Chapter 85 - Rushing into Abnormality (1/2)

Ch. 85: Rushing into Abnormality

The next morning, Loren and Lapis cleaned up the camp and were finally ready to head into the Black Forest.

Loren gathered the bodies of the forest wolves that attacked them into one large pile, and Lapis used the magic > to turn everything to ashes.

They had gathered as much of the splattered pieces of flesh and wiped the blood and burned those as well, but the rusty iron smell of blood and intestines still drifted in the air, so the two of them weren’t able to spend a good night.

They had considered moving, but after the attack, both didn’t have the will to take everything down and set it up again, so they decided to put up with it and stay there.

“Are you two alright?”

It wasn’t surprising that Feuille was worried about them.

Although Loren and Lapis had taken turns keeping watch, when it was their turn to sleep, they couldn’t sleep at all due to the smell.

Not sleeping for one night wasn’t a problem for both, but the lack of sleep still showed on their faces.

For Feuille, after he had been thrown into the tent, burrowed into a sleeping bag to wait the attack out, but he fell asleep in there until morning, so he had gotten enough sleep.

“It’ll probably work out somehow.”

“After we reach Feuille’s village, I’d like to borrow a bed.”

Even if it didn’t affect their actions, it didn’t mean that the bad mood from lack of sleep went away as well, so as Lapis said so with a sullen look, Feuilled nodded quickly.

“Please rest as much as you want. I’m sure everyone will welcome you.”

“I hope so. I guess that’ll be something to look forward to.”

To be honest, Loren wanted to turn around and head back.

That was how creepy last night’s attack was.

He could say that the attack itself was because they camped near the forest wolves’ habitat.

But the way they attacked, ignoring the survival instinct that animals and beasts should have, indicated that there was something wrong with the forest, and along with the stories of elves not showing up in the city anymore and the people who went to investigate not coming back, he couldn’t help but see the Black Forest in a creepier way.

“How long would it take to get to your village Feuille?”

Lapis, who was walking behind Loren, who slowly stepped into the forest with caution, asked Feuille, who was walking beside her.

Feuille looked at the situation around him and said after thinking for a while.

“I think it would take around two hours to get there.”

“That’s quite far.”

Elves were also familiar with how to walk in the forest.

Although how to move efficiently and choosing easy paths within the forest was common knowledge for them, it wasn’t so for humans, and if one were to ask if humans could walk the same paths as elves, the answer was a no.

Elves could easily go through places that were blocked by undergrowth and vines, as well as paths that would cause humans to trip.

Lapis whispered to Loren that it was why they shouldn’t take an elf’s sense of travel time in the forest as it is.

Without even nodding, Loren, who was stepping through shrubbery to make a path, suddenly swept his hand through the air.

As Lapis braced herself and Feuille looked at him with a surprised face, Loren pulled what he had snatched in midair up to his eyes, and wrapped around his right hand was a snake, which had its neck gripped tightly by him.

The snake which wrapped itself almost up to Loren’s elbow, seemed to have jumped down from the tree above to bite one of them, but it wasn’t large enough to eat any of them.

But the snake still opened and closed its mouth and twisted its body to somehow try to bite Loren’s hand.

“This smells bad Lapis. Careful.”

After saying a warning, Loren crushed the snake’s neck in a heartbeat.

After seeing it losing its strength and dangling from his arm, he threw the body into a thicket.

As soon as it landed inside, the thicket started moving, and a ripping sound started sounding from inside, which soon became a gnawing sound, and Feuille went pale.

“What kind of hellish place is this?”

Lapis said in a tired voice, knowing immediately that something was ripping apart and eating the snake’s body.

They quickly moved along, as they didn’t want to know what was inside the thicket eating the snake.

“How do you elves live in such a dangerous place?”

“It’s not usually like this…”

A mouse that scurried beneath their feet caught some sort of insect and started nibbling on it.

The mouse was suddenly pierced by a vine that attacked it from above, losing its life, and the vine started sucking its body fluids with great speed.

When they looked up, there were a few bodies of some animals hanging from pointed branches, and an animal that looked like a monkey was eating them single mindedly.

As Loren wondered if there was a bird that did something like that, a giant bird came up from behind the monkey-like animal, snatched it in its claws, and flew off into the sky.

“Hey, what kind of place did we come to? Is the Black Forest supposed to be this bloody?”

A different monkey that looked like the one that the bird carried off attacked them from above.

As Loren saw it and punched it away, making a fist sized dent in its face, it flew through the trees, crashing into branches, and when it landed, rustling sounds and sounds of it shrieking rang out, as if something had attacked it, causing Feuille to jump.

“What was it?”

“I believe it was a forest ape…but it’s strange. They are indeed omnivores, but they usually eat fruits and nuts, and rarely attack other animals…”