-Druid
Even at this very moment, the pitch-dark forest was filled with mana.
Perhaps because humans had entered and were moving about, the animals of the forest were hiding somewhere without making so much as a sound, but even with only the plants, the mystical forest was radiating mana to its fullest.
I didn’t know how an ordinary person would perceive it, but to a mage’s eyes, this forest was no different from a magical space.
To a druid’s eyes, wouldn’t Neo Forest feel like a living being? Wouldn’t they regard it as a sacred existence itself?
I refined my question and spoke to Cheon Danbi again.
“I’m asking whether the forest itself had a will and invoked magic to protect itself. The truth is, while we were fighting Yashin, a pure white light suddenly rose up and everyone lost consciousness.”
At my words, Cheon Danbi’s eyes grew even wider.
“You’re asking if Neo Forest attacked the mages with a pure white light?”
“Our battle destroyed the forest in several places. Trees were suffocating and dying. So I wondered if the forest knocked us down to protect itself.”
Cheon Danbi shook her head.
“No. That’s not it. That can’t be it. Neo Forest attacking mages? That’s absurd. The forest doesn’t move in that way. Of course, Neo Forest is a sacred forest, and it’s true that it protects itself. But that isn’t how it functions.”
Cheon Danbi paused for a moment, then raised her arm and gestured around as if telling me to look at the forest.
“As you can probably feel, Mage, this forest is filled with sacred mana. With that mystical mana, it nurtures the life-forms that live within it. You might even feel as though it has a living will. But the forest isn’t a personal being. It’s an existence that lives on a different unit of time from humans. It protects itself through a self-purifying ability that works over long spans of time; it doesn’t directly activate magic and attack people.”
Cheon Danbi’s explanation seemed vague, but I understood it.
She meant that a forest that had lived for an incomparably long time compared to humans should not be thought of as some mere personal being.
I quietly nodded and sank into thought for a moment.
‘What kind of place is Neo Forest?’
In truth, this was my first time entering Neo Forest. It wasn’t in Oudin’s memories either.
Neo Forest was a forest filled with mana, but it was not a place mages drew close to.
Ancient mages might have entered the forest to replenish their mana, but that was not the way of modern mages.
Even mages from mage families that had continued since ancient times no longer did such things.
The magic currently accepted in this world was not a method of communing with nature, but of analyzing mana waves, designing magic circuits, and activating magic.
It was magic that was learned, trained, and developed.
In a word, the trend in magic had changed.
Because of that, even if Neo Forest was symbolically regarded as sacred, it was not a space for mages.
This forest was closer to a place managed by the government, where materials needed for the bio-industry were harvested.
‘Thinking of the forest anthropomorphically. I went too far.’
The question I had just asked Cheon Danbi was closer to the perspective of ancient mages.
Because Cheon Danbi was a druid, I had thought that way as well, but Cheon Danbi had instead broken the frame of my thinking.
It did not mean the forest was not a living being.
Rather, it meant that the meaning of the words “alive” had to be viewed more broadly, beyond the limitations of humanity.
“If the forest didn’t do it on its own, that means there’s someone else who caused the pure white light……”
“Probably. Someone is hiding in this forest.”
Someone who had first stopped Yashin’s destructive activities, and this time interfered with the battle between Yashin and the mages.
Now we had to find them. And also find out where Yashin had disappeared to.
“By the way, what happened to the dark mage? Did you kill him?”
Cheon Danbi asked.
“No. He disappeared. When we woke up after losing consciousness, he was gone.”
“He disappeared?”
Cheon Danbi’s eyes widened again as she looked around.
“He may still be hiding in this forest, but at least he isn’t nearby. I searched on the way here, but I couldn’t feel Yashin’s mana waves. Still, we need to be careful.”
“I see.”
“Cheon Danbi, take a careful look at the forest now. See if you can feel anything different from usual.”
I hoped she would search in a druid’s way, which was different from a mage’s.
Moreover, Cheon Danbi was someone who had often gone in and out of Neo Forest. She might notice subtle changes that I failed to detect.
“You want me to look for someone hiding in the forest, right?”
“Other than Yashin. If Yashin appears nearby, I’ll be able to notice immediately. Look for any traces left by the person who caused the pure white light.”
“Okay. I’ll focus for a moment.”
Cheon Danbi nodded, then soon settled down on the forest floor. The way she closed her eyes and concentrated made her look as though she were meditating.
It was certainly different from the way I used detection magic. As a druid, she seemed to be trying to find changes in mana waves by communing with the forest.
I watched her for a moment, then turned my gaze to Gil.
While Cheon Danbi and I had been talking, Gil had been playing with the crows.
He looked utterly carefree. Rather than my crows, it seemed more fitting to call them Gil’s crows.
“Do you talk with the crows too?”
