Into the Forest

Rubbing the back of my head I let out a little chuckle. " Thanks for saving me."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

" Alice what did you just do?" Mrs. Himeko asked looking suspiciously at the portal. I think I can see a hint of nervousness on her face but I can't tell for certain.

I look back to the portal, then return my gaze to Mrs. Himeko before shrugging and dispelling the hole. " I honestly have no idea."

To be honest I still wasn't completely sure about using the Void element in front of people but that cats already out of the bag so there is no real use in being overly secretive, however some caution is advised. I do remember that I was cautioned against revealing much about myself.

" ... Fine you don't have to tell me, however, please be careful from now on. I doubt I have to tell you that magic is dangerous, especially something like that." Mrs. Himeko sighed. "Alright everyone, I'm going to call class a little early, so go have fun before next class. Know that if any of you are tardy, I'm not doing this again. Now go have fun doing whatever you kids do for fun."

Waving her hand halfheartedly and turning her back to the kids and walking away, the training grounds were quickly vacated of children. I followed but before I left I took one more look at Mrs. Hemiko and I could she that something was bothering her. She looked a little lost looking at the place I had been just before. It made me nervous seeing her like this but I wasn't going to pry, just like she didn't push with me. I just turned and walked away, hoping she would be okay.

Making my way down the hall I felt a hand around my wrist pull me back. Looking back I meet Lyrics worried gaze.

"What happened during class?" I could hear some worry in his voice.

" Nothing really, I was just testing something. Say, since we have the time, do you wanna grab something to eat really fast? I'm hungry." I tried to deflect and pull him along but he pulled back and pinned my back to the wall so I couldn't run away.

" I'm serious Alice. I don't know what that was, but every fiber of my body told me not to get close. The only reason I even tried to pull you out, was because it was you. Not only that, You've been acting weird. Your not around as often as you were, your not as peppy as you were, you've been getting more temperamental, your distancing yourself from us. Something is obviously bothering you. I'm still recovering from what happened to Eric too, but I won't allow that cause me to lose someone else important, so please talk to me." Lyric was really close to me and I could clearly see the concern and desperation in his eyes. I could feel his stifled breathing, and knew he was trying to keep himself from crying. Not that I could blame him I myself had already started. There was just too much raw emotion here. My body trembled and I pushed forward to give Lyric a hug. Something about the concern he felt for me struck a cord, and I couldn't hold on. I dragged him down to the floor and my grip around him tightened. There was no way in hell I was going to let this one leave me too. My eyes hardened in resolution, I needed to be stronger. I need to stop holding back.

Suddenly I felt something soft pressing against my ribcage and I broke my head away from the crook of Lyric's neck and realized Oreo was standing there punching me in the side softly.

' Alice you're going to be late for class.' He reminded softly.

Alarm rant through me as I immediately sobered up at the thought of being late. Talfa was mean when people were late. Quickly pulling out my timepiece I realized that we literally had a minute to get there. There was a chance we wouldn't make it.

I quickly picked up Oreo and grabbed Lyric by the hand pulling him along as I sprinted to the field luckily we were on the ground floor of the school, so there was a chance.

" Alice your doll just moved." Lyric said looking lost, and a slight bit concerned. This caused me to trip and fly face first into the ground Lyric being yanked to the ground too.

Jumping back up, I helped Lyric stand and we set off again. " I don't know what your talking about." I lied, and in response he just gave me one of those 'BS' looks like I was trying to sell him something outrageous.

Barely making it to class on time, Talfa briefly scolded me about how her assistant shouldn't be cutting it this close. I was still on time and got in trouble. Thankfully, today Talfa went a little easier on us. She knew we would be going on our first journey into the neighboring forest, so she gave us some room to breathe. We went over form as always and had some rather competitive sparring, while also saving some time for routine training, but in comparison to her normal classes, the intensity wasn't as bad. Then came the personal lessons from Talfa.

" Alice, I saw your performance during the competition, and although it was cut short, I would like to complement your skills. You've improved greatly since I first met you." Talfa praised. Thinking back to the competition rilled me.

" No, I didn't do a good job! My friend was killed! I couldn't save some one. I wasn't able to save him, so stop lying! I'm weak and your a fool if you think otherwise." I yelled at her. What the hell did she think she saw? Because whatever it was, wasn't what really happened. However Talfa did not like being yelled at. She walked over and grabbed my shoulders

" No, you shut up and listen. You didn't lose a friend you saved everyone else. I was watching and if you hadn't given them the time to recuperate, almost none of you would have made it out alive! You all should have died there. After seeing what all of students there could do, I could tell from the moment the first of you were killed that none of you were going to make it out alive. Somehow you overcame those odd, so stop hurting yourself, you stupid student of mine. You are far from weak." Miss Talfa yelled in my face. Her voice got quiet and I could faintly her her voice, " If I was as strong as you then. They wouldn't have all died."

" Umm, Excuse me." I heard a squeak from beside us. Both me and Talfa looked over to see Ravi. Talfa let go of my shoulders and straightened herself, and I rubbed the tears forming along my eyes.

