“There, that refilled my mana by quite a bit. Now we should think about what happened while we still have time.” Wichita said. “I think we can conclude that there is a safe area where we can stop and the forest will not be. If we stop before that, then we face challenges like that pool of acid, which are…quite deadly.”

“Wait what?” Rose interrupted her. “But we didn’t stop? And was that the Royal Skill you just used?”

“Yes, it was. And we did stop.” Wichita pursed her lips. “I remember stopping for at least a minute or two. The forest must have meant its words literally.”

“That is…ridiculous. How were we supposed to know that just stopping for a minute would cause this mess?” Jace asked. Wichita looked at him. The boy was gasping for breath, and did not look to be doing very well. Clutching at his abdomen, he stood there looking like he would fall apart at any moment.

“I do not think we were supposed to. The forest might be focusing on its trial aspect for some reason, but that does not mean it is not bloodthirsty. There are, and will be tricks at play.” Wichita warned. The fact that no monster had jumped at them since the dog-monkeys worried her.

The forest changing itself so much at a whim was something she had not even heard of. Why would it do so? Just to give fairness for a few creatures that might be too weak for its usual challenges. Was the fairness aspect its most powerful one? What she had faced before the transmigrators came did not imply so, but perhaps.

The [Forgotten Melody] Skill gave her too little information for her to make conclusions. No, it was better to let it be, for now. There would be time to think about that later.

“I was thinking of attempting to teach you magic,” she said. “But I do not think you are in any condition to do so. I would recommend taking this opportunity to rest.”

“Are you sure? This might not be safe-” Jace began.

“I rather doubt there will be much safety within the forest. This is far more than I expected. I would recommend you all take the opportunity to rest. I will keep guard and -” Wichita fell into thought. What could she do? Hmm, she hadn’t taken a good, deep look at the surrounding mana since they entered the labyrinth. Perhaps there was something here she could use.

“I am not very sleepy anyway.” Jace said.

Rose glared at him. “That’s the adrenaline talking. And we don’t know when the forest will let us sleep next. Just shut up and go to sleep.”

“Does anyone have any water?” Tully asked, interrupting the other two. “I am kinda thirsty.”

Rose looked downcast. “I…didn’t think of bringing water with us. I should have.”

Wichita looked at the vine. That should have water in it. The issue was with extracting it.

“How much control do you have over your Sword Qi?” she asked Tully.

“What? I don’t know, why do you ask?”

“Can you destroy everything other than the water in the vine? I can have the needle levitate it. Catching the water will be difficult, but I think I can enchant - “

“No.” Tully said. “I don’t have that kind of control… I didn’t even know I could have it.”

Wichita shrugged. “I only know of it from records. There was no one alive that could wield your power.”

“Can you like enchant it?” Jace asked. “Like you did for Rose? Oh, and can you do that again? I think it would be much better if the ground was a bit more like, welcoming.”

Wichita blinked at him. “What do you want me to enchant?”

“The vine. And the ground, but like the vine first. So that it gives off water.” Jace replied.

Wichita shook her head. “That will be difficult. There are a lot of ways I can convert the vine into water, but they all require mana I doubt will be available to us. Not to mention such an enchantment would be difficult to put on a vine like this.”

“Perhaps if I could alter its internal mana composition, but right now it is not suited to a transformative enchantment.” Wichita looked at it with her mana sense.

“The forest has given it a lot of Sturdy and Stability mana, almost as much as it has Wood mana. I presume that is to stabilize the surrounding space, I noticed a lack of cracks in the acid pool area. But that also means the vine will fight any transformative enchantment I put on it. Enchanting is not magic, magic could have transformed this vine anyway, but enchanting needs the right materials.”

The last part had a bitterness to it that she did not want to show to others. But it seeped through anyway. The difference between magic and enchanting might not seem like much, but it made a massive difference in combat ability.

“So, there is no water then.” Tully sighed.

“Not at the moment.” Wichita said, and then paused. “That will not be a problem, will it? I am not familiar with human dietary needs. Can you survive without water?”

“Well,” Rose began, drawing the word out. “Not quite. Like we can technically survive for days, but if we go long without water, we will get a headache.”

That was not good. The four of them would have to source water from somewhere. The issue was, she did not know where they could get it from. Perhaps the forest would provide it, in the name of fairness.

Wichita watched Jace sit down on the floor, practically collapsing on top of it. The boy’s shirt was starting to fray. Perhaps it was because of her needling Skill, but she could see that it would start tearing soon. The thing was of ridiculously low quality.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Give me your shirt.” she told him.

The boy looked up in surprise, seeming startled for some reason. “What?”

Even Rose looked surprised. “Do you want to enchant it?” Tully asked, nodding along.

“Yes, I can’t get you water, but I should be able to make the shirt stronger. The lack of cracks basically assures the presence of stability mana, it should be enough to stop it from tearing.” she said.

“Oh.” Jace said. “That makes sense.”

And yet he did not remove his shirt, looking around awkwardly instead. Wichita was not sure what the issue was.

“Come on, Jace, we don’t care if you're shirtless. Just take it off.” Rose commented.

Jace glared at her. “Why don’t you try taking off your dress? Wouldn’t it be better if you or Tully had protections? Aren’t you the ones going to fight monsters?”

