8 Abyssal Woods

Inside the gloomy and dim lit forest at night, the figure of a single man could be seen wandering fearlessly.

「S-S-Shiit......I never thought a forest at night would be this scary......what the hell was I thinking entering this place when night falls......」

......or not really fearlessly. As a common office worker and a man grew up during peace time, Ren never experienced walking inside a forest at night ever in his life.

Thus, even though he's wearing absurd equipment and erecting 3 layers of advanced barriers using his skills, Ren still felt the chills going down his spine. But at one point, the mysterious beauty of the forest at night made Ren temporarily forget about the situation he's in.

As Ren walked, corpses of parasitic fireflies could be seen falling down to his feet occasionally due to them trying to attack Ren but got roasted by his barriers instead.

Crouching down, Ren removed the glowing part of the insect from its body while frowning.

He's afraid of touching them, but his curiosity to see what's inside that beautiful colored tiny light bulb.

Holding it on his hand, Ren widened his eyes in honest astonishment.

That part of the parasitic firefly didn't get burnt by the barrier, on top of that it's still flickering 7 colored lights. The lights of this object isn't dim or gloomy, it radiates brilliantly in the night. Ren called up its Status.

《Rainbow Gemstone》

Contains a small amount of magical energy. Parasitic fireflies produce this stone after sucking magical power from the host.

No special use. Can be used for decorations.

Luminosity: 56/120

The stone is around 1/3 of a person's index finger. It changes color ever second and there are 7 colors in total.

Its brightness depends on how much magical energy is left inside, usually it's used as a storage for Parasitic fireflies until it runs out. Then, the parasite will go find a host and produce a new stone.

Ren's face slowly broke into a broad smile. His expressions became as bright as daylight.

「Haha...hahaha...hahahahaha ! ! !  This is gold !  I wanna make Yuka a necklace out of this ! ! ! ! 」

Rejoiced, Ren jumped on his feet and completely forgot about the scary environment around him.

Crouching down, Ren picked a few more Rainbow Gemstone lying around in the corpses of Parasitic fireflies.

Holding one in his hand, Ren put the other ones into a small pouch hanging on his waist. Then he called up the status of the one he's holding between his thumb and index finger. The object was oval-shaped.

Tuning its Luminosity back on Max, the small stone glowed brilliantly while changing color every second.

Fidgeting with the status of the object a little bit more, Ren was able to stop the flickering of colors. He can now set it to glow only Red, or Green, or any specific color that he wants to.

Thinking a bit more, Ren had an idea.

「What if......I increase the Storage parameter?」

Storage parameter shows the amount of magical energy being stored inside the stone. Normally this is proportional to its Luminosity, but it doesn't matter since Ren's ability can change each parameter simultaneously.

The parameter of Storage is actually the same to Intelligence stats. In fact, it represents the Intelligence of the parasite. That said, Ren pulled it from 5 to 22.

「Uwhoaaa」

The gemstone grew in size. It is now as big as 2/3 of a grown man's index finger. In other words, the perfect size to make it into a necklace.

「Good. We only need the string now...processing the stone can be left to job 『Craftsman』...I think there are some skills in that job that can be used for this...」

Looking around to find something as the string for the necklace, Ren suddenly felt the familiar chill going down his spine since he finally once again realized he's in the middle of a forest at night right now.

The cries of strange insects, the rustling sounds of parasites and monsters wandering about really do creep one out if they're not experienced being inside a deep dark forest at night.

However, the Abyssal Woods isn't that dark, it's gloomily lit up thanks to various kinds of monsters. It's a big help even though Ren reinforced his night vision with a skill.

「Tch. It's no good keep being a pussy...」

Mustering up his courage, Ren trusted his equipment and status. He advanced further into the forest looking for both Black Apples and a good string for the necklace.

♦   ♦   ♦

Dawn.

A few beams of lights coming from the direction of the Sun is piercing into the gloomy forest.

The monsters that were active at night returned to their respective hideout, some just simply hid into a rabbit hole, some used the mini-caves under the gigantic trees' roots as their home. The parasites also hid themselves into the leaves and started their short hibernation waiting for night time to come again.

「That makes it three...man...these things are so hard to find...」

Putting the third Black Apple into his backpack, Ren complained to himself as he has been searching the whole night, yet he hasn't met even half the basic minimum requirement.

There was a rumor among the adventurers that Black Apples are rarer and rarer these days since there are less Treants that die early. Seems like they had some kind of cooperation from either the forest spirits or the inhabitants of the forest themselves.

