As the three of us stepped deeper into the forest I the fog started getting even denser than before until even Cel couldn’t see properly. Thus I erected another barrier which kept the fog out for about five meters around me. Of course we encountered more monsters. Some phreal showed up. To me they took the forms of our sister and Kate. To the girls… I technically couldn’t see what they saw. That’s why the phreal’s magic is so weird. It uses the person’s memories to create an image.

I could see the anger on Lily’s face one time. Probably Brul. I could see the fear in Cel’s eyes another. I don’t know who that was. But I probably had to punish him. I could see the hesitation in both their eyes at one point as they let their guard down. That caused me to get slightly angry as a pillar of ice instantly engulfed the creature and then crumbled with it still inside. Maybe it was a little childish of me but I felt offended that they would take the form of one of the people I was before… and a little sad that both Cel and Lily would see it…

There were others as well. Phantoms showed up from time to time but we took care of them swiftly. At this point Lily had gotten much better at both controlling the strengthening in her body and at fighting in general. Since she was using the void energy blade she could slice through the phantoms and still cause damage to them. Cel no longer chanted as she used her spells and she only needed low-level ones to take care of these monsters since she was using the staff enchanted by Kenos. I had entertained the possibility of upgrading them but… honestly they were already strong enough to make most of the things in this world look like a joke. Only things made by master blacksmiths in collaboration with master enchanters or weapons of legend could compare. If I upgraded them even more. There was honestly more of a chance for people to try and seek them out for themselves.

Other monsters included a stronger version of phantoms called specters which had much sharper claws and could actually become completely invisible not to mention they were much faster than their weaker siblings. I had to take care of them as Lily and Cel couldn’t see them. I could. Since my eyes were those of gods. I also concentrated my vision more on things around me. I had it spread out before but instead of doing that I converted it more into my sense of danger or intuition if you would rather call it that. Now I couldn’t see as far but I could see much more clearly in the area I could. And I could still sense danger approaching even from a distance away.

The most dangerous thing we encountered though… A big ghastly worm-looking thing. It was transparent and emitted a weird green glow. It had no eyes and at the front of it was a gaping mouth with hundreds of teeth. It floated around and passed through physical objects. It was what was called… a soul eater. It did exactly as its name implied. It ignored all physical substance and went straight for the soul. It was a spiritual being with a visible form… kind of like a lesser version of me and Kenos.

The thing was fast.  Coupled with its weird movements and the immunity to most magical and physical attacks this monster here could probably be categorized as an S or SS rank. It passed Lily and Cel, ignoring them and aiming for me. Looks like the barrier hiding my soul still needs some work. I tapped the cane on the ground making most of the wood on it to disappear revealing a hidden blade inside of it. Taking the blade in hand and infusing it with some soul magic I slashed at the creature right as it reached me, splitting it in two and making it turn into mana.

That was honestly not a good place to be. The creature would have finished off lesser adventurers in seconds. Not to mention they had no physical way of battling it since this thing would have been immune to most magic and weapons. The wood on my cane covered my blade once more hiding it away from the world. I wanted to have time to study more magic. Though I could also study it while travelling I wanted a place to just lay down and just read about and analyze magic for a few months.

I shook my head leaving those thoughts behind. They were something to think about some other time. I looked over at Lily and Cel and they were kind of left speechless. They were frozen the moment they saw it and couldn’t even move until now. That’s just how creepy and unsettling this creature was to normal people. No… Lily and Cel are also far from normal. I guess that’s just the effect it has. I waited for them to calm down a bit before we proceeded forward.

The area after that was free of monsters for some reason and as we moved forward the mist only got denser and denser until only I was able to see anything further than my own nose. And as we entered the presumed center of the forest I saw what was probably causing the mist here… and the only thing I could think of that could control the monsters.

“Why did you suddenly stop?” (Lily)

“What is it?” (CeL)

Both Lily and Cel seemed worried but I was too absorbed in my thoughts of the thing at the center of the dungeon. A giant white octahedral crystal was floating above the ground. For all the books I read I had no idea what it was. I remember a few novels the tyrant read in his world which featured living dungeons but this seemed different. This thing didn’t have sentience. I could feel it. The monsters didn’t have a soul but they had sentience. This thing didn’t have that. I tried examining it but there were a ton of barriers around it and I couldn’t even begin dismantling them. I knew a bit about magic but in the end what I knew was all basic. I could do a lot. But in the end all of that is basic “Create a barrier that protects from this” “Make a shape out of ice” things like that.

These barriers were complex. With several traps among them which I felt would be set off if I did something wrong. I was worried that that might cause more than just harm to myself. If the dungeon suddenly disappeared and the monsters regained their minds. They might attack the villages around here. The monsters in here are all strong. They’ve been weakened by the fact that they just attack people straight on and don’t act like themselves. The mist is only sort of covering up for that weakness I feel like. But… the weirdest thing was… someone made this… it wasn’t natural. There were dozens of complex barriers around it like a huge firewall protecting a system.

“Lily. Do you happen to know when this dungeon was first formed?”

