Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Approaching Ildhena Forest

While she wasn't feeling sleepy yet, Sara did feel a certain amount of tension leave her when she knew she was truly safe. She'd take a short rest to recover her spirit, even though her physical condition was already fine. She felt a little sore, but thanks to how this world worked Regrowth had even taken care of her bruises. Mostly.

How far left, Aina?

"After crossing this zone, you will reach the first part of the forest."

The first part?

"The Ildhena forest is the largest on the continent by quite a margin. It consists of four entire zones, with the elven capital Komeron in the middle. This current zone you're in is the elven starting area with mobs from level 1 to 15. Here is where new Wanderers, and aspiring Resident Adventurers work themselves up to level 10 before stopping by Milheen, the city on the edge of the forest, to get their first class.
From there they are free proceed into the eastern side of the forest, which has mobs ranging from level 10 to 20, and leads directly into the capital. The east side is also the elves' main cultivation area. While Meerna contains the regular farmland of the kingdom, they also have an entire section of the forest for cultivating various trees, and plants to harvest for food, medicine, and other uses. It's thanks to their connection to nature that they are able to do this."

Wait, this zone contains all their farmland?

"The vast majority of it. This zone is far longer than it is wide, and wraps around much of the forest on this side. The kingdom mainly consists of the forest and its immediately surrounding zones, two of which are merely border crossings like the one you just passed through. This is the only border with a zone in between it and the forest."

Sara had a hard time wrapping her head around how big the forest must be.

"The road into Komeron leads back out on the west side, where it heads towards the ocean. The west forest is level 15-25, and is considered an important trade route as it is one of the few access points to the western seaside. It also has some troubles with bandits, as it is easier for them to operate in the west, than the east.
As for the north, and south forest zones the capital does not have gates that open in those directions. There are paths through them, but they are not well-maintained roads, as the elves do not have the resources to spare to keep all four directions equally safe, and the north, and the south are considered the two more dangerous. Travellers are advised to head out to Milheen, and travel from there if they want to go in those directions. The zones are fairly equal level-wise, with mobs from level 20 to 30, but the south is considered a little more dangerous, and annoying for similar reasons that people avoid Merwyn Forest West. The mobs tend to group up more, and there are some more difficult variants of them. The elves mostly use those zones as hunting grounds, though they rarely travel very deep."

It sounds like it would be best to hide out in the south, then.

"Quite likely."

Does Meerna stretch far enough south for me to enter the southern forest directly?

"Yes. It wraps just far enough both north, and south, to border on all three zones, if only partially."

It was lucky she had already crossed to the south side of the road. That sounded like the next step then, but she wanted to have a look at her skill list first. While she hadn't levelled up since she reached the top of Eron Hills, a lot had happened with her skills, and she'd barely glanced at it.

Her revealed passive section looked embarrassingly sparse now that four skills had joined into one. Would anyone really believe someone like her only had four passives? She felt like she had to move something from the concealed section, but what was safe, and made sense? Environmental Sense was probably okay, Solid Coat was likely fine... perhaps also Firm Grip, and Balance Up. Yeah, those four should do for now. She'd consider the matter more as she went, and set all of their revealed levels to 5 for the time being.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Chomp Lvl 4 -> 5 (5) | Rend Lvl 2 (5) | Howl Lvl Max (Max) | Sprint Lvl Max (Max) | Thorn Bind Lvl 5 -> 7 (9) |
Poison Bolt Lvl 6 (9) | Growth Lvl 5 (9) | Regrowth Lvl 3 -> 5 (9) | Rejuvenate Lvl 4 -> 5 (8) | Leech Lvl 1 (8) |
Sense Presence Lvl Max (9) | Bear Form Lvl 1 (5) | Cat Form Lvl 5 -> 7 (5) ]

[ Concealed Active: ]

