The night continued.

“So, we just follow the river and it should take us straight to the World Tree?”

“That’s what all the legends say,” Grisella answered. “of course, nothing has been verified yet. There’s a very real possibility that the World Tree doesn’t exist and the river just ends atop of a mountain or something.”

“I see… that sort of outcome would certainly be disappointing…” Ellis muttered. If such a thing were to really happen… he couldn’t help but shiver. More than six years of his life, down the drain. Just imagining it hurt his heart.

He suddenly looked up, “Incidentally, you wouldn’t happen to have a map of the forest, would you?”

She looked at him with a perturbed gaze. “This is a forbidden region. Generally, maps don’t exist for places like these. And the ones that do are all outrageously expensive…”

“Oh…” His shoulders drooped. He had been wandering this godforsaken place for so long now, that Ellis felt as if he was slipping further into insanity with each passing day. His only geographical landmark was this serpentine river. For once, he wanted to know a little bit more about the current lay of the land.

“Don’t jump to conclusions so fast.” Grisella reprimanded him. She then pulled out a glossy piece of paper with a width comparable to his entire arm. It was a map, and from the looks of things, it appeared laminated. “I drew this one out myself. One hundred years of blood, sweat, and tears. Don’t go breaking it.”

She handed him the map. Ellis carefully looked at it. At first glance, it appeared very chaotic. A wide expanse of trees. For some reason, there were random red circles dotted all over the map. He counted at least thirty. A blue vein snaked its way through the entirety of the map.

It was clearly the river. To his disappointment, the river ended prematurely.

Grisella pointed to the tip of the blue vein. “This is the furthest that I’ve traveled. Any more than that and…” She shook her head.

“…”

To be honest, the map wasn’t very helpful. He could hardly understand the contents of the map, and the parts that he did understand weren’t really all that useful.

Just as Ellis was about to return the map, Ena suddenly trotted towards them.

The little fox stared up at Grisella with half-moon shaped eyes. It was an expression that was supposed to resemble a smile, but when she did it, it looked more like a villainous sneer.

“W-what do you want?” Grisella immediately tensed. She glared at the fox with clear suspicion. She had long since concluded that this little thing did not really like her. The hostility was as clear as day, and it did not really try to hide any of it.

That’s what made this situation even weirder. Why was it smiling like that?

As Ellis watched from the sidelines, he couldn’t help but shake his head. He recognized that expression on Ena’s face. That little punk, she’s planning something again…

He let out a sigh. Should I do something? Grisella doesn’t really interact much with Ena, so things might turn out bad if this continues. Then again… After some lengthy consideration, he eventually shrugged his shoulders. Well, as long as Ena doesn’t do anything too extreme, it should be fine…

With a nod, Ellis came to a decision. For now, he would watch over the subsequent interaction.

“I’m asking you again! W-what do you want!” Grisella got up from her seat and backed away. Her guard was clearly up. In fact, her mind was spinning with all sorts of scenarios.

Unfortunately for her, Grisella's subconscious movement actually caused her to take a step closer towards Ellis.

Ena clearly noticed this. A spike of irritation blazed within her heart, but on the outside, she looked the same. An eerie, narrow-eyed smile.

“Kyu!” The little fox raised her paw and pointed it towards Grisella. Even with a language barrier, the gesture was obvious. A peace treaty.

Grisella only grew even more suspicious. What is this little devil planning? It surely isn’t anything good…

Even after racking her brain, she still couldn’t discern Ena’s true intentions. After a long bout of hesitation, she eventually agreed. Grisella shook the little paw in front of her.

Ena’s smile grew even wider. A cold shiver ran down the witch’s spine. Before she could do anything, Ena suddenly turned away from her. The little fox looked over at Ellis. She let out a single bark.

“Oh?” Ellis tilted his head. After a moment’s pause, he widened his eyes. “Ah, you’re right. The meat’s already cooked.” He scrambled towards the open flame. Ellis lifted the hulking chunk of meat away from the fire and placed it over a bed of embers.

The heat from the embers was just high enough to keep it warm but low enough to prevent any additional cooking. If this was an oven, then it would be the same as putting it on ‘low heat’.

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“Alright everyone, time to eat.” He then proceeded to portion out the meat and distribute the slices to each member of the group.

At this point, Ena walked over to him with Grisella in tow.

“You two want some too?” Ellis asked as he prepared to cut off another slice.

“Kyu!” Ena barked out in agreement, while Grisella’s face blanched.

Her mind furiously spun. The witch quickly understood her current situation. She looked at the little fox with fearful eyes. “You want me to eat that?”

“Kyu!” Ena nodded.

“That’s a bit difficult for me to do…” Poison. Hydra meat was straight up poison! This damn devil was asking her to willingly ingest poison. Was she insane?!

Ena pulled out a wooden plate from within her spatial pouch and plopped a chunk of meat onto the plate. She slid the plate over. Again, her intentions were quite clear. It was a peace offering.

Grisella felt her eyelids twitch. The smell that permeated the air only made it worse. A nutty, almost almond scent, intermixed with the familiar grease of meat. It certainly wasn’t a very bad smell. In fact, it was actually kind of good. At the very least, it was a smell that caused her stomach to rumble in hunger.