“Ah, yes. Even without words, it feels like our meaning gets across somehow.”
Gil answered with a pleased smile.
Well, they were crows that spoke to me through sound transmission, so it seemed they would have no trouble conversing with Gil.
Like a jealous owner, I spoke to the crows.
“Why don’t you all go circle the forest now? If you see Yashin, tell me immediately. And look to see if there are any other suspicious people too.”
[You’re telling us to stop playing and get to work, right?]
[All right. Gil’s shoulder is extremely comfortable, but as you command, we shall go work.]
[We’re information crows, after all.]
[We have to bring back news of the world.]
The crows cawed and flew up.
“You can talk with the crows too, Mage, right?”
“Yes. I don’t know why, but I can.”
“I understand. Mage, you seem a little different from other mages. Should I say you don’t have prejudice……”
Gil said something that may or may not have been praise. I decided to take it as praise.
Gil looked in the direction the crows had flown, then slowly gazed around the forest. Watching closely, I saw concentric circles of mana waves spreading out from Gil.
“Gil, you can’t extend your mana right now. Other mages are searching the forest. If your mana waves are caught in their detection, it’ll announce that you’re here.”
“Ah! Right.”
Gil immediately drew his mana back in. Then he tilted his head and asked me.
“But is it all right that mana is being absorbed into me? Ever since we entered the forest, mana has been continuously absorbed.”
“Yes. That’s fine. As long as you don’t use magic.”
As expected, the forest’s mana was being absorbed into Gil at an astonishing rate. Of course, my mana was being replenished too, but it was incomparable to Gil’s.
Gil definitely possessed a trait that allowed him to commune with nature. Cheon Danbi had probably wanted to bring Gil into this forest for that reason as well.
The forest’s refined mana was helping calm the mana chaos that had arisen inside Gil’s body.
“Ah!”
At that moment, Cheon Danbi let out an exclamation and opened her eyes.
“How is it?”
“There is something. Someone was in this forest. It’s faint, but I can feel the waves. The feeling of the forest has definitely changed from before.”
“Did you find traces of a magic circuit?”
“Mm. Rather than traces of a magic circuit, it’s more like a pure white mist has spread widely through the forest. But when I try to grasp its substance, it just disperses. It melts into the forest’s energy as if it had never existed in the first place. But it was definitely there. And the forest rejoices in this mage’s presence.”
“What?”
A shallow sigh escaped me without my realizing it. I was reminded anew of the fact that Cheon Danbi was a druid.
Her cloudlike expressions left me at a loss. They were far too different from mages’ detection reports.
But from the beginning, what I had wanted from her was detection done in a way different from a mage’s. And this was simply the result.
“You’re saying something like mist is spread widely. Good. This time, let’s search together. While we search, if you feel traces of that mist, send me a signal.”
Now I had to take the clue Cheon Danbi had found and uncover it in a mage’s way.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Cheon Danbi closed her eyes again and focused. I also took a deep breath, drew out all my concentration, and deployed detection magic in detail.
If until now I had been chasing traces of magic circuits, now I examined every last small change in the mana waves.
“Now…… here……”
With her eyes still closed, Cheon Danbi reached her hand into empty air, making a gesture as if she had grabbed a handful of air and was handing it to me.
I concentrated the mana lines of my detection on that point. Then I caught something faint.
Just as Cheon Danbi had said, I felt waves like a pure white mist. When I followed the waves, they stretched far into the forest.
But they were far too faint and minute. I couldn’t catch and confine them even with mana lines. When I tried to grasp them, they dispersed smoothly.
‘These are definitely traces of the mage who caused the pure white light. The texture of the waves is the same.’
There was too little information to determine who it was. Since they were not traces in the form of a circuit, I couldn’t analyze them either.
For now, I had no choice but to remember the texture of these waves.
‘Who on earth is it?’
Just then, Cheon Danbi’s eyes flew open, and she looked at me as she spoke.
“Ah! I know. These are traces of a divine mage.”
“A divine mage?”
“Yes. I’m not certain, but that’s probably it. The traces were so faint I hadn’t recognized them, but just now, they suddenly came close for an instant. Divine mages commune with the World Tree in the same way druids do.”
Hearing that, I understood several aspects of the situation.
Why the traces of magic use had not remained in the form of circuits. And why Cheon Danbi had been able to detect the traces before I could.
“I see. A divine mage……”
Unlike ordinary mages, divine mages did not form magic circuits to deploy magic; instead, they realized magic by communing with nature and drawing out the mana waves of all things.
In their words, they moved the waves of god dwelling within nature.
“A divine mage is hiding in this forest?”
I raised my head and slowly looked around the pitch-dark forest.
Cheon Danbi and Gil also followed my lead and quietly cast their gazes into the forest.