Two hours had passed since I fell into the dead forest.
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Having fallen in the evening, the sun had already returned home to rest, and the moon, overworked from the night shift, was now keeping watch in its place.
The wicked love the moon that works the night shift, so when it appears, they begin their activities in earnest.
Roaming this place, they express their resentment toward the living, moving to take away what the living possess.
I, like prey dropped among hungry lions, should have been desperately fighting to survive.
‘...Why is it so safe?’
Standing in the middle of the forest, I felt inexplicably at ease.
It wasn’t that monsters hadn’t come to find me. The dead are typically drawn to the life force of the living, so many of them had rushed at me to take my life.
I kindly sent them back to the god, breaking their skulls.
Just moments ago, I had purified four evil spirits, increasing the shabby god's workload. The evil spirits of the forest were indeed doing their job.
Yet, I felt relaxed because the battles were incredibly simple.
Whether they were evil spirits or beasts possessed by them, once their skulls were broken by my mace, they lost their form.
The relatively stronger ones didn’t get purified in one hit, but they certainly couldn’t hold out for long. In front of my mace infused with holy energy, the unclean were powerless.
Of course, the monsters didn’t just stand by while attacking me. They did their utmost to kill me.
But you know, even if they hurled curses, they were blocked by my skills; magical attacks were purified by the holy energy, and if they tried physical force, they were blocked by my shield. What could they do? They had to obediently get hit by my mace.
With the situation being this way, I had been fighting for two hours without even a scratch.
<What are you asking that is so obvious? The things lurking here are merely weak compared to you.>
That can’t be true. This is supposed to be a high-level area, right? It’s not a place where a first-year student from the academy could withstand!
No matter how quickly I’ve grown by game standards...
Oh? Am I stronger than I expected?
<With this level, there shouldn’t be any danger here.>
‘Right?’
From now on, what I need to do is continue fighting until morning. I’ll need to swing my mace for at least half a day.
But isn’t that something I used to do every day?
When I was in the Arln family, there were times I didn’t sleep for two days and just kept moving. So, half a day? That’s easy.
If Poshy had said to just do it for half a day, I would have thought he was trying to ambush me while I slept.
‘This is easier than I thought.’
I had prepared for the threat of death and a desperate struggle, but what returned was ease and relaxation.
<Easy is always a good thing.> ‘That’s true.’
I have no intention of denying the old man’s words. Easy is a good thing. Who wouldn’t know to take advantage of the honey while they can?
Despite knowing that, the reason for my somewhat sullen response is simple.
If hunting the evil spirits here is this easy, then if I’m prepared to struggle a bit, wouldn’t it be entirely possible to purify this forest?
To normally enter this dead forest, several conditions must be met.
First, you must have a job related to the church. You must have high renown. You must possess a certain level of holiness.
Once these conditions are met and you meet a specific NPC, you can obtain a quest related to the dead forest.
The content is to purify the forest that has been taken over by the undead.
By the time you obtain this quest, users have usually grown quite strong, so they can hunt the bosses without much difficulty.
To be precise, they can only “hunt.”
Even if you kill the first boss, the forest isn’t purified.
From that point on, you have to engage in a cycle of playthroughs.
Kill the boss, find clues, kill the boss, find clues.
After repeating this roughly five times, it becomes possible to drive death out of the forest.
Ah, it brings back old memories.
Not long after the game was released, people were furious, questioning what kind of thought went into making this quest.
The forest was ridiculously vast, and just catching one boss took thirty minutes. Why make you repeat that five times? And why was the reward so meager?
However, once a strategy guide came out, you could go straight to the real boss, and as information was shared, the complaints about this quest disappeared.
Later, it was revealed that this was linked to other quests.
Let’s think.
While performing the quests related to Adry, I received skills, so I’ve fulfilled the prerequisites.
The holy two-element technique is an advanced form of the basic technique. It should definitely be a high-tier skill, so there shouldn’t be any hindrance in hitting the boss.
I naturally know the location.
The problem is whether I can face that boss.
I continued to ponder with my arms crossed, but no sound reached my ears.
Strange. Usually, when I’m in thought like this, the shabby god would throw something at me.
Is it because the first semester is over that they no longer provide such services?
How petty.
Hey. If someone high up acts so petty, the lower folks won’t treat them like a person. You need to be generous; otherwise, there’s no motivation to follow your orders.