“Huh? I… think my dad said it was around fifty years ago?” (Lily)

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Fifty years… Then there’s still a chance that whoever made this is alive. Even if he was human some powerful humans tend to age much slower and can live on to several hundred years. So the chance that this person was alive was very much possible. In fact it was quite likely. I was a bit worried… What should I do though? A lock like this being forced open could cause tragedy in this place. I also can’t quit open it normally as I am lacking too much in magical knowledge. There weren’t any books on actually advanced barrier magic in the Lord’s library. At least I didn’t find any. It seems like it’s quite a rare thing to dabble into. Most people would just be satisfied with being able to block magical or physical attacks while more advanced barriers are used rarely.

I simply stared at the crystal for a while. I can’t mess with this thing… not yet…  But… at least it made me realize how little I know about this world’s magic. If there’s any advantage the gods hold over me… it’s probably their understanding of it. If they tried to seal me off with advanced magic beyond my current comprehension they might just be able to do it.

“Let’s leave…”

“But… we didn’t even do anything here.” (Cel)

I shook my head.

“We can’t do anything here. We’re better off leaving… and maybe coming back another time.”

I could only hope that whoever made this wasn’t going to do anything with it. That this was an experiment. But if I tried to do something with it now… it might cause something just as bad as whoever made this had planned and I wasn’t willing to do it.

As we went back through the forest I realized exactly how useless this barrier I made to hide my soul. The creatures in here all reacted to souls. It wasn’t just the soul eater. I could still hide it from the gods since they weren’t directly looking at me but things that looked at me through their own eyes and had the ability to detect souls were still able to see it regardless of my barrier. I put finding a better way to hide my soul on the list of things I had to do which was only growing longer.

After fighting through a large amount of phantoms, specters and phreal we were finally able to exit the dungeon. It was already evening and it was getting dark. We decided to spend the night at an inn of which there were many here. We picked one that looked decent. Not too bad because it would just look weird to have someone who looks like a noble staying there and not too good because I just didn’t like them. They gave off such a “We’re better than you” atmosphere I just decided to avoid them. Maybe that’s a bit hypocritical coming from someone who dresses in fine silk and carries around a cane for no other reason than to look classy?

In any case as I entered I rented two separate rooms. One for me and one for the girls. Looking at them they didn’t seem to mind. I guess the days of sleeping together were over. I laughed at myself for feeling a bit lonely because of that. AS we ate dinner we discussed what we would be doing from now on.

“The Beastlands are probably being searched. Not to mention that from what I know Kate is probably not there. It’s just not a place where people would live. She’s much more likely to be in the elven country.”

“About that Kate. There’s one thing I don’t understand.” (Lily)

I looked at her for a second before nodding my head signaling for her to ask away.

“Why was she being pursued by half the countries military?” (Lily)

“That’s… I would like to know that as well…” (Cel)

I sighed lightly. It was about time I explained why Kate was being pursued. Kenos had ironically discovered the reason before he even met the king. He just didn’t know it was the reason yet. The king calling her a “cure” was what triggered his understanding of the situation.

“Child of light…”

Both Lily and Cel were visibly surprised. I put up a barrier around us to block off sound which was one of the more complex ones I knew… still simple though…at least compared to that firewall in the forest.

“A child of light is a person born once every several generations. The person’s light affinity is so high that their bodies are affected by it. For a child of light… their blood becomes something akin to an all-cure…”

“So… the king…” (Lily)

I nodded.

“The king must have somehow found her and hunted her in order to cure the illness which was plaguing him at the time…”

I could see the look of sadness and anger on both their faces. I also was quite livid about it… yet… we could do nothing but delay it by a day or two. Heh… But… enough with the self-pity. If she was still alive the possibility of her being in the elven lands was high. The human lands were also an option but… they were too vast and separated into too many countries to search effectively.

“So we’ll still be aiming for the elven country then?” (Lily)

I nodded.

“This time though we’re not going through the Beastlands.”

“Then how would we get there?” (Cel)

Both of them seemed questioning. They didn’t know any other way to get to the elven country than to pass the beastlands. And that was pretty difficult.

“We head by sea.”

Now they were confused. There weren’t any sea routes between human and elven lands. There was no way to get a human ship to go there even if we paid them as it would be extremely dangerous. They might be categorized as pirates and attacked or get lost at sea as there is no established route to there.

“But…” (Cel)

“Nobody said we’ll be taking someone else’s boat. Just trust me.”

Both nod when I ask them to trust me. At least that remains. I didn’t mind them questioning me. I actually enjoyed it. But if they couldn’t trust me… I might be quite crushed. Well… I would surely get over it eventually… but I would still feel quite sad for a while. As we had decided on further actions we talked about other more trivial things as we ate dinner. Well… me and Lily did. Cel still didn’t like talking while she ate. She just didn’t start until we finished with the important stuff.

After finishing our rather uninspired meal we went up to our rooms. I would practice magic all night while Lily and Cel slept. Tomorrow we would travel east to the next country. This one didn’t have access to the sea so we needed to go there first. I just hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as this one… if not even worse…