“That’s not the same thing at all! Why don’t you take off your pants then?” Rose demanded. The two of them really didn’t get along huh. Wichita wondered what the story was, there clearly was one.

“There is little need for the two of you to argue. The beats will be the ones deciding who they attack, and Jace looks the easiest to hunt. The forest does have a habit of targeting those that would be weak to its machinations.” she said. Then decided to clarify in case it would be an issue.

“I may also need the pants. Just protecting the upper body is foolish, but for now I will only be adding basic enchantments. I do not wish to spend too much mana on this and not have enough for the coming challenges.”

Jace’s face turned red as she spoke. “That! I don’t think that’s appropriate. Tully is like 13!”

“Fourteen in a few days!” Tully replied. “And I don’t care if -”

Rose coughed, not letting her sister complete the sentence. “Even I am not sure if -”

“If the pants are not enchanted than any beast with a modicum of mana sight will go for them. Considering the amount of mana here, that may as well be every beast.” she still didn’t get what the problem was. “But we can deal with that later. The three of you need rest, and we do not know how long we have.”

Wichita walked a bit towards the diverging paths, careful not to step into them. If she did, the forest might just start a new trial. This maze was very strange. Passing through any of the paths just led them to the scenery, every time they walked through they would pass through a hallway with trees as walls. The hallway would then diverge into two paths. There did not even seem to be any difference between them. Like they were the same place.

Considering what mana was common in the forest, that might even be true. The forest might just have changed a small part of the forest, and was bringing them back to it using Space mana.

But she was digressing.

“I need people to lay down in place to apply the enchantments you want.” she said. Mind mana was sadly not native to the forest. Then again, mind mana enchantments lacked the oomph that came with mind mana spells. The effects were quite easy to dispel for even an amateur in the arts. At least without certain highly expensive enhancements.

Wichita had not even heard of a mind mana enchantment being used in battle before. Mind spells were the ones that were common. But was digressing. Rose had laid down on the forest floor, still looking awkward. Why did humans feel so awkward with her? Was she missing something?

Leaning over, she started to enchant. A simple rectangle of her mana around her, acting as the base. Then use the Language of Magic to call on Rose’s mind mana. Then she added a smudge of intent, directing the mana. A simple enchantment really.

“Don’t think about dismissing it, it will go away. The intent anchor is quite weak.” she warned. That should help if they were -

“What?” Rose said, turning around as the enchantment failed. Wichita sighed. Of course.

“Let me guess, you can’t stop yourself from thinking about it?” she asked.

The girl nodded. Wichita sighed and made another enchantment, wasting mana to make the intent anchor stronger, and adding a termination condition.

“Punch the air to dismiss the enchantment.” she said, turning towards the Tully who had…drawn a rectangle around her. With Sword Qi.

“Please don’t do that.” she said. The girl pouted. “I thought it would be helpful. I can only see you make the rectangle, I don’t know what else you do.”

Wichita sighed. For some reason she was doing that a lot. “The rectangle needs to be from my mana. The Sword Qi will get in the way, it is far more powerful than anything I can conjure. Do not try to use it under the illusion, even a small amount of Sword Qi will destroy the illusion.”

“Oh.” Tully said, looking sad as she dismissed her Sword Qi. Wichita remade the enchantment and then looked at the last one.

“The shirt.” she demanded. Jace looked at her and then slowly pulled it off. The unwilling look on his face irritated her.

“If you don’t want me to, then I can leave it alone. I am using mana I may not recover until my Royal Skill activates again. If you do not want it -”

“No, no, it's not like that! I am just, well, kinda -” Jace said, tripping over his words.

Wichita took a deep breath. “I don’t care if you don’t want to tell me. Should I enchant it or not?”

“Yes, yes. And I am grateful. I am just, like…not the fittest person.” Jace said, pulling his knees closer for some reason.

“That is apparent from your performance today.” she said. “That is why I am working on this.”

The boy looked even more downcast at that. Wichita looked at him. “Don’t worry about it. Just because you aren’t powerful now doesn’t mean you won’t be powerful in the future. The more disadvantaged you are now, the more power Fae magic will push into you in the future. The more challenges you face, the better your class will be after you deal with the [Unworthy] issue.”

“Oh, um, thank you.” the boy replied, actually sounding calmer.

“Yes, now I must go. Sleep fast, I do not know how long the forest will give us.” she said, heading towards an empty space.

The moment she opened her senses, she found herself seeing the stability mana. The enchantment practically wove itself after that. The only thing she could really do is reinforce the material, making it as strong as an unenchanted iron shield. That should stop things like thrown stones and tree branches.

But if she was being honest with herself, she was worried. The last…hour? A few hours? Well, however many they were, they had been chaotic, to say the least. A part of her wondered if it would have been better if she had not taken the transmigrators in.

Then again, she doubted she would have survived on her own. The forest scared her. Wichita did not know what it was, but the thing unnerved her, especially the way it was acting.

There was something at foot here, and she had a feeling there was more to it than met the eye. A feeling that did not have any rhyme or reason and just might have been put in her brain by someone else.

Like that cat she kept seeing whenever the forest changed significantly.