Chapter 7 – Start of Exploration

The forest was dense and luxuriant.

Sunlight was obstructed by the large trees, making it seem partially dark even during daytime.

Every now and then, sun rays could be seen flowing in through the gaps.

It was more of a jungle than a forest at this point.

Not too different from the Earth’s Amazon forest in terms of humidity.

(…It’s just trees for days, huh?)

Helian was starting to get tired with the unchanging scenary as he advanced silently.

At the beginning, he had the secret unit specialized in spy work from the 6th corps — “The Invisible Demons” — go ahead and scout for them but now with a fair distance between the two parties, he was starting to lose sight of them.

It is undoubtedly due to the forest’s mysterious illusion effect.

As such, he decided to have the secret unit conceal themselves and move close to them.

This technique — “Existence Concealment”, is a very high level one which not only conceals them from the five senses, but also hides their whole presence. Although they won’t be able to enter fighting mode immediately while in this state, that won’t be much of a problem this time around.

He hadn’t counted them as their firepower to begin with. They were acting as emergency communication personnel as well as information gathering scouts.

(At any rate, this landscape sure is showing no signs of changing.)

They had already walked for about half an hour since crossing the main gate.

However, no matter where they looked, their vision was filled with greenery, making their sense of direction not work properly.

The party was advancing towards what looked like a man-made building from the capital. That said, if it was just Helian, he probably would’ve starting walking towards a completely different direction by now.

The fact that the scenery didn’t change much also means that there’s basically no noticeable landmark. It’s surprisingly difficult going in a straight line in such a situation.

The reason why they were able to proceed without getting lost was solely due to the excellence of his subordinates.

“Doesn’t look like humans have been here at all.”

“Yes. It’s still weird, I can’t hear the forest’s voice at all.”

Eltina responded to Lieve’s mutter.

Her beautiful blonde hair shone and stood out even with what little sunlight they had.

3rd corps commander Eltina was of the race “Ancient Elf”. Her aptitude with forests is extremely high.

On top of that, as she lead the 3rd corps, which excelled in healing and support in battle, she was also an expert healer. Her extensive knowledge and skills would surely come in handy during the exploration as well.

On the other hand, Lieve of the “Managarm” race wasn’t bad with forests either. She had the highest level in all of Archimaira.

“There’s very little sign of life here. The fact that there aren’t many birds or insects either is…”

“Yeah, that’s unusual. Even my nose can’t pick up the scent of any living thing nearby.”

It was just as Lieve and Eltina had said, the party had not encountered anyone yet.

They hadn’t even come across a beast, much less an actual person.

Exactly what kind of a remote region were they sent off to?

Helian already felt like returning as he couldn’t predict what was to come. Nonetheless, it was impossible for him to return at this point. The king’s dignity would straight up wither if he were to come back after a stroll in the forest, especially considering how a whole line of guards of honor sent him off.

Besides, the king being in this expedition was by no means meaningless.

The king player has the ability to raise the stats of their subordinates who are within a 15 meter radius of him by a whole level.

And do not make light of this boost. This difference can often be a deciding factor in battles. There’s no harm in confronting such an unpredictable situation with more abilities.

Having said that, if they were to face enemies who they can’t win against without further raising the status of the already powerful and unrivaled corps commanders, then a normal human like Helian would just die off of the side-effects of the battle… but he decided not to think about that much.

He can’t keep advancing without a positive mindset—those were Helian’s honest feelings as well.

“….Mm?”

“Helian-sama.”

“This is…”

The three spoke up almost simultaneously.

As they kept walking forward, they felt the atmosphere change completely after a certain point.

Even Helian could tell as much.

After all, the dimly lit forest so far was now filled with much more sunlight.

Their vision got drastically better in just a few meters.

“Your Majesty, the forest’s illusion effect has drastically weakened.”

Hearing Eltina’s report, Helian got to thinking.

“…Is this one section outside the range of the illusion effect? Perhaps this is the border of it and it’s just a normal forest from here on?”

He would love for it to be the latter.

He didn’t want a second more of advancing with that little vision.

The former wouldn’t be that bad either.

At the very least, they would be able to take a breather here.

An indoor guy like him could only bear 30 minutes of walking outside. Not to mention it was through a forest with no pavement and while on high alert. He was already fatigued.

…In the game, the players didn’t have a stamina status and could keep on walking forever but he decided not ponder on that much either.

“——Helian-sama.”

Lieve turned to face a different direction, as if she had just realized something.

Her nose was also twitching a bit. Wolf beastfolk like her can easily sense invisible enemies and track them down. It would appear she caught on to something with her sense of smell.

And without a moment’s delay, Helian opened up the “Map” from the “Tactical Window”. On the half-transparent map which projected in front of him, the surrounding area was displayed.

And on the right side of the map… some distance off to the east, a light popped up.

(A white light… a neutral unit, eh?)

The reason why this white light popped up on the map was because Lieve had already caught on to its presence.

If she hadn’t caught on to it, it wouldn’t have appeared on the map.