[ Charge Lvl 2 | Body Slam Lvl Max | Ambush Lvl Max | Throw Lvl 1 | Strong Poison Strike Lvl 5 |
Death From Above Lvl 4 | Kick Lvl 3 | Back Attack Lvl 1 | Savage Blow Lvl 2 | Struggle (New) Lvl 1 | Leap Lvl 9 -> Max |
Roar Lvl 1 | Taunt Lvl 1 | Frost Bolt Lvl 8 | Arcane Blast Lvl 4 | Fireball Lvl 5 | Water Needle (New) Lvl 1 -> 4 |
Erase Presence Lvl 5 -> 8 | Thermal Vision Lvl 6 -> 7 | Sense Mana Lvl 2 -> 3 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Keen Senses (New) Lvl Max (15) | Environmental Sense Lvl 5 -> 6 (5) | Insulation Lvl 6 -> 7 (5) |
Firm Grip Lvl 7 -> 9 (5) | Balance Up Lvl 5 -> 6 (5) | Solid Coat Lvl 1 -> 3 (5) | Nature Element Up Lvl 5 -> 6 (8) |
Mana Manipulation Lvl 7 -> 8 (8) ]

[ Concealed Passive: ]

[ Danger Sense Lvl 9 | Trap Sense Lvl 3 -> 4 | Dig Lvl 3 | Spider Climb Lvl 8 -> Max | Spider Silk Lvl 1 -> 3 |
Paralysis Venom Lvl 1 | Cat's Feet Lvl 7 -> 9 | Air Control Lvl 5 -> 7 | Swim (New) Lvl 1 -> 5 | Dive (New) Lvl 1 |
Quick Feet (New) Lvl 1 -> 3 | Chameleon Lvl 5 -> 8 | Fire Element Up Lvl 3 | All Attributes Up (Small) Lvl 6 |
Poison Resistance Lvl 6 | Fire Resistance Lvl 2 | Skill Gain Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ General: ]

[ Identify Lvl 8 (Hidden) | Communicate: Family (Hidden) | Conceal Status Lvl Max (Hidden) ]

[ Concealed General: ]

[ Languages (Hidden): Common, Goblin | Life Magic Lvl 5 ]

[ Disabled (All Hidden): ]

[ Tough Scales | Flight | Spider Net Trap | Logging | Cleave | Chop | Bow Expertise | Woodworking | Power Shot | Glide |
Disarm Trap ]

[ Skill points: 18 ]

There. It was just a preventative measure anyway. It might never become relevant, so it didn't matter if it wasn't perfect.

She was a little surprised that her skill points seemed to have held steady. Even though she had merged a couple of times, and bought Quick Feet, she had apparently earned just as much as she had spent. Maybe she didn't need to be as shy about buying skills any longer, though she still wanted to be sure she would actually use them.

* * *

After exiting the cave, she kept going away from the direction she had come. The sun had just barely crawled above the horizon, and its gentle rays were streaming in between the trees. One of the perks of travelling from the east to the west was that she had the sun at her back, or side most of the time. Especially since so far she had slept past the second half of the day.

This little forest didn't stretch on for very long. Even with Erase Presence on for safety's sake, it only took her half an hour to reach the edge. It didn't seem particularly mob dense, but she had seen some squirrels, a large type of woodpecker, a small dirt hill with a large mole sticking its head out, and a few green snakes.

They were all in the level 10-12 range, not terribly interesting, and showed no indication they had any idea she was there. At best she could get the venom sac skill from the snakes, even though she was like 80% certain her friend had told her that grass snakes were supposed to be non-venomous. Though ravens were also not supposed to use dark magic. As far as she was aware. Maybe they just it hid it well. But the snakes were small, hard to find, and hard to hit, so she'd rather not.

With there being no real reason to hunt low-level mobs like that, she instead hopped into a tall tree overlooking the area beyond the forest. They really weren't kidding when they named it 'flatlands'. There was basically nothing in terms of elevation difference. Maybe a slight slant to the south, considering the major river weaving its way among all the fields ran in that direction. It looked like it eventually turned west into the forest, so she might be able to just follow it to her destination.

