Ellis was once again back to his usual routine.

Despite the information he had received from Grisella, he continued to follow the river further upstream.

Some might ask, why? Why would he continue to do such fruitless effort despite the apparent lack of results?

Well, there was no particular reason for his decision. If he did have to say something, then it would be a whim. He continued his journey based on a whim. A whim driven by tiny, inconsequential curiosities.

One such curiosity was the mystery of the bygone gods. Although it did not really concern him, he felt that he should at least try to find out more, right? After all, those Gods were the same ones that killed Alma.

They were ‘dead’ now, but he knew that that wouldn’t be the case forever. Alma said it before. Gods don’t permanently die. Alma died because he had been stripped of his power as a God. The others, they died while they were Gods (at least, he assumed they did). Despite their current state, they were not truly dead.

What’s more, if he continued to follow the river, he might be able to find out more about the current God who rules this world. That guy was the mastermind behind Alma’s downfall. An immoral God like him certainly won’t stay lying down. Sooner or later, he’ll come for him. Before that, Ellis needed to prepare.

Then, there was the legend of the World Tree. Was it real? Did it really house the temple of a Bygone God? Ellis couldn’t help but be curious.

Still, all of that was for later. More importantly…

… going to the world tree… visiting the ruins of an Ancient God… doesn’t that sort of thing sound super fun? Since he was already in a fantasy world, Ellis might as well go all out and enjoy his own version of a fantasy adventure.

“But even though I said that, in truth, my real reason is purely because I’ve already invested more than five years of my life into this river,” Ellis muttered to himself with a dark expression. “I want to see the end, damn it! I don’t want my hard-work to all go to waste.”

Thinking about it all simply frustrated him. Driven by this frustration, spurred by his curiosity, and guided by his whims, Ellis moved forward with heavy steps.

“It’s kind of a half-hearted reason, but then again, this whole second life of mine has been pretty half-hearted.”

“Next time, I want to reincarnate as a house plant. Or maybe as a young scion to an evil noble household. Either way, both those things are practically the same.”

As Ellis continually muttered to himself, he kept his eyes locked onto the floor. He tried his best to ignore the dark shadow looming over him. Unfortunately, the harder he ignored, the greater the pressure.

Eventually, he broke.

Ellis begrudgingly turned around. “So, why are you following me again?”

It was Grisella.

Originally, Ellis left her cottage early in the morning. After a brief goodbye, his group disappeared into the underbrush. Ellis had watched the whole process unfold. He distinctly remembered Grisella waving at them goodbye from the comfort of her cottage.

Despite such a send-off, the moment he got to the river, the witch was already there waiting!

Grisella smiled a somewhat cheeky smile. “What’s wrong? You don’t want me here?”

“I didn’t say that, but… is it really alright to leave your place like that?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I go out on frequent trips quite often. Besides, it’s not like I left it there unguarded.”

“What do you mean?” Ellis curiously looked at her. “You have some sort of guard dog or something?”

“Nope.” Her smile widened. For the first time, Ellis noticed the broom in her hands. She raised the object out in front of her. “I brought it with me.”

“Wait, what?” He couldn’t quite comprehend what sort of nonsense this girl was saying.

As if to demonstrate, she swung the broom in the air. To his surprise, each individual straw attached to it suddenly shivered. They shook and expanded. For a moment, they formed a vague shape that greatly resembled Grisella’s old cottage.

Ellis widened his eyes. “That cottage, was it seriously a broom?”

In response, Grisella simply chuckled. At the same time, the straws immediately retracted. The solitary witch hugged the broomstick rather affectionately.

“This thing isn’t just a simple broomstick. In fact, it’s my most valuable artifact, something personally given to me by my master.”

She then explained the nature of how the broomstick worked. In short, it possessed the ability to expand and control the straws on the end of the broomstick. This did not seem to be all that amazing at first glance, but this artifact took that sort of standard ability and amplified it to the extreme.

The cottage from before, it was almost entirely made out of straw. From the thatched rooftops and ‘wooden floorboards’ to the pale-yellow furniture and moss-covered walls, all of it was straw. The different textures that mimicked wood were produced by differentiating how intricate and compact the weave of the straw was.

Recalling back to the cottage, he did remember the small wooden stick that stuck out from the rooftop. Ellis did not know it then, but that had been the broomstick.

No wonder there were no glass windows.

“It really is quite amazing.” He mildly commented.

“I know, right?” Grisella chuckled, mostly to herself.

“That still doesn’t explain things though.”