As she spotted it while being within 15 meters of the player, it was shared with the player through “Data Sharing” and was visible on the map.

While there is a limit to the information that can be visible on a map, it’s still a great advantage in terms of positional strategies.

And this white light was travelling at a fairly high speed. That too straight towards tehm.

His face instantly turned grim. It seems detection was mutual.

“…It’s coming.”

“Yes.”

Lieve equipped her gauntlet.

Despite looking light, it packed a dreadful amount of offensive power and was one of the ultimate armanents — “Crimson Moonfang”.

On the other hand, her protective gear was your normal expedition gear and didn’t stand out much.

Eltina also equipped her weapon, “Staff of Hermes”, which gave off a golden shine.

While it lacked in offensive power when compared to other weapons of its calibre, there were next to no other weapon which rivaled it in support and healing.

Lieve, who was specialized in duels and Eltina, who was the pinnacle of all supports.

Helian would like to believe that these two can deal with any threats but this was their first contact after being transported. Whether he likes it or not, he couldn’t help but feel nervous.

The white light kept getting closer. It was less than 15 meters away at this point. It was just beyond the large tree’s hummock. And after a few seconds, it finally appeared.

“Grrrrrr..!”

Tearing up the groves in its path, it appeared—a huge wolf.

It was over 5 meters tall and had grey fur. It had big, sharp fangs coming out of its mouth and its eyes were glowing red like that of a ferocious animal. It looked like a scaled up version of a jungle lord which appeared in a movie long ago.

It could gulp up a person in one bite.

(And this is our first contact?!)

He had seen countless monsters like this in the game. In fact, he even has dragons over dozens of meter in height as his subordinate. Not only that, he also has giants under him.

However, the one in front of them right now had a different presence.

The wind carried over the wild beast’s scent.

Orderly yet rough breathing.

Its red eyes showed clear signs of hostility towards them.

And so it took a step forward, looking for a chance to leap at them.

It moved as if to wait for the perfect chance.

All these movements and behavior that was absent in the game stroke fear and an overwhelming sense of realism on to Helian’s brain.

The white light on his map turned red. That’s ‘cause they deemed it hostile at that point. The red light indicates an enemy.

Enemy.

An enemy which was aiming to kill and feast on them.

The reality of that fact made Helian’s knees weak.

“Li—”

Just when he was about to call his trustee aide to cling on her—an overwhelming pressure went from his side towards the crazed beast.

The beast jumped up on spot before squealing and turned to retreat. And just like that, it turned tail and ran away.

…It had lost all will to fight.

“A small fry. I just gave off my bloodlust and it understood that it can’t oppose us.”

Lieve spoke up as if nothing had happened.

It would appear his trusted aide was someone of the calibre to call that beast a small fry.

…No, if he just thought about it calmly, it was clear as day. His first subordinate who he personally raised was obviously stronger than these monsters who lurked around the forest.

While it was only obvious, it still felt weird seeing a normal human sized being like Lieve being overwhelmingly stronger than that huge beast.

Him feeling like this was also due to how incomprehensibly realistic all of it was.

And while he racked his brains, thinking he was still confused about something, Eltina caught on to something this time. Her long sharp elf ears moved restlessly.

(Tactical window: reopen. Select: map.)

He displayed the map again with brain control.

With Eltina sharing data this time around, something popped up on the top right side of the map… two white lights far off towards the north-east.

Both these lights were moving. The second light was about 15 meters away from the first, as if it was chasing after it. This is…

“Your Majesty.”

“There’s something, north-east of us. Two units.”

“Yes. It seems like they’re moving together and not towards us.”

“…It can also be taken as the first one being chased by the second.”

As he said that, Eltina’s ears twitched.

“What is it? Did you hear something, Eltina?”

“…A faint scream.”

“——! We’re heading there, hurry!”

He broke off into a run, ignoring his fatigue altogether.

The fact that she heard a scream means that it’s a person.

Judging from the situation, the leading one is a person—the one being chased. While they had no idea about the one chasing, the two parties didn’t have a great distance between them. There was a need to hurry.

Within 5 steps of him running out, Lieve and Eltina already lined up beside him.

Of course, the difference in mobility between humans and demons is as clear as day and this is only to be expected but it was also sort of hurtful to his pride as a man since his subordinates even had to slow down for him.

(Nah, this is no time to be thinking about such trivial things! I gotta hurry!)

The white light on the map became blurry.

The outline of the white light thinned out and it felt as if the light was teleporting short distances. Similar to how bad GPS does in car navigation.

And this was due to Eltina’s hearing being affected as they were making quite a lot of noise running. Maybe because they were still far away from the target or maybe because the wind direction was off, Lieve still didn’t detect the target’s smell.

Despite leaving the previous area, their vision was still clear. It would appear that the hypothesis of that area being the boundary line for the illusion effect is more correct.

That said, this was still pretty dim for plain human eyes.

The footing was worse and he felt as if his feet sunk with every step into the leaf mold.

Not to mention it was hard walking in this dense forest as it is.