The rest was... well, it was farmland. It looked like all the forest had been cleared out in order to make fields, unless it had always been like this.

Wait, what am I thinking? The developers made it this way, so technically it has 'always' been like this. Though it's possible the elves' in-canon history says otherwise.

There were some trees left around on the borders between some of the fields, and it looked like they maintained some interspersed coppices, but this little bit she was in might be the only part of the zone you could call woodlands.

They looked to be growing quite a variety of crops. A lot of it was various grain types, of course, but there were vegetable fields as well. No fruit trees that she could see, but considering what Aina had said about them cultivating trees in the forest, those would likely be there. Out here they would probably only grow things they weren't able to get in the forest.

As for mobs, there were the domesticated ones. Sheep, and cows! She hadn't seen cows until now. They looked very normal. Almost disappointingly so, but they made her wish for burgers. And pigs... no wait, those were wild boars. The natural enemy of vegetable fields. But it looked like they had domesticated deer of some sort. That was neat.

There were wolves off in the distance too. They looked like they were only on the other side of the river, maybe due to proximity to the forest. Which was encouraging of the notion that there were more wolves in the forest.

Wait, are those scarecrows moving?

To the south there looked to be an abandoned farmhouse, and a neglected field. With moving scarecrows. Whether they were magical or mechanical she could not tell, but she absolutely had to investigate it on her way past.

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In the skies she could see the black shapes of some sort of corvid, and there were also hawks of some sort. Her lack of ornithological knowledge prevented her from narrowing it down beyond that.

The starting town was in view straight ahead. It was probably big enough to count as a city by this world's standards. It was surrounded by walls, but not so tall that she couldn't see a lot of it from her current vantage point. It really was an extremely flat land. The walls were only about four or five metres tall by her estimation. This looked to be a pretty safe area, after all. If the border fortress came under danger, they could evacuate into the forest towards the capital.

The neat thing was that the wooden walls looked more grown than built. As if it was a series of trees planted right next to each other that had intertwined into a defensive wall. While it was possible they had pulled that off, it seemed more likely they had used processed wood, and treated it with magic to strengthen it, which also produced that effect. That sounded suitably fantasy.

As for Adventurers... there weren't a whole lot of them. She could spot three that weren't just going along the roads. Granted, it was only like an hour past sunrise, and this was a starting area over three weeks past launch, so maybe this amount was about right.

She really wanted to find a respawn location inside the forest before she called it a day, so as fascinating as the view was, she should get moving. At least it shouldn't be that hard to move uninterrupted. She would prefer to not have to stealth the entire way. Though that did mean that going as a wolf was the better option, since her brown colour matched the scenery better than the blackness of the Cat Form. If she stuck close to the grain, and the edge of the zone, her odds of being discovered by someone able to stop her were slim.

She hopped down from the tree, and properly exited the woods.

[ Discovered Area: Meerna Eastern Fields. ]

First stop, the scarecrow place! It had to be a quest location, so it was doubtful she would learn much of the story, but she at least wanted to have a look.

As she ran southwards it didn't escape her notice that all of the mobs fled from her as best they could. Maybe it was because she was Sprinting, but nothing seemed to want to be anywhere near her. She passed a cow enclosure, and they all pushed as far to the other side as possible, while mooing in distress. Even though she was a predator, and all the ground mobs around here were herbivores, their reactions seemed a little excessive.

They'd probably do the same for any wolf. No need to take it personal, she told herself.

She slowed down, and activated Erase Presence as she got close to the place.

[ Discovered Area: Ilyan Farmstead. ]

It was a pretty big field. It was rectangular, so she would estimate around 30 by 50 metres. Maybe more. That something that sizeable would get abandoned was odd, so there was probably some interesting story to it.

It was hard to tell what sort of crop had been grown there, since they were quite wilted, and wouldn't react to Identify. They were probably not useful for anything in the system's eyes, so why bother marking them as an item.

