Chapter 122: Crossing the Red Forest 1

No sooner had they crossed the edge of the forest than the atmosphere changed.

The vast, luminous plain vanished behind them.

Beneath the red trees, the morning light was filtered through thousands of scarlet leaves, giving the forest an eerie, permanent sunset hue.

Tree trunks rose on either side of the path.

Red maples.

Iron trees.

White-barked trees.

And several species Adam had never seen before.

Fortunately, contrary to what he had imagined the day before, they didn’t have to proceed directly between the trees.

A proper road cut through the forest.

Narrower than the main roads used on the plains, but well-maintained enough to allow three Windriders to travel side by side.

Adam looked around.

"I thought crossing this forest would be much more complicated." "

Lyriana, who always led the way, slowed slightly to stay alongside him.

"We entered through one of the best routes."

"The safest?"

"One of the safest and the shortest in our direction."

She gestured toward the path ahead.

"This route is regularly used by hunters, adventurers, and a few trade convoys."

Elaria added from the rear:

"Groups also patrol this part of the forest. The most dangerous monsters usually avoid the immediate vicinity of the path."

Adam gazed into the wooded depths.

"Usually?"

Lyriana smiled slightly.

"Usually."

"I love that word."

Even so, he understood their reasoning.

A forest covering almost a quarter of the kingdom obviously couldn’t be completely safe.

But they had chosen the route that minimized the risks.

The terrain was still much more difficult than the day before.

Roots.

Turns.

Stones.

Small inclines.

Passages where branches dipped low enough to force Adam to bend over.

Their speed naturally decreased.

The Windriders remained fast, but no longer had the freedom to maintain their full gallop across the plains.

Elaria stopped suddenly for a few seconds.

Adam turned around.

"Something?"

"A precaution."

She raised a hand.

The wind swirled gently around her.

A small, almost translucent figure appeared above her shoulder.

Its body seemed to be made of condensed air and faint greenish filaments.

Then Elaria placed her other hand against a tree.

A green light traveled along the trunk.

Another small shape appeared.

This one looked more like a tiny creature made of wood, leaves, and branches.

Adam watched them.

"Wind and wood?"

"Yes."

"Why these ones this time?"

Elaria pointed to the wind spirit.

"This one can detect disturbances in the air over a great distance."

Then the wood spirit.

"And this one can communicate with the vegetation around us."

Adam understood immediately.

"So they serve as scouts."

"Exactly."

Lyriana added:

"In a forest, they will often detect a dangerous group long before we do."

Adam watched the two tiny spirits move away.

One almost disappeared into thin air.

The other literally flitted from tree to tree.

"Very handy."

Elaria calmly adjusted her glasses.

"I know."

Adam smiled.

"You say that way too often."

They continued on their way.

One hour.

Then two.

No problem.

Adam even began to find the crossing surprisingly peaceful.

A few small animals appeared occasionally.

Birds with red plumage.

Small rodents.

A creature vaguely resembling a squirrel with two long tails.

Once, Adam even spotted a group of small deer among the trees.

But nothing ever came close to the road.

"Predators really avoid this place," he remarked.

Lyriana nodded.

"Many have learned that this road is dangerous for them."

"Because of the adventurers?"

"Adventurers. Hunters. Patrols."

She shrugged slightly.

"A clever enough predator eventually learns that it’s best not to attack what’s roaming around here."

Adam found this almost amusing.

So the road was relatively safe not because humans and other peoples had eliminated all dangers...

But because they had taught the local creatures that getting close was too costly.

A few minutes later...

The wind spirit returned abruptly.

It circled Elaria.

Almost simultaneously, the wood spirit emerged from the trunk of a nearby tree.

Both seemed agitated.

Elaria immediately raised a hand.

The three mounts slowed down.

Adam instinctively placed a hand near his inventory.

"What are they saying?"

Elaria remained silent for a few seconds.

Then she replied:

"Monsters ahead." "

Lyriana asked immediately:

"How many?"

"About thirty."

Adam frowned slightly.

"Powerful?"

Elaria communicated with the spirits again.

"Not particularly. There’s one stronger than the others."

Lyriana looked at the road.

"What species?"

"Red Boars."

She sighed softly.

"Very common here."

Adam remembered reading a short description of them.

Large.

Aggressive.

Resilient.

And above all...

Capable of brutally charging anything that entered their territory.

They walked a few hundred more meters.

Then Adam saw them.

A herd occupied part of the road and the surrounding undergrowth.

Their dark red coats blended almost perfectly with the fallen leaves.

" Some were barely larger than ordinary boars.

Others were almost the size of a small bull.

In the middle stood their leader.

More massive.

Two long tusks.

Red-orange streaks ran lightly across its fur.

Elaria looked at Lyriana.

Lyriana looked at her.

They both nodded.

Then they turned simultaneously to Adam.

"What?"

Lyriana replied:

"To you."

Adam blinked.

"You just decided that without consulting me?"

Elaria replied calmly:

"Yes."

"Beautiful."

Lyriana smiled.

"The leader is no higher than level twenty-five. The others are somewhere between ten and twenty."

Adam immediately activated his blessing.

