Chapter 37: Strange occurrence

The forest grew quieter as Team 37 moved deeper into the Emerald Forest. The sounds of their earlier battle had already faded behind them. Only the rustling of leaves and the occasional cry of an unfamiliar bird remained.

Kael walked near the front of the group, one hand resting loosely on the hilt of his sword. His mind was still stuck on the Bloodfang Direwolves. Something about their appearance bothered him.

They should not have been here. As far as Kael remembered, Bloodfang Direwolves usually stayed much deeper inside the Emerald Forest, or also called the Blackwood Forest.

Anyway, Bloodfang Direwolves were territorial creatures and rarely wandered toward areas where first-year students were expected to operate. The expanded examination boundary could explain why they had encountered them. But it did not explain why the wolves had come this far out.

Kael glanced at the trees around them.

"This forest is starting to feel a little off."

Darius, walking a few steps ahead, looked back.

"What do you mean?"

"I’m not sure yet. I just don’t like when something behaves out of the ordinary."

Elias adjusted his bow as he walked.

"That is not exactly reassuring."

"I know," Kael replied. "I was hoping you would somehow make me feel better about it."

Elias gave him a flat look.

"You’re the one who brought it up."

"That was my mistake."

Mira looked around the forest with a slightly worried expression.

"Do you think we should turn back?"

Kael shook his head.

"No. We already left our previous campsite, and we still need a reliable water source. Going back without knowing what caused those wolves to appear won’t make us any safer."

Darius nodded.

"That makes sense."

A soft chirp came from above them.

"Qiu!"

Kael looked up.

Quinn was crawling along a thick branch directly above them. Its bluish markings gave off a faint glow beneath the leaves.

Kael raised his head.

"What did you find?"

"Qiu!"

Quinn pointed one of its legs toward the left.

Elias immediately looked in that direction.

"Did it find something?"

Quinn nodded.

Darius rested a hand on his sword.

"Is it a monster?"

Quinn shook its body.

Kael studied the spider for a moment.

"Then let’s take a look. Just don’t rush in."

The group changed direction.

They moved carefully through the trees while keeping their formation intact. Darius remained near the front while Kael stayed close behind him. Elias moved toward higher ground whenever the terrain allowed it, while Mira remained near the center with their supplies.

Quinn continued moving through the branches above them. After several minutes, they reached a small clearing.

Kael immediately noticed something unusual.

The ground had been disturbed. Several deep claw marks crossed the soil.

Darius crouched beside them.

"These aren’t from a wolf."

Kael stepped closer and examined the marks.

"Looks like a bear-type magical beast."

Darius studied the surrounding ground.

"There are tracks here too."

Mira crouched beside him.

"How old are they?"

"Not very old. Probably a few hours at most."

Elias looked around the clearing.

"So another magical beast passed through here."

Kael remained focused on the tracks. The tracks were heading in the same general direction they had come from.

Toward the outer region.

That was the part he did not like.

First, the Bloodfang Direwolves.

Now this.

Kael slowly stood.

"Let’s be a little more careful from here."

Darius looked at him.

"You think something is wrong?"

"I think we’ve seen enough weird stuff today that assuming everything is normal would be a bad idea."

Elias gave a small nod.

"Fair enough."

Mira tightened her grip on the strap of her medical bag.

Quinn suddenly stopped moving. Its legs spread across the branch as it stared toward the trees behind them.

"Qiu!"

Kael’s hand immediately moved to his sword. ℴℴ𝘮

"What is it?"

Quinn continued staring in the same direction.

Darius drew his sword.

"Did it see something?"

"I think so."

Kael slowly scanned the forest. Nothing moved. There were no glowing eyes between the trees. No rustling leaves. No obvious signs of anything nearby.

Then a branch snapped somewhere in the distance.

Everyone turned toward the sound.

Darius shifted his stance.

"Something is definitely there."

Elias raised his bow.

"Can you see it?"

"No, and that’s exactly why I don’t want to chase it,"

Darius replied.

Kael looked toward Quinn.

The white spider had already moved farther along the branch. Then it suddenly dropped. A strand of web shot through the trees and attached itself to a trunk several meters away.

Quinn pulled itself across the gap and disappeared behind the tree. A moment later, a startled screech echoed through the forest.

"Qiu!"

Kael’s expression changed.

"Let’s move."

Darius immediately rushed forward, with Kael following close behind.

