✦ ✦ ✦
‹W-wah! What are you doing, Master?! You’ll make me spill the stew! Later! Do that later!› Treant clung to its bowl with all its might, desperate to save it from spilling.
Allo glared coldly as I hugged Treant. I pulled away and sat back down to dig in.
I gave the stew a gentle stir to disturb the film of kesaran pasaran fat on top, then quickly moved my face closer. Okay…the smell isn’t so bad, at least. I think the phoenix flower helped.
Well…here goes nothing. I tipped the bowl back and downed a large portion of tricolored stew in one big gulp.
“Mmgh!” It was spicier than I expected, probably thanks to the phoenix flower. But the spice, combined with the thick fat of the kesaran pasarans and the sweetness of the red grapelike fruits, created a uniquely deep, rich flavor. When I swallowed, I was left with the soft, mellow flavor of the golden shrooms as an aftertaste.
H-holy cow. It’s so good! I can’t believe it!
I scooped some of the kesaran pasaran meat onto my spoon and brought it to my mouth alongside the broth. The meat melted on my tongue, adding even more succulent richness to the flavor. Kesaran pasaran is delicious! This might be the tastiest meat I’ve ever eaten!
“Master Dragon! This stew…it’s really good! Way better than it looks!” Allo said.
“Y-yeah, agreed!” Yup. I knew Allo didn’t like the looks of it. I don’t blame her either.
The three of us happily devoured the rest of our meal. After our break, I decided to talk to Allo and Treant about our plans moving forward.
Through the fight with the kesaran pasarans, Allo had gone from Lv: 1/130 to Lv: 61/130. Treant went from Lv: 66/85 to Lv: 71/85. Jeez. Allo’s level seriously skyrocketed. If she keeps this up, she might even lap Treant’s level…
Fortunately, Treant had fared much better with its levels this time around. It didn’t do a whole lot of damage in the fight, so seeing it’d gone up five whole levels was a pleasant surprise.
But…the closer Treant got to its max level, the more experience points each level would cost. At this rate, Treant wouldn’t evolve anytime soon.
‹I…I’m nothing but a disappointment…› Treant fell to its knees, lowering its wings to the ground in defeat.
“Hey, that’s not true. You’re doing really well, Treant. It’s just that your stats… Well, they aren’t really geared for leveling up quickly.” I put my hand on Treant’s shoulder.
‹Master…›
“And this time, we don’t have a whole lot of time to spend leveling you up. That’s all. Okay?”
‹Yes, I understand. I will just have to accept that I’ll be left behind this ti—›
“Which is why I’m gonna make leveling you up my top priority, and we’re going to go check out the tower in the distance.”
Treant froze. ‹M-Master?! Are you…are you trying to pull a prank on me?!› It shuddered, then leapt to its feet.
“Nope. I need to level up too, but I still have Final Evolution in my skills. I doubt I can even evolve past my current form right now. So the fastest and surest way to get us strong enough to take down the Origin Matter or other monsters here is to get you to evolve, Treant.”
‹That…may be true, but…I’m not sure I…›
“We were in the air and facing a really sturdy opponent last time, so you were at a serious disadvantage. But you were still able to gain five levels. Getting you leveled up enough to evolve isn’t out of the question. But…it’ll be dangerous. Are you prepared for that, Treant?”
Treant was silent for a moment. Then I watched as a fire lit inside its eyes, and it spread its wings wide. ‹Y-you bet I am, Master! Leave it to me! I’ll fight to evolve with everything I’ve got!›
Part 7
‹SO…I THINK the black orb and the kesaran pasarans are both remnants of a former Beast King and its servants from the past, who lost their sanity because of the Mad God spores. We might face other monsters like them here too, moving forward.›
Allo and Treant listened intently as I laid out my theory about Ngai Forest and its inhabitants. Despite worrying that it might scare them, I also explained the Mad God status condition and how it came from the tree pollen around us.
‹…There’s a pretty high chance that Allo’s resistances won’t do anything against the Mad God condition. I don’t know what the symptoms of it are or how long it’ll take before we’re infected, but from what the Divine Voice said, there should be a way out of here somehow.›
The Divine Voice seemed to be acting under the assumption that it was possible for us to return to our home world. Of course, it was also possible that it just dumped us in Ngai Forest and was trying to fool me into fighting here in the false hope I could get out. But I didn’t even want to consider that possibility. Even if it were true, I’d still fight tooth and nail to try and find a way to escape until our time was up.
‹D-do you really think there’s enough time for me to raise my level enough to evolve…?› Treant asked, worried.
