Academy hunting ground, Demon’s Forest.

It was early in the morning, before the morning dew had even gathered.

‘Crash, crumble, crumble.’

The sound that broke the silence of the quiet demon forest was spreading quietly.

It was the sound of a girl running through the forest of demons and running inside.

Green ponytails and emerald eyes.

And two long pointed ears.

She was the only elf in the academy that anyone could recognize at a glance.

It was the figure of Xian Rudflicka, the senior in the 4th year of the archery club.

With a bow in one hand and a quiver tied behind his back.

She was moving quickly into the depths of the forest, as if she were running toward a set destination.

“Kieek!”

In the meantime, he stopped for a moment at the sound of a monster to his right.

Three arrows had already shrunk from her quiver draped across her back.

Before the battle even started, her bowstring was already drawn.

“Keeek!”

“Kieek, Keek!”

Two goblins came into Cyan Rudflicka’s field of vision at once.

And a skirmisher who must be hiding in the bush and thinking of ambush him.

Her bowstring snapped once to kill a total of three goblins.

The arrows, which flew in three directions at the same time, drew a beautiful parabola in the forest.

“In the middle of the day… .”

“Kek… !!”

Two goblins who died before they even attempted to attack Cian, having their throats pierced.

“… Gehehehehe!!”

And even the last one that tried to ambush her in the bush.

If you put your mind to it, it was the archery chief’s arrow that could kill an Owl Bear or even an Orc Lord.

An arrow with minimal magic power was enough to deal with a low-level monster like a goblin.

As if he had done the obvious thing, Xian calmly approached the corpses and retrieved the arrows he had used for hunting.

‘F*ck.’

An arrow was pulled out of the goblin with a few drops of blood.

‘F*ck.’

After retrieving the second arrow. Finally, while recovering the arrow stuck in the skirmisher’s chest.

‘Kwajik!’

One bushel arrow shaft, which had been reused several times and failed to overcome the load, broke in two with a pitiful bursting sound.

“… Now there are only four left.”

Although it was her characteristic that her emotions did not show on her face.

Sian’s voice, which he muttered involuntarily, was permeated with regret.

It was a voice regretting that the apparently expendable arrows were no longer available.

Because, she was in a situation where she couldn’t get new spare parts equal to the number of broken arrows.

It was because of the arrow she was using that Xian had been visiting the Demon Forest alone since dawn.

Right before the hunting festival started, I had to replenish the archery’s consumables, arrows, so I had to find the best Hagi tree material to use.

Elves were a race that had lived in the forest for a very long time.

Of course, not all elves lived only in the forest of the World Tree, and there were occasional cases where some elves were raised by other races from childhood.

Still, it was a common case that most elves were born and raised in the forest of the World Tree.

Even if it was an elf born in a place other than the world tree forest, it was a common custom to enshrine the body in the world tree forest at the end.

Most of the members of the species lived in the forest long enough to be many times as long as humans.

As a result, elves naturally became a race capable of self-sufficiency.

Grow your own food with your own hands, and make your own place to lie down with your own hands.

Carving even the tools to be used with one’s own hands was the normal way of life for elves.

Among them, the clown arrow used by Xian was included.

Although the iron part of the arrowhead could not be made by hand, he had to use a crafted object.

At least the arrow shaft that forms the body of the arrow and the arrow feathers for stabilization have all been made by her own hands until now.

Because she was an elf, she had this habit, but because she was an elf, it was also a duty she had to do.

The shaft of an ordinary arrow could not withstand the force and crumbled the moment Xian’s high-density magic entered it.

There were also times when arrows made of bush clover made by other people’s hands also caused her magic and repulsive action.

It was a fate that Sian Rudflicka, who would later be called the Shrine, had to endure.

In order to generate maximum efficiency from the power of each shot, she had to carve the arrow shafts one by one with her own hands.

Whether Xian liked it or not, the shaft of the arrow he was going to use passed through her hands.

If you’re an archery club student, when you hear that you’re told to make your own arrows, nine out of ten will think it’s such a tedious and cumbersome task that you’ll put on a tired expression.

For Xian, who spends everything leisurely, sharpening an arrow shaft was not much different from his hobby.

Besides, thanks to the dexterity she had perfected not too long ago, she was able to hand a wand made from World Tree material to the man she cared about.

Every time he saw him using his gift to the fullest whenever he went out on a trial or hunting, Xian secretly smiled.

It was like seeing the wand of the World Tree that Conrad always carried around, as if he was always by his side.

Even for him, she had to find the Hagi tree material in the forest of Ima.

He had to play an active part for the unseemly reason of running out of arrows at the upcoming hunting festival.

It was Xian who was more disturbed by the recent increase in relationship.

