Winter Forest (1)

southwest of Helios.

Located on the opposite side of the border with the academy as the center, there is a forest twice as wide as the gloomy forest.

This place, also called ‘Winter Forest’, unlike the border area called the Witchbeast’s Forest, is rich in pure magic and retains the purity where spirits roam.

One of the core subjects, ‘Pure Magic Theory’, is mainly practiced here, and if you major in animology as an optional subject, you will learn spiritism here.

“It would be nice if it didn’t have eyes.”

If there is a downside, is it about the fact that it is winter all year round?

The sound of snow being stepped on with each step tickled my ears.

The reason I came here is nothing special, because there is no better place to practice magic.

As I endured the permeating chill and stepped into the entrance of the forest, a man guarding the area blocked my way.

“This is a no-go area.”

The man wrapped in fur clothes is the forest keeper who protects this winter forest.

Because the winter forest is a private property with an owner, the forest keeper usually blocks outsiders from entering.

It is a place where professors and students can only enter if they have permission to practice, but ironically, that is why I came here.

Because the owner here is my employer, Laniakea.

“Professor Eugene… you have a permanent visit permit.”

When I showed the permit, the forest keeper looked at me with a surprised look.

I don’t know, but it must mean that permanent permits don’t come out well.

“Are you going to find practice materials?”

“I just came to see you.”

“hahahaha. Actually, it’s a pretty forest just to look at. Permission doesn’t come out for quite a few reasons, but I guess you’re quite close with the owner.”

It’s not friendly, it’s a hired position.

Well, since it’s contractually close, it’s not wrong.

“Ah, nice to meet you. My name is Sam, the forest keeper.”

“I am Yujin Kang.”

He smiled kindly and asked for a handshake.

I wish I could stop letting him go, but he waved his hand with a smile on his face.

“If you are knowledgeable, you will be looking for ‘young vein’. Everyone who comes here is looking for something like that.”

“Nothing like that-“

“hahahaha. It must be difficult. The spirits here are strong, so it’s not easy to find your way.”

The forest keeper started talking about this and that without even asking if the area was wide.

Every time he spoke, his breath gushed out like a chimney.

“Normally, it’s normal to wander around the outskirts. The guards here are always like that. I heard that I almost died the other day after wandering around a few times? hahahaha.”

“···okay.”

“I can’t help it because the spirits are so mischievous. They are very mischievous.

“What else is that?”

Ansia is something else.

When I subconsciously asked the name I heard for the first time, the forest keeper smiled meaningfully.

Something… seems to have been touched wrong.

“You’ve asked a good question. To explain it, I have to tell you the moment I first decided to become a forest keeper.”

“Yes?”

“When was it? It was an immature time when I had just graduated from college. I moved to the first dimension to get a job at Helios…”

…There was a time when I wandered around the universe.

“So, Ensia is a child you sometimes see in this winter forest. Meeting them is like picking stars in the sky, but once you meet them, she guides you and tells you a lot.

I’ve been living here for a long time, isn’t it amazing?”

“Yes.”

“They said that they would give a flower they made themselves, called ‘Snowfield Flower’, to someone who liked it.

Isn’t that so romantic? Well, among the forest keepers, let alone snowfield flowers, I can count on one hand people who have seen them, hahahaha.”

“okay.”

“I’ve only seen Encia from afar once…”

“Let’s go.”

“Ugh… I haven’t finished the story yet…”

If I was caught like this, I thought I would miss the night, so I ignored it and walked.

‘Enciara…’

It was an interesting story, but I wasn’t particularly interested.

I was thinking of taking a seat there if I saw a suitable place after wandering around.

I didn’t even think of anything as grand as the spirit vein.

sabaksabak-

“The scenery is nice.”

It was quite tasteful because it was a winter forest covered with snow.

There was no one there, so I was trying to enjoy the quiet of the ebb and flow, but after a while, I felt a strange sensation in my head.

Whiyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Along with the strange sound of the wind, I felt something disorienting.

Perhaps this is the interference of the spirits that the forest keeper said.

“It’s nothing.”

Roughly, it was to disturb the mind with magical power, but the intensity was not that strong.