‹At the very least, it’ll take you much less time to raise your level than it would for me to raise mine enough to evolve.›
I drew a simple diagram of the surrounding forest in the dirt with a claw. Where we were, I drew a basic tree and a dragon’s head. Far off in the distance, I drew the towering spire and the Origin Matter in the sky. ‹First, we need to go scout out that tower. There’s gotta be something useful for us in there. It’s the only noticeable landmark in this endless expanse of forest. We can level you up and get you evolved while we make our way to the tower, Treant.›
Treant seemed less than confident about this plan, but when I looked at it, it straightened up. ‹U-understood! I will do my best!›
‹Good. I’m counting on you. Allo and I will back you up, of course,› I added, and Allo nodded eagerly. ‹My guess is that the tower is either a way for me to raise my evolutionary ceiling, or a way to get back to our world…or both.›
“It makes sense that it might be a way to get back to our world,” Allo said, “but a way to raise your evolutionary ceiling? Isn’t that a bit far-fetched?”
I shook my head. ‹As I understand it, there should be a total of six Sacred Skills. I have four; I figure the Divine Voice must have the other two somewhere.›
Maybe the whole reason it’d created the Ngai Forest was as a safe place to store its Sacred Skills. The Divine Voice knew I was nowhere close to evolving, so it sent me to Ngai Forest to get stronger, and even showed off its Spirit Servants to motivate me. But to stand toe to toe with the most powerful Spirit Servants of all time, I needed to get more powerful than just going up twenty or thirty levels. The Divine Voice must have had some other reason for sending me here beyond getting to max level.
I’d been completely outmatched during my first clash with the Three-Headed King of Gluttony, Baal. That was about more than just levels; he had to be a whole different rank. Maybe if I had Allo and the rest of my friends supporting me, we might’ve stood a chance against him. But I doubted the Divine Voice was invested in making the others stronger.
That was why my theory was that the Divine Voice had sent me to Ngai Forest so I could evolve. That theory only backed up my belief that there were Sacred Skills here for me to take. If I simply returned to our world, I wouldn’t be strong enough to defeat the Divine Voice’s Spirit Servants.
‹If we explore the entire tower and I don’t find any way to evolve, I’m going to go after that black sphere, the Origin Matter.› I crossed out the black sphere I’d drawn in the dirt with my claw.
‹A-are you sure, Master? That was a fearsome monster. There’s no reason to pick a fight with it, is there?›
‹The Origin Matter is like me… No, it’s what’ll happen to me if I fail. I want to put it out of its misery. And if I’m not strong enough to defeat the Origin Matter by then, I sure as heck won’t be strong enough to stand a chance in our world.›
‹Th-that may be true, but we don’t have much time, do we? You said there could be other husks of monsters here with Sacred Skills… If you want to put them all out of their misery, you may be stuck here forever.›
I shook my head. ‹Nope, we don’t have much time. Which is why that’s our last resort if things don’t pan out at the tower. I think the Origin Matter might hold the key to beating the Ngai Forest’s curse.›
“The key to beating the curse…?” Allo repeated, tilting her head.
‹Yeah. Thanks to the Mad God condition, I can’t communicate with any of the monsters in this forest. So at first, I thought the only way to learn about this forest would be to scour it with a fine-toothed comb. But…I actually found out about one place where Mad God can’t reach.›
“So, if we go there, we might find someone who can tell us about the forest?”
‹It’s possible.›
“Okay, then where—”
‹Inside the Origin Matter. Its description said time doesn’t flow there, and there’s a strong seal to keep its victims trapped inside.›
When I first saw that line of the monster’s description, I thought it was a crazy characteristic. But if I used it to my advantage, there was a chance it could save us from getting the Mad God condition from Ngai Forest. The description also said escape was impossible, but if someone on the outside defeated the Origin Matter, I could only assume it would release everyone inside. It wouldn’t surprise me if Sacred Skill users in the past had had the same thought.
There was a nonzero chance that defeating the Origin Matter would release a Sacred Skill holder whom we could communicate with. That said, it was an assumption on top of an assumption, so it wasn’t a particularly dependable strategy.
‹The Origin Matter is so strong that we’ll have to go after it eventually, and I don’t even know if it actually has a Sacred Skill holder from the past inside it or not. But if we run out of other leads, trying to find it again isn’t a bad idea. Whether or not there’s someone inside it to talk to, if we defeat it, we’ll get a tasty hunk of experience points.›
Allo and Treant nodded in agreement.