Ch: 115.3 (Patreon)

It’s hard to keep myself from giggling like a child. I was like a kid in a candy store surrounded by delicious sweets and told I could pick whatever I wanted. Hundreds of beautiful blue feathers were scattered around me, and I got to pick which ones I wanted to take.

Sadly, this was a different situation than with the silent falcon feathers. I fought the silent falcon back when we were relatively close to the entrance of the magic-dense region, and it would be easy to stop by there on our way out. Unfortunately, it was impossible to do that in this case.

With all the strong magic beasts around, there was a 99.9% chance we wouldn’t be coming back this exact way. And with the water phoenix gone, something else will undoubtedly take its place.

So, I could only take what I could carry and had to decide which blue beauties I wanted and which I would leave behind. Tabitha and I think we’re coming up on the heart of the forest, so I might not have to worry about carrying them that long, but there was still the genuine possibility that we were days away from our destination. Not to mention, I couldn't fill up my bag all at once.

Taking out the silent falcon feathers I've been carrying with me until now, I toss all but the best five of them to the side. All the feathers I’ve been carrying until now were the best ones I could pluck from the silent falcon. Of course, I wasn’t counting the feather I was planning on turning into a hair ornament in that group, but even then, I was discarding feathers several grades better than the ones I left back in the tree hollow.

It sucked having to get rid of something I originally planned on keeping, but I had to make room. And between feathers from a level 74 bird and ones from a level 97 bird, it was obvious which ones I would prioritize.

I kept a few silent falcon feathers for experimental reasons, but even if I couldn't use the water phoenix feathers, they would sell for a shiny coin or two. At least, much more than what the silent falcon feathers would go for anyway. Though, I wouldn't discard everything I was carrying for money.

I still had the silent falcon’s talons, various magic herbs I'd gathered, dozens of rock samples for my collection, and most importantly, the elemental fragments in my bag and my survival supplies.

Sighing as I look over the feathers, I curse that I can't carry more. I mean, I could, but it would slow me down, and if movement was ever crucial while we were in the Endless Forest, it was now.

It would be fantastic if I could unlock a subspace skill at this very moment, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

Tabitha sees my mental anguish and decides now is the best time to chime in. "You can't take forever," she reminds me.

“Will you just finish eating,” I wittily snap back. Tabitha was still sitting by the fire, enjoying the blue meat of the water phoenix. “I know I need to hurry.”

Did she think I wanted to be doing this instead of enjoying the delicious meat I cooked?

Well, she may be right about that.

The meat was wonderful; one could say even magical. But even while eating, I couldn’t wait to inspect the feathers of the water phoenix. However, the taste did refuse to leave my mouth.

The bird's flesh tasted perfectly moist, no matter how long I cooked it over the fire. Initially, I thought the meat might come out dry after seeing how much juice dripped from it while cooking it. But drying it out seems impossible when cooking with meat from a high-leveled water-attuned magic beast.

I don’t want to compare the meat to chicken, as most meats were, so I’d describe the water phoenix meat as tasting like quail or pheasant, one of those more expensive meats but still chicken adjacent. If you cocked your head to the side, squinted your eyes, and hit yourself over the head, the water phoenix may even begin to look like a giant blue chicken.

Yeah, no, I chuckle as I finally buckle down and start sorting the feathers. There were many to choose from, but I could immediately disqualify two-thirds of them. I didn't want to bring any of the smaller feathers, as I couldn't fashion fletching from them, and they would serve little other purpose to me. What would someone even do with feathers of that size?

Maybe jewelry, clothing, and hair ornaments; I suppose they could work for all of those. Screw it; I talked myself into grabbing a few. I'll sell them to Kervin next time I see him.

But unlike the little feathers, the largest ones were still a no-go for me. I could craft arrows with them, but they were simply too big to bring along. So that left me with the last pile, where I gathered all the feathers between a foot and a half to two feet long. Those were the perfect size for what I needed and could reasonably carry.

Luckily, because of the water phoenix's level, I didn't need to be gentle with the feathers. Sure, they lost some of their durability after their host died, but even then, they were still more robust than some aluminum alloys. Meaning I could bend them if I used all my strength, but they wouldn’t get damaged if I tightly bundle them together.

"Are you done?" Tabitha strolls over to me, holding and munching on a skewer of half-cooked bird meat she made after I left to pick out my feathers.

“I don’t know why you’re the one in a hurry,” I remark as I stash the feathers in my pack with everything else. “Didn’t you lose a lot of blood to the phoenix?”

"It's funny you keep calling it a phoenix," Tabitha tries to avoid answering me, so I narrow my eyes in an accusing glare. “I’m ok,” she slowly twirls in place. I couldn’t see any visible wounds, but that didn’t mean Tabitha was back to 100%.

Tabitha brings the skewer to her mouth and takes a large bight of blue meat. I gag at the thought of eating raw meat, but if Tabitha was eating it, it meant her skill said it was safe, so there was that. "And if you're worried about the blood I lost, don't. The meat helped with that."

“I don’t think it works that quickly,” I deadpan, knowing full well there was no way I would win this argument.

“And which of us is in charge?” Tabitha asks, puffing out her chest. Or at least it looks like she’s trying to; it's hard to tell with her always wearing her armor.

“You are,” I reluctantly answer, causing her to smile down at me. So I throw everything in my bag, grab it, throw it over my shoulder, and stand up, so now she has to look up at me. "But I'm the more cautious of us, and you can't deny that."