“Explain what?” She tilted her head.

“Why did you want to come with us?” Ellis looked straight into her eyes. He tried to discern her true intentions, but he did not see much of anything else except for a pair of murky green irises.

“Believe it or not, but I’ve tried to reach the world tree on a number of occasions,” Grisella replied. “Of course, all of my attempts ended in failure, but even with all my failures, I still have the urge to try again.”

“…” Ellis somewhat sympathized with her actions. In a sense, she was a lot like him. After trying for so long, quitting halfway just wouldn’t feel right.

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Grisella noticed the sympathy in his eyes. She hurriedly shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m nothing like you. If I wanted to, I could stop these fruitless efforts of mine at any moment, but… the world tree, if it’s real, then there’s something precious waiting up there.”

“Precious?”

“Yes,” she nodded her head. “It comes from a legend not as widely circulated as the others, but supposedly, there’s an incredibly precious ingredient there called the Essence of the World.”

“The Essence of the World? That’s a bit of a mouthful, don’t you think?”

She ignored his senseless comment and continued. “The essence is basically just a special kind of tree sap that can only be found within a World tree. It is a miraculous ingredient, to the extent where it can even revive the dead.” A whimsical haze clouded her eyes. “It’s completely precious and invaluable. I want to acquire it.”

“Is there some important reason why you want it so bad?”

“Reason?” Grisella remained silent for a while. For a split second, a glimmer of conflict appeared on her face. A short while later, it disappeared, only to be replaced by the same cheeky smile from before. “No, not really. I’m an alchemist. Isn’t it only natural for me to want to get my hands on such a precious ingredient?”

“Well… I guess that makes sense.” He reluctantly nodded, although he wasn’t all that convinced.

Grisella ignored the doubt in his eyes. “So, will you let me go with you guys or what?”

Ellis thought about it for a moment. “Alright, if you really want to go with us, then fine. You can come along.” Even though he acted reluctantly, in truth, he was secretly pumping his fist in the air. After all, every adventure should be accompanied by a beauty.

And Grisella certainly met those requirements. If she were to dress up in a white button-up shirt and a black tube skirt, then she would look exactly like a voluptuous office boss lady. The image of Grisella in an office setting was almost identical to the girls that so often accompanied his late-night fantasies.

Of course, his past life was not adorned with beautiful women. Back then, he had nothing but a mountain of debt and a conniving snake of a boss. Well, none of that concerned him anymore.

“Thank you.” The solitary witch smiled a somewhat faint smile.

Ellis was momentarily stunned by her smile. It was a genuine smile, the type that he had only ever seen once in his past life. It had happened when he first saw a couple adopt a little girl from his old orphanage. Her smile back then was so bright, that it even affected someone as unrelated as Ellis.

In the face of such a smile, he couldn’t help but break out into a goofy grin.

Walking right alongside him, Ena saw this all transpire. A certain flare ignited with her gaze. She jumped up and angrily bit down on his hand.

“Ouch! E-Ena, what the hell are you doing?!” He shook her off and cradled his injured arm. After a few seconds, it healed back to normal. Still, he glared suspiciously at the little fox.

For the past couple of days now, Ena had been quite cranky, even more so than the usual. She acted like this a few times before, most notably whenever he played around with Wight, but ever since they got to the cottage, her mood seemingly plummeted.

Ellis had no clue why she was acting like this.

Grisella watched the two interact with one another. After a while, she couldn’t help but comment, “you two are quite close, huh?”

“For better or for worse, she’s been with me the longest.” He let out an exasperated sigh, “I was even there for her birth. At this point, she probably sees me as some sort of a father figure.”

In response to such a claim, Ena shook her head and disagreed. Naturally, Ellis ignored her.

Grisella sighed in amazement. “I still can’t believe it. To think that you’d stumble across the birth of a nine-tailed fox… what sort of dogshit luck is that!?” She was completely and utterly stumped.

“Nine-tailed fox… as expected, they really are amazing creatures, huh?”

“Amazing is an understatement. Nine-tailed foxes are considered the irregulars of irregulars,” she explained, “In this world, there are certain breeds of foxes whose strength is reflected by the number of tails that they possess. Three to five tails are considered the norm. Six to eight tailed foxes would be the irregulars. As for those with nine tails…. well, that’s considered the very pinnacle of potential for the fox species. They are mutations of a mutation.”

Grisella looked over at Ena. The little fox glared back. Ellis had somehow managed to pry his hand away from her jaw, but that was only the start of his problems. Right now, she clung to the back of his head like a spider monkey.

