Chapter: 218
Two hours had passed since I dropped into the dead forest.
Since it was evening, the sun had already clocked out for the day, leaving the overworked moon to take its place on the night shift.
Unholy beings love the night-shift moon, and when it finally showed up, they launched into full-blown activity.
They roamed about, expressing resentment towards the living, moving to snatch away what little life they had left.
I, like a piece of meat dropped in among starving lions, should have been fighting desperately to survive.
‘…Why do I feel so safe here?’
Standing in the middle of the forest, I felt oddly relaxed.
It wasn’t that monsters weren’t coming for me. The dead are typically attracted to the living’s life force, so a bunch of them lunged at me wanting to take my life.
I kindly sent them back to the embrace of the pathetic god. I smashed their heads in.
Just a while ago, I had purified four evil spirits, giving the pathetic god another day’s worth of work. The evil spirits of the forest were definitely doing what they were meant to do.
Yet the reason I felt at ease was that the fights were just too darn easy.
Evil spirits, beasts possessed by them, whatever—once their heads got bashed in by my mace, they lost all form.
The relatively stronger ones didn’t get purified in one hit, but they couldn’t last long either. Anything unholy was powerless in front of my sacred mace.
Of course, the monsters weren’t just standing there watching me. They gave it their all to kill me.
But you know? Their curses were blocked by my skills, magical attacks were purified by my sanctity, and any physical force just bounced off my shield. So, what could they really do? They had to just sit there and take it from my mace.
Given the circumstances, I fought for two hours without even so much as a scratch.
[Why are you asking such an obvious question? They are merely weak compared to you.]
That can’t be right. This is supposed to be a high-level area, right? Not a place where a first-year student from the academy should be able to withstand anything.
Even if I’ve grown rapidly by game standards…
Hold on a second. Am I stronger than I’d anticipated?
[Seems like you won’t face any danger here.]
‘Right?’
From now on, my task is to keep fighting until morning. I’m guessing I’ll need to swing my mace for at least half the day.
But isn’t that what I did every day?
When I was with the Alrn family, I once went two days without any sleep just staying active. So, half a day? Piece of cake.
If Possell said to only do it for half a day, I would’ve thought that guy was planning a sneak attack while I was napping.
‘This is way easier than I expected.’
I had braced myself for a death-defying struggle, but what I got instead was relaxation and leisure.
[Easy is always a good thing.]
‘That’s true.’
I’m not denying Grandpa’s words. Easy is a good thing. When there’s honey to be tasted, you should always taste it.
Knowing this, my somewhat begrudging response stemmed from a simple reason.
If hunting the evil spirits here is so easy, then isn’t purifying this forest also doable if I’m prepared to work hard?
To normally enter this dead forest, several conditions need to be met.
First, you should have a job related to the church. You need a decent reputation. And you must possess a certain level of sanctity.
After satisfying these conditions and meeting a specific NPC, you can pick up a quest related to the dead forest.
The content is to purify the forest that’s been overrun by undead.
By the time players pick up this quest, they’ve usually grown quite a bit themselves, so taking down the bosses isn’t that hard.
More precisely, you can only ‘hunt’ them.
Even if you kill the first boss, the forest won’t be purified.
From then on, you have to repeat the cycle of playthroughs.
Kill the boss, find clues, kill the boss, find clues.
About five repetitions of this nonsense are needed before you can drive death out of this forest.
Ah, memories from the past.
Not long after the game launched, people were cursing like sailors over what the developers were thinking in making this quest.
The forest was horrendously vast! Taking down just one boss took about thirty minutes—why make us do it five times? Why were the rewards so puny?
But once guides appeared, everyone figured out how to reach the real boss straight away, and the complaints about the quest vanished.
Later it was revealed that this was linked to other quests too.
Think about it.
When I did the quest related to Adri, I got some skills, so I met the prerequisites.
Sacred martial arts are a higher-tier version of bare-knuckle martial arts. Surely that should help me hit the bosses without any issues.
And of course, I knew the location.
I guess the real question is whether I can take on that boss.
With my arms crossed, I continued to ponder, but I didn’t hear anything whispering in my ear.
Odd. Whenever I get deep into thought, the pathetic god usually throws something my way.
Doesn’t seem like he offers that service anymore after the first semester ended?
Such a miser, really.