「According to Yuka...Dryads are everywhere...but Nymphs prefer riversides...there are also those wolves...」

The guardians of the Abyssal Woods, 『Falère』, direct descendants of the Demon Wolf King Fenrir.

From Yuka's description, they are white furred wolves with abnormal sizes, some old ones even surpassed the height of an Elder Orc, but the common ones are around the size of a bear. But the mass of their bodies don't change their speed, in fact, even a 3m tall Falère can move at the speed of sound if there's no obstacles or restraints on it.

Thinking about taming one as a pet, Ren continued his search.

His steps are now a little bit more relaxed and comfortable since morning is already coming.

According to Yuka and the guild receptionist, dead Treants don't look much different from an old tree and the tree body treants left behind continue to absorb minerals and grow normally like a tree.

This specifications of Treants make it hard to find their dead tree bodies. Also, not every dead Treant has Black Apples grow from their roots.

Utilizing the tips and advice Yuka gave, Ren found another two Black Apples and put them into his backpack.

Still no sign of something pretty enough to make a necklace. Looking at the glowing gemstone, Ren sighed while sitting on the roots of a giant tree to rest.

「Maybe I should just go to a jewelry shop and buy the string......but......」

Ren believes that if it's already a handmade gift, then part of it should not be bought in a common store. This is also one of Ren's schemes to hit on Yuka. In his previous life, while listening to his drinking friends, he learned that most of women like handmade gift more than something bought straight out from a store.

Thinking that something like this might make Yuka fall for him without using the status screen, Ren's motivation bar was filled up again as he stood up with great determination. That moment

「Oya~ We have a strange guest~」

Somebody embraced Ren from behind. According to the soft feminine voice, it seems to be a woman. Also, her arms that are circling around Ren's belly are slender and elegant. The unknown woman whispered into Ren's ear with a sweet tone.

No, it's more like that of a seductive succubus than a friendly girl.

Ren turned his head and looked at the left side of his head. The face of the woman came into view.

(B-Beautiful... ! !)

Her beauty was mesmerizing. Her green iris shone like emeralds with no impurities, they seemed to stare directly straight into Ren's soul as she was dreamily looking into his eyes. Her long, green hair has this fresh scent of nature that makes Ren's lungs throb for more.

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

Having a beautiful face with well-defined features being so close to him all of a sudden out of nowhere, Ren slightly flinched. He knows his equipment and skills are still protecting him.

The proof is that the vines that have been trying to approach him were all burnt down to ashes.

「Mou~......why is your defense so tight?」

「Err......probably to prevent people like you from splitting my head in half......」

Her sweet voice was softly nailed into his eardrum as she's whispering straight into his ear. Her breaths are tickling his earlobe to its best.

「Hmm~ That was mean~ I just wanna have fun」

「Umm......I doubt your definition of fun. Especially when you're touching my dick」

Her right hand is stroking Ren's crotch up and down feeling up his rod which got hard because of the strange woman's pheromones. 'She's warm' thought Ren staring at the woman's face.

「I guess I can't do anything to you with this kind of defenses~」

She let go of Ren and he turned back to face her.

(Uwhoaaaa ! !)

She was naked. A stark naked beauty is standing right in front of him. Her white smooth skin and bare tits are fully exposed. There are vines around her arms and legs but they're not squeezing. A figure that can put even models on Earth to shame.

Lowering his line of sight, Ren instinctively glued his eyes to her secret place, not really since it's fully exposed.

The Mound of Venus was smoothly white, no hair and......no genital.

「I'm sorry what.........」

「Hm? Ah you're looking at this?」

The woman spread her legs and an empty area with nothing there showed itself. The holy triangle Ren used to stared at so much in porn now is just an empty backyard.

Despaired, Ren honestly asked

「WHY?」

「Eeee...us dryads are born from the forest's spirits...we don't reproduce...we don't need vaginas」

Surprised Ren recalled that Yuka did explain briefly about Dryads.

They're an all female race that live inside forests with dense concentration of spirits. Actually, they are born from the forest spirits, that's why wherever there are many forest spirits, there will be many dryads.

Dryads live inside trees and they can use nature-attribute magic to control plants or borrow nature energy from the spirits. In the past, before the Great War, Dryads and Elves usually teach each other magic and protected the forests.

「Hmm...I see...well...I don't plan to kill you and you can't do anything to me...so how about let's talk?」

「Hmm~ I wanna seduce you and turn you into fertilizer more...but I guess it can't be helped~」

The Dryad energetically drew closer and inspected Ren thoroughly using her eyes. Nodding to herself, she held out her hand.

