Chapter XIX - Isolated Forest

 

Are you okay now, little brother?" Lena stared at the slightly-limping Kenneth, who was using his walking stick as a cane to keep himself upright. 

"I should be fine in a few minutes. More importantly, should we head for the dungeon?" 

"It's over there. You see the forest?" Lucas brought his attention to the large sea of trees that encircled a large portion of the plains around it.

"Yup. Why're the trees so dark and depressing though? Doesn't match with the rest of the area."

"You remember the Core I told you about earlier, little brother?"

"The crystal ball? Yeah. Is that why it looks so glum and dead?" 

"That's right. The mana the Dungeon Core gives out is rarely, if ever, ordinary mana. It usually takes the form of a dark miasma that travels around the whole dungeon. Don't worry though! It doesn't affect humans." 

"I find it hard to trust that last sentence, honestly. But okay then."

After waiting for Kenneth to steady himself for a bit more, the siblings started heading towards the Isolated Forest. 

On the way they spotted many small beasts that wandered the plains either by themselves or along with a partner. 

Due to them having trained in the Virtual Reality the day prior, the experiences they had with deadly beasts were still fresh in their minds.

This confidence in being able to defeat anything that came their way, along with the charisma Kenneth exuded in leading his siblings to victory each time, allowed them to win every battle they fought almost flawlessly. 

"Ah, here it is. Little bro, come here!" Lucas called over his little brother, who was busy kicking a dead goblin that tried to attack him. 

"I'm here. What is it?" 

"Hold on. Here!" Digging his hands into the carcass of a slime that was dissolving, Lucas brought out a small round ball that was no larger than a marble. 

"What's that?" Unable to focus because of the stench of "slime juice" on Lucas' arm, Kenneth took the object in his brother's hand and inspected it thoroughly. After a while, he exclaimed out loud,

"Ah, this must be a Beast Core!" 

"That's right. You've been reading a lot, haven't you?" 

"Of course! It's one of the only things I have going for me. But seriously, a Beast Core!" Holding the object in his enclosed palm, he "jumped" around excitedly. 

"What's up? Did you find anything?" Lena came up from behind him, curious about the cause of her brother's excitement. 

"Look, Lena! A Beast Core!" He brought the Core directly in front of his sister's face so closely that he was shoving it.

"Oh, well done!" 

"It wasn't me that found it, but Lucas. Thanks a lot!" 

"Don't get so excited. It's just a Beast Core, haha." 

"But it's a Beast Core! Aren't these things worth like a thousand dollars each, even when they're this small?"

"I don't mean to knock you from your high horse, but that's going to be gone soon enough when we use it to purchase some weapons." 

"Ah… how expensive are equipment, anyway?" 

"They can range anywhere from twenty thousand all the way to the millions." Instead of Lucas answering, Lena figured she say it herself.

"Seriously…?" Kenneth was shocked to silence. "Twenty of these? But we've only found one in, what? Ten battles?" 

"It might not seem like a lot right now, but you'll be surprised by how much C-rank Cores cost." 

"Tell me." 

"Three hundred thousand. And this can change depending on the Core's features. How big it is, how much mana is inside, whether it was damaged much… I could go on." 

"Tell me then, Lucas. How long do you think it would be until someone like me can hunt for these Cores consistently?"

"Besides the fact that you can't hunt by yourself unless we find a way to cure your illness, I think we should be able to hunt something like that as a group soon." 

"Ah… that's right." Kenneth looked to his legs. They were small for his age, and looked like they wouldn't be able to support his growing body.

"Don't beat yourself up. You do more than enough." Seeing his dejected expression, Lucas tried to cheer up his little brother. 

"That's right, little brother! You're already plenty helpful! You provide assistance in every battle and help us win it easily! If you weren't here, we'd have a much harder time. Right, Lucas?" Lena turned towards her older brother and said the last sentence a bit more expressively. 

"What she said! Don't worry, Kenneth. I can assure you that." 

"Heh. Thanks guys. How about we head to the dungeon now? I'm feeling much better and ready for some more battles." 

"That's the spirit!" 

***

"So, this is the so-called Isolated Forest. I wonder how big it is." 

Just outside the reaches of the Isolated Forest Dungeon, the siblings watched as the ominous wind coming from the forest's depths threatened to make them retreat. 

The killing intent in the area could not be compared to the greatest serial killers Kenneth knew of in his old world. The mana that supposedly flowed through the entirety of Krodoa was gathering in the middle of the dungeon. 

"Smells… contaminated. Did they even bother cleaning this place up for any guests?" Kenneth pinched the bridge of his nose and pondered on whether to go back to the city and bring back some masks. 

"Listen here, little bro." Lucas brought Kenneth over to his side and lowered himself so that he was on the same height as him.

"Once we enter this place, we'll be facing many different types of dangers. Beasts of any kind could attack us, but this is not what I want you to prepare."

Lucas' easygoing tone immediately turned serious, as he began to explain the perils of adventuring to Kenneth one by one.

"But the most deadly thing here? Other people."

"You mean…?" 

"Yeah. People can easily kill you here, with no regard for who you are. People who fear beasts, but do not fear humans. There is no one here to keep an eye our for others, besides us. Do not trust anyone." 

"I know that much. Let's go, I'm prepared to kill if I have to."

"Great! Let's go." Suddenly, his tone shifted back just as quickly as it changed. 

As the siblings entered the outskirts of the forest, they were immediately hit with the same foul smell from outside, but on an entirely different level. 

Kenneth figured the dead and decaying corpses of humans and monsters alike aided in making the whole atmosphere almost toxic to inhale. 

