The elven youths were using the tree houses in the forest as their base of operations. During the day, they all took their own share of work. Some hunted, while others gathered fruits and nuts for their daily necessities, as well as to exchange in human towns to make some money.
At night, they would talk about their dreams around the fire and borrow the spirits’ powers to read adventuring novels and look at art from human towns. At the moment, they were taking turns reading the newest volume of The Legend of the Heroes that Chise had kindly lent them. The leader of the youths didn’t like Chise and Teto very much, but the others didn’t seem to mind them. Whenever the boy wasn’t there, they would invite them to their tree houses and show them the theater posters and newspapers they had collected.
Most of the youths enjoyed their communal living situation, but the leader of the little group was getting more and more frustrated with each passing day.
“Is that all you guys managed to gather today?! At this rate, we’re never gonna leave this damn place!” he barked at his friends when they brought the day’s loot.
The preparations for their journey weren’t going as well as the boy was hoping. The other youths, on the other hand, were rather calm.
“We have almost no arrows left, but that should be enough food for today, isn’t it?”
“What’s the point of hunting more game than we can eat anyway? It’ll just rot. We’d have to smoke or dry the meat if we want to use it as provisions on our way to a human town. We’ve got a bunch of fangs that we don’t know what to do with, and we’ve thrown away all of the pelts we got since we don’t know how to tan them.”
“I’m actually thinking of going home soon. I like human culture, but it’s not like I have to leave my family to enjoy it, you know?”
“The next merchants are coming soon too anyway, aren’t they? They might have some new books and posters they use to wrap their wares.”
“I want to go home too... I wonder how my parents and my little siblings are doing.”
A melancholic atmosphere settled over the elven youths; they were aware that the end of their little rebellion was approaching.
“What the hell are you guys saying?! It’s because of them, isn’t it?! The adventurers Lady Elnea sent here to convince us to go home!” the leader exclaimed.
“No! Miss Chii and Miss Teto just told us all sorts of things that aren’t written in the books!”
After listening to Chise’s stories, the youths had realized that the life of an adventurer wasn’t as easy as they had imagined and that the grass wasn’t necessarily greener in human towns. Yet it didn’t feel like she was trying to dissuade or manipulate them; she was simply telling them the truth, plain and simple.
After leaving their villages, the youths had been too enamored by the thrill and novelty of communal living in the heart of the woods and were purposefully evading the harsh realities awaiting them. But now that a few days had passed, they had started calming down and reflecting on their actions. Could they realistically navigate their way to a human town? Was communal living in the woods truly necessary preparation for their journey? They could simply wait until they became adults and get jobs that’d allow them to venture outside the forest, or at least save up enough money for a smoother transition. Besides, they had it pretty good in the forest. Could they really survive alone without their villages, families, and the spirits of the forest looking after them?
After pondering these questions over and over, they finally came to a collective decision.
“Let’s just go home and apologize to our parents,” said the elven girl who had been wondering about her parents’ and siblings’ well-being.
An expression of sheer betrayal appeared on the youths’ leader’s face.
“We promised we’d leave the forest together! Are you really gonna give up? You traitors!” he exclaimed.
The other youths avoided their gazes awkwardly.
“Tsk! Whatever, I don’t care about you guys anymore! I’ll leave all by myself!”
“Ah, hold on!”
The other youths tried to stop him, but he shook off their attempts and dashed off into the forest.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
He took to the trees, leaping from bough to bough in the dimly lit evening.
“If that’s what they want, then so be it! I don’t need them to leave the forest!”
The boy was headed in the direction of the monsters’ territory—a place the adults had forbidden him from entering, and for good reasons: there was a seepage point in the leylines there. The deluge of mana that gushed out of the leylines kept giving birth to new monsters, some of which had even mutated thanks to their prolonged mana exposure. The boy’s plan was straightforward: defeat a few monsters, obtain their magic stones, and exchange them for money in the human towns. The monsters that inhabited that part of the forest weren’t anything like the ones he had fought up until now; defeating them would grant him bigger, purer magic stones, exactly what he needed to secure his immediate financial needs.
