traces back to our homeland, the island of Anduriol where the Ancient Elven Kingdom, Kel’thun, is located. Since Miononbolax is located northwest from our home, as you might guess, dragons and elves have a history of falling in love and marrying each other in no small part thanks to how extremely long our respective lifespans are. Due to this relationship, many ancient dragons decided on becoming elves for their humanoid form.”

“Does this mean that the elves of today have draconic blood?”

“No, of course, not. But many dragonewts were born from this union, and, since we elves live so long, we have a culture of worshipping our elders similar to your ‘young scales’ with your ‘elder scales.’ We elves might not be Kargryx’s vassals, but our alliance is deeply rooted, similar to our bonds with the levianewts and dwarves.”

If some of these pairings were still alive today—for example, my dragon uncle’s marriage with his elven wife—then it would make sense that there would be such a friendship between the two races. It still felt weird that they would kneel immediately instead of just bowing, but it was whatever at this point.

As we went deeper into the woods, Saori suddenly mentioned that she could smell a variety of monsters lurking in this forest and asked the elven guides if she was allowed to hunt some of them for her garms and Shoyi. After they acquiesced on the condition she wouldn’t hunt the forest empty, she disappeared into her shadow with her garms.

Jeez, and here I thought I was the one with [Battle Frenzy] …

We eventually reached the elven outpost. I looked up, noticing the numerous tree houses with elven archers looking down at us, their hands holding onto their bow and an arrow each, ready to shoot at any time. As I looked closer, I realized that there were hard to notice vines hanging from one tree to the other, which the elves used to traverse through the trees faster.

There wasn’t any trick or labyrinth which protected this place—probably why the elven guide gave Saori permission to hunt—but with how the elves could move around with ease and set up ambushes, this place would be hard to invade without resorting to fires. Considering how obvious this weakness was, I wondered if the elves had any measures against forest fires.

“You three may leave as well, if you wish. The discussion won’t just be about the Quest itself, since these rangers are part of my spy network. It will be pretty dry,” Muraina stated.

“Spies? Oh wait, now that I think about it, weren’t there half-elves in Griffonpeak? You didn’t come to my concert, but did you send people to spy on it?” I asked, remembering how I gained a few half-elven fans during my last few songs.

Muraina’s face made a “not bad” expression, visibly surprised that I’d found that out. “They should have been able to camouflage perfectly into the crowd. How exactly did you find out?” She praised me, smiling as if she was holding herself back from interrogating me. “To answer your question, they were some of the half-elves who live in the elven quarter of Griffonpeak. My neighborhood, and one I bought for visiting elves to stay at as well as any half-elves or any one of my people who wish to live in the city. They were there to inform me if you had any enemies.”

“Do I?”

She shrugged. “The fat drunk. You’ll learn soon enough.” After clapping my shoulders, Muraina left. I was a bit flabbergasted how that one guy was supposed to be an “enemy” when I simply wanted to delay the fan meeting after I cleaned up. 

Wait, a moment, could that guy be a potential stalker? Wait, am I gonna get my first stalker? Uhm … why do I feel like this is a success?

I shook my head to get rid of that idea. It sounded weird to be happy about getting a stalker when stalkers were serious problems back on Earth. The number of news of idols getting into trouble with stalkers, with some even taking their own lives. Remembering them gave me the chills.

As we now had some downtime, Tasianna and Elaine suggested for us to look around for any herbs or alchemical ingredients inside the forest. I declined, since I wanted to enjoy the feeling of walking through a forest in solitude. I was driven by some nostalgia here, since I haven’t done this ever since I met Saori in the Belzac forest.

After I left them, I suddenly craved something.

I feel like flying a bit. 

Activating [Humanize], I pulled out my wings and poured some mana into them. Using [Air Walk] to help me soar up, I flapped my wings and flew up to the tops of the tree and through the leaf bed. Looking up at the sky and sea of leaves, I took a deep breath and enjoyed the sunlight touching my crimson scales.

“A sea of trees ♫. Haaaaaaaaaaaaa, yeah, this feels so much better. Flying really is the best.” 

I flapped my wings once again and enjoyed flying for a bit longer, until I realized how small this forest was compared to the Belzac forest. It might have been my unwilling home, but that didn’t change the fact that it still was my home for quite a bit.

