You push onward through the woods, and still find absolutely no living things, the more you thought about it the more confused you got, if it was only monsters missing then maybe a group of powerful adventurers came through recently but you haven't see so much as a fly since you entered....
You break through the tree line and discover what might as well be called a massacre, it looked as if something came crashing down into the forest destroying all the trees and pushing them down and tens of Treants chopped in half strewn around the area. You finally discovered where they all were, does that mean whatever did this was enough to scare away everything that was in the forest, Treant and animal alike? The thought terrified you. You leave as quickly as possible.
You finally exit the woods after another half day of walking and as you exit the woods you find yourself at the foot of the mountains, you start to walk along the mountain range looking for a way up until after about a half an hour you find a makeshift path, its sloppy and unmaintained but it will serve its purpose, you walk along the path for a long time occasionally having to jump over gaps or go off the path because there is none, but overall it was relatively easy.
You made it to the halfway point before you stopped to rest, you made a small campfire and began to make some food and took off your mask for the time being, while you were eating you weren't paying attention and before you realized it a squad of knight hawks descended on you attracted by the smell of the meat, you reached for your sword and hold it up just in time to block the claws of one of the incoming hawks, before you have the chance to attack a storm of rocks from the surrounding area began to relentlessly be shot at the hawks, only after a few died did they retreat and the storm stop.
You hear footsteps approaching you rush and put your mask on just in time to see a relatively muscular man in his 40's come into view, once he noticed you he seemed shocked, he approached cautiously "Sorry, were you hunting those?" he seemed on guard
"No, I was eating and they caught me off guard, thank you"
"So what's your name?"
"Im nobody but a Faceless Wanderer"
"Hmmm" he looked at you skeptically "Where are you headed?"
"South"
"Marxis huh? Any reason really?"
"Like I said, im just a wanderer. That was some amazing stunt you pulled, how'd you do that?"
"The rocks? It was simple earth attack-type magic. Why? Never seen magic before?"
"No, this would be the first" The only time you've seen magic is when Mephisto used it, so humans can learn it to...
He looked exited to talk about it "I started learning about 9 or 10 years, im still a novice but I can hold my own in a fight if I do say so myself."
A novice?! "Well it was very impressive"
"You know, I could introduce you to my master then, who knows, if your lucky he might teach you something"
"I would be honored to meet your master" you had never even thought about going in to magic before, but on the slim chance you can learn some it would be extremely helpful
"If you want to it will take some time to get there he's all the way in the Capital City"
"If he's so far away then why are you here at the border?"
"Its the only place I can easily find knight hawks, there feathers are great for magic tools so I come out here monthly to get some. Plus how else would I meet mysterious masked strangers like you" he begins to collect feathers from the hawks, you sit down and begin to wait.