Chapter 15 - Walking Alone

In front of a tree, Sief stood with his dagger in hand and his eyes closed, his brow furrowed. 

Slowly, a green aura enveloped his dagger, and Sief opened his eyes, seeing that the aura persisted. 

After a few seconds, it continued while Sief muttered. 

"A poison capable of doing that... I remember..." 

His brow remained furrowed as he felt a slight fatigue from maintaining the effect, but the aura stayed green and exuded energy while he stood facing the tree. 

He gripped the dagger's handle and cut a piece from the tree, leaving a residual green glow. Then, he made another cut much lower, followed by five more cuts down to his feet. Sief stepped back from the tree, focusing again on the blade that still had the aura around it. 

Sief clicked his tongue and watched as the cut parts seemed to decay slowly, all at the same pace, making him glare at the tree with a furrowed brow as he thought. 

'Why did the effect lessen on those monsters but not on this tree? It's not like I have a limited poison supply; some other factor influenced it.' He brought his hand to his chin, the dagger still in hand, gently squeezing his cheeks as he pondered. 'Actually, now that I have a clearer view, the poison seems stronger on the trees than the monsters... Do I need to create an even more solid image? It's not the same poison since it's affecting a tree...' 

However, upon noticing, Sief saw that the green aura on the weapon was almost transparent, causing him to raise his eyebrows. 

He repositioned himself and charged at the tree, making a vertical cut that intersected the previous cuts, finally seeing the aura of the blade dissipate. 

After a few minutes of waiting, Sief noticed that the last cut hadn't affected the tree as much as it should have, making him furrow his brow slightly and squeeze his cheeks again. 

"Where am I going wrong?" 

Sief stopped under a tree and looked to the side, thinking. 

'The time to fix this mistake is now. Every step I take makes noise, and if those monsters appear again...' He crossed his arms and closed his eyes, thinking. 'To perform this entire process, I visualize the mana and direct it to the weapon from the palm of my hand. I let the mana flow like a river because if I imagine it as fire, I lose focus... Should I imagine it as fire? But that's not what's influencing it... What changes during the attacks?' 

He tilted his head slightly to the side and concluded. 

'It's not the flow of mana since I stood still and the aura persisted... I completely forgot about it... So... it's something during the attacks...' Sief sighed as he stood up. 'Maybe it is the visualization, but keeping that in mind during combat must be exhausting, and with those monsters... If I'm not constantly vigilant, they might hit me... and they're already strong enough for one of those blows to send me flying...' 

Remembering the confrontation with the enraged primate from before, Sief lightly shook his arm but sighed, resuming his walk. 

'I need to test this. The Shaman suffered from that poison, and the last of the smaller ones barely felt it. If I want to turn this into a unique ability, I need to correct this mistake...' Breathing deeply, Sief continued, furrowing his brow in thought. 'Before initiating the confrontation, I need to visualize the ability and channel the mana, otherwise, it won't activate. Additionally, if I already have the image in mind, I might be able to activate it more quickly.' 

However, in the midst of his musing, something flew rapidly and pierced his shoulder, hitting him violently and forcing him backward. Sief looked at his shoulder in confusion, seeing a wooden arrow embedded, while he heard another object being flexed and flying toward him. 

Sief leapt to the side, watching an arrow fly past him. Taking cover behind a tree, he grunted, feeling a sharp pain as he noticed that the arrow seemed too small for an adult. He heard an irritating, familiar laugh and spotted a small goblin among the branches ahead, wielding a bow and arrow. 

Clicking his tongue, Sief prepared to advance, but the leaves rustled above his head. Looking up quickly, he saw a goblin descending to stab a spear into his head. 

Again, Sief dodged backward, avoiding the attack as another arrow flew toward him, which he blocked with his iron bracer. He then saw the goblin spearman advancing with another thrust. 

But Sief allowed the spear to pass under his arm, trapping it in his armpit and surprising the monster, which tried to pull back. Sief advanced and stabbed the monster's head, killing it with a single blow. 

Returning to the tree, Sief gritted his teeth and removed the arrow, which made him grunt as blood spurted. He then heard the same goblin from before shouting and waving its arms ferociously. 

The scream alerted other monsters that started moving among the branches. Sief furrowed his brow as he heard more goblins yelling and approaching until some jumped near him, surrounding him. 

Some wielded daggers, others spears and cleavers, all grinning wickedly while the archer laughed from above the branches. 

Once again, the monster puffed out its chest to scream, but before it could, a spear impaled it, knocking it from the tree and hitting the ground hard while it groaned and writhed. 

Even surrounded, Sief remained focused, still in his throwing stance, turning his attention to the goblins and raising his dagger as he thought. 

"You can try calling again..." He gripped the dagger's handle and saw one of the goblins advance. 'Forest goblins... as if those monkeys weren't enough?...' 