Rajah, how are you doing? Are you doing fine with your mother and siblings? Caszcur, how are you and the other lizardmen doing? Have you made it to Caedhul yet?

Memories of the friends I made in the Belzac forest came back to me. Caszcur, the lizardmen carpenter, became one of my fans and I haven’t gotten a notification of losing a beastman fan just yet. There was no guarantee, but I wanted to believe that he was happy and doing well with the levianewts.

Same thing with Rajah, the virigress cub that I adopted before releasing him back to the wild so he could stay with his mother and siblings. He was blessed by Aurena and also became my “follower,” so he shouldn’t be in too much trouble either.

Hold on, aren’t Yorshka and Tamae going to the Belzac forest to train? Oh shit, I forgot to mention Rajah to them! Please, don’t meet—Oh wait, Goddess Aurena, could you possibly give Rajah some way to communicate or show he isn’t a threat to them?

… Scheiße, she’s busy.

No answer. Well, she couldn’t even if I begged her. I bet even giving Rajah a special “blessing” was already going beyond her authority as a god.

At this point, I could only hope they wouldn’t hurt each other if they were to meet. Actually, it might be better if they wouldn’t meet at all. In any case, I hope to see those two again one day. I wanted to travel to Caedhul to meet with the lizardmen, but that was a long way off, since we still needed to visit the dwarves and dragonewts before then. We weren’t even finished in Griffonpeak just yet either.

Speaking of, I haven’t checked out the new milestone yet.

[The Light], my mark that proved I was Aurena’s Champion, but it also granted me the ability to gain followers similar to a streamer gaining subscribers. The title already gave me spells like [Shine] and [Sanctuary], but after the concert in Griffonpeak, I was able to reach the 2500 milestone for [Dark Weakness Removal].

I landed on the ground, took out some of Saori's black mana threads, and wrapped it around my arm. I then poured mana through it and I was just barely able to feel something tingling on my skin.

Nice!

Dark, water, and ice were my naturally elemental weaknesses and I finally lost one of them through this amazing milestone, meaning [Draconic Barrier] couldn’t be pierced by dark elemental attacks now. It could fully protect me as long as I had mana … although, it did mean Saori kinda got weaker against me. Hehe.

<The Light: A title granted to a mortal recognized by the Goddess of Light, whose control has been usurped by the owner. Boosts proficiency gain of magics based on Holy Element. As a Champion of Aurena, the holder of this title may use the [Fans Overview] function to gain special benefits. This title also applies: [System Neutrality] [Dark Weakness Removal]>

[The Light] used to mention how I was weak to dark magics and attacks and how I would feel uneasy inside caves or anywhere dark, but with the inclusion of [Dark Weakness Removal], those points were gone. I also had my parallel minds check if [Dark Resistance] still required a ludicrous amount of SP to level up, and they confirmed it actually was reasonable now!

Seems like resistance training is back on the menu. I should ask Saori to shoot me and slice me with her dark spells now to level up [Dark Resistance].

Speaking of—the next milestone. Requiring 10000 fans to unlock, I really hoped this [Miraculous Grace] was worth the effort, otherwise I’d question what Aurena was trying to have me do.

<Miraculous Grace: Bring down the Goddess of Light’s power onto the mortal realm, enabling the caster to heal wounds of any kind depending on how much mana is invested. The more mana is spent, the more the healing power will resemble the miracles of the Goddess of Light, even allowing the regrowth of missing body parts. A true mark of an acknowledged Saint of Aurena>

Wha—! Hold on, t-that wording, doesn’t that mean— Mana Eyes!

<Major Heal: A spell that majorly accelerates the healing process of a wound. Mana will be used as a fuel instead of the body’s nutrients for the healing process. Cannot heal mental damage>

<Sanctified Blaze: A holy-fire mixed elemental spell using white flames to protect its recipient. Continuously heals Health and cures status affliction while it is in effect. White flames will also attempt to shield its recipient from attacks, depending on the will of the user. The power and effectiveness of this spell does not increase through increasing the Mana cost but through the skill [White Flames] and Intelligence stat of the caster>

Here it was. The improved healing spell I was hoping for so much. [Major Heal] and [Sanctified Blaze] were currently the healing spells I used most often to heal others. [Minor Heal], [Moderate Heal], and [Major Heal] were System spells given through [Holy Magic] and [Sacred Magic], which worked by speeding up your natural recovery speed.