That said, don’t give me anything right now. If I hear the ding of a notification after saying something bad, it’ll feel like a game.
In fact, I had already made my decision.
No matter how I think about it, just standing still for half a day seems like the epitome of inefficiency. And I, as a rotten being, can’t endure such waste of time.
The monsters are coming, but how much experience will they give me if I kill them?
They’re one-shot kills. Can I even fill up 0.01% of the experience bar?
So, I will purify this forest. The quest hasn’t been given, but I will carry it out.
If I struggle a bit, I will gain much more than simply facing weak evil spirits.
As the night deepened and stars began to rise, Lucy Alrn reflected on the stars that had once been by her side.
A brilliant, shining talent.
Martial arts, magic, various knowledge. Once she began learning, she leaped far ahead to the top, only to deem it trivial and move on elsewhere.
If she had been born in the chaotic times of the past, she would surely have carried the title of hero.
By chance, Lucy occupied the space beside him, always striving to follow in his footsteps, only to realize she could not shine like that and settled down in that place.
Instead, what she chose was to create stars.
Finding beautiful raw gems, crafting them with her own hands, and embedding them in the night sky. One day, creating something that shines brighter than the stars she had seen.
Lucy herself knew.
That this was merely a compromise. A struggle of a loser. Just indulging in self-gratification in an emptiness that could not be filled no matter how much she struggled.
If she hadn’t realized that, Lucy wouldn’t have been so emotionally moved.
As Luka watched Lucy Alrn wandering the dark forest like a stroll, he was deeply regretting what he had done.
It was emotional. If he were going to do something like this, he should have prepared more thoroughly.
He would erase the memory of this moment, but if there were any issues with the magic, and if he were to be pressed by the Alrn and Partlan families, there would be no answer other than suicide.
If he could turn back time...
No. He would still move the same way.
In the moment he spoke to Lucy Alrn alone. The moment he saw her, so similar to the star he had once seen. The choice given to him was only to confirm the fragments of talent.
“How has it been so far?”
When Luka observed Lucy Alrn, it was true that she was a genius.
No matter how much holiness she possessed, being able to stroll through this forest at such a young age was remarkable.
Her skills in wielding the shield and mace. Despite constantly moving, her face showed no signs of fatigue. The confidence felt even amidst the numerous ambushes that came from the darkness.
Lucy Alrn had already far surpassed the first-year level of the academy.
In Luka's judgment, he felt that if she were in that state now, even in the third year, she would achieve outstanding results.
However, this wasn’t enough.
She was still lacking.
What Luka expected from Lucy Alrn was not mere genius.
A talent that would shine brighter than anyone else in the night sky. A light that would overshadow the star he had seen. Something overwhelming that would make him relinquish the pride of a craftsman.
Luka hoped that Lucy would show him such a thing.
As he observed Lucy, who was heading forward without fear of the dark forest, Luka suddenly realized that the place she was heading was dangerous.
That’s... surely a place where the beings leading the many evil spirits in this area reside.
How fortunate. When she meets that being, I’ll be able to see how she responds.
Luka, filled with expectations as he watched Lucy, found that his hopes were not fulfilled in the slightest.
Moreover, the desperate battle he had desired did not exist.
All that was there was merely the sight of evil spirits being crushed and scattered before overwhelming holiness.
The being that stood as the head of the many evil spirits in this forest was...
“Eek~♡ So scary~♡ A being that spews curses like this is an evil spirit?♡ Ha ha♡ Isn’t that too pathetic?♡”
In front of the mocking voice of the girl, it was purified without being able to do anything.
“...What was that?”
Having dispatched the evil spirit without even exchanging a few blows, Lucy Alrn gazed at the spot where the evil spirit had been, looking disappointed, and then moved on to another place.
Only then did Luka realize that he had been under a grand misconception from the very beginning.
She didn’t happen to arrive here by chance! She had intended to face that evil spirit from the start!
What is this, Lucy Alrn? What do you know about this forest?!
As he internally gasped, Luka suppressed the beating of his heart and followed behind her.
He was looking forward to what she would show him.
Seeing the second boss of the dead forest turn to dust and scatter, I frowned.
Why are they so weak?
Is something wrong?
Did Luka pull some trick?