Chapter 158: The Next Target
After about five days, the whole group continued to observe the ant nests, mostly climbing trees and hiding then looking down, while Elyssia had Angel's eyes with an extremely far viewing distance, allowing her to observe even while sitting far away.
Takeshi sat talking with the village head. The tiny village head could only sit on an upturned cup.
"Hey? I see your village is so small. Since when have you lived there?"
Village head: "Actually, we didn't live there at first, later we moved and lived there. We have a very large dwelling place, but because it was too crowded as well as having many issues, we divided into groups and lived far away. If there is a major matter, we will gather back."
Takeshi nodded.
"So did you go far?"
Village head: "Very far, at the place we live. We use winged ants to move, you see."
Takeshi appeared quite surprised.
"So did you guys go far? Did you pass by anywhere interesting?"
Village head: "Apologies, but I cannot tell you the location, please forgive me."
Regarding this part, surely the village head would not reveal it to anyone; this was a secret, if anyone knew, that place would surely encounter danger.
Takeshi shook his head.
"No, I just want to go everywhere. What I meant to ask is do you have anywhere interesting to go? We want to go on an adventure."
The village head nodded in understanding; he pondered for a moment.
"Indeed, I have a map. Previously, someone in my village went out to scout, then lost direction and arrived at a place, then much later luckily managed to return and reported back."
Takeshi let out an "oh" of curiosity.
"Try telling me?"
Village head: "I only vaguely remember that place was a forest with silver-colored leaves, that's all. If you want, I will draw the map at a large scale for you."
Takeshi rubbed his chin as if remembering.
"So do you have the original there?"
The village head nodded.
"Yes, but it's very small, you won't be able to see it."
Takeshi shook his head.
"Don't worry, my friend has very good eyes. She will be able to see it, so just give it to me."
"But let me say first, if we go, you guys stay here and survive on your own."
The village head jumped onto Takeshi's hand and laughed.
"Don't worry, we will still be fine."
Takeshi dropped the village head back to the village; he returned to the box-shaped earth house that Takeshi created for the tiny people. He rummaged in his house chest for a while. His wife, who was quite old, was also curious and asked, but he did not answer because he was searching.
After a while of searching, finally he found it and handed it to Takeshi.
Takeshi quickly ran up to the treehouse to find Elyssia, but she wasn't there, so he went back down underground to search.
Quickly, all six of them had gathered. Aoto arrived last because since the time he had wings, Aoto always flew everywhere because it gave him a feeling of freedom he never had before.
Takeshi spoke up to begin:
"Alright, everyone is here. So we will concentrate at the table for the next trip."
Kazuka was curious: "Do you have some plan?"
Airi folded her arms as if having guessed Takeshi.
"Probably something interesting, that's why he's being so mysterious."
Takeshi scratched his head and laughed, pointing toward Elyssia.
"She will let you guys know."
The whole group focused their eyes toward Elyssia.
Elyssia nodded and brought out a map as small as a knuckle. Her eyes although had no change, her vision was already different; now her vision was extremely far and clear, exactly a small part of the strength of the Angel race's eyes.
"Everyone, Takeshi was given this map by the village head of that tiny people race. My eyes can see it, no need to worry."
"Roughly, this map is quite simple and only leads to one place, the place Takeshi mentioned. That is the silver-leaf forest."
"So there is a direction then."
Kazuka rubbed his chin.
"So that's it, so did you ask carefully, Takeshi?"
Takeshi nodded.
"Asked a few times just to be sure. The village head said it was a map of a tiny person in the village who went scouting then forgot the way back and got lost, then found it. A very long time later he finally found the way home and redrew this map."
Ayaka: "So did you ask about the issue of whether this forest is dangerous or not?"
Not letting Takeshi speak, Aoto quickly countered:
"Not much worry, we go adventuring everywhere so why fear danger?"
Airi pushed Ayaka's shoulder and turned to speak softly:
"What's wrong? Scared? Don't worry."
Ayaka looked at Airi for a moment, then she shook her head.
"Just a bit worried, that's all."
Kazuka spoke loudly: "So what does everyone think?"
Aoto folded his arms.
"Don't even know if it needs discussion. Everyone says one sentence and it's decided."
Takeshi laughed lightly.
"Well, we've been here for a long time, sitting still in one place who can bear it. Since we're going adventuring, meeting danger is a certainty. Now if they don't go, I'll probably stay out there rolling until the time we go."
Aoto laughed lightly and said: "So let's go then, everyone?"
Elyssia put the tiny map into her bag.
"I want to go."
Ayaka became more determined when seeing everyone wanted to and was excited to go, so her hesitating was truly not right.
"Then let's go."