Still, no matter how good it smelled, she needed to resist! It was normal for the meat to smell so good. After all, High-value monsters generally tasted better than normal monsters. It had something to do with the increased mana concentration within their flesh. If it was any other type of meat, then she wouldn’t have hesitated. Unfortunately, Hydra meat was different. It was poison!

With an awkward smile, Grisella shook her head and declined.

Of course, Ena was not the type to take no for an answer.

She shook her butt. Her tails swayed in the air. A sharp gust of wind suddenly ripped a piece of meat off from the plate and sent it hurtling straight to Grisella’s open mouth.

The poor witch did not even have the chance to react.

Ena smiled.

Grisella’s face froze. T-this… t-this damn devil! She just fed me poison!

She instinctively wanted to spit it out, but something stopped her. An explosion of flavor. Meat juices lathered her tongue and flowed down the length of her throat. A silent shudder rocked her body. Her cheeks flushed. Before she even realized what was happening, her mouth was already chewing.

Ellis watched her fluctuating expressions with fascinated eyes. He stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth, but strangely enough, he did not feel as emotional as Grisella’s face made it out to be.

Maybe I’m getting used to the taste? He let out a soft sigh.

“So, how is it?” He asked her as he melancholically stuffed another piece of meat into his mouth.

“Hmm…” Instead of answering, she kept chewing. Her face grew redder by the second.

After a short pause, Grisella eventually responded. “It’s good… it certainly tastes good, so good, in fact, that even when my brain is telling me to spit it out, my mouth simply refuses to let go. In short, it’s delicious, but… it’s as I suspected. Hydra meat is poisonous.”

The flush on her skin reddened to the point where steam was practically exuding out of her pours. Grisella shivered uncontrollably. Cold chills bombarded every joint in her body. She did not know how these damn monsters did it, but for the normal little old her, Hydra meat was undeniably deadly.

Stars flashed through her eyes. Off to the side, she could vaguely see the little fox laughing at her misery. It was then that she understood. Ena had set her up. She purposely poisoned her.

Is this… is this really how I’m going to die?

Just as such a thought entered her mind, a wave of green suddenly washed over her.

In the midst of Grisella’s stellar performance, Ena shook her butt and waved her tails. Ephemeral green light filled the surroundings. In less than five seconds, Grisella’s flush subsided. Her shivers disappeared, while the extreme flush on her face transformed into a healthy glow.

Ena had fixed her.

Grisella unconsciously swallowed the meat. She hurriedly inspected her body. She patted down her waist, ran a finger over her skin, and even groped her breasts. Nothing had changed. There was absolutely no harm done onto her body. In fact, she felt a ball of energy coursing through the pit of her stomach.

What should have been a fatal poison was now no more. Not a single trace of it remained, except for the lingering aftertaste that still danced on her tongue.

“How did you do that?” She asked the smug looking fox.

Ena did not answer. Instead, she threw another piece of meat into Grisella’s mouth. This time, the witch did not hesitate. When the symptoms of the poison began showing, green light once again flooded her body.

“This light…” She stared at the little fox with a complicated expression. As expected of a legendary nine-tailed fox…

“Ah, Ena can heal people.” Ellis conveniently answered as he swallowed another piece of meat. The reason why he had not intervened before was purely because he had been in the midst of chewing his food. He wanted to help sooner, but he restrained himself. After all, it was bad manners to talk with your mouth full.

“No, that’s more than just healing,” Grisella stated. “healing magic generally falls under the element of light. It’s used quite commonly by the Priests of the Orthodox Church. The little fox, Ena’s is different. It’s not light, but rather, life itself. She utilized the element of life.”

“…” Ellis did not say anything. In truth, he had already predicted this sort of outcome. Hearing Grisella’s words only served to confirm his theory.

Regardless, the solitary witch continued to explain. “According to the legends that surround the existence of nine-tailed foxes, imbued within each root of their tails is a strand of true element.”

“True element?”

Grisella nodded. “True element is the purest form of elemental mana. It can continually create elemental energy of its corresponding type. In easier terms, it’s like a king, able to freely control and create its subjects. Some living creatures are born with a strand of true element inside their body.”

She paused for a moment. “Humans too, they can also possess true element. Those that do usually become strong magicians or unstoppable warriors. Let’s see… an example of that would be… the Flame Tyrant. He was an Archmage from the Western Plains. Like his name implies, he was born with a strand of true fire. With that natural gift, he rose from poverty and eventually came to rule over the west with an iron fist.

“That guy was alive and kicking back when I was still wandering the world one hundred years ago. I wonder if he’s still around today?”

“Just one strand is enough for someone to become so powerful…” Ellis muttered to himself. “Then, nine-tailed foxes are…”

“That’s right, unlike everyone else, a nine-tailed fox is born with nine such strands.” Grisella confirmed.

“What sort of elements do they get?”

“That… I don’t know.” She shook her head. “The elements of a nine-tailed fox are supposed to be random at birth, chosen from amongst all the possible elements that roam this world.”

“I see…” It was a disappointing answer, but Ellis half expected that. Thinking back on it now, Ena had showcased quite a number of different abilities. Fire, water, life, wind, and that still unknown purple element. Purple was an element that he previously predicted to be space.

Still, that was only five. There were four more left still waiting to be discovered. It was unfortunate, but Ena had not revealed anything else. He was not certain whether she just couldn’t use it yet, or if she simply did not want to use it.

As Ellis was in deep thought, Grisella’s soft voice suddenly filled his ears.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”