" Excuse us, what do you need. You are the new student correct? Ravillia Keros?" Talfa asked, completely professionally, after quickly and discretely correcting her mannerisms.

" U-um, I w-w-wanted to know what you were d-doing." Ravi, started to shrink away under Talfa's stare.

" Talfa, she isn't overly comfortable around people. Still a lot better than when I first met her though." I tell her as Talfa stands confused as to why she seems to have scared Ravi. I Pat Ravi on the back and give her a reassuring hug.

" Don't worry Ravi she only looks mean. She's actually a super nice person once you get to know her." I gave her a smile.

" I'm super nice, huh?" Talfa was wearing a strained expression as I could see some veins bulging out of her head. " I clearly haven't been hard enough on you recently. I also haven't forgotten how you were late to class."

" I wasn't late I retorted. I was almost late but not quite." I clarified, thinking it was absurd she would be agitated over something so small.

" Oh, so almost is fine? Like how you almost saved all of you friends. Alice, you are a talented fighter and I don't doubt that your destined to become a most powerful adventurer, however you can't slack nor can you cut things close. For your age you are powerful, but in the grand scheme of things, you're right. You are weak. You will see friends and loved one die in this line of work and the only way to prevent that is diligence. Now, I can see your need to get stronger, so we're going to up the difficulty. This will now truly test your resolve. Are you ready?"

I nodded. Talfa had a point, and no matter how painful it was to accept I needed to get stronger.

" Now, I'm sorry for interrupting you Miss Ravillia, what can I help you with? Classes should be starting right about now." Talfa asked Ravi.

" C-c-can I join y-you in t-training?" I could feel Ravi try to hide behind me again.

" I don't think so. She is quite strong, and is my assistant. I'm not sure if you would be able to keep up." Miss Talfa said.

" She'll be okay. I've been teaching her the things we've been going over and she is quite strong on her own." I vouched for Ravi.

" Hmm, Ravillia come here." Talfa called her over. She looked nervously at me before I grabbed her hand and started to lead her over.

" Alice, Stop." Talfa yelled. Before backing up some. " She will do this alone."

I looked at Ravi, and she seemed even more nervous than before, almost like she didn't want to, but after looking at me she slowly nodded her head, and walked over to Talfa.

Once she arrived in front of her. Talfa suddenly grabbed both of Ravi's shoulders and stared deeply into her eyes. I could see Ravi try to turn away, but She was now stuck there was no going back.

" Now tell me, do you want to join Alice and become an assistant of mine?" Talfa asked.

" Y-yes." Ravi shakily affirmed

" Not good enough. I will ask you again. Do you want to join us in this training?" Talfa asked again louder.

" Yes." Ravi affirmed.

" Now tell me what do you want to do." Talfa's voice boomed, it was an attempt to intimidate Ravi.

" I-I w-want to join-n you in t-training." Ravi said scaling her voice louder with Talfa.

"No good, Again." Talfa yelled.

" I-I want to join-n you in training." Ravi called even louder.

" Better, but not good enough. Let me hear you, convince me through your words this is something you want to do."

" I want to join you in training!" Ravi yelled. This was the first time I've ever heard her yell, aside from when we're practicing.

" Hmm, I suppose that will do, for now. You lack confidence, but not to worry, that is something we can fix. Are you ready for this? I suppose it doesn't matter, your already committed. You can't escape now." Talfa let out a laugh, followed by a chilling smile. I could only sigh, as a friend I should have helped her out of this, but as a better friend I want her to get strong enough to survive in this world, and as her best friend I want her to suffer through this with me.

" Now come on Alice, we're starting with a run, don't fall behind, or you'll regret it." Talfa them ran off.

"Alice, I thought you said she was nice. She's scary." Ravi complained.

" Oh, she's only just getting started." I sighed, and started pursuing Talfa. I could tell that this was the beginning of a new hell. Not like before was a cake walk.

I saw a wave of regret wash over Ravi's face. She may have bitten off more than she could chew on this one.

The rest of the day was a painful blur, so much as moving an arm, or sitting down hurt like hell. Talfa didn't let us rest at all, and you'd think that over the span of two hours there would only be so much that could happen to you, but boy, are you mistaken. I don't think I'll have the energy to move tomorrow. Luckily work was slow enough form me to not be in perpetual pain.

Laying on my bed that night I began going through the following day in my mind. I reviewed the creatures that were known to be present in the forest and ways to fend them off quickly and effectively myself. I wasn't going to rely on anyone else to cover for me, and I wanted a back up plan in case things got dicey. Goblins, along with horned rabbits, Snappers, leaf geckos, and ringed raven's make up the most of the forest's beginning layer. The middle and center layers had some more difficult and evolved forms throughout them but we weren't going that deep. They were all relatively easy to counter. turning onto my back I begin creating a detailed list of counters.

Horned rabbits are small white hares with jagged unicorn horns that are actually pretty cute. They are most know for being agile, however if you counter them with a close range weapon like a swords or some form of pole arm, they wouldn't be much of a threat, because they are horrible at turning while charging.