Kazuka: "Elyssia, if there's combat, don't fight with full strength, okay? Let us take action, you can just stand and watch."
Elyssia heard this and was quite surprised; she also didn't expect herself to be highly rated by Kazuka like that, only knowing to smile.
"You rate me too highly."
Afterward, the whole group prepared things to set out, as well as saying goodbye to the tiny people. They knew that once they had gone, surely returning would be quite difficult because if they went, they would just keep going. Moving was a certainty for the whole group; sitting still was impossible when everyone wanted to go; the whole group being here for a long time was even more eager about this trip.
…
Going very far, going toward the far north. The whole group at this moment was regretful to the point of tears because they happened to butcher those bone horses; now they had to walk. But because they also had a bit of strength now, the speed was quite fast.
Currently, the whole group was slowing down and resting.
Kazuka was curious.
"Don't know if that forest has anything?"
Aoto walking beside him shrugged.
"Who knows."
Takeshi: "Just wait until we arrive to know."
Aoto: "That's right, and besides, when we go adventuring, is it necessarily true that every time we go to a location there will be work to do? Sometimes we get lost or that place even has nothing."
The sword tied at Kazuka's hip had his hand placed on it; he let out a sigh.
"If there's nothing it's also fine, consider it as going to explore to know, that's all."
Suddenly Kazuka seemed to remember.
"Hey Takeshi, you control a few boulders to fly up then have all of us stand on them, moving like that for convenience."
Takeshi was startled; he seemed to realize that it could also be possible.
"Oh right? And yet I didn't think of it."
Airi: "Flying close to the ground is fine, no need to fly too high. This forest's trees aren't large either."
So the whole group stood on a block of earth, enough for them to stand; the large forest had trees growing quite sparsely, the saplings were all quite hard to grow here so the trees were sparser, therefore the whole group stood on the large earth block flying away and moving very easily.
Sitting and standing on the earth block, everyone in the group was comfortable because they didn't have to walk.
After many days of traveling, the group still hadn't arrived and continued to go.
Elyssia put the map inside her person.
"This silver forest seems to be located in the middle of a forest. I think that's the reason few people look for it."
Takeshi still stood straight and looked ahead in a focused manner while controlling.
"That small village head said the person who went to that forest and returned had never actually entered the forest, so he also didn't know what was inside."
Aoto let out a "hmph" breath.
"So what, a mystery is more interesting; I really like things like that."
Aoto originally escaped outside from the **Elemental** race to go explore the outside, so hearing about this silver-leaf forest made him very fond and curious; it could be said he was the person with the greatest expectations on this trip.
Takeshi curiously asked: "By the way, is silver poisonous?"
Airi shook her head: "Not too poisonous, almost harmless."
Takeshi smiled.
"Is that so? I thought silver was very poisonous?"
Airi: "Probably you confused it with mercury."
Elyssia looked into the distance.
"If what the village head said is true and it's actually silver there. If we get there we can take a bit of silver to sell as well, right? Silver is precious."
At this time, the whole group came out of the forest and reached a place where grass and trees were quite sparse, but flying meant there was no lack of people, so the group still continued to fly.
Elyssia recalled the map in her head.
"Oh, we're out, estimate surely going straight ahead and we'll arrive, but it's quite far."
Airi flicked her hand.
"Just go, why worry about that issue."
Aoto: "Then try to sketch out what we'll do when we get there."
Ayaka: "I think when we arrive, if there's nothing then observe and leave, and if there's something interesting then just go ahead and explore it."
Just like that, they continued to go. Crossing high mountains, crossing a small river, meeting a few monsters on the road and conveniently handling them. Currently the group was also quite strong, so common monsters were not worth mentioning.
Afterward, they entered a large forest, monsters were very many, mainly wolves, the group also didn't meet any wolf that was too strong and just like that entered deeper into the forest in a favorable way without being hindered for too long.
This forest had very large and big trees, green canopies pressing on each other covering the light below, but the canopies were also not too thick and sometimes there were also many gaps. This forest was quite damp, beetles and insects were very many.
Looking at these tall trees, one also understood it was exactly the shield covering the silver forest. Looking from the outside it truly was not possible to see any silver-colored forest, but if flying up surely it would be possible, but the whole group now each lay in a corner of the new rock and slept, Takeshi also nodded off sleepily, not bothering to think much.
Luckily there were storage rings, helping the whole group carry many necessary items, among them even blankets to spread out to lie on, otherwise lying on the large rock block Takeshi took up would be very hard, who could sleep? Usually one still could sleep, but the uncomfortable feeling was still uncomfortable.
Afterward, going deep inside... the silver-leaf forest appeared...