Chapter 44 Farewell

Crackle.

Dark green thorns curled and writhed beneath the flames as though they were alive.

Black scorch marks spread rapidly across their surfaces, glowing with scattered sparks.

Wood planted one foot against the ground and yanked his dagger free from the creature’s chest.

His face was cold.

And exhausted.

Several humanoid thorn creatures lay before him, their twisted bodies gradually disappearing beneath the flames.

Whatever corruption they carried seemed to affect the surrounding vegetation as well.

A wide patch of nearby grass had turned the same unnatural dark green.

Rustle…

Branches shifted overhead.

A moment later, the half-elf dropped lightly from a towering oak, longbow still in hand.

The two had just finished a difficult fight.

Five needle blights.

Each one had disguised itself as ordinary shrubbery.

Individually, they were not particularly dangerous.

Their combat strength was probably even lower than the rust monster the party had encountered several days earlier.

But this was the Misty Forest.

Thorns.

Tall grass.

Dense undergrowth.

In an environment like this, monsters capable of manipulating plants were a nightmare to deal with.

In the end, Wood had been forced to use the last few firebombs in his possession before they finally finished the battle.

And after leaving the Misty Forest’s outer region…

Needle blights were not even unusual.

They were among the more common monsters in the area.

“Young master, we should leave.”

Wood’s chest rose and fell heavily.

Even as a rogue with a class level, spending too long in the depths of the Misty Forest was exhausting.

Doing it while also having to protect Hai’an made things worse.

Hai’an understood that perfectly well.

Searching blindly for a missing companion in a place like this was no longer bravery.

It was asking to die.

Eventually, the two of them would be dragged into danger as well.

It was time to give up.

A trace of struggle passed across Hai’an’s face.

Then he nodded.

“We’ll retreat to the outer region first. After that…”

Rustle!

A sudden disturbance came from nearby.

Birds exploded out of the trees.

Small animals scattered through the undergrowth.

Wood and Hai’an both turned.

The sound had come from the direction where Xia Nan’s trail had last disappeared.

Their eyes met.

Neither needed to say anything.

They immediately ran toward it.

…

The moment the crystal-clear dewdrop entered his body, Xia Nan felt a cool, gentle current flow from his palms.

It spread through him in an instant.

For a moment, his body felt almost weightless.

As though he were floating in mist.

His overworked muscles, pushed nearly to the point of collapse, relaxed beneath that gentle current.

Then something changed.

The fibers tightened.

Strengthened.

His muscles became firmer and tougher without any conscious effort from him.

His heartbeat grew stronger.

Hot blood surged through his body, carried along by that strange cooling force.

It felt like vitality itself had been poured into him.

The lingering gray-white petrification on his fingertips crumbled into dust.

The particles scattered into the wind.

Perfectly healthy skin emerged beneath them.

Inside his right forearm, the broken bone shifted.

Corrected itself.

Rejoined.

The stabbing pain in his ribs vanished.

Even the small scratches on his calves, wounds that had already stopped bleeding and begun to scab over, disappeared as though someone had erased them.

Smooth skin remained.

At the same time, translucent text flashed across Xia Nan’s vision.

“Constitution +3”

“Feat [Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones] unlocked”

…

[Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones]

Category: Feat

Effects:

10% physical damage reduction

0.5% chance to negate incoming physical damage

Description:

After absorbing the essence of a plant from another world, your body has become tougher and gained a trace of reinforcement from the laws of the world.

Note:

“Grandfather…”

…

Xia Nan stood in the middle of the forest and stared at his right arm.

No swelling.

No pain.

No splint needed.

Perfectly healed.

His expression turned thoughtful.

The closest comparison he could think of came from his previous life.

It felt like pulling an all-nighter, working until his brain had turned to paste, then sleeping for twelve hours straight.

Every trace of exhaustion was gone.

Every ache had vanished.

His body felt light.

Energetic.

Overflowing with stamina.

Since transmigrating into this world, Xia Nan had never felt better.

[So what exactly was that thing?]

His thoughts returned to the golden dewdrop.

Everything else in that cave had carried the same strange otherworldly feeling.

The dewdrop had not.

It had felt different.

Solid.

Real.

Almost as though it was the true source of all those buildings and fragments that had appeared in this world.

And the moment Xia Nan absorbed it, the entire cave vanished like an illusion.

Now there was nothing around him but the familiar trees, bushes, and mist of the Misty Forest.

Xia Nan reached behind himself.

His fingers touched the wooden sword.

Hard.

Solid.

Still there.

He relaxed slightly.

Whatever that dewdrop had been, the outcome could hardly have been better.

His injuries were completely healed.

His Constitution had increased by three points.

He had gained a defensive feat called Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones.

And judging from the Attribute Panel, the feat was extremely useful.