The Snappers are plant monsters a bit like Venus fly traps. They are slow and have a limited range, however they're outside layers of protection are tough, in comparison to the rest of the forest, and they have immense jaw strength. The best way to counter this is some form of ranged weapon like a bow or a throwing knife, but they can just be avoided if you pay enough attention.

Then comes the Leaf Gecko. These little creatures are small and venomous, their bite is not overly powerful, and their overall speed and strength make them comparable to domesticated animal in strength, rather than a monster. To make up for this, they have good camouflage abilities and have a venom that is capable of paralyzing small animals. They can't completely incapacitate a grown human with one bit, but once bitten, a target can become slowed and can easily fall victim to more attacks until they are dead. These you just have to keep an eye out for, and could be the most problematic, however once their hiding spot is found it's game over for them.

Then there are Ringed Ravens. Small birds with large beaks with numerous rings around it. They attack with fast dives through the foliage of the tree's. These are more a nuisance to hit since missing with a throwing knife means I lose the knife and anything else lacks the range to hit it. These were going to be the biggest issue.

Then came the Goblins. These lived in small villages and attack in groups. They typically have the formation equally divided between long ranged and short ranged. The smaller groups ranging from one to two goblins and the largest numbering thirteen. It typically averages around four to six however. The close range are easy, however the long range are known to use the forest to their advantage for cover, and use their melee friends to keep their target locked down. And the occasional goblin mage, or hobgoblin makes them worse. They are typically only between the middle and center rings of the forest, however they do occasionally venture out, into the outer ring if they are desperate enough.

" I wish I had some form of long range weapon." I sighed to myself stumped. I could try a few things to get around my lack of long ranged weapons with magic, but they have their own issues. The blades I make with moonlight magic are disposable, but lack the range. They begin to break apart after a certain distance and their damage weakens. Sunfire could be another alternative, but they diffuse after a certain distance, and may not be able to reach the target if they are too far away, or completely kill it.

" Mn, Oreo, what do you want?" I ask, Oreo breaking me from my thoughts by bouncing on my chest.

' I'm your ranged weapon, remember?' He asked looking into my eyes.

" What are you talking about?" I ask clearly confused.

' And I thought you had photographic memory or something.' Oreo taunted ' Remember when I was first bound to you.'

~Flash Back - Start~

[Notice: Irregularities fixed]

[Possessed Plush (Oreo)] --> [Cursed Companion (Oreo)]

Pulling up my inventory I look for more details

[Cursed Companion (Oreo)]

A magical doll possessed by a soul, This doll has gained the love and appreciation of it's owner, and reciprocates wholeheartedly. This Doll's wish to protect it's master has granted it the ability to change into a weapon based on its soul.l

[Weapon Form: Cursed Pistols]

Effects:

- Increases spell efficiency by 50%

- Deals Physical damage based on (INT)

I notice Oreo stir awake and I pick him up and set him in my lap, looking at him he doesn't seem any different.

"Good morning Oreo" I whisper not wanting to wake the others up

' Good morning' Oreo replied in my mind, his body stood up and stretched out and he looked like he yawned but no noise was made

" Do you feel any different?" I ask concerned of the notification I saw changed anything with Oreo

' No I feel fine, but I did notice I changed last night. I now have a weapon Form, no clue what it looks like but I hope it's cool

"As long as your fine, anyways I have work wana come with?" I ask " Or would you prefer to sleep some more?"

' I'll do both, I'll come with and sleep on your head.' Was Oreo's response

~Flash Back - End~

I immediately sat up with an O on my face when I realized I had completely forgotten.

" I'm sorry, we never even looked at it did we? I'm a horrible sister aren't I." I looked down my ears drooping with my mood. "You're always there for me, and I just take you for granted Don't I. I'm not good enough for you." I muttered.

' I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be' I heard echo in my mind as Oreo's beady eyes stared into my soul, and his tail whisked side to side rhythmically.

I scooped him up into a hug, " Your the best."

' I know and one of these days you'll actually realize it too.' He joked, causing me to pout a bit.

" I said I was sorry." I huffed back. " ... so do you want try it out now or ..."

' You should wait. Your strong, and I doubt those forest monsters will give you any trouble if it is safe for the other students to go in.' Oreo said. I could feel the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. He had a point, if the creatures could be easily handled by almost anyone, then by all logic, I should be fine. Even if I'm alone, which I won't be.

" Oreo, why are you so smart?" I asked.

' Alice, why are you so dumb?'

" That's not nice, why do you have to be so mean to me?"

[Cynthia agrees with subject [Oreo]. Alice is incompetent.]

" Nobody asked you." I was feeling attacked. " Wait, since when can you two talk with each other?"

' We're both connected through you system, I frequently have conversations with Cynthia while you are busy with school, work, or training. She is quite pleasurable company.'

[Agreed. Cynthia is also rather fond of Oreo.]

" Well that's nice. It's good that you are getting along. I don't have to worry about you being lonely as much." I let out a soft smile.

' It's. probably time for you to go to bed, Alice.' Oreo reminded. As if on que a long yawn exited my mouth sapping the rest of my energy away.

" Your probably right. Goodnight Oreo, Cynthia."

' Goodnight Alice.'

[Sleep well]