Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

"Huh? The surrounding floating islands seem to have moved a bit."

While looking at the distant environment, Polo suddenly frowned. Most of the floating islands here drift above the sea of clouds, something Polo had anticipated.

But Polo was somewhat surprised to smell a faint trace of blood.

"Someone must have passed by there."

Polo and Leake followed the scent of blood, and in a tall bush, a wide leaf was stained with a trace of congealed brownish-red.

The further they went, the more obvious the human traces became.

"The notch on this grass stem looks like it was caused by an axe."

Leake also saw some clues from a broken grass stem.

The experience brought by [Spiral Beacon: Hunter] allowed her to accurately capture the characteristics of the notch on the grass stem.

"Moreover, this person shouldn't be Jack—if Jack is really a normal boy."

Leake rummaged through the bushes on the side and found a slight footprint in the soil.

From the shape and depth of the footprint, she reflexively analyzed some things.

"The height of an adult, and a non-human weight."

"And bloodstains, what happened here?"

Polo also looked a little puzzled. Fortunately, this person didn't hide his tracks, and his steps didn't have much pause, which seemed to indicate a strong sense of purpose.

"Should we follow this person's tracks?"

Leake and Polo exchanged glances and proceeded along the tracks left by the previous person.

In any case, in an unfamiliar forest, when you don't know where to go, following the path of those who came before is a hard choice to refuse.

As they went deeper.

Polo and Leake also noticed some unusual things. Some broken branches were scattered in the grass under their feet.

"Something's not right here. This person's footsteps seem to have split up."

Leake opened a flower disc that obscured her vision. On the ground in front, the scattered footsteps formed two directions on the crushed grass stems.

One extended towards the Giant Garden.

The other one's footsteps became a little flustered, and the direction was the opposite of the way they came. It looked like they planned to leave the Giant Garden in another direction.

"Which way to go?"

Polo stretched out his paw and gently stroked a leaf with colorful shimmering light. A rainbow light flashed across with the touch.

"Let's go inside. The magic contained in the plants deeper inside seems to be more concentrated. If we can find the seeds of the magic vine anywhere...

The probability is higher inside."

"Then let's go inside."

Leake nodded, stepping on the branches on the ground, and continued to walk into the depths of the Giant Garden.

"Hmm..."

Polo's ears twitched, and he looked around. Even during the day, due to the height, this giant forest was still shrouded in milky white mist.

Listening to the rustling of the grass and trees in the wind, large bees and butterflies flashed past, with a slight buzzing sound.

"Did I hear wrong?"

Polo raised his eyes and sniffed, but mostly only the rich scent of grass and trees filled the air, without any other human or beast smells.

"Polo, what's wrong?"

Ahead, Leake poked her head out of the grass and blinked at Polo.

"It's okay, maybe it's the influence of dreaming at night. I'm a little uneasy. I always feel like just now, there was a line of sight looking at me in the grass."

Polo replied, quickening his pace to catch up.

After Polo left, in the previous position, among the grass and trees as tall as a person, a pink flower disc suddenly shook greatly, and it rose from the ground!

Under the soil, thick green roots twisted together to form a face.

The eyes of that face glowed with magic light, like two glowing eyes, and twisted branches reached towards the footsteps on the soil, and then brushed over the brownish-red bloodstain on a leaf.

Finally, the two light spots that resembled eyes lifted up and looked in the direction where Leake and Polo left.

It didn't say a word.

The wind blew across the flower disc on its head and the leaves on its body, rustling.

The next moment, its limbs composed of roots quickly crawled up and disappeared into the swaying bushes next to it.

"The degree of destruction to the plants here has become higher."

Leake and Polo were still following the tracks of the previous person, moving forward.

On the side of the road, the top of a person-high shrub was cut off by an axe and fell to the ground. Judging from the tips of the stems and leaves, there were originally some fruits on it, but they were picked.

Next to it, there were also some fruits that didn't look ripe scattered.

Some of them looked like they had been trampled on.

"This person, also picked some plants?"

Polo thought for a while, and along the way, he could see gaps in many plants. It seemed that this unidentified person, who was being followed by himself and Leake, was still picking some things from this magic forest on the way out.

Why is he doing this?

Polo frowned, thinking of the "special products" of the Biwei Kingdom, some rare plants and fruits that can be made into special magic potions.

These plants are not available in other regions, which is unique to the Biwei Kingdom.

In this way, is this person collecting plants in order to...

Sell them under the floating island?

Does he use magic vines for this?

And Jack bought magic beans from this ax-wielding man first, so he wanted to kill him to silence him, killing Jack's mother?

Polo and Leake were thinking, but just then, Polo's ears twitched again.

Instantly looked at the bushes on the side—

This time, he heard clearly, there was indeed a discordant sound!

The next moment, a gust of dark wind shot from the bushes.

"Ding ding ding——"

A series of crisp sounds, Leake's Star Killer Sword had already been unsheathed, and the attacking shadow was cut to the ground, but it was several sharp and slender needle leaves!

"Who's there?!"

Leake shouted sharply, and the next moment, her figure had already appeared in front of the bushes where the needle leaves came from, and she swept all the plants into two pieces with her sword.

After that, it was not any wild beast——

But a spirit formed by plants!

A monster covered in sharp needle leaves. Its slender limbs were sharp and slender branches and roots. Several branches and leaves extending from its torso had been cut off by Leake, squeezing out a few drops of resin.

But its skinny figure was still fleeing backwards.

Leake's long sword swept across, cutting off part of its body again. The remaining limbs bounced in resistance, sweeping away a piece of needle leaves, but the needle leaves were unable to hurt Leake when their speed slowed down.

"What is this?!"

Leake was a little surprised, but the speed of her movements did not slow down. The sword light bounced up, and she was about to cut off the roots that the grass and wood spirit used to move.

But just then, a labor flower bud on the side suddenly opened.

A cloud of light red pollen mist burst out, forcing Leake back and obscuring the shadow of the grass spirit.

Then, the flower rose from the ground, and the branches and leaves wrapped around the grass spirit with broken roots. After a few leaps, it disappeared into the forest behind.

"What was that thing? Moving grass and flowers ambushed us?"

Leake and Polo did not hesitate and chased after them directly.

These spirits, which are no different from grass and trees, lurk and attack in such an environment. Ordinary people cannot defend against them at all.

But even frequent harassment afterwards is not a good thing.

It's better to go and see what's in the direction where these plants are fleeing——

The actions of these two spirits just now were not something that ordinary beasts could do, but rather seemed to have a certain amount of wisdom.

The magic contained in the place where such spirits can be produced is often more intense.