When it came down to healing, our bodies worked masterfully. From DNA repair to killing its own cells just to growing new ones; our bodies really knew how to keep us alive. And I knew most of that. But the thing is, I didn’t study the actual way it worked. I studied to pass tests and get good scores but never to properly understand how it worked. And that shit came back to bite me.

Because right now, I had access to large quantities of mana but no real way to do anything with it.

Well, not entirely true. I definitely could skewer anything that came near me. At first, I was just burning things but that came with its own restrictions, so I switched over to freezing everything instead.

The process was fairly simple. Just like I could burn oxygen and produce heat, I could just… yeah, freezing wasn’t as simple. There weren’t any mysterious element that I could freeze and create ice spears; and freezing water was more of a chore than an actual boon….. So instead, I just formed water, warmed it- almost boiling- and then just sprayed it around on anything that moved and came near us. These things were sex-themed and moaned but when faced with boiling water, their screams were even more pleasurable. Muha ha hah ah-

“You’re getting high again Friendo,” Goribo said, giving me another spoonful of the fruit.

It had become his job basically to lend me his shoulder and help me keep my sanity. Because frankly, I was going crazy. Also, my stomach kept on rumbling and I needed to release again. This forest was killing me from multiple angles at the same time.

Lately, I’d lost a fair bit of my weight and I could actually sort of see my ribs now. I suppose I was going to die before we got out of the forest at this rate.

Or at least that’s what I thought but apparently, we were almost at the end of the whole area. Yesterday we’d crossed a good seven days worth of journey. So, in theory, if we were lucky, and could cross a decent chunk of the area today, there was a really good chance we could leave the area before nightfall.

Oddly, we didn’t come across any of those man eater things. The bugs stayed away, and the forest too, as though it was afraid or something. Occasionally I did spot a random thing coming at us, which I mostly just boiled out of existence. And if it still somehow survived, then I gave it the old electric fun.

Something was bugging me though. “What is this forest? And why is it here? I mean, if it’s the predator of all mammals, then how come there aren’t any mammals in this forest?”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

And no, those boob things didn’t count.

“This place used to be paradise. Fruits, animals, life… paradise.”

“And?”

“Then, it came. A single vagina that attached to a tree. Monkeys populated this land at the time. And they did things. Then things happened- at least that’s what my friend told me before fully becoming one of them. They’re all connected Friendo.”

Interesting.

“Does this happen to do anything with the world tree?” Most of the stuff here were sort of plan like. No, they’re plant-animal hybrids.

“No. The world tree is sacred.”

“Then what about Askavan?”

“That lying-”

“Yeah, you already told me he lies. But how? How did he lie?”

I kept spraying boiling water to the vines ahead and those things more or less sizzled and parted. Even the trees moved out of our way, saving us a really decent chunk of time.

“She. Askavan was a woman. She corrupted us, stole our pride and then forced us to go to war,” the goblin said.

Woman, huh? The scriptures referred to the god as a dragon, not a male one or female one. I just assumed he was a guy. Or had I read somewhere he was one? I couldn’t recall.

But wait. Nothing mentioned Askavan ever actually instigating any wars. In fact, the god or rather goddess was famous for ending wars. What’s more, she… or maybe that history’s been wiped.

“I was under the impression Askavan isolated demons to stop the war,” I said.

“Lies Friendo. That wench… that wench created us, cursed us… violated us.”

Bastard children… ah… ahem. “I’m sorry to pain you, Friendo-” I said and realized, I’d picked up a weird word. Ahem! “But can you tell me more about Askavan and the gods? I want to learn more.”

I’d been meaning to ask him but the situation never seemed quite right. This time though, we were almost out of this place and I kept getting impatient so this was a good solution, or so I thought.

“I’m sorry Friendo, I don’t know myself. All I know is what my friend told me.”

***

We reached the end of the forest sooner than later: the actual heart of the forest was somewhere in the opposite side. Goribo or his friends had heard about it but none of them had seen it. This heart- or rather the original vagina was still there and everything in the forest was connected to it. At first, I thought I’d go up to it and blast it out of existence, but maneater things along with all the other drug-spraying things were concentrated around there. I was already dying with chest pain, and just a single monster did this to me. I couldn’t imagine what a whole bunch of them would do. Hence, it was suicide trying to go there. Besides, we were trying to escape from this place, not be heroes.

There was still some light in the sky and we could see a lot of sea from up here… yes, we were at a cliff and there was a sea below. The fucking SEA!

“We must wait for the ebb, Friendo,” he said.

However, we were about ten stories high, and I didn’t see any paths leading down without making another visit to the forest.

Frankly… I was sick of all this at this point. But there wasn’t much I could do. “Guess we’ll set up camp.”

“No Friendo,” he said. “We must leave tonight. Otherwise… Sirens will get us.”

But weren’t Sirens the most active during the night? At least according to my gamer knowledge. I suppose things worked differently in this world.