They reached the tree just in time to see Quinn clinging to the trunk while something large disappeared between the trees.

Elias drew his bowstring.

"Should I take the shot?"

"No. Let it go," Kael said.

Elias lowered the bow slightly.

Kael stared into the forest.

Whatever Quinn had found was already gone.

Darius looked at him.

"Why aren’t we chasing it?"

"Because Quinn didn’t keep attacking it."

Darius understood.

"If Quinn thought it was dangerous, it would have tried to restrain it."

"Exactly. Whatever that was, it wasn’t interested in fighting us either."

Kael crouched and examined the tracks left behind.

They were relatively small. The creature was not particularly large.

"Maybe it was just checking us out."

Elias frowned.

"Magical beasts do that?" He asked.

"Some probably do. I just don’t know enough about this one to make a confident guess," Kael replied.

Kael stood and looked toward the direction the creature had fled. That was another thing bothering him. The creature had not charged them. It had not tried to defend territory. It had simply watched them from a distance.

That was different from the Bloodfang Direwolves.

Kael had no reason to chase something when he did not even know what it was.

"Let’s keep moving."

Darius sheathed his sword.

"You don’t want to investigate?"

"Not without a reason. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and chasing something we can’t even identify is a pretty good way to walk into another problem."

Elias nodded.

"I can’t argue with that."

Mira looked toward Kael.

"Then where should we go?"

Kael unfolded the map.

"We’re almost at the stream. Once we reach it, we’ll follow the water south for a while. There’s an elevated area farther ahead that should make a decent campsite."

Darius leaned over to look at the map.

"That sounds better than staying here."

"That’s the plan," Kael said.

They resumed their journey. This time, everyone was more cautious. Darius kept checking the surroundings while Elias maintained his bow in hand. Mira stayed close to the center, and Quinn continued moving through the branches above them.

Kael kept his eyes moving between the trees and the ground. He had expected the wilderness examination to be dangerous. That part was obvious.

What he had not expected was how unpredictable the forest would be. The problem wasn’t simply that stronger magical beasts were appearing.

Their behavior was strange too.

Kael had plenty of memories from this world, but memories were not the same thing as certainty. If the conditions had changed, then the information he remembered could easily become outdated.

He would have to adjust.

There was no point pretending otherwise.

After nearly half an hour, they finally heard running water.

"There it is," Kael announced.

Darius looked toward the sound.

"We’re close."

The group soon reached a narrow stream flowing between the trees. The water was clear enough that they could see the stones beneath the surface.

Mira crouched beside it and inspected the water.

"It looks clean."

Kael checked the surrounding area before nodding.

"Good. Let’s refill our containers here."

Darius began taking the empty containers from their supplies. Elias sat down on a nearby rock.

"Finally. I was starting to think you planned to make us walk until tomorrow."

Kael glanced at him.

"I was considering it."

Elias looked up immediately.

"You’re joking, right?"

Kael kept a straight face for a moment before answering.

"Obviously. I’m not that cruel."

Elias pointed at him.

"You paused way too long before saying that."

"I wanted to see how worried you’d get."

Darius laughed while Mira covered a small smile with her hand.

Elias shook his head.

"I should have known better than to trust you."

Quinn suddenly landed on Kael’s shoulder.

"Qiu."

Kael looked at the spider.

"You want some water too?"

Quinn nodded enthusiastically.

"You’re not drinking straight from the stream."

Quinn tilted its head.

"You’ll get dirty."

"Qiu?"

Kael sighed.

"Don’t look at me like that. I’m still responsible for you."

Elias laughed.

"I think you’ve officially hurt its feelings."

Kael ignored him and placed Quinn on a clean piece of cloth beside their supplies.

While the others gathered water, Kael stood near the edge of the stream and looked into the forest.

The Bloodfang Direwolves had come from deeper inside. The strange creature had been watching them. Now they had found tracks belonging to another magical beast moving toward the outer region.

One strange occurrence could be ignored. Two could still be coincidences. Three was starting to feel like a pattern. Kael folded the map and looked toward the trees.

He had no idea what was happening deeper inside the Emerald Forest. For now, there was nothing he could do about it.

He would simply have to work with what he actually knew instead of forcing his old expectations onto the situation. The forest was already telling him that things had changed.

Ignoring that would be stupid.

He just wondering if the other teams also encountered the same things.