People who are not familiar with these things may get lost, but to me, who had experienced numerous mental attacks from witches, it was child’s play.

I suppressed the aura in my head at once, and walked forward with a clear mind.

Whii…

Whoo oh…

The sound of the wind was strange.

It seemed that something mixed with magical power was having a conversation, but it immediately reversed the pattern and eavesdropped on the conversation.

It wasn’t too difficult, probably because he had experience of intercepting demonic communications.

– Weird Human.

-Why aren’t you wandering around?

-Last time, the witch came in!

When I did something, it was the sound of spirits talking.

It was just a child’s chattering voice, but there was something strange in the content, so I questioned it.

“What do you mean by the Witchbeast?”

As I threw the words into the air, the voices of the spirits cut off.

Then, voices poured in from all directions like rapid-fire cannons.

– Can you hear us?

-Look at us! Interesting!

– How do you hear it?

Voices rushed into my ears.

Chattering all over the place was pretty crazy.

Like the forest keeper I met earlier, are all the things living here like this?

“It’s noisy. Talk about witchcraft.”

Let’s talk urgently, the spirits pouted as if they were pouting.

-Not funny. It’s different from Encia.

– The other day I passed by! A huge monster!

-The spirits are contaminated with demonic energy. have a hard time

The witch who passed by last time.

Perhaps it refers to the Predator I killed.

‘I thought it came out of nowhere, so it came across here.’

The winter forest is so wide that if you go around the outskirts, there are places that touch the border area.

If you go down all the way in that state, Rhodes will come out, so it made sense to jump out at that time.

“The spirits of Magi have been corrupted…”

interest arises

This is because there are no spirits on Earth, so I have never seen a spirit contaminated with demonic energy.

“Guide me there.”

-Are you going to help us?

“report.”

-Carr. strange human.

The spirits laughed and opened the way.

It feels like the messy forest has been neatly organized. The trees didn’t even move, but for some reason it seemed like I could see a path through the forest.

As I walked along the path guided by the spirits, I felt a faint demonic energy mixed in the cold air.

It must have been weeks since he killed the Predator, but the demonic spirit was still there.

It is said that he stayed here longer than expected.

“You’ve been there for at least ten days.”

For what?

No matter how much I thought about it, it was suspicious.

A middle-to-high-level monster that appeared out of nowhere in a border area where mostly low-level, at most intermediate-level, occasionally pop up.

That’s also the time when I was appointed here and the time I’m facing.

Could this be a coincidence?

There was no connection, but the question lingered as if something was stuck in my throat.

“Yes. You’re mischievous too, Laniakea.”

It was Laniakea who recommended this place for magical training.

I thought it was recommended because it was just my private property, but I never thought there would be something like this.

Somehow, he readily said he would give away his land, but it was because he had something to do.

“Is this it?”

I was just walking in the woods, but I felt a distinctly different atmosphere.

Most of the magi that hovered around was washed away, but I could feel the gloomy mana looming.

– Woo woo woo…

Sure enough, before long, strange beings roaming the air appeared.

They, resembling the ghosts of girls, were wandering in the air with their white bodies swaying.

Unlike other invisible spirits, they definitely had a shape, and their bodies were stained dark in places.

There was something like that on the white body, so it seemed like a tumor was growing.

Perhaps those are the ‘contaminated spirits’ I heard about earlier.

-Are you going to help me?

“If possible.”

– What are you going to do?

“Look.”

He drew a revolver from his holster.

A familiar weight that I felt for the first time in a while. The revolver, which looked exactly like the revolver from when he was alive, was stained with bluish flames, imbued with magical power.

Aim at the spirit, put your finger on the trigger.

Neither more nor less, I aimed precisely at the demonic energy that ate the spirit.

‘I don’t know if it will.’

Maybe it just exploded and the spirit died.

Probably would have done that with a regular revolver.

Even so, I tried it because I wanted to know how good this revolver was in terms of mana control.

If enough control is provided, the power of the bullet will be concentrated on one point and only the encroached part of the spirit will be cut out.

If not, it will probably fall apart.

“Don’t resent me too much even if I die.”

It would be better to die than to live consumed by demonic energy.

