*unedited*

"Necalise, confirm direction." I command.

We have already begun our travels and there are no landmarks or easily definable areas to retrace our steps if something happens. Necalise being a High Elf that originally lived in the woods until her village was burned down by bandits is the perfect follower for this mission.

"Forest Guide." Necalise chants the name of the second tier support spell.

The Forest Guide spell is defined in the game as manifesting a physical link to a creature of the forest, providing temporary support and guidance to the user. It can also deflect low tier mind control and confusion spells.

A small green faerie wearing a sparkling dress appears as the spell is completed. A green dot appears on the map splayed out in my hands, close to our own green dots.

"Show us to the human settlement." Necalise commands the faerie.

The green faerie giggles and flutters ahead of us, pointing in the direction we were originally walking toward.

Despite the typical limited duration of first and second tier spells, a medium level caster can increase the duration of the spell so that it can be of use during long journeys.

"How convenient." I whisper gently as the faerie beckons for us to follow it.

The fresh air is a brilliant contrast to the stale air I used to breathe on my world. The open forest, with it's warm canopy of green foliage, left me with a feeling of belonging.

As my mind starts to wander, I check the watch that I equipped for this mission. We have only been walking for ten minutes, so I suspected that soon we would face our first opponent.

Right on time.

Just as I begin to think about when we would meet our first enemy, a red dot shows up on the map in my hands. Based on the size of the red dot, we are going to run into a creature that easily dwarfs the typical human.

"Potential enemy, take defensive positions." I command my followers, but they must have already felt the movements of the enemy.

Unfortunately my senses aren't that good. Or maybe they are and I just wasn't paying attention?

I find myself thinking unnecessary thoughts the closer we get to the red dot. Finally, after getting in range to see it, there's... Nothing?

"Stal, report." I ask the High Priest who was at my side looking contemplative to confirm that there was nothing in front of us.

"Master, what thing is best at hiding in a forest?" Stal responded.

Ah, I forgot. His backstory was that he was cursed to only speak in riddles by an evil sorcerer. That's going to get old very quickly.

"A tree. Or more precisely, a Treant." Necalise responded before I got a chance to figure the puzzle out.

If I remember my folklore correctly, Treants are protectors of forests and are typically neutral to all parties that aren't close to nature.

"Very well, see if you can establish contact without a fight. If it is intelligent we may be able to get information out of it." I command Necalise to go forward.

The Thorn Invoker class takes over as she approaches the Treant, a green shield made from leaves enlarges on her forearm and a polished looking wooden spear falls from a nearby tree, right into her grasp.

Now that we're closer, I can clearly tell that there is a Treant, despite it attempting to hide among the regular trees. The color of it's bark is slightly more brown, and it's hollow black eyes have green irises.

The green faerie flies around Necalise's head, giggling while she awaits further commands.

Necalise stops ten feet from the Treant and looks it dead in the eyes.

"Reveal yourself." Necalise's tone is forceful and oppressive, like she was staring down an insect who got in her way.

"That won't work!" The green faerie spoke. "You have to speak in the Language of the Forest!"

Forest Guide never spoke when it was cast in game. Curious.

Necalise seems unfazed by this new development, and instead commands the green faerie.

"Interpret for me then."

"Gladly." The green faerie is unfazed by the tone used towards her and nods, before speaking in an unknown tongue.

The language of the forest at first seems long and complicated but there is alot of repetition.

[ Analyzing... Would you like to learn passive skill (Language of the Forest) ]

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I confirm mentally instead of speaking, so as to not alarm Stal who is standing beside me.

[ Stat requirement met. Confirmed. Unlocked passive skill (Language of the Forest) ]

As though to confirm the skill works, I can immediately understand the conversation between the faerie and the Treant.

During the time I was getting the passive skill, the Treant has uprooted itself from the ground and taken a defensive stance against Necalise.

Necalise is still standing there and waiting for the response from the green faerie.

Figures.

The green faerie is not actually translating what Necalise has said to the Treant, but is instead badmouthing us while having a conversation with it.

"Anyways, can you please just answer their dumb questions so they can leave the forest and hopefully never return?" The green faerie has her hands on her hips as if she is berating the Treant.

"Fine, I will answer question. Then they leave." The Treant responds while snarling.

The mouth of the Treant looks just like stitched together bark grinding against each other. Similar to a badly rendered CGI mouth being worked like a puppet.

"I will take over from here." I step forward and speak in the same tongue as the Treant and faerie. I also motion for Necalise to fall back.

Necalise steps back and places herself beside Stal with a slight look of remorse.

The faerie looks ghastly pale as she quickly cowers behind the back of Necalise.

"Speak." The Treant groans.

"What is the name of this forest." I respond.

"Anth'allithath." The Treant responds.

Looks like the skill does not translate names very well.

Seeing the confusion on my face, the Treant attempts to use the common tongue.

"Great Forest of Demise." The Treant shakily speaks out.

"Why give it such a scary name?" I respond in forest speak.

