Chapter 12 (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

A nameless forest.

In this undeveloped region far from civilization, nameless places like this were very common. Though all pieces of land came under certain territories, not all of them had undergone development.

The kingdom had no spare manpower and resources to develop the border areas near the Gondor wasteland. And since the elves helped the humans build great walls that surrounded the entire Gondor wasteland with sentinel towers as nodes along the walls, the countries did not need to station too many soldiers at the border to deal with the monsters that occasionally wandered over from the wasteland. Thus, the border fell into a vicious circle of continuous decline.

There were other ways of traveling from Cecil territory to Tanzan Town in the north, but the path through the forest was one of the shortest routes. If they were to choose the other routes, they would either have to take a long detour to bypass the whole area or to pass through lawless areas that were even more dangerous, both of which would be unwise.

The deeper they ventured into the woods, the darker it became. The decaying leaves accumulated on the ground were becoming annoying. Although it was not too big of a forest, the wild growth of the plants in the forest without human interference was an eye opener for Gawain. In his previous life, he lived in a man-made concrete jungle. After transmigrating, he could only observe this world from a distance. At this moment as he stepped foot through the forest himself, he realized that his idea of nature had been too superficial.

Fortunately, he was gradually getting used to this body. His strong physical capabilities and all of his innate qualities enabled him to easily take on the challenge of surviving in the wilderness. Knight Byron and Amber, who were with him, also had no shortage of experience trekking through the wilderness. Thus, the journey had not been too terrible for them.

However, Herti had to suffer a little. Though the Cecil Clan had declined, they were after all a long-standing aristocratic family that had been loyal to the royal family. As a true aristocratic woman, Herti was no doubt well-trained and hardworking within the aristocratic circles, but in the wilderness, she still required more experience.

Besides, a mage would not have much physical strength.

However, Rebecca’s performance was quite surprising to Gawain. This young lady, who seemed like a high school girl on earth, never once straggled behind. When they were running through the forest with no paths, she performed no worse than the tall and strong soldiers. Gawain asked her about it curiously, and Rebecca answered quite embarrassed, “I was quite wild when I was a child. I’d always run around like boys and even venture into the woods to explore. At that time, I had not shown any magical talent, and my father thought that I might be able to become a Knight… but I let him down in the end. But even though I couldn’t go on the path to becoming a Knight, I still take the time to train myself. After all, Ancestor said that one must first have a strong physique in order to be a leader that protects the people… ”

Gawain nodded silently. Though this nth+1 great granddaughter of his seemed occasionally to have suffered brain injuries, she was quite a down-to-earth and upright character.

This was rare in aristocratic circles.

This nth great granddaughter who was nearly short of breath should really learn a thing or two from her.

“There may be some monsters deep in the forest, but they won’t be too powerful.” Knight Byron picked up a lump of dark substance from the ground with his longsword. The lump slowly became transparent at the tip of his sword and gradually dissipated in the air. “Shadow elemental enrichment. There should be a natural magic focal point somewhere in the middle of this forest, but it’s probably the weak kind.”

“It must be really weak,” Amber swirled the dagger around as she looked around and sized up the situation. “If there was a high-grade magic focal point, the Association of Mystics or the Association of Astrologers would have declared this forest to be their territory a long time ago. Besides, from the look of these plants around here… There is no sign of them being affected. This means that the elemental enrichment is not strong enough to even affect these plants.”

Gawain looked at the two wilderness survival experts with a bit of surprise, “You guys seem real knowledgeable, huh?”

Rebecca glanced at Byron, “Uncle Byron was a mercenary before he swore allegiance to my father.”

Byron did not seem too fond of talking about the past. “It’s all in the past, Miss.”

The small dagger in Amber’s hand was spinning even faster. “Pfft, looking so battle-scarred. Who doesn’t have a past?”

Though the half-elf girl’s face had an expression saying ‘I’ve got an impressive backstory too, ask me about it!’, Gawain had no intention of entertaining this young lady. Just from spending a day and a half’s time together, it was enough for Gawain to learn her tendencies. That rich experience she had in the wilderness must have been gained as she was being chased all around the city by the guards and then fled into the wilderness when she had nowhere else to run. But if you were really going to ask her, she would definitely spin a hair-raising thriller of a story for you—like how she had traveled the entire continent and even laughed with the Elf King or something in that vein…

As they were talking, they had already walked some distance towards the deeper part of the forest. The surrounding trees were becoming denser, and the rays of light shining through the canopy were becoming sparser.

Gawain looked up. Between the shadowy branches, the giant sun was scattered into dots of light as if there was a huge plate hung upside down in the sky, and the sunlight reaching his body felt a little cooler.

Betty, the weakest among them, could not help but sneeze. She felt her hands becoming so cold that she almost dropped the pan.