[ Cursed Scarecrow (Fighter Lvl 11) HP: 52/52 ]

That one she could Identify, though. They looked pretty much like the stereotypical straw scarecrow, even with the hat, though they had two wooden legs rather than one, and claws on their hands. All of them seemed to be level 10-13, so going by game logic it was probably one of the quests they could pick up after getting their class.

Cursed, huh? That does give a clue as to what the deal here is. Actually, is curse a debuff, Aina?

"Yes, there are several curse status effects. They are all quite rare, and have various effects, but the one just called Curse cuts HP, SP, MP, and all attributes in half until cleansed."

That sounded quite nasty. The scarecrows probably weren't that kind of cursed, then.

[ Skill List ]

[ Active: ]

[ Rake Lvl 6 | Flurry Lvl 3 | Throw Lvl 3 ]

[ Passive: ]

[ Pursuit Lvl 3 | Dark Resistance Lvl 3 | Strength Up (Small) Lvl 3 | Defence Up (Small) Lvl 3 ]

They seemed like pretty simple mobs, really. A couple of basic attacks, and they could throw... something.

Hang on, why do they have those passives? Isn't this a pretty big score for me?

[ Cursed Scarecrow (Fighter Lvl 11) Defeated. ]

[ Cursed Scarecrow (Fighter Lvl 10) Defeated. ]

[ Skill Gained: Dark Resistance. ]

[ Cursed Scarecrow (Fighter Lvl 13) Defeated. ]

[ Skill Gained: Pursuit. ]

[ Rend Skill Level Up! ]

[ Cursed Scarecrow (Fighter Lvl 12) Defeated. ]

Sara went on a mini spree, and was forced to kill one more than she intended because it aggroed on her while she was fighting the third. These things clearly didn't have any thoughts about fleeing from her. Assuming they had any thoughts at all.

She went back into stealth to avoid pulling any more of them, and peeked inside the barn. Sadly the only things she could find were emptiness, neglect, and decay. The last point of interest was the farm house, so she might as well have a look inside.

Inside there was nothing. It was quite an eerie building. Run down, and there was the occasional spooky whisper that even her enhanced hearing couldn't quite make out, but there wasn't actually anything there. No ghost mobs. No treasure chests. There was a chest that she couldn't interact with, which meant it was probably related to the quest of this place. And she found what looked like a journal, but it was written in a language she did not understand. Presumably elven.

If there was anything else, she wasn't able to find it, and so she left out of the back door with a feeling of disappointment. Once outside she was distracted by a couple of new pings from Sense Presence. She glanced around the side of the house, and saw two Adventurers that had just started fighting a scarecrow on the far end of the field. Both of them were male elves of the melee type, and while she was tempted to give them one hell of a surprise, she ultimately decided against it. She had grown beyond the need to demoralise newbies. It wasn't just because she wouldn't get anything unless they were Residents, and would rather keep moving.

She Sprinted off with the house as her cover, and left the farmstead behind.

[ Discovered Area: Meerna South-Eastern Fields. ]

She was getting far enough south now that she could see the river starting to turn towards the west. It was probably about time to move closer to it, and find her approach into the forest. There were a couple of wagons heading south, presumably having started from Milheen at dawn, but she should be able to outpace them. So long as she got across the road before they reached the bridge, she would be fine.

[ Discovered Area: Meerna Southern Fields. ]

She had absolutely no problem getting there well before they reached the bridge. They were travelling slower than she had expected, and while they had probably spotted her, it wasn't like they were close enough to do anything about it. With the forest growing ever larger in front of her, she started to feel excited.

Three days to get here. Three more days until the server went into patching mode, which would apparently take another day until the Wanderers were let back in. By that time she hoped to have established herself a new base of operations, and started levelling again. 30 would be her next evolution, and then 40 should be her last.

After that a whole new life awaited her.

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