"To make Humans and Orcs fear entering it. Many things reside in forest can easily kill Humans. You should not be here." The Treant returns to speaking in Forest speak and is now making some threatening gestures towards me.

Curious. It seems to think i'm a normal Human. Does it not know how to sense magical power or innate strength?

"You think I am a normal Human, then what about the Elf over there?" I attempt to probe the distinguishing power of the Treant.

"Elves are good, she is welcome. If you are not Human, then what are you?" The Treant bends forward as if to inspect me closer.

Necalise still has her spear drawn and is about to charge forward but I motion for her to stay where she is.

"You are Human, but not Human? Such strength. I have lived a thousand years, only seen something like this a few times. Each time someone like you comes, many things change." The Treant has backed off and sat down against a tree larger than itself.

"Faerie." A single word spoken by me to signal the faerie over.

Her wings beating slowly as if she had been caught stealing.

"I- I didn't know!" She begins to cry before I can even explain what I want from her. "I'm sowwy!"

Her tears are small and dissipate before they even reach the forest floor. She can no longer speak coherently, and has begun to ramble on with her apology.

This somehow reminds me of my nephew who cried when he got caught lying.

Normally you'd take a hard stance and teach them that lying is wrong, but I simply do not have the time. If the mission is going to continue at this pace, we'll end up not meeting the deadline I set.

"Don't worry about it. I want you to continue leading us to the Human settlement." I try to encourage the faerie.

"Eh- Ah... I overheard your conversation with the Treant. Why would you wanna go to the Human village if you're not Human?" The faerie finally stops crying and asks me a question.

"I am a Human, but not Human like them. Even if I try to explain, it would be difficult. Will you still guide us?" I act sympathetic towards the sniffling faerie.

As if now perked up, her wings open wide and she eagerly points in the direction we were headed.

"I won't let you down!" The green faerie yells in the common tongue.

"Treant, take care of yourself. I will be seeing you soon enough." I respond in forest speech.

"Be safe. Remember, these Humans are not to be trusted." The Treant stays seated, but waves it's branches up and down as we begin to leave.

"Master, forgive my uselessness." Necalise grasps my cloak with her right hand, her face filled with contrition.

"Think nothing of it. We will face many tests in this new world, this is just the beginning." I try to sound like dialogue from the old game.

Despite my saying so, she still remains deep in thought.

We continue on for another hour until the green faerie stops.

"Over here! There are goodies here!" The green faerie is pointing toward a peculiar rock formation.

The vein of ore was visually striking, looking like a mix of blue and black against the grey of the other rocks.

I'm not entirely sure, but the colors are almost a perfect match to the in-game design.

"Is that... Mithril?" I look to Stal for confirmation.

"Examination." Stal casts a first tier spell meant to determine the usefulness of an object. "Confirmed. 91% miscellaneous, 7% iron, 2% mithril."

Normally the Examination spell would not tell us if it was mithril, but casting it from such a high level ensures success on the first try.

"Recommended course of action?" I ask.

"Sunder will provide highest amount of raw materials- ." Stal replies.

Suddenly Necalise perks up and charges toward the vein of mithril.

Stal hurriedly casts a second tier protection spell on everyone before Necalise slams the vein with her wooden spear.

"SUNDER!" Necalise yells as the wooden spear glows a bright golden color and smashes into the mithril vein. Chunks of mithril begin to fly in all different directions.

When the sunder martial skill completed and the smoke had settled, the rock formation is revealed to be decimated, with only a massive hole to show it had even existed before.

As I begin to pick up the pieces of mithril, both Stal and Necalise stop me.

"Allow us, Master." They both say in unison.

Did you guys practice that.

"Very well." Now that I have nothing to do, I converse with the green faerie while they pick up the scattered pieces.

After a brief conversation, I found out that there is a faerie village not far from the Moving Fortress, located in a pocket dimension created by the Queen Faerie. The Green faerie wants to invite me as an apology for earlier.

"Sounds like fun." I give her a warm smile as Stal and Necalise return with the mithril wrapped up in a heavy cloth.

"Open Inventory." I cast the first tier spell and a small distortion of space appears in front of me.

I place the mithril pieces that are wrapped in the cloth inside the storage.

"Close inventory." I cast the closing spell and the distortion disappears.

"Wow, you even know space magic! So interesting..." The faerie looks genuinely perplexed.

"Let's continue." I nod to Stal and Necalise. "Good job."

"Thank you, Master." They both say together.

They had to have practiced that...

I start walking forward and they begin to match my pace.

Necalise's complexion looks alot better than before.

The stress that must have been building up should have been released when she sundered the mithril vein. Her stoic demeanor is slowly returning as well.

We are nearing the edge of the forest, the break in abundant trees can be seen even with my vision.

"Master, we will be arriving soon." Necalise explains.

"Be ready for anything." I casually mention to them.

Their previously relaxed faces tense up as they look forward.

Damn it, I said the wrong thing again.