"Eyes of the World."

The information appeared.

The Herd.

Variable levels.

Most are around fifteen.

A few are close to twenty.

Then there’s the leader.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Red Boar — Herd Leader

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Level: 25

Primary Ability:

Blazing Charge

Description:

Gathers fire mana around its body before charging a target at high speed.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adam looked at the others.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Red Boar

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Levels Observed:

10 to 20

Primary Ability :

Charge

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

He closed the analysis.

"You were right."

Adam got out.

He handed Lyriana the reins of his steed.

"Keep it."

"Of course."

Elaria settled down quietly on the side of the road.

Adam looked at her.

"You’re really not going to do anything?"

"We’ll intervene if necessary."

"So you’ll be watching."

"Yes."

Adam sighed.

"Selene would be proud of you."

He opened his inventory.

Two short swords appeared in his hands.

Not his preferred weapons.

He didn’t really have any yet, either.

But this was precisely the perfect opportunity to use Weapon Mastery in a real-world situation.

Adam stepped forward.

His mana remained compressed.

Which also transformed this fight into a continuation of the exercise imposed by Vespera.

Perfect.

Selene and Vespera were managing to train him even hundreds of kilometers from Valoria.

The herd leader noticed.

Adam continued.

Twenty meters.

Fifteen.

He observed his legs.

Short.

Powerful.

Excellent for producing tremendous acceleration in a straight line.

Probably much less effective for abruptly changing direction.

Don’t face the charge.

Provoke it.

He continued until the leader focused his full attention on him.

Then Adam stopped.

He opened his arms wide.

"Come."

Lyriana remained silent.

So did Elaria.

The Red Boar scratched the ground brutally.

Once.

Then again.

A red glow formed around it.

Flaming Charge.

Adam tightened his grip on both swords.

The boar moved.

The earth trembled beneath its feet.

Ten meters.

Five.

Three.

Adam still didn’t move.

Two.

About a meter away...

He pretended to shift his weight to his left.

The leader reacted immediately.

Its trajectory began to turn in that direction.

Adam moved to the right.

The monster’s retribution came too late.

Adam moved to its side and struck swiftly with both blades.

The Red Boar continued for several meters before attempting to pivot.

Adam had already changed weapons.

The two swords vanished.

A halberd appeared.

He exploited the opening left by the leader’s heavy rotation and delivered a decisive blow.

The monster collapsed.

A notification immediately appeared in the corner of his field of vision.

Adam didn’t check it.

Not now.

The rest of the herd had just reacted.

Several Red Boars charged.

"Okay."

The halberd disappeared.

A crossbow appeared.

Adam raised the weapon.

One shot.

Then another.

And another.

Thanks to Weapon Mastery, his actions flowed with almost unnatural ease.

He primarily targeted the most vulnerable points to take each opponent out of the fight as quickly as possible.

Five boars fell before the others could get close enough.

Crossbow.

Gone.

Spear.

Adam advanced to meet them this time.

The first Red Boar charged.

Adam slightly altered his trajectory and planted his spear with the monster’s own momentum.

Then he used its movement as leverage.

His body rose.

The spear vanished.

A battle axe appeared in his hands as he spun.

He landed back in the middle of the group and forced two creatures to break off their charge.

New weapon.

Two daggers.

Adam darted under the path of a third boar and struck swiftly before rolling away.

Again.

The weapons kept coming.

Sword.

Spear.

Axe.

Daggers.

Even Adam was beginning to understand what Selene was really trying to teach him with the golems.

He no longer fought with a weapon.

He chose the weapon he needed at any given moment.

A distance.

An angle.

A situation.

Then the inventory immediately gave him the right answer.

The Red Boars began to hesitate.

Their leader had fallen.

Several members of the herd had fallen as well.

Adam saw the change in their behavior even before they fled.

"Are you leaving?"

The first creatures turned around.

Adam changed again.

A bow appeared.

He fired.

Then again.

Five more monsters were stopped before the rest scattered among the trees.

Adam finally lowered his weapon.

He could have pursued them.

But there was no point.

They were no longer a threat.

And chasing after fleeing monsters in the middle of an unfamiliar forest was exactly the kind of stupidity Isadora had warned him against.

Silence returned.

Adam sheathed his bow.

Then he turned.

Lyriana and Elaria were still watching him.

Adam opened his arms slightly.

"Well?"

Lyriana calmly dismounted.

"Much better than I expected."

"That almost sounds like a compliment."

"It is."

She stepped closer.

"My favorite part was with the daggers."

Adam smiled.

"Why?"

"Because you used mobility rather than power. You didn’t try to block an animal much heavier than you."

Adam nodded.

That was precisely his intention.

Elaria then offered her opinion.

"Bow and crossbow."

Adam turned his head.

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

She adjusted her glasses.

"You didn’t use them in the same way."

Adam listened attentively.

"With the crossbow, you took advantage of the limited time available to make several simple shots at medium range."

She then indicated where Adam had finished.

"You used the bow when they were fleeing and the distance increased."

Adam smiled slightly.

"You really analyze everything."

"Yes."

"I’m starting to get used to it."