[Sanctified Blaze], on the other hand, healed damage related to your health, not your entire body. It was my answer to one of [Major Heal]'s weaknesses, that it couldn’t produce blood, so even if it healed someone’s body, they could still die from blood loss. [Sanctified Blaze] “played the system,” since as long as you had health, you couldn’t die in Peolynca, even if you didn’t have a heart or any pumping blood. It was possible to delay one’s death, although not forever.

Sadly, it couldn’t regenerate lost or missing body parts. I could repair a heart if there were still pieces left or I could reattach a leg, but I couldn’t make entirely new ones. The spells also only healed as much as “needed,” meaning they never would be able to heal genetic or birth defects. Once your body found something “normal” or “natural,” the spells couldn’t do anything.

[Miraculous Grace] might just be the answer to most of these problems. I bet I wouldn’t be able to bring a person back to life even with this spell, though, considering the description didn’t mention something like that.

However, didn’t Aurena mention that a person’s memories are also imprinted on their soul? Similar to Saori’s and my case? The moment your health drops to zero, your soul gets sent to Ilsaphone. However, if I prevented this and healed their brain in time, would they still retain their memories? Theseus’s ship situation? Urgh, this is just giving me a major headache.

I chose not to think too much about it. I’ll just have to avoid attacks aiming for my head in the future, and once I have this new spell, attacks to my torso probably wouldn’t be life-threatening anymore.

Need sugar for my own brain now.

After taking out some fragassa, I began munching on them, uninterested in whatever was around me now. With no threats on my [Detection Sensor] to notice, I casually walked through the forest, enjoying the remaining time before the hunt… until I heard something.

“… Mrigbit.”

“Kueck!” My body froze up, taking no further movements. My eyes slowly moved over to the direction of the sound, and that was where I saw it.

A plump, brown creature with disgusting-looking skin and warts stood in the middle of the grass. The sac underneath their mouth expanded each time it croaked, releasing its terrifying roar of intimidation. Its slit eyes stared at my fragassa and me as its unnaturally long mouth readied to attack.

“Mrigbit.” It cried out once more before it jumped forward, revealing its long hind legs. It was only about the size of my feet, but I knew I was out of my league here.

“KYAAAAAH!” Holding my fragassa tightly to my chest, I flapped my wings and sped away from the horrendous toad after blasting it away with [Wind Blast]. To retreat was to survive, to survive was to win. Primal instincts compelled me to flee!

After making some distance from that creature, I stopped flying and my body trembled as a chill ran down my spine. “Why …why do all these damn frogs and toads always try to eat my stuff! Argh, why do they always have to look so fucking terrifying! Ahhhh, why am I like this? A giant dragon like me, afraid of those small things. Why? Haaaaaa…”

I threw a fragassa into my mouth to soothe myself, intending to fully ignore the situation to reset my mindset. I couldn’t allow myself to feel like this. [Detection Sensor] could tell me of the signals around me, but unless it was a threat, most of the time I would ignore them. It was a necessity. I could detect the ants underneath my feet, so taking all these signals seriously would just give me a headache, even with my parallel minds.

“Haaaa…”

“Mrigbit.”

“—Euck!” Fate wasn’t on my side. Scared to bits this time, I snapped my head around the moment I heard that sound, anticipating another fucking toad to be there.

But, before I could, a shadow snatched the creature away and pushed it into a nearby brush. With a death cry similar to scratching a blackboard for me, I then noticed how one of the signals inside the bush disappeared. This new signal wasn’t a threat.

Flabbergasted, I stood there, waiting for whatever killed that toad to appear. To my surprise, it was a spider. A green and black jumper spider around the size of my hand appeared out of the bush, looking at me with its big cute eyes. Long ivies were wrapped around its body like camouflage, hiding its small furry body.

Huh?

As we locked eyes, it suddenly moved its front legs up, gesturing like a priest giving a zealous sermon or a homeless man begging for food. Confused at what it was trying to do, I randomly pointed at the fraggasa I had on hand and its hand suddenly wiggled as if it confirmed my guess.

Well, if you want it, then sure. You did save me from having to see another ugly toad again.