On top of that, he had brought a piece of blue-rarity equipment out of the cave.

The trip had been dangerous.

But the rewards?

Enormous.

Now there was only one problem left.

Getting out of the Misty Forest alive.

[I wonder how Hai’an’s doing.]

[With Wood there, he should be fine.]

Xia Nan scanned the area, trying to determine his direction.

Rustle.

A nearby bush shook.

His hand moved instantly.

The Decapitating Longsword came free in a flash.

Xia Nan turned toward the sound, fully alert.

Then he stopped.

Hai’an.

Wood.

The tension in his shoulders eased.

“Are you two all right?”

Xia Nan looked them over as he lowered the sword.

Both were covered in bits of grass.

Their clothes carried clear signs of recent fighting.

“We’re fine. For some reason, the basilisk didn’t come after us.”

Hai’an’s silver-gray eyes stayed fixed on Xia Nan.

Concern was there.

So was confusion.

“But you…”

He trailed off.

Xia Nan followed his gaze and immediately understood.

Appearance-wise, Xia Nan looked terrible.

The back of his leather armor had been smashed apart.

Several tears ran through his trousers.

Mud covered him from head to toe.

Even his hair was dusty.

Bloodstained bandages and splints lay scattered on the ground nearby.

Anyone looking at the scene could easily believe he had just crawled out of a battlefield with severe injuries.

Yet Xia Nan himself?

Not a scratch.

His eyes were clear.

His posture steady.

His face showed no exhaustion.

He looked full of energy.

The contrast was impossible to miss.

Especially for Hai’an.

The half-elf had personally watched Xia Nan take the basilisk’s charge directly in the back.

He had seen Xia Nan use a healing potion just to stay alive long enough to run.

So naturally…

Hai’an hesitated.

“Oh…”

Xia Nan’s expression stiffened slightly.

He had only just escaped the cave.

There had been no time to hide the changes in his body, much less invent a convincing explanation.

Wood did not say anything.

But his eyes had already moved from the wooden sword on Xia Nan’s back to the completely uninjured skin visible beneath his torn clothing.

He had noticed too.

Xia Nan thought for a moment.

Then he began explaining.

Not everything.

Certain details were better left out.

The dewdrop.

The giant serpent.

Things like that could easily bring trouble.

So Xia Nan told them most of what had happened, mixing truth with carefully chosen omissions.

Unexpectedly, neither Hai’an nor Wood reacted with the shock he had imagined.

And in a display of what Xia Nan could only call professional adventurer etiquette, neither of them pressed him about the wooden sword on his back.

Wood rubbed his chin.

“You may have entered some kind of secret realm.”

Xia Nan blinked.

“A secret realm?”

The term was unfamiliar.

Wood nodded.

“You’re from the Kingdom of Servia, right?”

“I am.”

“Then you’ve probably heard the story of Twin-Feather Lyre.”

“Twin-Feather Lyre…”

Xia Nan frowned and searched through the memories left behind by his body’s previous owner.

Eventually, something surfaced.

A story from childhood.

One he had heard over and over from an old man in the village.

“You mean that legendary bard? The one who supposedly traveled all over the world and even visited other realms?”

“Exactly.”

Wood gave a small nod.

Xia Nan looked at him.

“What does that have to do with secret realms?”

Wood paused.

Then he raised his head.

“What if I told you the Abyssal Hell and Astral Heaven from the stories of Twin-Feather Lyre are real?”

Xia Nan’s expression changed slightly.

Wood continued.

“The Material Plane we live on is only one layer of space. Around it are countless other realms, large and small, each with its own scale and nature.”

“These spaces overlap. They intersect. And the barriers separating them aren’t always stable.”

“When certain conditions are met, space can undergo something similar to folding or contraction.”

Wood glanced at the pale mist drifting around them.

“For example…”

“An area with an extremely high concentration of magic.”

Xia Nan digested that.

Then he followed the logic to its obvious conclusion.

“So you’re saying the secret realm I entered formed because of the dense magic in the Misty Forest?”

“That’s right.”

Wood’s eyes flicked briefly toward the wooden sword on Xia Nan’s back.

“Naturally formed secret realms are unusual spaces. Powerful monsters often inhabit them, and precious treasures can appear inside as well.”

“There are quite a few across the continent.”

“They’re difficult to discover, and most form in dangerous wilderness regions where monsters are common, but every year you still hear stories about some lucky adventurer stumbling into one by accident.”

“Some powerful spellcasters can even use abilities strong enough to distort space and time to create secret realms of their own.”

“The smaller ones might only be the size of a warehouse.”

“As for the larger ones…”

Wood glanced upward.

The canopy hid most of the night sky.

His voice dropped.

“To a certain extent, even a divine kingdom can be considered a type of secret realm.”