The solitary witch awkwardly smiled. Even without doing anything, this girl will eventually reach calamity-levels of strength.

She let out another airy sigh. For some reason, she felt defeated. After a short pause, Grisella asked, “Can she transform yet?”

“Transform?” Ellis tilted his head in confusion. Ena also turned back and tilted her head. Ena’s expression was a near perfect replica of his own.

“Some monsters can transform and take on a human form.” She explained. “Take for example a dragon. Dragons are considered to be one of the stronger species in this world. There are many variations and sub-species out there. Except for lesser-dragons, practically all of them have the potential to achieve human form. That’s part of the reason why dragons, despite being strictly monsters, are often classified under the umbrella term of demi-human.”

Ellis’s expression took an odd twist. In that case, all those guys that I killed… wasn’t that basically murder? Wait, no, I think it might be something different, but still…

Unaware of his wandering thoughts, Grisella continued, “Transforming into a human isn’t strictly considered unusual. In fact, many monster species are capable of it, especially the stronger ones, like the nine-tailed fox.” She stopped for a moment and redirected her gaze over to the wolves. “Even those that start off as regular monsters can achieve transformation too.”

At this point, Wight’s ears immediately perked up.

“Irregular monsters that attain both the necessary strength and wisdom can transform.” She let out a short cough, “Of course, this is all just hearsay. Outside of the stronger, more well-known species, it hardly ever happens. Dragons are the greatest example. They boast strong bloodlines that regular monsters just can’t compare to. Most monsters simply don’t live long enough to do so thanks to their short lifespans.”

“So, only long-lived animals can transform?” He asked.

“No, that’s not the case.” She shook her head. “Long-lived animals just have a higher chance of doing so, simply because they have more time to accumulate strength and wisdom. The main factor in play here is not age, but rather accumulation. More specifically, accumulation of strength, mana, and wisdom.”

Grisella paused for a moment, “The demi-human races that live on the western side of the continent… there’s an ongoing rumor that speaks of their origin. According to legend, they originated from beasts that had attained human form.”

“I see…” Ellis mulled over her words. After a while, he turned to the wolves. “Did you hear that, guys? If you work hard enough, then you can all become like me.”

The wolves all let out excited barks. Wight’s eyes burned with never before seen motivation. Ellis faintly smiled. Instead of just mindlessly getting stronger, these guys now had a concrete goal to strive towards.

In contrast to their excitement, Grisella let out an exasperated sigh. She shook her head, “like I said, transforming is incredibly difficult and unlikely. You can’t just do it even if you are strong. You need the necessary wisdom as well.

“Wisdom, huh?” Ellis muttered underneath his breath. Well, it should be fine. These guys have gotten pretty smart lately…

Just to be sure, he decided to introduce more board games, especially the more complicated kinds. He didn’t really know if it would help, but it was worth a shot. Besides, the wolves loved playing checkers. He was certain that they would love other games as well.

“Well, don’t worry about it.” He reassured the skeptical witch. “They’re not just strong, they’ve also been accumulating wisdom too. In fact, these guys are pretty good at checkers.”

“Checkers?” This time, it was Grisella’s turn to tilt her head.

Ellis explained the game. After about a minute or so, Grisella nodded her head in understanding. “Oh…I don’t know why you call it Checkers, but most people know that as Grids. It’s a fairly common game in the central parts of the continent. Also, I happen to be fairly good at it.”

She downplayed her statement, but in truth, Grisella had quite the confident expression on her face. Unbeknownst to him, the solitary witch actually won quite a number of local tournaments back in the day.

“Is that so?” Ellis wasn’t really all that surprised to hear that there was a fantasy counterpart to Checkers. After all, it was a simple game with simple rules. Give a monkey a rock and it might accidentally invent shotput.

“Then, since you guys are such experts, can I interest you in a round or two?” She haughtily laughed as she pulled out a checkers board from her spatial artifact.

The board was actually a flat box with a false bottom. The pieces were inside the box. They really did look almost exactly like checkers pieces, except the colors were white and blue. The only other difference was the fact that the board had more spaces.

Hmm… the format is somewhat different from what they’re familiar with, but it should be fine if it’s these guys…

Even without his approval, the wolves were more than happy to entertain Grisella. They immediately agreed. For starters, they sent out their weakest player to test the waters. In terms of checkers, the wolf known as Cinder was actually the weakest.

“…”

“…”

The end result was a completely one-sided sweep by Cinder.

On that day, a certain witch’s fragile heart broke.