Ch: 115.4 (Patreon)

Sometimes I like to think the universe is out to get me. Not the gods as I have met them, and I know they care about little us, but the universe itself. I wasn’t so sure.

Not an hour ago, I complained to Tabitha that I was bored, and what does the universe do? It buries a building under my feet.

Ok, no harm, no foul; it was too deep for us to do anything about it, so we glossed over it and continued. Of course, I was curious about what a building was doing buried out here, but I had better things to do than speculate on a long-lost civilization, if it was even that. After all, it was only a single building. Right?

Wrong!

Since we ran across that first building buried beneath the surface, I’ve counted twelve others we passed over, and each one was closer to the surface than the last. The most recent one was only a hundred feet down. Still deep, but people like Tabitha and I could reach it if we wanted to.

None of the buildings were connected, so I wasn't sensing a dungeon or anything, but still, something was obviously going on beneath our feet.

However, as far as I can tell, the buildings were mostly empty, which made sense, seeing how deep down they were. Depending on how long they've been down there, it is no surprise anything contained inside would turn to dust. Some buildings collapsed in on themselves, and even one played host to a group of magic mole creatures.

I sensed no buried tressure, so even if we dug down, it would just be to see the building itself, though I was considering it. Tabitha might not care about an old empty building, but as a craftsman, I wondered how any structure could stay standing for that long and at that depth, primarily when magic moles existed.

Headman Downs once told me the Endless Forest was older than Olebert, and he would know if people were ever living out here, meaning the buildings had to be at least seventeen hundred years old, probably older.

“Another one?” Tabitha notes me glancing down again while we are running.

“Are you getting curious too?” I ask her.

"Nope," Tabitha flatly tells me, keeping her eyes forward.

“Really, not even a little?" I hold two fingers close together, "Not even a smidge.”

“Did you sense anything inside them?” Tabitha questions me with a bored look. "No, of course, you didn't," she remarks after I remain silent. "If you sensed anything worth our time, you would have had us stop. So no, I don’t care about empty buildings.”

“But they could be over seventeen hundred years old,” I point out to her.

“Yeah, and?” Tabitha’s blatant disregard for history almost causes me to trip. But I'll give Tabitha this; she has her priorities straight and sticks to them. If it didn't involve her growing stronger, she didn’t care.

Maybe that was a little harsh on my part. Since we’ve been adventuring together, Tabitha has sacrificed multiple opportunities to fight to look after me, so fighting wasn’t the only thing she cared about.

Still, I can't believe she wasn't at least a little curious about the buildings. But since my partner didn't want to stop, I continued leading us toward the forest's center without any pit stops. But just because we weren't stopping didn't mean I was letting go of the buildings.

“Hey Tabitha, I’m curious; which kingdom was formed first, Olebert or Scholl?”

“Why does it matter?” Tabitha doesn’t sound interested in my line of questioning, but she does reluctantly answer me. “Scholl was formed sixteen hundred years ago.”

“So Olebert was formed first,” I nod. “That’s interesting.”

Tabitha gives me the side eye and frowns like I implied Scholl was weaker because Olebert came around first. "A hundred years is nothing in the grand scheme of things," she says.

“Yeah, I know,” I agree with her, but Tabitha doesn’t stop there.

“Though Scholl was founded later, our warriors were stronger than that of Olebert, so our empire grew faster.”

“But how do you personally know that?” I tease Tabitha, knowing it will keep her talking.

“There are records,” she proudly states, like that solved everything.

“Records written by your ancestors?” I ask.

“Yes,” Tabitha smiles proudly.

“Then don’t you think they’re a little biased?” I point out to her.

Tabitha frowns in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well, if your records are only written from the point of your ancestors, don't you think they would be slightly biased towards Scholl? I bet Olebert has records, too, saying they were the strongest back then.”

“Then their records lie,” Tabitha scowls at me and looks ready to fight to prove she is right.

"Woah there," I hold up my hands placatingly. "I didn't mean anything by it. I was merely trying to get you to see why I find the buildings interesting. Who can say for certain what happened in the past, as neither of us was alive back then? People can write whatever they want, and a thousand years from now, someone can believe it to be true. But you know what doesn’t lie, facts.”

I point down at the ground. "And the fact is, we're running over ancient buildings. Maybe they used to be a part of Olebert or maybe even Scholl. Did you think about that? And just maybe, the buildings predate both of them. Or it's possible that the people who founded Olebert and Scholl originated right here."

"You think?" Tabitha's eyes widen at the implication.

I want to tell her those were just baseless conjectures I made to get her interested, but seeing how she was giving the ruins the due consideration they deserve, I hold off on dropping that particular truth bomb for now. At least now, if I spot a building close to the surface, she might not get mad if I ask her to help me dig it up.

Chances were, we wouldn’t find anything interesting, but that didn't stop me from wanting to see the insides of one of these ruins. And if my hunch were correct, it wouldn't be long before we came across a suitable building.

