After spending nearly two weeks in the Shadowgrove, Lee discovered the difference in himself from before the monster siege. 

He was a lot stronger. 

Lee didn’t run into any monsters, something he was very thankful for, but he did hunt some of the animals he found the tracks of. In the past, he had trouble when it came to killing anything. He was scared to death of facing a Squaller when he first arrived, even with the help of Neia and Ruven. But now, he willingly hunted a Squaller, partly to redeem his past self and partly because he wanted more furs.

Lee prepared for the fight. He had waited until the Squaller, which was just as morbidly obese as the last one he had seen, came into a small clearing. Having a perfect line of sight, Lee cast an Icicle Spear. 

It died.

Lee tensely watched the corpse for a second, almost as if he was expecting something else to happen. 

That’s it?

Instead of being happy or excited about his success, Lee only had one thought. 

Neia and Ruven really held back a lot if this is what I can do at level 21.

Lee looted the corpse and watched as its body turned into a smokey mist before identifying the items.

He stored the loot and then continued on his way. He was supposed to be close to where the Shadowgrove ended and was starting to see the signs. 

The purple grass of the Shadowgrove was beginning to slowly transition into the familiar green grass that he was accustomed to on Earth. It wasn’t a lot of green yet, but roughly one in a hundred blades were now green. The trees were still Amythist Willows and the occasional smaller Garbola. 

Lee heard a bird chirp and immediately spun around and scanned the canopy with uncanny vigilance. He was straining his eyes to their maximum for around three seconds, eyes darting left and right. 

After nearly two weeks, Lee still hadn’t spotted a single bird. Also, he could have sworn he heard laughter one night after failing to spot one; the birds must be highly intelligent… 

After several more hours of walking, Lee noticed the trees were growing sparser. There were still many of them; it was a forest, but the space between the trees grew wider apart. The expanded view of his surroundings felt awkward at first. Since he had arrived on Pallesia, he never really got to see any landscape with a wide open view, other than the clearings surrounding the large Garbola trees. 

He slowed down as he took in the environment. Then, suddenly, he felt the tingling on the back of his neck. His wisdom stat was alerting him. Eyes opening wide, Lee tumbled to the left, hoping to dodge the inevitable attack. But nothing came. 

Lee wasn’t going to ignore his stat. So, he hastily stood and scanned the trees for any sign of a threat. Almost immediately, he spotted a foreign color off in the distance, a cyan blue. 

Lee slid behind a tree, escaping the line of sight of whatever he just saw. It was quite a distance away and unluckily in the direction he was going. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for a fight. 

Lee sprinted out from behind his tree and darted towards another. The cyan-blue creature was in the same spot, unmoving. He couldn’t make out too many details from so far away and didn’t want to risk using Aquavista when he had to be in its line of sight while casting. 

Continuing with the same plan of darting from tree to tree, Lee's rapidly thumping heart, blood coursing with adrenaline, eventually calmed down. He slowly grew confused as he drew ever closer. 

As he grew closer, he noticed that the cyan object never moved. Eventually, he discovered that it wasn’t a creature at all. It was a statue—A pair of statues made of ice. 

Lee peeked out from behind his tree. He hadn’t felt any more tingles from his wisdom stat and was close enough to reveal some of its details. 

Lee's heart jumped again as he started to take in the statue's appearance. The icy statues were of two people. People he knew all too well. Neia and Ruven. 

They both had one arm raised, palms against one another, almost as if the statues were giving each other a high five. Their other arms pointed outwards off into the distance, but their faces were mixed between a grin and a sincere smile. Heads turned directly in the direction Lee was coming from. They wore their monster hunting attire, and Neia’s braid seemed way too detailed for some reason. The space between the two statues was fairly wide. Wide enough that someone might walk between them.

Lee ever so slowly walked closer, half in wariness and half in disbelief.

Reaching the statues, Lee placed a palm against Neia’s statue and used Mana Sense. The sudden wave of supremely dense Glacial mana took him by surprise but alleviated all his fear. Neia made these statues.

Lee scanned around, hoping to see his two friends, but heard and saw nothing. 

He turned back to the statues and smiled. 

They followed me in secret? Well, I hope they’re nearby, or this is going to be a  huge waste. 

Lee held his palm up and brought out the Pearl of Permanace and Knot of Notoriety from his Hidden Cache. He placed the pearl onto Neia’s outstretched pointing arm and the knot onto Ruven’s. He also cast Darken, writing onto Neia’s icy forearm. 

When he finished, he grinned and then shouted. 

“Thank you both for taking care of me! I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you! I left you gifts! Neia, I also left you a message!” 

He waited to hear a reply, but none came.

Lee walked in between the statues and continued onwards, not once looking back. He wore an enormous smile and felt truly happy for the first time since he arrived in this new world. 

Only thirty minutes later, Lee began to see the end of the Shadowgrove. A vast clearing that marked the end of the forest. He sped up, happy to leave the gloomy forest, but started to slow as he grew closer. 

There was a wall. A wall of stone that spread as far as his eyes could see. It was positioned around half a mile outside of the Shadowgroves treeline, and he guessed it spread along the length in its entirety. 

This… might be a problem. 

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neia was sitting on a fallen Amythyst Willow as Ruven dropped from a tree branch above.

Ruven gave her a slight smirk.

“He’s gone. It appears he left us gifts, and for you, a message. Do you want to risk it?” 

Neia stopped brushing her braid and looked at him with doubt. 

“Is he actually gone? Is he not waiting around to see us one last time?” 

Seeing Neia’s level of seriousness, he lost his smirk. He simply nodded once. 

“He’s gone.” 

Neia closed her eyes briefly, then stood and left with Ruven to head to the statues. 

Neia never had to say goodbye before, at least not to anybody still alive. All Dark Elves lived in Neldam, and nobody left. She was conflicted. She was happy that Lee was leaving so that he could join his people and go about his goals, but also sad. 

It wasn’t the sadness of losing someone close to you, a feeling she was familiar with. It was more melancholy. She didn’t want to leave him with nothing, so the statues were what she came up with—a memory.

Arriving at the statues, she found Ruven happily fiddling with a wooden knot. She inspected it, then scoffed. Ruven seemed happy with the item, but she knew deep down why Lee left that item for him. 

“Don’t get too excited. He didn’t know what attunement meant.” 

Ruven waved her off as he pocketed the Knot of Notariety. 

“It’s the thought that counts. Yours is better, but maybe not for you specifically.” 

Neia picked up the small marble filled with mana, then identified it.

Neia smiled. She didn’t have an affinity for light mana, so obtaining life mana was out of the question. But it was a very good gift. She put the pearl into her Bag of Holding and then saw the message. 

“WHAT!”

Ruven jumped and spun around, spotting Neia’s mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. He inched around her and read the message; then his mouth began to do the same. 

To Neia,

Selene, the Goddess of the Moon, is not a Human. She is a Nymph.

The Human God is Shane, the God of Travel. He is my Uncle. 

Goodbye!