As I watched the little spider happily eat the fragassa, I suddenly noticed a signal coming closer and closer to me. Jumping down a tree, the signal revealed itself as an elf.

“Princess Hestia, are you all right?” the man said with a frantic and trembling voice, breathing heavily as if he had just finished running a marathon.

Oh shit, he must have followed me after I left the outpost.

I apologized to him for the commotion I caused but the elven man didn’t blame me for anything, instead, he asked me why I screamed so loudly. “Were you attacked? The monster has been attracting others of its kind recently and those monsters usually roam out of their cave for food! Did you find one of them?”

… This is embarrassing.

As I contemplated if I should tell him the truth, my silence only made him panic even more, so I decided to just say something. “T-there is no need to worry. I dealt with the problem, so there isn’t an issue anymore. I screamed because, uhm, it knocked down o-one of the fragassa that I was eating.”

O-okay, that was stupid, he can’t possibly believe me—

“Unbelievable! B-but, I heard from Lady Muraina that you were just born last year! Being able to take down a rank C monster all by yourself without any help or support while so young! Incredible! A scion of Emperor Eltharion and a descendant of Kargryxmor, as expected of you, Lady Hestia!” he exclaimed with amazement. “I apologize for assuming you needed my support! This is my first year of service outside Saelariel, so I apologize for being so naive!”

What …?

Deciding to leave him to think about whatever misunderstanding he wanted, I changed the topic by pointing at the small spider under me, still eating the fragassa despite all the noise. “Uhm, is it normal for spiders to ask for fruit from any people that are around?”

He nodded. “We Saelari have a deep bond with the animals inside this forest. From what I heard, we have cultivated this friendship with certain monster species where we rewarded them for helping us. Most likely, this spider learned that we would give out food if it helped us.” 

“I see …” I turned around and showed my open palm to the spider. It understood that I was not a threat to it and climbed onto my palm, where I gave it another fragassa, which it ate gluttonously.

“Ahh, I see, so you like fruit, huh? Well, thank you very much, little guy. Here you go, some more.” I placed the spider back on the ground and gave it my remaining fragassa before saying goodbye to it.

After returning to the outpost, I saw Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, and Muraina already waiting for me. Muraina told me to call over Grimnir, so I activated the [Room] runes and opened up the portal into our subspace. Without needing me to enter or inform him, Grimnir left the [Room] by himself, fully equipped in his armor with his hammer over his shoulder. The most striking part was the gauntlets he was wearing now.

“Ellaine isn’t ready to make that ‘power armor’ concept of yours, so we worked on something else,” he answered our curiosity. He showed off his gauntlets, impressing us with their size, given that they were larger than my face. “Power gauntlets. The thought just fascinated me. Gauntlets fueled by mana like manatech in addition to runes to support it. Just like this blasthammer.”

He then went back into the subspace and pulled out a tower shield. With his hammer in his right hand and the shield in the other, he looked like a stout fortress. 

“It normally doesn’t matter if you can carry a hammer with one hand since you can cause more damage by two-handing it. However, with these gauntlets, I can boost my striking speed in a single moment, increasing the impact. They even help me endure the recoil of the blastgun. I can even carry this giant shield with me without slowing myself down too much. Ha, that was a genius idea, lass!”

Grimnir’s praise and enthusiasm were always great to hear. As grumpy as he was, it made these moments even more memorable.

After our party finished with our preparations, some elves guided Muraina and my party towards the target. On the way, Muraina explained how the new information made her have to increase the reward we would receive for this job, mentioning how it would give out 5 B rank points and a good chunk of Davi. While it was good to hear that our reward increased, it sounded like a bad omen.

In front of our designated cave, the elves explained that it was occupied by a pack of rank C heat-seeking [Bolushzu] led by a rank B [Earth-Caller Bolushzu]. Those C ranks were around the size of our garms while the rank B was similar to a medium-sized wyvern.

“They are completely blind and deaf but they can sense heat and tremors well. They have a giant worm’s head and neck attached to the body of a felmight. We’re lucky there aren’t any [Titan Worms], but a few of us were injured when we investigated the cave for more information.” The elven guide said.

“Okay, all right, everybody. Please, stay here and shoot down any fleeing target. I’ll accompany Aurora into the cave, so—”

“Muraina,” I interrupted her speech. “Would it be okay if my party went in alone?”

“… Gutsy, huh?”