It wasn't a coincidence that more buildings were popping up the closer we got to the forest's heart. And thanks to all the zigzagging we needed to do to avoid magic beasts, we covered quite the area.

And just as I predicted, not thirty minutes later, after circling a strong magic signature near the edge of Sense Mana's range, I spot the building I was waiting for. Most of it was underground, but it was at an angle, and the top right-hand corner was actually poking out of the ground. Moreover, a large root was covering half of the exposed brick, meaning it was unlikely anyone had discovered it before.

I not so subtly shift the direction we’re running. "We're taking a quick detour," I inform Tabitha.

Tabitha rolls her eyes but doesn't say anything as she faithfully follows my lead. We must backtrack, but I quickly and efficiently guide us to where the building is camouflaged.

“I hope you aren’t expecting me to help you dig,” Tabitha quips as we slow down.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” I grin.

We come up on the root concealing the building. Using my feet, I kick away a few inches of leaf litter and some topsoil that's been gradually consuming the corner of the roof, sticking out of the ground.

“Oh," Tabitha is surprised when my foot reveals the moss-covered bricks, but all her emotion quickly drains from her face. "I don't see an entrance.”

“Technically, the closest one is a broken window eight feet down that way,” I point out.

“Then it looks like you will have to dig,” Tabitha snarkily smirks.

“Not if I cheat and make a hole up here." Canceling the Magic Threads, holding my hammer to my back, I swing my weapon around and take up a solid stance.

“You complain about me not caring about history, and here you are destroying it,” Tabitha takes great joy in pointing out my hypocrisy.

“Yep, that’s me,” I shamelessly grin back at her. “Now watch me punch a hole into this building.”

Raising my hammer above my head, I reactivate Magic Threads, but this time I use them to secure myself in place. Once I'm ready, I swing my hammer at the mossy bricks.

I fully intended to punch through the ceiling with a single swing, so when my hammer touched the bricks and was stopped dead, my mouth fell open in astonishment. Surprisingly, there's no backlash from my hammer being stopped. Instead, all the momentum was drained from my hammer as soon as it touched the stonework. Maybe I should try a skill?

I bring my hammer back for the second time, but now I swing using my skills. I use Double Strike, as it’s still stronger than Multi-Strike at this point, along with Precise Strike, so both blows land on the same spot.

An ethereal hammer overlaps my real one as I swing. My second swing stops like my first, but the ethereal one continues as it should, and I finally hit the weird bricks.

A single crack in the mortar is all I manage to do using two of my best attack skills simultaneously. What the hell? The bricks aren't even enchanted!

I turn to Tabitha for her opinion on what I should try next, only to see her more shocked than I am. However, she isn’t a high leveled warrior for nothing, and soon her expression of disbelief morphs into her iconic sadistic battle grin, like the brick corner was an enemy challenging her or something.

“Step aside,” Tabitha slowly draws her blade as I rush to get out of the way.

I expect Tabitha to slash indiscriminately, but she does the opposite. First, she uses her sword to poke at the mossy brickwork. Wherever her sword scrapes against, florescent green moss is peeled away to reveal grey stone underneath.

“Fascinating,” I hear her mumble under her voice as she draws her blade back in a thrusting stance.

My eyes can't follow her attack as she thrusts her weapon forward at blinding speed.

For a split second, I thought an attack of that caliber must have worked, but I was wrong. Tabitha’s sword thrust was stopped as soon as the tip of her blade made contact with the grey brick. Tabitha retracts her sword and brings the blade to her face to examine her sword's tip.

“Should I try again?” I hesitantly ask Tabitha as she stares intensely at her weapon.

“No,” Tabitha tells me in a scary voice. I didn’t need Danger Sense to realize I shouldn’t ask that again.

I take another step back as Tabitha takes up a different stance. Tabitha's blade glows as she channels her mana into it. I don't know if she's using any of her skills, but there was a different air to her than a few seconds ago.

What happens next is hard to describe, but the best way I can explain it is that Tabitha unleashes hell on the brick she tried to pierce. I can’t even follow her footwork, let alone count how many consecutive slashes she unleashes in a split second. I can only see that one brick is now utterly devoid of moss. And the surface underneath didn't even have a single scratch.

I was curious whether I should focus on where she was striking or if focusing on Tabitha was the right choice, so I watched back and forth between both. It was like she was fighting the water phoenix again or maybe the arch-goblin. Either way, I had a front-row seat to the action this time, and it left me breathless.

So this was how much Tabitha was holding back when sparring with me. Damn, even if I were on the same level as her, I wouldn't hold a candle to her while she's going all out. It wasn’t even the difference in stat points. Tabitha was 23 levels higher than me, equating to a 230 stat point difference between us.

Those points made her deadlier than me, but what separated us was much more than simple numbers. Her technique with a sword, her footwork, hell, even the way she moved her body was better than me. She had the deadly grace of a warrior who's spent most of their life on a battlefield. I couldn't replicate that even if I had the levels and skills.

