It had been more than a month and a half since Shiba and Eini reached the Forest of Illusions, but neither of them had managed to leave yet.
The year already changed and even entered the second month, so the outside was quite cold in most areas of the country compared to when they reached the Forest of Illusions. However, such a problem didn't exist inside the Forest of Illusions.
Thanks to how it was created, the weather was stable all year along. Border Town and the arid zone didn't have too much change due to their special weather either, but the Forest of Illusions didn't have any change, not even was possible to discern between day and night.
Shiba wasn't bothered too much by the stable weather, he liked it, but not being able to discern day and night was quite an issue for him.
He had been teaching Gregor all the way, which slowed him quite a bit, but it wasn't like if he could leave the forest just by moving quicker. Once he had noticed that, he hadn't been in haste like before, so teaching Gregor with calm wasn't an issue at all.
Eini needed a whole month to beat the illusions tormenting her, but she had been sat meditating since then, so she pretty much remained in the same area where she appeared.
The illusions had been a hell for her like Lina guessed, but when she was able to surpass them, the effects were also great. So great that she was in problems. If she lasted a second more in noticing the state of her body, she would have advanced to the Rank 1 without noticing it. At that moment, she was already at the peak of level 1, and if she lost the concentration for a moment, she might advance by mistake.
She had been in deep meditation to gain control again of the energy on her body to solve that issue, but it was being quite hard. Being so talented was coming back to bite her. Of course, others would die of jealousy if they heard about her happy problems since most of them didn't reach Rank 1 on their whole lives or needed to put a lot of effort into it.
Lina had faced similar issues when she was young since she was even more talented than Eini. Still, in the end, she had needed to rely on special resources to hasten her body growth since surprising her level turned impossible too quickly.
Eini was enduring better since her talent was lower, but Lina felt difficult that she would be able to endure until being fifteen with her current progress.
Eini was still thirteen, but she was already at the peak of level 9, so enduring two more years seemed extremely difficult. It would already be great if she endured until being fourteen.
Lina had remained carefully observing the situation of Shiba and Eini the whole time. The place where the remnant will of the creator of the forest stayed was quite comfortable, so she observed them from there.
The forest creator got angry when Shiba decided to help Gregor, but an icy glance from Lina was all he needed to stop having any thought of interfering.
Lina didn't know how to break that curse, but she wouldn't interfere anyway.
Shiba was the one who accepted Gregor, so he should be the one to help him or ask someone to help.
Anyway, from Lina's perspective, Gregor didn't have any future, but it was good that Shiba let him enjoy his life a bit due to his pitiful fate.
As for the possibility of the curse expanding due to Gregor leaving the forest, that wasn't her problem, so she wouldn't waste her time thinking about it.
Gregor wasn't exactly good-looking, and his strength was doomed to remain under Rank 2, so it wasn't like he would be swarmed by women once he left, nor it seemed that it would change in the future. Thus, even if he eventually had enough luck to get a wife, the curse shouldn't expand too much.
Of course, less than Rank 2 was pure trash by Lina's standards, but if he reached Rank 1, he would be swarmed by women even being not being too handsome as long as it was a place like Border Town, but he was far from that area, and it wasn't sure that he would reach Rank 1 either.
While they were still in the Forest of Illusions, the outside world didn't stop.
The elder that had given the invitation to Shiba and Eini had been residing on his grandson's academy for quite a while, but he had finally left.
It wasn't that he was waiting for Shiba and Eini. Based on his thought, they would need far more time to reach the academy. He just wanted to spend some time with his grandson and teach him some things.
Once he had left a certain someone that had been monitoring him sighed in relief.
"Great. That bastard finally left. He had been asking a lot for help lately, but he still spends a lot of time with his grandson."
A beautiful woman sat on a luxurious chair and relaxed after speaking.
"Why worry about that bastard? You are stronger than him."
An old man spoke honestly. He thought that they were far too cautious.
"True, but Danaga, my dear little brother, you should remember to not underestimate someone who isn't bothered about death anymore. Someone desperate can be highly dangerous. Even if he can't kill me, it could harm our plans lethally. It is better to be cautious around him until he dies."
The old man was the real younger brother of that beautiful woman, but due to the differences in speed when leveling up, she remained young and beautiful while he already looked like an old man. In fact, no one else knew about their relationship.
That woman had reached Rank 9 long ago and was, without doubt, one of the stronger figures on the planet.
However, she seldomly appeared in the outside world. Instead, she made her brother create a cult to worship her, where everyone would obey her word no matter what she ordered.
They really considered her a goddess and lived their lives fully controlled by her will. They reached a point that couldn't act on their own if it weren't because they were ordered.
Danaga acted as one of the most devoted servants, but his true job was to use words to slowly brainwash the rest to think that they couldn't live without the control of their goddess.
He succeeded in creating a whole cult where everyone would kill themselves without even questioning if their goddess were to order it. Of course, they wouldn't mind killing others or accepting suicide missions, but for the sake of their big plans, they avoided using them like that.
They wanted to expand their cult further since it was still quite small, and their plan was to go towards the area where that elder's grandson had the academy.
Both places weren't far from each other, but they weren't near either, so there was a lot of terrains to cover.
Going in the opposite direction was going to the capital, which was very dangerous with their current influence, so they decided to go in the opposite direction.
However, the sudden travel of that elder had hindered their plans. Even if it was just for the need to be cautious, they had delayed everything until that elder left.
They wanted to trick everyone into joining the cult, so it wasn't like invading the towns by force, but someone of the level of that elder might have seen their ploy, so unless there was no other way, the beautiful woman acting as a goddess didn't want to act anywhere where someone of that level was near.
"I understand. I will start the preparations for our great migration to spread the word of our cult. It shouldn't be difficult to trick weaklings and commoners, but once most of the country became part of our cult, even stronger ones will start falling for it."
Tricking nobles only worked if they were weak and desperate, but most commoners were sometimes so illiterate that even with some stronger ones, it worked well. For people that only know how to fight, it wasn't too difficult to get them lost in Danaga's blabber.
As for the elder's grandson's academy, they weren't targeting it at all while that elder lived, but once he died, they planned to step in to trick his grandson. They believed that he would be so worried about his future after his grandfather's death that he would be an easy prey.
Danaga didn't use any skill or special power. He was just extremely good at using words to control others and make them change their way of thinking.
Of course, that sometimes failed, but after several hours of torture, most of them ended up agreeing. If that also failed, they would just kill that person.
Danaga left the room, and then his sister took an item that looked like a mirror, but it was an item that her sponsor had given her to contact anytime.
"Oh, isn't it our scammer goddess. Why are you contacting me?"