Chapter 61: So sunny

The sky had been so sunny before, so full of vitality, vigor, and strength. Ever since my feet first walked the earth, ever since I first pushed open the restaurant's doors, the sky had been thus. Now that I looked up at it, it didn't smile at me anymore. When I gazed up at it, at present, its blue color didn't even meet my eyes, let alone shone a smile back at me. My mind would have never dreamed of such a gray, sorrowful sky, but there it was. The weather had turned rainy. What's more, the change had been so rapid. It was drastic—you would have looked up and dived into the infinitely blue blanket high above only to witness it instantly turn to a dark shade of gray.

Right after that, my eyes would be assaulted by the raindrops, preventing me from even offering the sky a troubled, worried glance, and telling it I was here if it needed me. That sky truly had a problem. That's how it felt to me anyway. Maybe it was warning me to prepare for what was to come. In any case, I shouldn't feel so down, should I? The sky truly was sad, but wasn't it that poignant sorrow that granted back the earth some life to it?

That's water dripping from the clouds. Hey, and come to think of it, aren't I raining? That's so great. And like I observed anyhow, the most charming flower would never come to bloom if it wasn't for melancholic skies. I know these are contradicting opinions but... still, this sky might have been a bit too gloomy, if you ask me. Wouldn't the most charming flower only drown in such weather? Well, there was no use thinking about it too intensely anyway. The sky was raining, but in the end, everything else was pretty normal.

We had met with the forest's dryad. But at first, everything was a total mess. First off, we entered the inner parts of the forest. In these parts, the mana was immensely more highly concentrated. The atmosphere felt funny. Having around too great a quantity of mana meant you took way more in your system. That felt funny. It was just like breathing in too much oxygen. Naturally, as the mana was more highly concentrated in the inner area, the wonders and beauties to marvel at here were found in greater quantity.

There were tons of new kinds of flowers and animals. The flora and fauna here was phenomenal. And it was only then that I realized something—the monsters' home was indeed to be found here, just like I had been told, but this home wasn't mine. Being greatly concentrated in magical energy, more often than not, the animals here could be considered monsters. They were the very low-level kind, however. They were mindless and only wandered about the woods in search of food. Fruits, mostly. And that was the other reason this 'home' felt off. Could these guys really be considered monsters? Hardly a few of them became aggressive when they saw a person. We had to kill some, but most of them were docile enough not to attack us in the first place. That's how I decided that these guys were no roommates of mine.

Moving on, things started to look problematic and messy when the quest had been validated, saying we had actually met with the dryads, but nothing actually happened to us. Past a certain point after another hour of trudging along the road, we clearly had entered yet another 'inner area' within the inner area we were in.

In this zone, I felt more powerful presences but saw no soul was seen. It was then that the quest congratulated me for having made it this far, and presented me with another quirky paragraph supposed to describe the Player's adventures and new encounters, but the next instructions I needed to be properly guided through the quest didn't come by. That's how I started to grow nervous. Even after hours of walking deeper within the woods to who knew where no new notifications rang out. As I said, about the only thing I could feel there were a handful of presences who probably observed us.

It was then and there that the presence decided to show itself. At once, it burst out seemingly out of nowhere. As we walked onward and I nervously grumbled stuff to myself, she showed up. The dryad. I was happy. We only overheard her voice at first, but it was so beautiful. Her appearance was sudden, but when her gracious appearance was made, I marveled not only at her voice but also loveliness and charm.

She was nobly adorned by an ample kimono of white and emerald fabrics, and she spoke to us. The problem was that she basically told the two elves to scramble away from her lands. We were told off right away. She told us there was no time for 'one of the Sisters' to deal with elves at present. They were already so heavily occupied. For the weaker warriors, it might have seemed like the war was ending but it absolutely wasn't. She called us lowly elves and blamed us for being unworthy of the forest's benediction.

What kind of entrance was that, right? White-haired was speechless.

Then the negotiations part arrived. I first happily jumped at her, trying to hug her and shouting that she, at last, had come to help me. I was nonetheless brushed off to the side, with no words of agreement given to me. That's exactly when the elf's utility would show through. The dryad had demanded explanations from us. As she said, she had no time on her hands, so we had better make it quick.

Being carefree, I didn't think much about the turn of events. As he was my companion, I let the elf handle whatever discussion was required between the two. Amply bowing his head to the Dryad—that wasn't exactly a 'noble spirit' but still a very important being for the forest—and a heated argument was debated. I figured the show that dryad put on wasn't an issue at all. Dealing with the old man's quest took me a very long discussion too, after all. What I didn't know was that there really was a problem here.

The elf informed the dryad of my noble presence dropping by the forest. The man could only guess, but he said I was on a mission from another forest to visit Benelloan's guardians. Waving at him, I let him know what he said was good.

He continued and said I was to be received here consequently. The dryad sat on a tool she had brought forth. Many branches all wrapped up together, under her influence, to form a chair. Thoughtful, the dryad didn't speak right away. The information sounded plausible to her. Eventually, she said they weren't expecting any visit, however. White-haired immediately retorted that, at times of war, informally could possibly have been poorly relayed or even forgotten.

At any rate, I was a Noble Spirit, he happily boasted, so that was that. The dryad accepted the elf's point. Still, who was it that even allowed them safe passage into the 'forest's heart'? White-haired said it was pretty simple.

The Noble Spirit was accompanied by both the true descendant's soul and body—namely the elven princess, chosen of the forest and possessor of the benediction—so thanks to that, permission to enter the forest's inner core was granted. Man, I sure was glad I let him handle that.

The dryad argued about that. She said knowing the elves' party had lost the war, the eligibility to access the Dryads' Council and partake in the life of Benelloan's administration was immediately cut off. Basically, we shouldn't have been granted entrance in the forest's core.

It lasted a long time. Going back and forth like this, they totally lost me. In the elf's speech, there were incoherences. That couldn't be helped as I wasn't actually a noble spirit of some sort. Still, the elf put up a strong front, still argued, and did a great job. The dryad was serious about one point—who granted us access in?

It should have been impossible for us to enter the forest's core. My guess was that the System outsmarted these kinds of restrictions, probably, but I said nothing of it. At some point, the dryad couldn't help her passive aggressiveness from showing through. Before long, she made it clear she was confused about one particular point. So she insisted one last time. Who the heck was it that let us bypass the barrier?

If there was a breach in their security, she had to report the cause of it so that it be fixed. At her words, the elf was confused too. Wasn't it the Noble Spirit who could safely get access in? The dryad got angry, stood up, and stomped on the ground, begging White-haired to tell her where this so-called Noble Spirit even was. When I was named as the noble spirit— Ahem. The deepest frown creased her not-so-gentle face. The lady was already frustrated, but now she totally thought we were mocking them. Giving up on us. "Go back to your places. You aren't welcomed here. Now if you would excuse me."

The dryad made to leave. I then spoke. All I did was indifferently mention the quest. I told her she had to help me. And that was it. And at once, new instructions were given.

The System finally woke up. I was tasked with 'Head to the Pond of Vitality — 0/1'.

And right away, the atmosphere underwent the most abrupt change it ever had. Everyone had to take a step back. As I was still all new and fresh in the World, most of everything could surprise me. Most of everything actually did. Presently, for once, I wasn't the one shocked at all. Quite the contrary. When 'it' happened, I was perfectly calm, like I innately knew what 'it' was. As a matter of fact, I did know. 'It' was the quest.