Even more so, it was impossible to engage in activities with him with a half-hearted mindset.

With that thought in her heart, 30 minutes after she started exploring the Demon Forest.

“Ah, I found it.”

Xian muttered calmly as if he was happy to find the bush clover he was looking for.

As soon as he faced the material he had been hoping to meet so much, he blindly broke branches to secure the material.

She grabbed the bush clover bush with her hand and channeled her magic power through the branch.

It was the final step to confirm whether this material could really withstand its own magical power.

‘Passeuk.’

‘Pajik, pak.’

Contrary to Xian’s expectations, the bush clover could not withstand her magical power and crumbled too easily.

“Again… .”

At the thought of facing a rotten clover bush that might have been several times already.

Xi’an’s mood, which had been happy for a moment, became depressed again.

Even though he has been wandering around the forest of demons every dawn for three days, looking for clover bushes.

All the materials they encountered were bound to break and crumble when they reacted to their magic power.

Even though I deliberately came in much deeper than usual, only this kind of thing remained.

“ha… .”

It was at this moment that the thought of how deep she would have to go in order to find a decent subject matter crossed her mind.

‘… Uh-jik.’

“… … ?!”

Suddenly, an unsettling sound came from somewhere.

The sound effect, like a thick tree trunk breaking, shifted Xi’an’s attention at once.

There are two main reasons why tree trunks usually break in these forests.

One was when an old rotten tree failed to overcome the years and fell down.

The other was forcibly broken by a monster with superpowers.

Of the two possibilities, she couldn’t help thinking of the latter, so she was ready for battle at any moment.

‘… Awesome’

‘There are four arrows left.’

When the thickness of the tree trunk was estimated by sound, I felt the weight of at least ten years.

It meant that the opposing monster that could break such a thick trunk also had that much strength.

It could have been an Owlbear, or a High Orc.

Maybe it was the Big Wild Hog.

I had to be ready to fight whenever any monster appeared.

She took out two arrows from her quiver first, then quietly drew the bowstring.

‘If it’s a High Orc, one shot, if it’s an Owl Bear, two shots are enough.’

‘If it’s a Big Wild Hog, I might have to use all fours.’

If you use up all four arrows in a forest this deep, the way back won’t be safe.

She was a bit nervous and hoped that the monster that would appear would be a high orc or an owl bear.

‘… Woojijijik!!’

A tree leaned to the left beyond where Xi’an could see.

The sound that tickled my ears little by little grew louder and awakened the quiet forest.

Naturally, her tension was also at its peak.

‘thud!!!’

“… … .”

‘… … ?’

“… … .”

Except for the sound of a large tree falling

I couldn’t feel any monster’s appearance, cry, or even a sign.

‘What?’

Sensing something strange, Xian slowly returned the bowstring he had drawn.

In order to check the other possibility, she moved towards the fallen tree trunk.

As soon as she checked the cross section of the fallen tree trunk, she wiped her chest in relief.

“… Why is it rotting and collapsing at the right moment?”

It was the moment when it was confirmed that among the two causes of trees falling in the forest, it was not caused by monsters.

Sian was relieved a little and prepared to go back in a hurry.

“… … yes?”

In the cross section of the tree’s rotting trunk, she could see something odd.

“I don’t think it’s normal to be rotten… .”

The cross-section of a tree that was naturally rotted and damaged was often dark brown or dark brown.

The cross section of the tree trunk that appeared in front of Xian’s eyes seemed far away from that.

She found a sense of incongruity in the tree trunk, which had turned black as if it had been painted with black paint on purpose.

I think I’ve seen a tree rot like this once before.

A scene suddenly entered Xian’s head as he recalled the past, which seemed to be a relatively recent memory.

“… ah.”

yes, just once.

Xian had only once encountered a rotten tree with this shape and color in his hometown, the World Tree Forest.

A rotten section of the old World Tree that Conrad knocked down while visiting his hometown.

It was surprisingly similar to the disturbing black magic power that I checked there.

Even the unsettling aura that I felt when I first saw the dark magic was transmitted the same way.

It didn’t take long for doubt to turn to conviction.

“no way… .”

The reason why all the clover trees in the forest of demons were so messed up that they couldn’t be used as materials.

If it was a circle caused by the dark magic seen at the trunk of this tree.

If so, this abnormal situation could also be fully explained.

“What do we do.”

If left alone, it would become the seed of a bad incident.

How to deal with such a situation was not the knowledge Xian knew.

As he had spent many years in the forest, his knowledge of dark magic and the church was not extensive.

After all, reporting to an expert in this field was the best she could do.

Among the people Xian knew, there was someone who knew how to deal with dark magic. As far as she knew, there was only one.

It wasn’t long before she became anxious and went to see Conrad.