Hey now, if someone high up in the hierarchy is that stingy, they won’t be treated as human by those below them. You need to share some kindness; then people will actually want to follow your orders.
But don’t give me anything now. I’ve said something rude, and if I hear a ringing sound, it feels like I’m about to face a judgment day.
In truth, the decision had already been made.
No matter how I think about it, standing still for half a day seems like the epitome of inefficiency. I can’t stand wasting time being unproductive like this.
Monsters might be coming, but how much experience can I actually gain from taking them down?
They’d go down in a single hit. Would I even fill 0.01% of the experience bar?
So, I’ve decided to purify this forest. The quest may not have been given, but I’m going to take it on regardless.
If I’m going to suffer, I might as well gain more than battling those weak evil spirits.
*
As the night deepened and the stars rose, Luca found himself reminiscing about the shining star that once stood by his side.
A radiant pinnacle of talent.
Martial arts. Magic. Various knowledge. Once he started learning, he flew far ahead and reached the pinnacle, eventually abandoning him for something else, saying it was boring.
If he had been born in the chaotic era of the past, he would certainly have borne the title of hero.
Luca had fortuitously positioned himself next to that star and, in every attempt to follow closely behind, he realized he would never shine like that.
Instead, he chose to create stars of his own.
To find beautiful raw gems and craft them with his hands, embedding them in the night sky. Someday, he would create something brighter than what he had seen.
Luca himself knew well.
This was merely a compromise. A loser’s desperate struggle. Just self-pleasure in an emptiness he could never fill, no matter how much he struggled.
If he had not realized that, he would never have been moved so emotionally to this extent.
As he observed Lucy Alrn wandering around what felt like a night forest stroll, Luca deeply regretted what he had initiated.
It was emotional. He should have prepared far more thoroughly if he was going to do something like this.
Though he would erase the memory of this moment, if something went wrong with that magic, he would have no other option but to resort to suicide if he faced interrogations from both the Alrn and Partran families.
If he could turn back time.
…Nah. I’d probably act exactly the same.
The moment he engaged in a one-on-one conversation with the noble Lady Alrn, observing the resemblance she bore to the star he had once seen, his only option was to verify the fragments of talent.
“So far, so good.”
In Luca’s eyes, Lucy Alrn was indeed a genius.
No matter how much sanctity she possessed, it was astonishing that she could tread through this forest so easily at that age.
Her skill in wielding shield and mace, her face showing not a trace of fatigue despite her relentless movement, and the proud demeanor felt amidst multiple ambushes in the dark.
Lucy Alrn had far surpassed the level of a first-year student at the academy.
Judging by this, Luca considered that she could probably earn stellar scores even if she were placed in the third year right now.
Yet this wasn’t enough.
She was still lacking.
What Luca expected from Lucy wasn’t merely talent.
A talent that would shine brighter than anyone else in the night sky. A light that would overshadow the stars he once saw. An overwhelming brilliance that would cause a craftsman’s pride to falter.
Luca hoped Lucy would demonstrate that.
While observing how Lucy, unafraid of the dark forest, pushed ahead, he suddenly realized that the place she was heading was dangerous.
That’s… definitely where the various evil spirits in this location gather.
Good. I’d like to see how she responds when she encounters that creature.
Luca, filled with various expectations while watching Lucy, found that none of his expectations were being fulfilled.
The fierce battle he longed for simply wasn’t there.
All he could witness was the overwhelming sacred force purging the evil spirits, scattering them into nothingness.
Atop a high point among all the spirits of the forest stood one particular entity.
‘Kyaaah~♡ So scary~♡ Calling this a curse is just laughable, isn’t it?♡ Puhaha♡ Isn’t this too pathetic?♡’
Even in the face of the girl’s mocking voice, it couldn’t do anything but be purified.
“…What’s that?”
Without even exchanging a few blows, Lucy Alrn vanquished the evil spirit, then gazed at the empty space with disappointment before moving on.
Only then did Luca realize he had been under a gross misunderstanding from the beginning.
She didn’t just happen to arrive here! She had actively sought to confront that evil spirit!
What on earth, Lucy Alrn. What do you know about this forest?!
Luca, suppressing raised exclamations in his heart, tried to calm his thumping heartbeat and followed her as she headed onward.
He anticipated what she was about to show.
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