At first, Tabitha's targeted attacks appear to do nothing to the unflinching stone, but slowly, more cracks form in the mortar surrounding the brick she's focusing on. And then, as if she exceeded some predetermined damage threshold, the grout turns to powder, and the brick is shattered into hundreds of fragments.

But Tabitha doesn't stop there; once the first brick is gone, she targets the one next to the hole she made. And that brick breaks even faster than the first one for some reason. One by one, Tabitha carves out the corner of the roof until there's a hole big enough for us to enter.

"You, ok?" I slowly approach Tabitha, who's winded.

“I’m fine.” Though she says that, she’s forced to wipe a considerable amount of sweat from her face, and honestly, she looked a little pale to me.

Breaking through the wall took a lot out of her, which begged the question, how were these bricks so strong? They weren’t enchanted; they had more mana than ordinary bricks, but not a significant amount, not enough to hold back Tabitha.

“Are you good to go inside?” I ask Tabitha, who's forced to take a drink of water.

“I said I’m fine,” she straightens her back and wipes the last trace of sweat from her face, projecting an air of confidence. Tabitha liked to talk big, but I knew she was tired after that display. She was still worn out from killing the water phoenix, and the bricks were just the metaphorical stone that broke the camel's back.

"Alright," I pretend not to notice her struggling not to wobble in place. "I'll get the light."

“Cicsh het ploetts lages!”

It takes little mana to cast my light spell and hop into the now-open building. The building was big enough that I was confident it used to have two stories, but either the floor was made from wood and rotted out a long time ago, or it was stone and collapsed in on itself.

The building overall was slanted enough that I could slide down the nearest wall to the bottom. But, as I was already aware, there wasn't any hidden treasure down here. While most of the building was still intact, it was slowly breaking down around what used to be the windows and door, allowing large amounts of soil to fall in.

The ground was littered with bricks that had come loose over time and were the reason I wanted down here. Reaching down, I grab one of the still intact ones to scrutinize it. Tabitha slides down behind me, but she only needs to see the state of the building before frowning in disappointment. I ignore her pointed glare and instead focus on the brick in my hands.

What a unique mana structure. It almost looked like there were tiny springs of mana throughout the stone. Moreover, it was handmade and not carved from naturally forming rock. What's more, I was having trouble picking out what elements it was made of.

There were small traces of iron, but that was only one of a dozen different metals contained within it. I was tempted to build an external frame backpack like Dad taught me and carry as many of the stones back with us as I could. Who knows what I could get from them if I melted a bunch down?

But I already knew that wasn't viable, so I took the brick in my hand and stashed it in my bag.

“All that for a brick,” Tabitha complains in the dark.

“At least we learned how strong the buildings are and how they lasted so long," I try to get Tabitha to see that this wasn’t pointless.

“I suppose,” Tabitha reluctantly agrees.

“If we come across another one of these, then maybe we can use it as a campsite,” I suggest.

“Only if it doesn’t have too many holes,” Tabitha walks over to the part of the nearby wall that's in the process of collapsing. "I'm sure you noticed it; once a hole is made, it's much easier to break through."

I did notice that. To be precise, it was the mortar that went out first. “It’s just conjecture, but I think the stones needed the support of the mortar to displace the energy of our attacks.”

“Whatever; can we get going now that you have your brick?” Tabitha grumbles, most likely because she's tired or annoyed she had to use so much energy to break through a simple brick wall.

“Of course, thanks for helping me,” I smile under the light of my spell.

Tabitha pretends to ignore me, but I can see the corner of her mouth threatening to curve up.

The two of us climb out of the underground building together, but before we set off again, I collect a sample of the mortar from where Tabitha made the hole. You never know; maybe I'll find something out if I examine it with Sandra.

With our detour completed, we began running again; only this time, I had to slow down because Tabitha was more tired than she wanted to admit. Nevertheless, we still easily avoid all the strong magic beasts with Sense Mana's help, and we pass dozens of more buried buildings, some of which were remarkably intact, while others were just piles of those strange bricks.

The buildings weren’t the only thing changing. The ground was gradually sloping upwards, and the mana in the air was reaching even more obnoxious levels. Finally, we were getting close to the heart.

The gradual incline grew steeper, and soon Tabitha and I were climbing a mountain instead of running. The towering cliff face wasn’t completely vertical, but it was damn near.

Halfway up the mountain, the last tree branch overhead disappeared, and we were treated to an open sky for the first time in weeks. The fun felt amazing on my face and was the boost we needed to climb faster and reach the top.

And when we did, everything we went through until now was worth this moment. The silent falcon, the goblins, the elemental, the water phoenix, the sleepless nights; I would do it all again if it meant I was treated to the sight before me.

We reached the heart of the Endless Forest. We made it!

**********

3,150 words.

Sorry, I would've finished editing sooner, but it's Tuesday, so I got sidetracked reading the Wandering Inn.

But I digress; what did you think of the chapter? I promised they would make it to the forest's heart; I kept my end of the deal, so please tell me what you think below.

And as always, stay safe.