Sief charged, clashing with the goblin as the other monsters advanced. 

Within a few hours, the sun had reached its peak as Sief left the forest and walked across a green plain with long strides, grunting. He had light cuts on his face and a few on his arms. In the distance, he saw a tree and, as he approached it, he puffed out his chest and kicked it as hard as he could. 

The tree shook, its leaves rustling, but he kicked it again, causing the leaves to fall on his head. Something flew toward him, making him look up quickly. 

However, a small fruit hit his forehead with a dull thud and fell to the ground as he muttered. 

"No goblins here." He turned and slumped against the tree, sitting down exhausted, panting as he pulled out his map. 'This is turning out to be much worse than I imagined... I thought it was a light green zone... but this isn't normal...' 

Focusing his mana on the map, he saw his flame ignite and realized he hadn't reached halfway through the territory in half a day, making him sigh in frustration as he pondered. 

'They're not stronger, I think, but the environment helps them, and they have more complicated weapons than just sharp stones...' Sief put the map back in his backpack and leaned his head against the tree, sighing. 'I feel light, actually, much better since I ate a lot yesterday... but facing all this alone is making it much more exhausting...' 

He felt sleepiness weighing on him as he opened his eyes, grunting. But when he noticed, roots were wrapping around him, making his eyes widen as he realized the tree behind him had opened up. 

Sief drew his dagger, but he was soon hurled into the tree's interior, which closed up while roots tried to bind him, and he felt a foul, burning liquid pouring over him. 

'It's a damn monster...' Sief gritted his teeth in anger, but taking advantage of the darkness, he traced the path of mana, and quickly, in the midst of the darkness, the aura of his blade began to glow. 'I'll give you a hellish stomachache.' 

The tree stood up and began to move, shaking Sief inside it. Quickly, he stabbed, causing the tree to tremble. With another thrust, Sief created a crack to the outside, but the tree jumped and threw itself to the ground, making the impact hit Sief, who grunted as the liquid dripped onto his face. 

It was irritating and painful, but Sief kept striking, even with only one eye open, creating more and more cracks in the tree that began to rot. A larger crack opened, and Sief thrust both hands into the softened wood, pushing his head and body through the gap, which broke apart as he continued to tear and stab the tree that slowly started to stop moving. 

Sief pushed his body through a large hole and leapt out, standing bathed in a red liquid. 

Once out, he puffed out his chest and sighed until the tree collapsed behind him, shaking and splitting open while he tried to clean himself, saying. 

"Now that's a rebirth." He continued with a furrowed brow and sighed irritably again, resuming his walk as he spotted a few isolated trees nearby, causing him to shout, "Hey, anyone else want to try?" 

He spread his arms, staring at the trees that remained still, until one in the distance began walking back into the forest with its roots. Sief scoffed irritably, saying. 

"Wise choice..." 

Adjusting his backpack as the aura faded from his dagger, he concluded, "What a crappy territory." 

Sief walked among the trees, removing his backpack and shirt to check the bandages applied the previous day. As he unwrapped them, he saw that most of his wounds were already healing, making him sigh with relief. However, the fresh cuts still bled slightly, making him click his tongue as he brought the dagger to his mouth to open the backpack. 

Inside, he found supplies for two more days, along with a final roll of bandages that Sief stared at. 

'It's the last one; I can't use it because she might need it.' He stored the bandage with the supplies and heard the clinking of coins, reminding him of Tom. He pushed them to the bottom of the backpack as he closed it. 'Just one more territory... If I can't reach the end today, at least I want to see the boundary between them...' 

Sief put on his shirt, a gift from Tom, now full of cuts and new tears, making him sigh with a slight smile. 

"Sorry, Tom, I thought crossing territories would be easier." He donned the backpack again, concluding, "But it's still better than my old clothes." 

Slowly, Sief began to run again. Though his body felt slightly heavy, he was energized and quickened his pace, concluding. 

"You can't escape the monsters without getting hit... so I have to save time by running..." 

He quickly passed through the plain, encountering fewer monsters. Some attacked alongside ghostly trees that only died when poisoned, complicating Sief's battles. He chose to massacre the smaller ones first, at the cost of being engulfed a few times. 

By the end of the day, his skin bore light burn marks, and unlike previous days, he was utterly exhausted. He stopped, witnessing a valley ahead leading directly to Dokkel's territory. 

Sief saw that the road descended and would be a fast path, but the hills forming the valley were filled with trees, making him click his tongue as he concluded, resting a hand on his hip while hearing a voice in his mind. 

"You can avoid alphas by taking longer paths with more monsters," Edgar said in a memory, to which Sief replied, "But I don't have that much time..." 

He resumed walking, descending the hill, and concluded. 

"I wonder how much that know-it-all traveled to always be right..."