Silence followed.

Xia Nan carefully compared Wood’s explanation with what he had just experienced.

The cave.

The strange transition.

The disappearance.

The foreign objects.

His brow slowly furrowed.

[Something still doesn’t fit.]

The cave resembled what Wood was describing.

But only on the surface.

At a deeper level, Xia Nan could not shake the feeling that it was fundamentally different.

Apparently, Wood had reached a similar conclusion.

“Wait.”

The rogue suddenly stepped forward.

He moved to the place where Xia Nan had first appeared, crouched, and carefully examined the footprints.

Then he stamped the ground hard.

His expression grew more confused.

“If it really was a secret realm, why couldn’t we enter it just now?”

“And if it had already closed before we arrived, then you shouldn’t have been able to come back out either.”

Wood straightened.

“More importantly, secret realms are ultimately folded spaces.”

“Under most circumstances, they can’t directly alter the surrounding terrain.”

“But all those strange buildings we saw on the way here?”

He shook his head.

“That doesn’t look like the work of a secret realm.”

The more Wood talked, the more tangled his expression became.

Xia Nan could almost imagine smoke rising from the man’s head.

Still…

He agreed.

Whatever the vanished cave had been, it might share certain features with this world’s secret realms.

But it was not the same thing.

Then, after remaining silent through the entire explanation, Hai’an finally spoke.

“Xia Nan…”

He hesitated.

“I hope you won’t take offense.”

“This kind of question is probably taboo among adventurers, but…”

The half-elf’s face was smeared with dirt and bits of grass.

Yet beneath the hesitation, Xia Nan saw something else.

Hope.

“Was there anything elven inside the cave?”

Xia Nan froze.

Then he thought back carefully.

From the moment he entered the cave…

To the tunnel.

The bones.

The serpent.

The sword.

The hidden chamber.

Everything.

He searched his memory thoroughly.

Then he slowly shook his head.

“No.”

The answer was firm.

Hai’an was quiet for a moment.

He did not look particularly disappointed.

Perhaps he had already prepared himself for that answer.

Then he lightly tapped Wood beside him.

“Now we really should leave.”

Wood nodded.

“This place isn’t safe.”

…

…

Compared with the trip into the Misty Forest, the return journey was strangely peaceful.

No dangerous monsters appeared.

Even the snakes and scorpions that had been swarming through the area earlier had thinned out considerably.

They were no longer concentrated together in unnatural numbers.

Xia Nan suspected that had something to do with the golden dewdrop.

Or perhaps the disappearance of the cave itself.

Either way, the change was obvious.

Coming in had taken two full days.

They had been forced to stop repeatedly to rest, search for their target, and fight.

Going back was much easier.

By the end of a single day, the three of them had already reached the outer edge of the Misty Forest.

Lights flickered along the distant horizon.

Rivervale Town.

Closer by, lamps glowed inside several small houses.

Hai’an visibly relaxed.

Then, unexpectedly, he stopped.

He turned toward Xia Nan.

“This time, we owe a lot to you.”

“Without your help, we probably wouldn’t have made it so far into the forest.”

Xia Nan raised an eyebrow slightly.

Hai’an continued.

“Wood and I won’t be returning to Rivervale Town.”

“We left a carriage at the post station.”

“If you ever have the chance, you’re welcome to visit Neum.”

Then he paused.

“As for Larry and Doris…”

His voice changed slightly.

The night hid most of his expression.

“Once I return to Neum, I’ll personally explain everything to their parents.”

Xia Nan had assumed the two would return to Rivervale Town with him, rest for a few days, then leave.

The sudden farewell caught him off guard.

Still, Hai’an had clearly made up his mind.

There was no reason to stop him.

Xia Nan hesitated before speaking.

“If you need anything, send me a letter.”

“I might be able to help.”

Hai’an and Wood had saved his life during the basilisk attack.

And throughout the journey, Xia Nan had faintly sensed that something difficult was happening in Hai’an’s family.

If there was anything he could reasonably do, he did not mind returning the favor.

Hai’an smiled.

Then he politely shook his head.

He reached into his clothes and pulled out a black card.

“This crystal card contains seventy gold.”

“Together with the thirty gold from before, that’s the full payment for the mission.”

Xia Nan accepted it.

Hai’an continued.

“And once I’m back in the city, I’ll start looking for a suitable combat technique instructor for you.”

“It may take a little time.”

“I’ll contact you by letter once I have something concrete.”

Night had settled fully around them.

Hai’an’s silver-gray eyes caught the faint light as he smiled and raised one hand in farewell.

Wood, standing beside him like a shadow, gave Xia Nan a small nod as well.

“May the stars illuminate your path, and may the forest bless you.”

Hai’an’s smile deepened.

“Goodbye, my friend.”