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Ceu’lWard Academy. Time unknown.

“...The Darkaz, derogatorily called as ‘Devils’ and ‘discarded demons’, are one of the most predominant races in Terra. Their homeland resides in the south-western region of the Western continent, where the land is hot and mostly barren. Famous for their combat skills and strong constitution… legend says that their progenitors were the consequence of frequent union between succubus and the humans that resulted in many conflicts and overcrowding issues due to the succubus’ nature– I’m sure we both don’t need to get into those details– before the demons were banished, and cursed with only being to sire spawn If they fall in true love… ”

“–’true love’? Master, For an official academy document, isn’t that a bit too… unbecoming?...”

“Ah, you see, my apprentice, recently, there has been a new study that one can fool themselves into believing a statement that is true, when it is in fact, not true. Thus, granting them the ability to circumvent truth checking spells. The same applies here, misguided or superficial affection could be mistaken as ‘love’ but it is not ‘true love’. Just like how people fool themselves into believing that Terra is a sphere, a bunch of bogus conspiracy theorists is what they are–

“But master! There are dozens of researches that prove–”

“Shut up Boby! Since you think you are sooo better than your master, you wouldn’t mind a small mock exam, would you?...”

“Uuuuuugh…”

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In the past few hours I started gathering all of my meager possessions, at least the few useful ones, and started preparing for my first, hopefully last, scouting mission. Just thinking about prolonged stay in this forest kills my motivation.

The Inventory list includes: my indestructo stick; A copious amount of ribs and spines. Never turn down disposable pointy things; Fish ration wrapped up in a packet of large leaves, don’t worry I tested the leaves for poison beforehand, though these will most likely not last long; The clay blanket… didn’t survive after I had a rough night on top of it..

I reach the pile of fish scales and leather. “Hmmm, should I try making a robe?... no, that wouldn’t work, sinew isn’t made for this sort of stuff, and even if I tried it would decompose quickly, and I already have enough fish smell on me.” I give up on the idea.

“Now… step one, choose a destination.”

I walk over to the tree that I think is the tallest, a bundle of solid sharpened bones in hand. *THUNK* I stab one in the trunk and let go. The white protrusion holds, I grab it again and try shaking it. Stable. Good.

*THUNK* I stab another one.

*THUNK* And another one.

*THUNK* And another one. Rinse and repeat.

Slowly, I create a makeshift ladder of an assortment of different bones I gathered and sharpened. Climbing step by step, I inch closer and closer to the top of the forest’s canopy…

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

*THUNK* I finally reach a branch I can climb on to, I grab the ledges of it and heft myself up, balancing myself and holding on tightly with my tail for insurance in case I trip and fall. Quite unlikely, since these branches are as thick as an ordinary tree trunk and I can stand on top of one with room to spare.

I make my way up to the tallest place I can find, shifting away foliage and breaking twigs that get in my way, stepping carefully to not fall as my foothold decreases, the branches losing their thickness as I distance myself from the trunk and climb upwards.

Finally, for the first time. I see the whole sky, without the thick canopy of trees that obstructed it.

“I really am in another world, huh…”

In the morning sky, peppered with clouds, I spot two moons fading into the sky. TWO. MOONS. After seeing all those fictions with weird planets and multiple astral bodies. I would think that I wouldn’t be too surprised, but looking at them, an uncomfortable sense of dread fills me. I ignore that feeling in favor of continuing my scouting.

An endless carpet of green hills fills my vision, no end in sight, the maze of trees covering almost every single spot. I spot enormous mountains in the distance, the domain of the forest dying as the incline increases and reaches the rocky walls and snowy peaks. I observe the position of the sun, “That way… should be east, i think.”

I meticulously analyze the horizon all around me. The mountain chain gradually fades away going west, their height considerably gets smaller but even then they are still huge. It looks like the forest ends due to them in the east and north. To the west, there’s more trees, the bigger hills are blocking my vision but I can spot two or three colossal trees that dwarf even the average enormous trees of this forest. To the south, I don’t spot anything noteworthy other than that the wind is coming from that direction.

Climbing down and resting on one of the branches with my back laid on the trunk, I consider my options.

“First, Mountain range, nope, I am already at the wits end on this forest. no way I’m climbing a freezing mountain that probably won’t have food. Second, West, those stupidly tall trees will be a nightmare to climb but they should provide a bigger, better vantage point to find… anything. And in third, well, there’s nothing I could judge to be of importance to the south.”

“...West it is then!”

I carefully climb down the tree, using the steps that I had made on my way, I arrive on the ground floor.

I take a deep breath… “Onwards!” I take the first step of many–

I pause. Which direction was west again? I try to locate myself by looking up… I can’t see the sun from down here… *sigh* “Dammit!” I climb the tree. Again…

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“Just keep on walking~♪. Just keep on walking~♪. Just keep on walking, walking, walking~♪…”

After the 8th or so hour of uneventful travel, aside from the odd encounters with small critters that ran away when I got close, I started to idly sing. Until I recalled where I was and stopped…

And then continued singing anyway, but on a lower tone of voice, this time…

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“...Captain’s Log!”

“Today’s entry… Why am I doing this again?... hm? Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me. So that the force may be with me, repress your feelings and exercise control, don’t go insane, don’t go lonely… *sob* Do not falter, Captain! Your crew needs you!” I assure myself while I explore what I assume is my mana-sense on top of a tree.

In the last 3 days, I have started to do practice throwing when stopping to rest, utilizing the rocks and stones scattered around and training with my bone javelins, some of which broke in the process, thankfully they are expendable and easily replenishable.

More than once I got myself into a precarious situation because I couldn’t properly hit my target. Never again. And as easy as it is to just charge into them and swing a stick around–

I recall memories of agonizing pain and the hollow emptiness in my stomach–

…going into melee is scary.

Another thing I experimented with, the limits of my new vessel… And once again I am surprised by this body’s… vitality. I some made mental notes:

Endurance, able to run superhuman levels of distance at a steady pace;

Stamina, certainly higher than before, but my body’s constitution and high endurance decrease its consumption rate so I can’t make a good estimate;

Resilience, I admit that I considered stabbing myself… unwise, I know. After some careful consideration, I settled for how high I could fall without hurting myself, results were… inconclusive. I found a small cliff while walking, and I can easily shrug off a 6 meter fall, any higher than that I’d need to start jumping off these huge trees to see my limits.

Speaking of which, there has been little development in my tree-traversing abilities, I managed to somewhat get by with only using 2 spikes in hand to imitate those iceberg climbers, strike the surface, drag myself up, release, repeat.

It is a process that I haven’t gotten the hang of yet; I won’t be able to use it to escape some monster with how slow I am. By the time I would need to get some good distance away from the ground I’d be already dead. At least with this I won't be sleeping on the ground anymore…

I reassure myself that everything will be fine as I fall asleep.

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