Tabitha huffs and turns away but doesn’t refute what I say. So, I’ll take that as a win. The simple fact that she could stand there and verbally spar with me meant she was probably ok to move on but to be safe; I’ll try harder to lead us around anything dangerous. With our stomachs full, we didn’t need to worry about hunting later, so we could spend longer traveling deeper.

Together, the two of us kick dirt over the fire I worked so hard to start, and once it was out, we were off again.

I took the lead as usual, but I kept the pace a hair slower than usual to give Tabitha more time to recover. While moving, I scan our surroundings for danger and take note of our surroundings. The trees were still a sight for the eyes, but if I was being honest, I was getting bored of them. They were huge and took up a lot of space, meaning our surroundings had little variety.

A person could easily get lost in here; it was good that both Tabitha and I knew how to tell which direction was which. It also helped that I had the mana currents to follow. So even if I didn't know which way we were going, I could always follow the mana to either the densest part of the forest or follow it as it slowly escaped the magic-dense region. Though if we make it to the forest's heart, the mana could technically lead me out the other way, so I'll have to be careful of that.

It was called the Endless Forest, but after traveling through it, I questioned the name. It was the only thing I could do to pass the time.

Tabitha and I were moving quite fast compared to ordinary people, but it still only would have taken a person a month or so to reach where we are. If they stayed around the edges of the forest outside the magic dense region, it shouldn’t be impossible to circle the whole thing. It would only take a year at most, hardly what I’d call endless.

Maybe people get endlessly lost amongst the ginormous trees; that could be it.

I let out a tired sigh; thinking about the forest's name only bored me more. I couldn't wait to get to the heart and turn around. Exploring was exciting, but I was starting to miss my family, especially when I wasn’t sure how much time I had left with them.

"Oh," I pause and look down at my feet when Sense Mana pings something curious underground.

“What is it?” Tabitha moves next to me with her hand on her sword. She follows my gaze downward and frowns. “Burrowing beasts?”

“No, I bend down and touch the ground, trying to direct Sense Mana through the tangled mess of tree roots below us to better understand what I sense. There were borrowing magic beasts bellow us but nothing strong, and they seldom come to the surface. All the massive tree roots keep anything significant from living underground.

“It’s annoying when you try to be cryptic,” Tabitha points out to me with more than a little bite in her voice.

“Sorry,” I sheepishly smile. “There’s a small cavity directly below us.”

“And, is that important? I would think all the roots would create many hollow spaces." Tabitha makes a great point, but that wasn’t what I was getting at.

“You’re right, but are normal caverns lined with bricks?" That at least gets a surprised reaction from Tabitha. "The best I can tell, there's a building down there."

“How deep?” Tabitha curiously asks.

“Almost 400 feet down,” I tell her. “I take it you don’t want to dig to see what’s down there.”

“Do you?” Tabitha gives me a challenging look.

“Not a chance,” I pull my hand away from the soft ground and stand back up. "I just thought it was the first interesting thing I've sensed in a while.”

Tabitha raises an eyebrow at me. “This not exciting for you?” She gestures around us.”

“Honestly, maybe if we were back closer to the inner region," I give my frank opinion. “Everything around us was new and exciting…. a few days ago; now, not so much. After you told me that you needed to level, it got me thinking about the fighting we've been doing. I still don’t want to kill everything on sight, but having to sit back and watch you protect me all the time is boring. At least when we were exploring the inner parts of the forest, I could still pull my weight. Now I’m just the guide, and everything looks the same.”

“Aren’t you looking for magic metals or something?”

“I was,” I frown. “And I’ve sensed a few interesting deposits, but like the building buried under us, it would take too much time to dig them out and even longer to take them back. I would love it if they were on the surface like the elemental fragments, but they aren’t. The best things I’ve gotten from this trip are related to all the creatures we’ve fought, which speaks for itself."

“I see,” Tabitha nods in understanding. “I understand why you would be frustrated. I’ve only ever entered magic-dense regions to test myself and grow stronger while you wanted to explore and gather materials. Perhaps we should turn around.”

“No,” I shake my head. “I don’t want to leave when we’re so close.”

“Then maybe we should pick up speed,” Tabitha suggests. “I’ve noticed that we’ve been moving slower since we stopped. Are you leading us around another dangerous beast, or is there another reason for this?"

Tabitha’s eyes bore into me. “I just wanted to be sure you were ok,” I finally admit.

“That’s kind of you, but I said I’m fine,” she assures me. “I can handle anything we run into.”

"Promise?" I puff out my lower lip in a mock sad face and hold up my pinky finger.

"What are you doing?" Unfortunately, Tabitha doesn’t recognize the gesture.

“Nothing,” I smile and drop my hand. “If you’re really fine, then I’ll pick up the pace.”

“I am,” Tabitha once again states.

“Then try to keep up,” I smirk.

“Remember to keep an eye on our surroundings,” Tabitha reminds me before grinning at my challenge.

Alright, let's see if we can reach the heart of the forest by the end of today. Based on the light, we have five hours before we need to stop to make camp.

Time to kick it into gear and get a move on.

**********

2,300 words.

Sorry, I know this chapter is mostly filler. The rewrites are kicking my ass, but they are oddly satisfying and long past overdue.

But I will say Tabitha and Aaliyah will reach the heart of the Endless Forest next chapter; you have my word.

Please tell me what you think below, and as always, stay safe.