Life Hunter

Arima and Night spent the night at the Wing's Nest.

"Good morning," the next day, Arima greeted Aria.

"Hello Arima," she replied. "I heard you were leaving today."

"Hm? Who told you that?" Arima was surprised.

Aria pointed somewhere. He followed her finger and saw Night shamelessly eating a really big and expensive looking meat. "You..."

Night turned his head to avoid Arima's look.

"Anyway, yes, I'm leaving now."

Aria nodded. "I see. Next time, I'll be sure to get stronger and beat you."

Arima blinked. "Are you some kind of battle junkie?"

She tilted her head. "What is that?"

"Nothing. You don't need to know."

"Arima, I don't think you really have the right to call someone a battle junkie," Night commented when he heard his partner's words.

Arima quickly ate his breakfast. He bid farewell to Aria and left with Night soon after. After exiting the city, he and Night resonated. Once in his draconic form, he began to stretch and crack his neck.

"Let's go."

He deployed his wings and flapped them. He instantly became a flash and flew off. He only stopped when he was four hundred meters high. His wings stopped moving too but they were producing some kind of red mist to make him stay stationary.

Arima looked around. When he was about to directly go to the Alliance's territory, he noticed something that made him frown. So instead, he headed toward another location. It was just a meadow, a few miles away from the city.

"This..." Arima looked even more perplexed.

"{What's wrong?}"

"Don't you see that?"

"{That? Isn't that just a plain meadow?}"

"Yes, it definitely is," he paused. "…and it's also the place where I summoned you."

"{Hm? So, what?}

"That's also the place we sparred." Night didn't respond this time, he waited for Arima to talk. "So now, can you explain me why it's like this?"

He looked at the ground below him. The meadow that should have been destroyed was already full of verdure. The cracks had already closed and the craters had become small hills.

"{Isn't that normal?}"

"If it's normal to you then it also means that it's normal for the other inhabitants of this world. But I studied the ecosystem of this world before. The plants and trees should grow at the same speed as my old world. That there are magic circuits or not, normal trees grow at the same speed if they are left alone. But, if you're saying that it's normal, then it means that when every time the environment is damaged in this world, it is repaired at a fast rate."

Night began to ponder seriously and the more he thought about it the more confused he became. "{Does that mean… something that should not happen is regarded as normal by the inhabitants of this world?}" He suddenly realized.

"Correct," Arima landed in the middle of the plain, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

"[Revelare Caelum et Terram] (Reveal the Sky and the Earth)."

"[Index Mundo] (World Index)."

Night was surprised. This was the first time he heard Arima chant with an actual incantation and keyword.

This was the best detection magic Arima could use. He immediately felt something was strange and concentrated his research around him.

"I knew it," Arima abruptly opened his eyes.

"{What did you find?}" Night asked in curiosity.

"I found a string of mana. That means that someone or something helped the nature here. And what surprises me is this mana's purity. No, more than pure, it's flawless. It feels like there are absolutely no impurities."

"{What? That's impossible. There is no way someone can have a completely pure mana. Even you are far from that.}"

One thing to note was that the more one's mana is pure the less it is wasted when casting magic. And to accomplish that, one needs to train his mind. Using mana means harmonizing it with the mind. When the mind harbors negative emotions, then the purity fall.

It doesn't matter if one is good or bad. But if one has things like doubt, fear, or hesitation then the quality of the mana will undoubtedly fall. And even though Arima is very proficient from that aspect, his mana is purer than anyone else but very far from perfect.

"It's a good thing that we're fused right now. You'll hold this string of mana while I'll try to analyze it."

"{Alright.}"

Arima and Night turned completely silent. The former stayed in the same position for an hour before he opened his eyes slowly, they were filled with shock. Even Night stayed silent, not even daring to talk about what they had just discovered.

Coming back to what happened, at one point of his analysis Arima detected a 'will' in the mana, which he traced. But where he was led to was absolutely unpredictable. The more he followed that lead, the more he went underground until he finally realized to what pertained this mana.

"{Unbelievable…}" Night broke the silence.

Arima took a deep breath and flew off gently, he stopped a dozen meters above the ground.

"Seriously," he muttered. "This planet is alive. That's a freaking living being. A living being that can use mana with a will. That eliminates the possibility of the planet trying to repair itself automatically," he sighed and rubbed his temples. "Let's go. If this thing finds out that I inspected him, I have no idea what it would do. I'd prefer to not be chased by the ground I'm walking on and the air I'm breathing."

Arima glanced at the ground again before dashing away.

While flying, he used Wild Spark and easily broke through the sound barrier by propelling himself with his fire magic. He reached his destination in just half of an hour.

When he landed, he separated from Night who reappeared in his original form. "Hey," he spoke just at that moment. "Why are we here?"

The only thing he could see in front of him was a huge forest with very tall trees.

"To go to the Alliance, of course."

"Then what am I looking at?" Night was confused.

"Didn't you look at the map? What you see now is the 'Great Forest'. This forest goes from one coast of the continent to another. It's also called the shield of the Alliance because the latter is located behind this fortress of trees."

"How can just a forest be the shield of a whole country?"

"I'll explain it to you in there. Change to your wolf form." Arima headed to a small path in the forest and Night did as he was told and followed him.

In there, Arima continued to walk and explained with a candy in his mouth.

"First of all, the elven town is in this forest, so the majority of the elves live here instead of the Alliance's urban areas. The elves are one of the reasons why this forest is an impregnable defense because it possesses the masters of the wild fight. The second reason is that a dryad is here."

Dryads were extremely rare. They are the manifestation of a forest's spirit. On this continent, there was only one dryad. The dryads possess incredible magic power and have the ability to use it in most places of the forest they are born from. This includes, of course, a magic barrier. Dryads always reveal themselves with the appearance of a kind and beautiful woman with pointed ears.

"And the final reason… I think you already noticed it," Arima finished by saying that.

Night nodded. "I feel countless presences in this forest but I cannot see them."

"That's treants. They are trees that became intelligent and are able to fight thanks to mana. That transformation is caused by the influence of the dryad. Their ability to fight is only around the second level. But, do you know how many of them there is?"

"…"

Arima smiled. "It is said that at least 40% of the trees in this forest are treants."

Night broke out in a cold sweat. "Doesn't that mean that there are millions of them?"

"Well, you got the figure. If I wanted to destroy all the treants here, I could. But I would be stopped by the dryad who is also protected by the elves," he shrugged. "It's almost impossible."

Night's expression fell. "Don't say 'almost'."

While they were conversing, they kept advancing until Arima suddenly stopped. "By the way, where are we?"

"...You're lost? Seriously? And why are you asking me?" Night retorted. "Rather, you should have realized you didn't know the directions before entering the forest!"

"Well, I forgot," Arima said. "Hmm, I should have used World Index to memorize the continent's map but now I can't because the treants or the dryad would feel provoked," he shrugged. "I'll have to do something quieter." He conjured a dozen of his magic birds to explore the forest.

He remained still for five minutes and then pointed in a direction. "Elven town; there."

"Finally," Night complained.

"What? It was just 5 minutes."

"Five minutes of you standing there silent and me drawing circles."

Arima laughed. "My bad."

Because they had to change of direction, they created a path for themselves with neutral magic, or psychokinesis to be exact.

"By the way, is it a good idea to barge in their country like this? I mean, you're a human."

"Oh, that. Don't worry, we already have been detected and I'm sure they're already waiting for us at an ambush point where I would only be able to obey them if I don't want to die," Arima casually replied.

"…I beg your pardon?"

"...that sounds weird coming from you."