Since Willow had opened up a path for him so he wouldn't have to deal with anyone lying in wait to ambush him until after he left the grove, Ackster was about to fetch Karandiel before leaving. But there was one thing he couldn't let go.
Friends of the Forest was an innate skill practically all elves had. As far as he knew, it was what made them the natural experts at nature magic and forest-based combat that they were. It also helped elves determine other people's general compatibility with nature, how friendly they were to the forests. Ackster didn't know the details, but he was pretty sure the skill couldn't tell elves about the talents of those around them.
"Willow, wait a minute,"
Willow turned around, Tenrick on her back, and looked at Ackster.
"Yeah? You change your mind?"
"No."
Ackster held back a sigh.
"You mentioned you wanted my help because you saw my talent, right? Two things. Does that mean you don't want my immediate help? And how did you see my talent?"
Ackster used a reasonable question that would also help hide what he knew about Willow's intentions to cover what he really wanted to know. Willow had a trick to see through lies. But he hoped it wouldn't see through something that wasn't a lie. It was just a question he already knew the answer to that he used as a misdirection.
"Huhu. I'll answer if you decide to accompany me."
By now, Ackster was confident Willow was smiling as she said that.
"No thanks. Never mind then, I guess."
Ackster turned back to the pit and started walking toward it.
'Oop. I can't forget this.'
Before jumping down, Ackster picked up the bag he had dropped when he first approached the golden dome of solid light. By grabbing everyone's attention with his slight altercation with Hansel and the Crimson Edge, no one had noticed the bag. And, more importantly, no one had noticed its contents moving.
So, when the dome fell, Ackster wasn't first on the scene.
It had been a precaution in case someone else got first or something happened to him, and Ackster was happy it hadn't been necessary since he didn't want to lose either Mio or Karandiel.
He stopped at the edge of the meter-deep pit and looked at Willow, who walked away with Tenrick on her back. She walked a little too slowly for Ackster's liking, but maybe she just wasn't that strong, even if she was more skilled than she had let on.
In any case, Ackster waited until he could confirm she wasn't nearby anymore, at least not close enough to hear or see what he was doing. Though, since she was an elf, depending on her connection with nature and the surrounding plants, she might already know what was within the pit, or she could find out later when Ackster had left.
"All good, Mio?"
But Ackster didn't have time to worry about that. He would have to be satisfied with the fact that Willow didn't seem very malicious by nature. And while it looked like she strongly wanted Ackster's help, it didn't look like she would coerce him or force his company.
Fortunately, it also didn't seem like she would go around telling people about him.
Rumors would undoubtedly spread about the heavenly treasure and the adventurer that had managed to get his hands on it. But Willow should be the only one that knew a little more about him, that his identity was fake, and what the heavenly treasure might be.
So, with Mio's help, Ackster felt confident none of the surfacing rumors would pinpoint him as the adventurer, Hugo, who claimed the heavenly treasure, hot out of the divine realm, for himself.
Mio crawled out from behind and beneath Karandiel's neck. He gave a slanted thumbs-up.
"We should get out of here then."
Mio crawled up Ackster's arm as he bent down and into the bag on his bag with soft wiggling motions. Ackster continued and carefully put his arms under Karandiel, the silky smooth tunic brushing against his fingers and easily revealing how soft Karandiel's skin was.
Ackster kept his face and mind in check as he put one arm under her knees and the other around her back and carried her like a princess out of the pit. He would have liked another subtler method of transporting the fallen angel, but this would have to do.
Ackster made sure he had a steady grip on Karandiel. Then, he leaped out of the tiny pit and straight into the archway Willow had made. Although he hadn't sensed anyone close enough to the crash site that could see Karandiel, he couldn't guarantee anything, and there was no harm in minimizing the odds of a person being the heavenly treasure. So, he made quick work of the distance between the pit and the arched passageway of trees.
His feet kept moving as soon as he landed, and he ran through the tunnel of curved tree trunks. There was just enough light seeping through the trunks to maintain a level of visibility necessary for travel. Not that Ackster needed it since he already had good enough night vision to rely on only the light coming from the entrance and the exit.
While running, he wondered if no one would notice this tunnel from outside and realize it had something to do with the one carrying the heavenly treasure. But since he was inside it, he couldn't see what it looked like from the other side. He could only rely on and hope that Willow was thoughtful enough to think about that as well and not just Ackster's wish to remain unseen.
But he wasn't one to rely on hopes, so he still prepared for an ambush at the wooden tunnel's exit.
He was tired. The fight with Hansel had taken a lot, even after he discarded the weighted training equipment since he had pushed Limit Breaker far enough to make sure he didn't have to worry about anyone else. His brain had also been working pretty hard, keeping track of every adventurer and figuring out what to say and what to do to keep everyone away from Karandiel.
Verbal persuasion, he had realized, wasn't one of his strong suits, at least if it wasn't backed by violence.
However, as he took another couple of steps, Ackster realized that the tunnel split up into several paths. Well, that's what it would look like from the outside. He only had one path available to him since the others were blocked by trees.
'She was holding back so far.'
Ackster realized that if Willow wanted, she could have taken Karandiel for herself. If she was powerful enough to arrange a maze-like structure of the grove's trees, she was more than likely strong enough to defeat Crimson Edge on her own and take the heavenly treasure that fell from the skies.
Ackster wondered what she had even been doing there in the first place. Since she had wanted to recruit him for the elven inheritance battle, maybe she had been looking for promising recruits. Or maybe just passing through.
In any case, Willow probably knew that the supposed heavenly treasure wasn't a treasure in the traditional sense but a fallen angel. Or, at the very least, a person from the divine realm.
But why hadn't she wanted to try and get help from a person of the divine realm? Had she forfeited seizing Karandiel for herself in favor of Ackster? Or was Willow simply not interested in what Karandiel could offer?
Maybe she didn't want to display what she was capable of by engaging in a brawl and revealing her existence and possibly identity as an elf. Maybe she wanted to keep a low profile.
Granted, transforming the grove wasn't a low-profile move. But no one could track it back to her, so her identity as Willow, the wandering knight, was safe.
Acskter had no idea and no way of figuring out the truth. So, he set his mind to rest and focused on the angel in his arms.