Published at 24th of January 2024 7:38 pm

Chapter 475: Into the Forest Depths(2)

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I was checking the images sent by the Evil Eyes and moving ahead, when I noticed something strange in the images.

“Hmm…?”

“Kuu?”

“No…I saw something strange in the Evil Eye. I can’t tell from the image alone, I need to go take a look.”

“Kuu.”

Hearing Rir’s response, we continued onward.

We went on a little detour, crossing a river, and arrived at a place where we could see it clearly.

“There it is!”

There it was, a rock.

Of course, it was not just a rock.

It was a rock shaped like a pyramid, which could not have been formed by nature alone.

…Oh, no, it only somewhat resembled a pyramid.

As I got closer, I realized that it seemed to be half buried in the ground, and from the shape of the exposed part, I guessed that it used to be rectangular.

Perhaps it might be a collapsed pillar.

It seemed to have been weathered over a long period of time, and although it was very faint and difficult to discern, some kind of pattern or lettering could be seen carved on the surface.

No doubt, it was an artifact.

“Wow…even the monsters of this forest couldn’t make something like this, so there must have been a civilization in this forest a long time ago. Or maybe the dragon race used to live in this area?”

My neighbors, the dragon race, were indigenous to the Demon Forest.

They seemed to have lived in this forest for quite a long time, and their home was not far from here – several tens of kilometers away, at least – so it could be possible.

However, the size of the letters carved on this rock was not the size used by the Dragon race.

Could it be that there was a human settlement in these forests?

Then I realized that my imagination was wrong.

In ancient times, it would not have been an impossible thought if a civilization did exist in this forest, but it was also notable that they may not be humans because this forest was not a place that current humans could live in.

I understood that for myself.

Did the ancient humans have more power than I did, and were they capable of competing with the monsters in the forest?

Or were the monsters of this forest not so powerful when that civilization existed?

However, it was said that this forest had always been a place of magic, and was far more ancient than even the long-lived dragon race.

So how old was the civilization that supposedly existed here?

“…This is getting interesting. Okay, Enne, Rir, let’s change our goal. I was going to just explore the west area, but I’m going to look around and see if I can find any more traces of this civilization.”

[…the beginning of an adventure. I’m getting very excited]]

“Kuu!”

◇◇◇

So we started searching around the area, focusing on where we found the pillar…

“I don’t see anything.”

[…no trace?]

“Kuu.”

As I thought when I saw the weathered condition of the pillar-like objects, it seemed that the civilization that was supposed to have existed here was really ancient, and unfortunately, I couldn’t find any other traces left behind.

Although I had increased the number of Evil Eyes and had been checking a wider area in more detail…I had not found anything that looked like a relic or a clue.

After searching for a while, we had no choice but to stop for a short break since there were no results.

“Kuu?”

[…hmm, it’s okay. Adventures are steep and require perseverance. This is within the scope of hardship.]

“Are you tired?” Rir worried about Enne and ‘asked’ in a cry, to which Enne replied with a spirited, yet still motivated, “Nn”.

“…”

Beside this exchange, I was staring at the map that I had opened.

“The pillar was found here. The Demon Forest is not structured in centric rings, as the concentration of magical elements differs from east to west, north to south, and south to north… but well, since the west area is the place with the most concentration of magic elements, it can be assumed that the West Area is the central point of of the Demon Forest.”

Well… it was a simple assumption, but I guess there must be a reason that caused the west area to become this concentrated which I was now checking on the map that could lead to some clues.

“…this area. Okay, Rir, Enne, let’s go this way next.”

Narrowing down our search, we resumed.

…Even though I narrowed down the area, the Demon Forest was so vast that I could probably spend a whole day exploring it.

The bottleneck was the monsters.

The time spent avoiding them was wasted time.

Although it was a necessary effort, since it was far better than having to fight them…

At the foot of the mountain.

Hidden by dense trees, we couldn’t see much, but… there was something there.

–Bingo?

What appeared before us looked like some kind of ruins.

Weathered and reduced to a mere pile of rocks, there was barely a trace of what might have been structures left behind.

The shape of the ruins somehow made me think that human hands had been involved in their creation.

In the center of what appeared to be the ruins, there was a cave-like structure…leading to the back.

I would have loved to go there, but there was one obstacle.

“…Golems…”

“Kuu.”

Inanimate monsters, Golems.

There were numerous types, but the one over here was bipedal, similar to a human, but with several arms, each holding what looked like a sword or spear in its hand.

Moss and grass were growing from its body, half assimilated with trees, but it had not lost any of its shape and still had a definite presence.

It was partly because of that thing that I was able to notice the ruins in that place, which looked almost like a rocky hill with a simple cave.

The next moment, I had the impression that it might be the perfect guardian for an ancient ruin.

*Gigigi

I then realized that its head moved, turning it in our direction.

The single jewel set in the center of its face, which was supposed to represent its eyes, shone brightly.

–Oh, no.

“Rir, Rir! Escape maneuvers!”

“Ku, kuu!”

Following the intense sense of danger that pervaded our bodies, we activated the dungeon return device we had prepared in advance.

But before our bodies could disappear, the golem launched its attack.

From its glowing eyes, a ray of light was shot out.

I reflexively created both a water wall and an earth wall in front of me with primordial magic, but as if it meant nothing at all, a hole was drilled through it, and it penetrated–

“–Uwah! Haah, haah…. that scared the hell out of me…!”

— by the time I realized it, we were back home.

Lefi, who had noticed our return, called out to us, “Mm? Welcome home–are you all right, boys?”

“Oh, yeah…it was pretty close, but we’re okay.”

“Ku, kuu…”

My heart was still racing.

It was a close call for sure.

For the first time in a long time, I felt death before my eyes.

…I had not let my guard down at all today, and I had kept my guard up to the max, but that was beyond what we expected.

No, thanks to that, I made it back alive, I suppose that could be said.

This was why the forest was such a dangerous place.

However – there was a harvest.

“I want to get to that cave somehow, but…the problem is that thing. It would be impossible to do it without being noticed by that thing…I guess.”

“Kuu…”

“…Hmm. We’ve been keeping our distance, and I’ve been monitoring its movements, but that golem was locked on to us the whole time.”

As we returned home, Enne joined the conversation again.

We went out into the woods this time, as prepared as we could be.

Despite this, the golem easily caught sight of us and attacked.

In fact, it didn’t even get close to us.

We were at least a kilometer away from it.

So, it was very difficult to approach without being noticed, so I concluded that if we wanted to go further than that place, we would have to defeat it….

Lefi asked me, “…Do you think you can beat that thing?”

“…Kuu”

Rir responded as if to say, “If we do everything in our power to the best of our ability, we might manage it.”

Well, I guess we’re dealing with an opponent beyond our level.

And that was only the gatekeeper.

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