He couldn’t help but get frustrated about not being able to close the gap quick.

He still didn’t have any idea about who was being chased but as long as they’re a person, there was a chance of mutual understanding. And that would be an extremely valuable source of information under their circumstances. They couldn’t afford to let that get away or even get killed by whatever that was chasing them.

“Haa, haa, haa…! Damn, it…! Lieve!”

His breath got disheveled even before they could run 15 meters. But such was to be expected from someone in this situation given that they don’t even exercise much.

He somehow called out Lieve even while having a hard time breathing and tried to order her to go ahead—

“Understood! Please excuse me!”

—But for some reason, she misunderstood something and held Helian’s leg with her right arm and supported him on her upper-right shoulder. Helian’s left hand naturally landed on Lieve’s shoulder making it look like a princess carry.

To top it off, the roles were reversed too here.

“……”

Not to mention the fatal damage it dealt to Helian’s pride as a man, he also had a lot to say about this. But on the other hand, their speed certainly raised by a great margin too.

They were now moving multiple times faster than before—so much so that he could feel the wind pressure on his body as they steadily closed the gap between the target.

As he looked at the map again in this situation, he spotted that the movement of the target had yet again become clear.

Possibly because they entered Lieve’s detection range or Eltina’s hearing had gotten better or maybe simply because they were much closer now.

They weren’t far off anymore.

It would probably be just on the other side of this cliff.

Just when the crossed the cliff, their vision broadened and they spotted a human figure in the distance—and a beast chasing after it.

The distance between those two were only a few meters at this point.

They had not a moment to lose.

The words came out before he could even think.

“Eltina! ‘Stop’ the ‘pursuing beast’!”

He used the keywords on the spur of the moment.

That said, it still would be effective as an order.

And her answer was in the form of magic.

A wind blade went flying straight ahead, without the need of any incantations. Her magic prioritized speed more than power. The blade landed directly in between the two parties and the pursuer jumped back in surprise.

It was right about to close in on the person.

This time, with incantations, 13 more wind blades formed and went flying towards the middle of the two, enlarging the distance between them.

And that’s when they had finally gotten close enough to make out the figure of the party that was being chased.

He could tell just from the outline, it was in fact a person. There was no doubt. They had a robe on and so their face wasn’t visible but from their body stature, it looked like a normal person, on the smaller side. Not to be confused with a dwarf.

He or she had also caught on to them.

It looked like they were surprised seeing the wind blade as well.

And the pursuer was a magical beast, as expected.

A black dog-type beast. Unlike the large wolf just a while ago, this one’s size was more standard.

It looked like a Doberman. However, it’s eyes were bloodshot and it had red vein lines popping out.

It was clearly a magical beast, one they hadn’t seen before. They couldn’t measure the risk it posed just yet.

“Lieve, let me down!”

She let go and Helian landed on his feet.

He shaved the ground for about 2 meters before coming to a stop as he was let down with the same momentum.

That’s when he felt glad being changed into such sturdy gear, seeing how much the sole got whittled off from the impact. He probably would’ve sprained his ankle with his normal shoes.

Lieve, who had let go, leaped in front of him to properly stop him.

It seemed like she rushed to protect him as she wouldn’t leave his side. As such, he could only use Eltina freely. He also had the secret unit but they were only there to record the events and for emergency communication. He didn’t want to bring them out in the open. Considering that, his options were limited.

His thoughts accelerated.

He had no time to leisurely go about this. No time to wait and see. On top of that, he had no info on the enemy. He would like to assume that this beast is weaker than the wild wolf before but size doesn’t really matter that much in Tactics Chronicle.

For now, he decided on prioritizing the rescue and using magic to restrain the beast.

“Eltina! Use your wind blades to keep the beast in check! Don’t let it get close!”

“O Wind, form a blade and run forth—”Wind Edge”.”

And with a complete incantation the third time, the wind blades were let loose yet again.

This time, there were a total of 30 wind blades going towards it.

Although this was a magic more focused on quick firing, it was enough to restrain the beast.

And now, he could observe the enemy’s reaction and form a—

“…Hmm?”

—But he didn’t even need to do so.

With 30 whole blades of wind in front of it, the beast had nowhere to run and turned to pieces without being able to resist.

Within moments, dozens of meat chunks of the beast fell on the ground.

“…Eh, it’s over?”

He didn’t let his guard down considering how it could also be an undead but the clunks of meat showed no sign of moving.

It would appear that did the trick.

As it happened so quick, he couldn’t help but feel a bit dumbfounded.

“A-a high level wind magic….? Eh.. but, without a catalyst… how in the…”

An unfamiliar voice.

The voice had a young feeling to it.

As he looked towards it, he found a girl looking as dumbfounded as he was.

Although the reason behind her shock differed.

“So it was a girl, eh?”

Hearing Helian’s voice, the girl turned to face him. Her movement made her hood come off, revealing her face.

Light-complexioned skin. A Western-looking face. But the most characteristic trait of them all were the long ears. That race is—

“Elf, huh?”

She was of the same race as Eltina.