As long he was in the forest, he could use his forestry skills and his spirit magic to survive.
“It’s a good thing, actually. Now I don’t have to wait for these losers to save up for their own traveling expenses. I should’ve done this from the start!” he said, using the power of his contracted wind spirit to leap from tree to tree.
After a short while, he reached the monsters’ territory.
“Dean’s always fighting monsters. If he can do it, then so can I! I’ll be an adventurer too one day!”
Dean—the protagonist of The Legend of the Heroes—had fought many monsters throughout the course of the series. The boy, casting himself as the main character of such tales, looked down from the tree he was perched on, his eyes landing on a monster.
“Go!” he exclaimed, drawing his bow and calling forth the power of his wind spirit to enchant his arrow.
The Wind Magic-imbued arrow pierced through the monster’s body deeply. It emitted a short pained cry before falling to the ground, dead.
“I did it!” the boy cheered, pumping his fist.
He jumped from the tree and went to inspect the monster’s body.
“Well, that was easy,” he said with a chuckle.
Drawing the small knife from his hip, he prepared to cut open the monster and retrieve its magic stone. But just as he began, a large root emerged from the ground, wrapping itself around his leg and the monster’s body, dragging them away.
“Huh?! What the hell is that?!” the boy exclaimed.
The dead monster and he were being pulled towards the base of a large tree. Looking up, the boy noticed that the tree had a human face etched onto its trunk.
“Shit! A treant!” the boy cursed.
He had accidentally let go of his knife and his arrows had fallen from his quiver when the treant had started dragging him along the ground.
“Let me go before I make firewood out of you!” the boy yelled, holding out a hand in the direction of the treant and shooting a blade of wind at it, but it barely made a scratch in its bark.
“Aaaaaah!”
Terrified at the sight of the treant’s maw drawing steadily nearer, the boy offered even more of his mana to his spirit. A whirlwind appeared around the boy, along with countless wind blades that relentlessly slashed at the root wrapped around his leg, the dead monster beside him, and the treant’s trunk.
Creeeak.
The spirit might not have been particularly high rank, but, at the end of the day, it was still a spirit; its attack was potent enough to cause some considerable damage to the monster. If a human had wanted to replicate that spell, they’d need to be at the level of a C-rank adventurer at the very least.
The spirit’s wind blades slashed at the treant’s trunk, homing in on the cavity that contained its magic stone, cutting through the layers of tree fiber one by one until they reached the stone. The treant let out a dying cry, mana gushing from its open wound as its life force ebbed away.
“Hah... Hah... It’s over. I won! I won!” the boy cheered, drunk on his victory and roaring with laughter. However, his celebration was cut short as he glanced at his surroundings.
Creeeak.
Three more treants had appeared. With no mana left to defend himself, the boy looked around the forest, searching for something, anything that could help him—to no avail. Despair began to creep into his heart.
Oh... Right. Dean might be incredibly strong, but he never fights alone. His friends are always here to help him when things get tough. That’s how he managed to defeat all of these monsters. But me...I’m all alone, the boy realized.
He could only watch as the treants thrust roots sharp as spears at him. In that instant, the boy saw his life flash before his eyes. Someone like him could never have become an adventurer anyway; it was all a stupid dream.
The boy’s last thought was surprisingly trivial.
“I should’ve read the newest volume of The Legend of the Heroes.”
For some reason, the boy had obstinately refused to read the book Chise had lent the others until the very end. He’d watched the others taking turns reading it, but never touched the book once, swearing to himself that he’d buy a copy with his own money once he reached a human town. But now that he was about to die, he regretted his decision.
The treant’s roots inched closer and closer to the boy.
“Multi-Barrier!”
Miraculously, the roots were repelled as if hitting an invisible wall. Immediately after, the adventurers Chise and Teto landed before him.