「I'm Gaea! Humans use this gesture call handshake to greet right?」

「Ah...yeah, that's right. I'm Ren」

Grasping her fragile hand, Ren was anxious that he might break her slender fingers.

Slightly shook the cute hand, Ren felt the softness and warmth of a girl's hand for the first time ever in his life. It was different than Ana's breasts so the sensation was fresh to him.

An awkward silence cast over the two as they stared at each other. The radiating smile on Gaea's face has not dropped during the time.

Feeling troubled, Ren desperately tried to find something to say.

Then he suddenly remembered his purpose of wandering around in this forest.

「Oh!! That's right! I'm looking for Black Apples!!」

「O~ That? There are a bunch over there deep inside the forest」

「Really? Can I go pick them up?」

「Sure. Why not~」

「But I thought Dryads protect the forests from being exploited?」

Certainly, according to what Ren heard, Dryads and Elves would do anything to drive humans away from trying to take properties away from the forest. But looking at Gaea's relaxed face, Ren's curious if there's any reason for this.

「Well that's true, but black apples are a kind of parasite, they'll drain the minerals of trees if we don't get rid of it」

「......but then humans are already taking them」

「Yup~ Since it doesn't harm anyone while benefiting both us and humans, we let humans harvest Black Apples」

「I see」

Nodding, Ren feels satisfied as he learned something new about this world. At the same time he was glad that he didn't have to fight the dryads to gather Black Apples. He'd prefer not to kill beautiful women just for some apples, but on the other hand, going back empty handed would down his reputation at the Guild.

But then again, it doesn't matter that much since things did not turn out that way. Thus Ren followed Gaea into the forest.

♦   ♦   ♦

「Uwaa......there's a crap load of them lying around......」

Putting the 13th Black Apples into his backpack, Ren was surprised of how many there are in here.

This also makes Ren wonder why didn't a lot of people go here and gather a whole lot of these.

The answer for that question was provided by Gaea, who giggled cutely hearing Ren's inquiries

「You've been the only human being able to go this deep you know~」

「Hmm? I certainly have good equipment and some tricks up my sleeves, but still...」

「Humans didn't go too deep partly because of the Falère...but aside from that there are also the parasitic fireflies and us dryads. Though the Nymphs won't attack, they'll call over other guardians if they spot intruders」

Ren tilted his head as he's still curious

「You see, as I said earlier, I wanted to seduce you and turn you into fertilizer for the trees, but I could do nothing against your defense. Had you been a normal humans, you would've been dead since long. That's not all, usually even strong humans won't get this deep since the Parasitic fireflies become more active and move in bigger swarm...they won't survive for long. An exception like you is the first time I see one」

「Hm...I see. Now I get it」

That just proved how good Ren's equipment and barriers have been protecting him. He has even been collecting a jar full of Rainbow Gemstones he got from the parasitic fireflies.

Had it been another adventurer, they might've become tree fertilizer since long.

As Ren filled his backpack with Black Apples, he recalled something important from the talk about parasitic fireflies.

「Gaea!」

「Kya! Don't suddenly yell like that!」

Ignoring her pouting, Ren continued

「Do you you what can I find in this forest to make a string for a necklace?」

「Hmmmmmm......I guess I do know one thing」

After putting her hand on her chin and gave the matter some serious thoughts for a minute, Gaea made a 'that's right' gesture and clapped her hands together as she remembered about something.

「You do!?!?」

「Kyaa!!!」

Grabbing her shoulders Ren drew his face extremely close to hers with a serious expression and widened eyes.

Being startled suddenly, Gaea let out a cute voice.

She has been attacking male humans for a really long time, so the first time she becomes the one being attacked, Gaea panicked since she knows she can do nothing against Ren.

「W-W-Wait!! What is this all of sudden!! Y-Your face is too close!!」

(Oooooh!! That was a wonderfully cute face right there!!)

Admiring Gaea's flustered face, Ren let go of her shoulders and stared at her waiting for an answer.

Recovering from the surprised assault from Ren, Gaea tried her best to hide her flustered expression.

「F-First of all, why would you need something like that?」

「Ah...that's for this...」

Ren took out the large rainbow gemstone that he messed with using the Status.

Ren explained his intention of making a necklace using the stone.

「I refuse! What's in it for me if I help you?」

Surprised because of the quick answer, Ren stared at Gaea, who is pouting while folding her arms looking the other way. Ren let out a stupefied voice.

「Eh?」