Birds called overhead in short, sharp notes, like they were warning each other that something was moving below.
Trees grew taller and closer together here, their trunks thick with moss and age. Lys had studied the village settlement maps enough to know the layout on paper, but walking through just his own village's outside area felt way different from what he thought. The air here smelled greener, damper, heavier with the scent of pine resin and wet earth.
Vessa didn't slow down. She even picked up her pace. She moved with the easy confidence of someone who had done this a hundred times in places far more dangerous than this stretch of woods. Lys kept one hand resting on CorpseSlayer's hilt out of habit as his memories from the Wolf incident kept hovering over his head. The sword felt warm against his hip, almost alive, making him feel a little safe.
After another ten minutes, the trees closed in around them properly. Sunlight filtered through the canopy in shifting green shafts. Lys pulled out the map Sara had given him. It was surprisingly detailed, hand-drawn but precise, with little sketches of plants along the margins and notes on terrain around here. His Hunting skill worked quietly in the back of his mind, flagging useful details as they passed, details he normally would have missed without this skill.
He also activated his Basic Herb Knowledge, and instantly spotted a cluster of silverleaf ferns growing in a shaded dip and crouched to harvest a few stalks. These were rare herbs, as the skill showed him a small system screen whenever he was focusing on weeds and small plants along the way. The leaves were fresh and potent. He knew they'd fetch a reasonable price just at a glance.
'If I bring all these rare herbs, then mother for sure would die out of happiness.' He thought with a smile as he picked up some plants along with their roots and put them in his pocket.
Vessa glanced back but didn't stop walking. "You actually know what you're picking?!"
"Yeah, some of it. Mother used to sell herbs as a living, you see." Lys gave her an excuse while tucking some ferns into the small pouch at his belt. "Don't worry. You can keep walking. I won't get lost. I'm just behind you."
She made a low sound that might have been approval or not. "Keep your eyes open. We're not here for herbs."
----
Lys stopped picking anything after this. They kept moving. He used the map and his hunting instincts to call out safe paths, pointing out a soft patch of ground that looked like it might hide a sinkhole or something, then directing them around a thick tangle of brambles that would slow them down. Vessa followed his lead without comment, but he caught her watching him sideways once or twice, nodding to herself, as if she was evaluating him.
The deeper they went, the stranger the forest felt to Lys, unlike anything he had ever seen before.
First, it was the dead circles. Three of them, each about two meters wide, were where every plant inside had withered from the center outward. The grass at the edges was still green and healthy, but the middle was brown and brittle, like something had sucked the life right out of the ground.
Vessa crouched beside one, fingers brushing the dry soil. She pulled out her small journal and made quick sketches, her face unreadable.
"Have you seen anything like this before?" Lys asked.
"Yes, but these shouldn't be here," she said with a grim face. Then she stood and kept walking without explaining what she meant by that.
A little further on, they found the trees. Eight old giants in a loose cluster, their massive trunks leaning, not fallen, not storm-damaged, but curved gradually toward the same eastern point, like they were being pulled by something far away.
The air smelled wrong here, too. Under the normal forest scent of moss and pine, there was something metallic, like old blood left too long in the sun.
Lys's herb skill stayed quiet, but his hunting instincts prickled. Something was off. Every nerve in his body knew it. The birds had gone silent, not just quiet, but silent, the way a forest goes when something dangerous moves through it. There was no rustling of small animals in the undergrowth. No buzz of insects. Just the heavy, pressing weight of a silence that felt alive.
Vessa had stopped a few paces ahead. She was staring at the ground, head tilted, listening, trying to figure out what was going on here. Her hand was on the blade at her hip, not drawn yet, but ready.
The sharp, efficient vice guild master was gone. What remained was something older, something that had learned to trust the silence when it spoke.
Then the sound came.
Thudd….Thuddd…..Thuddddd
Surprising both of them, this sound was coming closer toward them from deeper in the trees, heavy, flat, the steady rhythm of something walking toward them slowly.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The rhythm was getting faster now. Closing distance. Then something cracked in the undergrowth, a big branch snapping under the weight that shouldn't be possible for anything that had ever been alive.
The silence of the forest had become a held breath as both Lys and Vessa got into a battle position instantly, seeing something was moving through the gaps of the trees towards them.