I pulled the trigger with the feeling of treatment and euthanasia.

bang!!

A roar incomparable to that of a practice revolver broke the silence of the forest.

The bullet, which flew in a dark blue trajectory, hit the spirit without error, and pierced only the encroached part and blew it away.

– Woo woo woo…

The fallen spirit fluttered and wept bitterly.

Well, it looks sick, but it doesn’t look dead.

“It works.”

The revolver had excellent controllability, concentrating the power of the bullets that were about to spread.

Thanks to this, he left the intact part and blew away the encroached part as if cutting it out.

It was a satisfactory performance.

-oh my god! I think I’m going to die!

“wait.”

The encroached ones were not one or two, and they were all looking this way as one of them suffered.

The unusual wind blowing seemed to recognize me as an enemy.

“You’re weak.”

Of course, none of them pose a threat.

He aimed the gun and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

bang! Quaang!

Each time the muzzle fired, a spirit fell to the ground.

After pulling the trigger as many as the number of spirits that appeared, there were no more spirits floating around.

“Useful.”

One performance I really like.

I put the revolver in a good mood and approached the spirits scattered on the floor.

I carefully wrapped my arms around the spirit that was flying somewhere and crying sadly.

– Don’t bully me! Bullying is bad!

“noisy.”

The spirit that opened its mouth was crushed, and I channeled my magic power to the spirit that held me.

It scans the structure of the spirit, inversely calculates its original form, and infuses it with magic power to put together the existing structure.

Since the source of all abilities is magical power, it was judged that if the structure of the magical power that makes up the spirit’s body can be grasped, it will be possible to restore it.

ugh-

Subtle phosphorescence leaked out through the cracks in her hands, and a structure that was calculated in reverse was built up.

A halo of light shone from the torn wound, and then the spirit’s body began to regenerate in an instant.

The missing part instantly regenerated, and the spirit blinked and looked this way.

“Are you okay?”

When he looked at my body, his eyes widened into half moons.

Then, as if thanking me, he embraced my arm, and before long it melted into the air and disappeared.

It seemed to have returned to its original invisible state.

“It’s nothing.”

It was a little annoying to have to imitate the pure magic of the winter forest, but it wasn’t too difficult.

On the contrary, the more I practiced it, the more I felt that my mana became more and more pure.

As I read and reproduced the spirit’s pure energy, my magical power was also affected.

As he healed all the other spirits, he felt the quality of the magic flowing through his body change.

He treated the last one and took a deep breath.

It was tiring from using a lot of mana, but the spinning circle on my chest was much more refreshing.

“Not bad.”

As the quality of magic power increases, greater power can be generated with the same amount of magic power.

Responsiveness is also improved, so the implementation of the formula is faster, and the operating power and control power are also greatly increased.

For me, it was an unexpected benefit.

If you stay here in the future, you will continue to enjoy these effects.

Sabak-

He exhaled white breath and rose from his seat.

I put my revolver in and looked at the forest that had become quiet.

“It’s quiet.”

The chattering spirits’ voices disappeared.

Did you leave because business was gone? I was trying to stick my tongue out because they weren’t affectionate, but I suddenly felt someone’s presence and turned my head.

“·······.”

Beyond the forest a little far from here.

With his back to Shimrim, which was melting white, a figure was looking this way.

‘Who is it?’

Looking at her body, she looked like a woman.

She is about the same age as Estelle.

I was wary of wanting someone, but I let my guard down at the memory that passed through my mind.

It was because he remembered what the forest keeper had said the other day.

“I didn’t know you were going to go there yourself.”

The figure in the white fur stood and looked at me, then started walking towards one side.

As I stood still, In-yeong stopped again and stared at me.

‘Am I asking you to follow me?’

Hostility is not felt.

There was no weapon, and the flow of magical power was not detected.

There was only a hint of genuinely trying to guide them somewhere.

There’s nothing wrong with following along.

The wandering magic of the spirits has also disappeared, and even if they walk again, it is not difficult to destroy them.

As soon as I got up from my seat with the intention of following along, In-young moved forward.

Toward the depths of the winter forest.

I walked out of the pure white space where there were not even footprints.