Chapter 74: Into the Forest
The road had been a road for the first twenty minutes, then it became a path, then it became something that only existed because people had walked it enough times to press the undergrowth into a line.
The trees grew taller as they went west. The spaces between them narrowed. Light reached the ground in patches instead of continuously, filtering through layers of canopy that had been building for longer than anyone here had been alive.
Arthur turned slowly, taking it all in.
"It’s beautiful," he said.
The driver smiled. "It gets less beautiful," he said.
Sun tightened his grip on his staff immediately. "I preferred the first description," he said.
Mithra laughed. "Both can be true at once," she said.
Athena stopped to look at the trunk of the nearest large tree, where the bark had the texture of something that had been absorbing mana from the ground for centuries and slowly changing because of it. She made a note.
Athy chirped once from her shoulder. Kong pounded his chest, the way he did when he’d decided something was interesting. Melo’s ears tracked sounds that hadn’t arrived yet. Vedas put a hand on his spear, the quiet readiness that had become his default in unfamiliar places.
Athy’s warning came without a lead-up: one sharp screech, pointed downward.
Arthur looked at the bushes. "Already?" he said.
Melo’s ears twitched. "Kyu," she said, agreeing and confirming at once.
Five Thorn Wolves emerged from the undergrowth, already committed. Sun spun his staff once, settling the weight in his hands.
"Well," he said. "Here we go."
Arthur grinned. "I was hoping we wouldn’t have to walk the whole way," he said.
Mithra drew her sword. "I knew you were," she said.
The first Thorn Wolf lunged straight at Arthur.
Arthur stepped aside as its claws tore through the space where his chest had been.
Vedas was already moving. Neither of them had spoken. Neither needed to. Arthur’s movement told Vedas everything.
Arthur drove his fist into the underside of the wolf’s jaw, snapping its head up for a split second.
That was all Vedas needed. His spear shot forward, piercing straight through the exposed throat. Mana exploded through the blade. The wolf crashed backward into the one behind it, sending both tumbling before either could recover.
"Nice timing," Arthur said.
"Yours too," Vedas answered.
Arthur didn’t stop moving. The second wolf had barely found its footing before Arthur appeared beside it, sweeping his spear low to hook one of its front legs.
The wolf lost its balance. Before it hit the ground, Vedas’s spear flashed again. Mana Burst erupted.
BOOM!
The wolf rolled several meters before stopping.
Arthur laughed. "That one was all you."
Vedas pulled his spear free. "...We both hit it."
Arthur grinned. "True—"
Another wolf burst in from the left before he could finish. But he saw Vedas shift his footing, drop into a crouch, and launch toward the beast. The spear swept downward in a wide arc, opening the wolf’s chest before it could react.
Arthur drove his own spear into its ribs and twisted.
The wolf collapsed before Vedas landed.
[Level Up]
[Goblin Commander]
[Level 12 → 13]
Arthur smiled. "There it is."
Vedas pulled the spear free. The small smile on his face was answer enough.
...
Three wolves circled Mithra, spreading out until every escape route closed.
Melo’s eyes glowed.
Suddenly there were three Mithras.
Each moved differently. Each looked real.
The wolves hesitated.
That hesitation lasted less than a second.
Mithra stepped through the confusion. One clean slash dropped the closest wolf. She pivoted into the second before the remaining two understood what had happened. Melo’s tail flashed past her shoulder and struck the third wolf across the neck.
It collapsed without ever reaching them.
"That looked efficient," Arthur called.
"That was the goal," Mithra replied.
Melo lifted her head like she’d contributed exactly what was needed.
A wolf tried to blindside Athena.
It failed. The moment it lunged, Athena’s spear thrust back with perfect timing, slipping clean through its chest before it could change direction. Above her, Athy folded her wings and dove, golden claws raking across another wolf’s eyes before she climbed back into the canopy.
Blinded, the wolf stumbled exactly where Athena expected.
One final thrust ended the fight.
Sun and Kong finished the last wolf in the combination they’d built up over months: staff CRACK sending it airborne, Kong following with both fists driving it into the ground.
Kong pounded his chest twice.