But that wasn't the worst part. Distinct growls echoed in the distance. Kenneth's keen senses allowed him to discern their positions and helped his siblings prepare for the incoming battle. 

"Three to our front, two to the left. They're using their numbers to surround us, so be careful."

Using a spell like Mind Link in a place as dangerous as this was basically asking for a death sentence. His body would turn into a lifeless corpse, and this would trouble his siblings as they would have to juggle between protecting him and fighting. 

That was why he stayed up and used his own voice to relay commands to his siblings. 

"One is preparing to jump in. He's to your right, Lucas." 

Just as soon as he said that, the bushes rustled, and the body of a grey wolf could be seen. 

The wolf attempted to dig its fangs directly into Lucas' flesh, but was stopped as it's supposed victims fist ran across the wolf's face, knocking it backwards into a nearby tree. Groans and whimpers could be heard soon afterward. 

"Don't worry, I've got you guys. Go ham." Even if he wasn't able to use one of his spells, he still had a wide array of others that could serve well to his team. 

Receiving his orders, Lena and Lucas made sure to expend a good percentage of their strength to deal devastating damage to the opposing forces.

Summoning a light sword, Lena Blinked directly into the middle of the pack of wolves, using their momentary confusion to land multiple slashes. 

Just as the wolves had noticed Lena's spell, she had already used it again and Blinked back to Kenneth's side, leaving the wolves unable to retaliate. 

Meanwhile, on Lucas' side, he was being surrounded by wolves as their pack leader, which was supposedly the white alpha in the front, was howling loudly and calling for reinforcements. 

Yet, amidst all the chaos, Lucas wasn't hit once. The attempted swipes and scratches from the wolves were somehow unable to make contact. 

This was due to Kenneth's Mental Puppetry. Back when they were sneaking out of the house at night, he had used it once to control Lena's hand to cover her mouth as she was about to scream. 

Kenneth figured he could use this in battle as well. He would focus his mana into the air to make little strings that attached themselves to the body part he desired. 

In this case, was Lucas' legs and torso. 

Whenever an attack was about to be launched at Lucas, Kenneth would flick his strings in another direction, allowing his older brother to precisely and gracefully dodge any of the wolves' hits by a hair's breadth. 

His siblings' trust in him allowed them to focus entirely on offense and not worry about getting hit, as it would only take a small readjustment to their body in order to dodge. 

Lena wasn't just sitting down and waiting for it to end, either. Gathering mana into her palm, a small round ball that was made up of pure light began to form. 

"I'm throwing a flashbang, watch out!" 

Making sure to be wary of the ball hat Lena had just thrown, both Kenneth and Lucas moved accordingly in order to not be in direct eye contact with the flash. 

*shwoom*

A bright light shone in the area, lighting up the entirety of the dark forest and leaving the remaining wolves blinded. 

The rest of the beasts were swiftly taken care of by Lena and Lucas, and soon multiple corpses could be seen all over the forest floor. 

"Good job, you two. Let's scavenge the corpses for any Cores, shall we?" 

After a few minutes of cutting open the wolves' bodies, the siblings were able to find eight Cores that time. This totaled up to about ten thousand dollars, with the alpha wolf's corpse netting more due to the complexity of the Core found within.

"This is a pretty good haul for our first time. Let's continue on. The quest was to clear the dungeon, so we can't just dilly-dally here." 

Along the way, the siblings had encountered many more packs of monsters on the way to the middle, but they were able to defeat them just as easily as the first fight with the wolves. 

Their encounter rate with beasts had lowered a lot by their fourth hour of moving around, so they began to take bigger strides and head towards the source of the dungeon—the Dungeon Core. 

Even though fights were becoming less common the more they fought, that did not warrant lowering their guard. 

*thump*

The last hobgoblin fell to the ground like a tree that just had its trunk cut through. 

To make sure it was really dead, Lena conjured her Light Sword in her hand and stabbed the sharp end directly in the monster's head. 

There should've been no response, but there was. Except it didn't come from the hobgoblin, but somewhere else. 

"Arghh!!!"

"I'm sure we all heard that. The direction should be over there. What do you say, Kenneth? Should we go, or not?"

Kenneth scanned his siblings up and down. They were tired, and the remains of multiple monsters hung all around them, painting them a dark red.

"I feel like that was a genuine cry for help. I want to go see, but it doesn't look like we can handle much any more. Do we perhaps have anything to restore our energy?" 

"Let me see. I keep a few Mana Crystals here and there… ah! Here it is, little brother." Lena dug through her backpack and brought out a few crystals, shaped like pills. 

They each had distinct colors and could clearly be told from each other the difference. And they were constantly radiating mana, meaning…?

"This is a Mana Crystal, isn't it? Wasn't this expensive?" Kenneth looked at the small, cylindrical and pointy stone in his hand, which shone in a grayish color, which was the color of Mental mana. 

"I have a few on me at all times, don't worry! Besides, we wouldn't want to risk Mana Fatigue. So go on, crush it." 

While Mana Fatigue wasn't something that occurred often, it was still a thing. The supposed mana that flows throughout every inch of Krodoa wasn't fully true. 

There were places like dungeons where the mana was contaminated. If one was to try taking in the mana the same way they did, they'd find it hard to do so. 

That was why Mana Crystals were usually brought by adventurers when they went on expeditions. 

Having received the green light, the siblings brought their respective crystals to their palms and used as much force as they could muster to crush the rocks filled with mana. 

'I see… this feeling, it's kind of addicting.' Kenneth savored the euphoric feeling that coursed through his body. 

"Better?"

"Yup, better."