Morning came, and the world slowly woke. A thin strand of dawnlight split the night—
…wait, wrong channel.
Sunlight pierced the darkness, spilling gold and crimson across the land, and the rowdy Tree Sea finally quieted down. It was as if a referee had blown the final whistle: the nocturnal monsters began retreating, curling back into their territories.
"Duncan, I'm packed," Bell said, shouldering his bundle as he came over.
This was the second time they'd "broken camp," though it wasn't much of a dismantling—more like bundling up their belongings. The fence, spare torches, and other fixed supplies stayed behind, ready for future use.
Half a month had passed since Duncan first suggested pushing deeper. Their month-long wilderness trial was already in its third week—almost exactly the same timing as when Duncan had run into the direwolf king.
Over those two weeks, they'd advanced twice, each move covering about half a day's distance. Now, measured by their pace, they were a full day away from Chardo. Of course, if Chardo moved at his own speed, that "distance" would mean almost nothing.
At first, even Duncan had felt uneasy about heading deeper. Bell had read countless picture-books and hero tales—some describing the Tree Sea—and combined with Chardo and Alfia's explanations, the name "one of the three great secret realms" carried weight.
But after the first relocation, the fear started to fade.
Maybe it was simply because the Tree Sea was too vast. Half a day of travel still counted as "the outskirts." They hadn't dared go too deep due to unfamiliar terrain, but the main reason was simple scale—like a forest larger than an entire province. Whether you walked ten kilometers or twenty, it barely mattered.
"Let's go," Duncan said, checking his compass to confirm direction before taking the lead.
Their packs were heavier than on the way in. Food supplies had been consumed, yes—but monster materials had gradually replaced them, and then some.
A forest that massive needed enormous water sources, so streams were everywhere. There were fruit trees too. Bell's habit of reading—especially survival lore—meant he could identify enough wild fruit and fish to keep them from being forced to retreat due to shortages.
As for magic stones, Duncan had already exchanged them into valis through the shop system. He couldn't withdraw the money once it entered the shop, but carrying the stones was a mistake for two reasons: they took up space, and hauling a pile of mana-dense stones around was basically waving a beacon that screamed "Come kill me!" After what happened last time, Duncan refused to keep magic stones on his person.
Bell didn't particularly care. From the start, he followed Duncan's lead without question. And even though Bell killed monsters cleanly, he was still seven—numbers like "hundreds of thousands of valis" didn't feel real to him.
"Are we still going forward?" Bell asked anxiously as they followed the stream upstream. "Isn't it almost time to meet Uncle Chardo?"
"I'm… curious what's ahead," Duncan admitted, pointing along the stream. "I don't know why, but I've got this feeling—like something up there is waiting for me. Half a day more. If we find nothing, we turn back tomorrow."
"Ahead?" Bell stared forward, baffled. Beyond the endlessly repeating trees, only the stream broke the copy-pasted scenery.
"I don't know," Duncan said, shaking his head. His tone was unsettlingly vague. "It's just a feeling."
Bell didn't press. He glanced up at the distance to the branches above, then whooshed—jumped several meters into a tree limb. Even with his oversized pack, he moved as if it weighed nothing. A few rapid steps through the canopy and he vanished from Duncan's sight.
A moment later, Bell dropped back down from the treetops.
"Didn't see anything."
"If I could see it, I wouldn't be guessing," Duncan snapped, irritated. "It's just… there's this faint pull, like it's telling me to go."
Decision made, they stopped talking and moved—running while staying alert for monsters, heading toward where Duncan's "sense" insisted something lay.
Early morning was the safest time to travel. The night-active monsters had returned to their nests; the day-active monsters hadn't started moving yet. Perfect conditions for covering ground.
Night raids still came relentlessly, but they'd adapted to a routine of half-resting while fighting. Duncan, in particular, could go days without sleep. Combat reduced his "standby time," but overall his stamina still far exceeded Bell's, so most watch duty fell on him. The idea of making a seven-year-old keep watch made Duncan feel guilty—whatever his body now was, his mind still carried the standards of his previous world.
Their pace was fast, and with no harassment from monsters, about two hours later the endless trees finally began to thin.
An open clearing appeared.
In the center stood an ancient structure—no, "ruin" was the better word.
Most of the building had collapsed. Vines clung to the outer walls in dense mats, and the few exposed surfaces were flaked and scarred by time. Only a sharp, spire-like rooftop remained upright—and that was what had caught their eyes from a distance.
Strangest of all, the surrounding forest hadn't swallowed it. Instead, the Tree Sea kept its distance, leaving a broad ring of open land around the ruin. Inside that ring, nothing grew—no grass, no weeds—yet the ruin's walls were covered in dead, dried vines.
It looked wrong.
"This is… a relic?" Bell murmured, stopping at the edge of the clearing, uncertain.
"You recognize it?" Duncan asked.
"Not exactly," Bell said, shaking his head, still confused. "But the style looks like something from a very long time ago. Why would it be here?"
"Careful," Duncan warned, crouching to examine the soil. He even put on gloves and scooped up a handful, inspecting it for far too long. In the end, being clueless about this world's geology, he had to give up in frustration. "This clearing feels unnatural. The forest parts around it, and even wild grass won't grow—yet there's no sign of people coming and going."
Bell, however, sounded confident.
"It's probably because this land was once soaked in divine power. The Tree Sea can't invade it. Grandpa said there used to be rituals like that."
"Divine power?" Duncan frowned. "But gods aren't allowed to use divinity in the Lower World, are they?"
"That rule came later," Bell explained. "When gods first descended, there wasn't a restriction like that. Then they realized using divine power caused abnormalities in the land, so they made the rule forbidding it. This ruin must be from before those rules existed."
He stepped forward without hesitation—
—and Duncan hadn't even finished trying to stop him.
....
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