"Good one," Sun said.
...
The driver had been watching from several meters back, surprised.
A passing Beast Tamer paused. "They’ve got good teamwork. Move like they’ve traveled together for years."
"They’re first-years."
The Beast Tamer blinked. "...You’re joking."
The driver smiled. "I wish I was."
The Beast Tamer looked at Arthur again. "...Pathfinder really produced monsters this year." He sighed and walked off.
The fight wrapped up and Arthur pressed on, the driver quickly moving up to guide them again.
The forest changed the further west they went.
The canopy thickened until sunlight became theoretical rather than practical. Gigantic mushrooms filled the spaces between trees, some taller than a person, their caps broad enough to provide real shelter.
Crystal formations grew from the bases of the oldest trees in clusters, catching what dim light reached them and scattering it in pale colors through the understory.
Buried under the moss and root systems and centuries of accumulation, Arthur noticed shapes that weren’t geological.
Statues. Broken, mostly. Heads missing or bodies cracked through the torso, the original material worn past clear recognition. But shaped, deliberately, into figures that had once meant something.
Arthur crouched beside one.
"People lived here," he said.
"Long ago," the driver said.
Arthur brushed away several layers of moss with his fingers. The face beneath wasn’t human.
Large ears. Small nose. Broad eyes.
Arthur frowned. "...Goblin?"
The driver came over for a closer look. "Maybe. No one’s ever been able to tell."
Arthur looked at the statue a moment longer, then stood. "...We’ll find out."
They kept moving.
The Iron Fang Boars announced themselves with the ground shaking, the sign of eight heavy things deciding to move in the same direction at once.
Arthur looked at the largest one as it lowered its tusks at him.
"This one’s yours," he said, to Vedas.
"Together," Vedas said.
Arthur laughed and ran toward the boar.
Sun’s eyes widened. "He’s doing it again," he said.
Arthur sprinted at the charging boar.
"He’s doing it again," Sun muttered.
At the last second Arthur planted a foot on a fallen log and launched into the air. His kick slammed into the side of the boar’s face.
It wasn’t enough to stop something that heavy. It wasn’t supposed to. The impact twisted the boar’s head just enough to expose the gap beneath its armored jaw.
Vedas was already there. His spear drove into the opening before the boar could recover. Mana burst through the wound. The enormous beast shuddered once and collapsed.
Arthur landed beside it. "We’re getting better at this."
Vedas looked toward the remaining boars. "Yes."
Then he saw the others charging. Arthur’s body lit up with golden light as he tapped into the Command Authority.
"Stop!" he said.
The command echoed through the forest.
The charging boars halted, bodies trembling as instinct fought something deeper.
Two seconds. Maybe three.
That was all Vedas needed. He exploded forward. The spear pierced the nearest boar and kept going into the next. He ripped it free in one smooth motion and drove the butt of the weapon into a third, knocking it sideways.
By the time the remaining four broke free of the command, three of their pack were already on the ground.
[Level Up]
[Goblin Commander]
[Level 13 → 14]
Arthur laughed. "Again," he said.
Vedas pulled the spear free. "Yes," he said, and the quiet smile was fully there this time.
The remaining boars scattered.
The team reacted instantly.
Mithra intercepted the closest one while Melo blurred around its flank, surrounding it before it even registered the change in direction.
Athena called another target. Sun met it head-on, his staff cracking against its tusks before Kong crashed into its side with both fists.
The two veterans split without a word. Each picked a boar. Each finished before the others could help.
Within moments the forest went quiet again.
...
Afterward, cleaning weapons, walking again.
"Do you think every expedition feels like this?" Arthur said.
Sun rested his staff on his shoulder. "I hope not," he said. "I’d like to go somewhere once where nothing immediately tries to eat us."
Mithra laughed. "I think you’re setting an unrealistic standard."
"Statistically, the probability of encountering no hostile entities in an active Realm is—" Athena started.
"Athena," Sun said.
"Very low," Athena finished.
Arthur looked at the trees, the light moving through the canopy, the crystal formations, the ancient roots, the carved shapes buried in moss.
