Chapter 1:
The Mysterious Forest and the Fluffball of Good Luck
Part 1
ALLO, TREANT, AND I looked at each other with wide eyes, then began to discuss our next steps forward.
The Divine Voice had transported us to this strange, eerie forest lined with massive, crooked trees. Allo and Treant were only here because they were involved with me. Volk, the black lizard, and the others had been left in the other world, where they were no doubt greatly outmatched by the four Spirit Servants the Divine Voice had released to combat them. First, I quickly gave Allo and Treant the rundown about Volk and the others’ predicament, as well as my own speculations about the Divine Voice’s intentions.
‹Our only option is to get stronger here and find a way to escape. The Divine Voice has killed tens of thousands…maybe even millions of people. If it says it’s going to throw the world into chaos, then that’s exactly what it’ll do.›
Even five hundred years ago, in Mia the Hero’s generation, the Divine Voice used its Sacred Skills to manipulate powerful beings into waging war against each other. Before then, too, if the stories were true.
I want to get back to our world as quickly as possible, but at my current strength, I don’t stand a chance against the Divine Voice’s Spirit Servants. I need to level up…and maybe even evolve again if I can, and then find a way to escape this world.
And if that wasn’t enough, I also had to find a way to catch the Divine Voice off guard and defy its plans. If I didn’t, it was going to keep using me for its own gain and dispose of me once I’d served my purpose. That much was clear.
This was my biggest challenge yet, but at the moment, I had too little information—and, more importantly, not enough time—to think it through. For now, I needed to focus on the objective at hand.
‹There has to be a way out of this place. Raising my levels and escaping is exactly what that bastard wants me to do anyhow.› I looked around at the endless rows of giant, crooked trees. The moonlight bathed the peculiar landscape in an eerie blue haze. It felt like if I stared at it for too long, I’d start to think the shadows were moving.
“Well, whether we want to get stronger or find a way out of here, our best bet is to start by exploring the area,” Allo said, peering up at the strange trees.
Treant’s body began to quiver slightly. ‹Y-you want to…explore the forest?›
‹Look, I know it’s scary, but if we just stay here, we’ll never know what happened to our world,› I replied. ‹Our only choice is to check things out.›
‹I-I-I know…› Treant sighed, resigned. Its trunk timidly tilted to the side as it looked around. Then its branches began to quiver once more.
Are you gonna be okay, Treant…? Given its current state, I couldn’t help but question whether Treant had really challenged Aluanne to a one-on-one fight and managed to handily beat her in our last battle. But Allo and Atlach-Nacha had both backed up that version of events; if it were just Allo, I could see her trying to spin a story to paint Treant in a positive light. But Atlach-Nacha would never make something like that up for Treant’s sake.
“Treant, I’m sure Atlach-Nacha is in a whole lot of trouble right about now…” Allo said, staring pointedly at it.
‹Y-yes, you’re probably right. I…I need to get it together!› Treant gulped, then quickly straightened its trunk.
‹All right. So…I feel like there may not be that many vicious monsters here. The Divine Voice is powerful, but it can’t just create a bunch of Legendary rank monsters out of nothing, right? If it could, then it wouldn’t have any reason to go through all the trouble of raising me up.› The fact that it was able to summon a slew of Spirit Servants who were equal to or stronger than me was intimidating, but once beings were made into Spirit Servants, they stopped gaining experience points and could no longer level up. Beelzebub and Eldia’s status screens as Spirit Servants showed that their levels were locked. That meant there was no way the Divine Voice could summon a bunch of Legendary rank monsters to fight me. If it could, it wouldn’t need me in the first place.
‹I see… This forest is a bit creepy, but if what you’re saying is true, Master, then it’s likely that only lower-ranking monsters will appear here. In that case, if we leave everything in your capable hands, we should be able to overcome this situation safely.› A sigh of relief emanated from the mouthlike hollow in Treant’s trunk.
A-are we really sure Treant defeated Aluanne in single combat…?
‹All right, before we scout the area, we’ve got a few things to sort out,› I said. ‹I wanted to wait and see how things went first, but we might not have enough time for that.›
“A few things to sort out…?” Allo repeated curiously. “Like what?”
‹Yup. You’ll see.›
With that, I turned to Treant and used View Status.
Species: Tyrant Guardian
Status: Cursed
Lv: 66/85
HP: 748/748
MP: 309/309
Treant had gone from [Lv: 54/85] to [Lv: 66/85] during the battle with Lilyxila’s forces. It’d benefited from the effects of my Demon King’s Blessing skill, which doubled its experience point gain.
Special Skill “Demon King’s Blessing.” As the Demon King, this skill allows the user to unlock the potential of those who serve them. Raises the evolutionary limits of monsters under one’s command. Also doubles the rate of experience point gain for any monsters of lower rank than oneself.