"I like it," he said. "I keep thinking about what’s past the next tree."
Mithra looked at him. "I know," she said. "You’ve had that look since before we left the Academy."
Arthur scratched his cheek. "Was it obvious?"
Sun answered, "You tried to climb onto the convoy roof."
Arthur considered this. "Fair," he said.
Everyone laughed. Vedas’s shoulders relaxed noticeably. Melo had worked her way to Arthur’s neck and curled there, having found the optimal spot. Kong swung between branches overhead, delighted to be in his element. Athy glided silently through the upper canopy, tracking everything with her usual precision.
For a few minutes, the expedition was just friends walking through something beautiful and strange.
Arthur slowed first. "...Wait."
Everyone looked at him.
"What?" Sun asked.
Arthur frowned. "...Where did all the beasts go?"
The forest had gone empty. No footsteps. No birds. No insects. Even Kong stopped swinging and climbed quietly back onto Sun’s shoulder. Melo stood slowly on Arthur’s shoulder, ears pinned toward the forest ahead.
Athy glided silently down from the canopy.
Only then did the driver speak quietly. "...We’ve arrived."
"Oh?"
Arthur perked up as they walked on until the trees ended.
A clearing opened ahead, and at its center the air was wrong. Not the ordinary wrongness of weather or temperature, but the wrongness of something that shouldn’t exist in the visible world and was existing there anyway.
Cracks in reality itself, like cracked glass, hanging suspended in the air, spreading outward from a central point.
Through the cracks, in flashes that came and went before the eye could settle: stone roads, ancient towers with their upper sections gone, root systems from trees larger than any visible here, mountains at a scale that suggested a different relationship with scale entirely.
"Beautiful," Arthur said, smiling.
Then a notification appeared.
[New Title Acquired]
[Realm Explorer]
Given for entering more than one secret realm.
[Passive Effect:]
It makes it easier to find what you are looking for. You will feel something tugging in your chest that points where you should go.
"It looks like the entrance to the first Secret Realm," he said. "The Verdian Realm."
"All of them look like this," the driver said. "What you’re seeing through the cracks is your first glimpse of where you’re going."
"Your first glimpse," Arthur repeated. "I like that," he said.
Vedas was looking at the fracture with an expression Arthur had seen twice before: once at the throne room in the Goblin settlement, once at the cracked crystal in the Evolution Archive. Someone recognizing something they didn’t have a word for yet.
"Another world," Vedas said.
Melo pressed closer against Arthur’s neck. Kong had stopped swinging. Athy watched from the canopy without moving.
The driver looked at the group. "Once you touch it, don’t resist," he said. "The transition works with cooperation and against force."
Arthur said, "What happens if we resist?"
"You’ll have a very bad day," the driver said.
Arthur nodded seriously. "Very useful," he said.
Sun looked at Arthur’s face. "I recognize that expression," he said.
"What expression?" Arthur said.
"The one that comes before you do something."
"I’m just walking in," Arthur said.
"I believe him," Mithra said.
"I don’t," Sun said.
"Anyway, thanks for taking us here," Mithra said softly.
"No problem, and good luck," the driver said.
Everyone nodded and placed their hands on the fracture.
White light.
The world twisted through the transition, an accurate description and an insufficient one at the same time, and Arthur was on the other side, ground beneath his feet, the light here different and older.
Then the back of his hand burned.
Golden light spread across his skin from a point he hadn’t noticed before: a mark, not large, settled into the back of his right hand like it had been there a while, just waiting for this moment to become visible.
Sun grabbed his wrist before Arthur had even looked at it.
"Arthur," Sun said. "When did you get that?"
Arthur looked at the mark. "Oh," he said. "I forgot to mention it."
Sun stared at him. "You forgot."
Arthur scratched his cheek. "Yeah, the King Maker tournament had my full attention."
Mithra nodded. "To be fair, he did get it at the entrance exam, months ago."
Vedas looked at the glowing mark. "It’s beautiful."
Arthur looked down at it again. "I agree, but since it’s glowing, that means it wants us to go somewhere."
Far beyond where any of them could see, something deep within the Ruins of Evolution stirred.
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