After 6 years I returned to the place where my dream had begun.
This forest was known colloquially as the forest of the lost, which is why people who ventured into the depths of this forest generally did not return.
Of course that only applied to poor commoners who had few or no tools to survive in this forest.
After the incident I suffered while following Petrov that day, I was terrified to even approach the mansion that was used as the alliance meeting point without guards constantly escorting me.
But today is different, because he was no longer the little boy who was helpless while running from a vile wasp-class beast.
Now I was a young man a year away from coming of age with several years of training instructed by the best knights of my fiefdom.
And I was determined to risk my life to become stronger.
The reason why the forest was known to be a place where commoners did not return was because deep within this forest lies a dungeon.
That was why although it was difficult to find killer beasts in this forest it was not difficult.
That is why commoners got lost or disappeared, why they were married by the few beasts that escaped the constant siege of the lord who ruled the territory to keep the rate of beast accumulation low.
The lord of these lands, Count Anarson, decided to keep the locations of the dungeons extremely secret.
He thought that if he kept the dungeon sieges a secret he would prevent adventurers from instigating more waves that could endanger the city of Noctis.
And in a way he was right, but this in turn caused that only the sieges were executed by the local order of knights, the number of beasts straggled by the siege increased, which would not happen if mercenary guilds constantly besieged them by the Sub beast product.
Although Earl Vendrick was a wise man and good lord when it came to his lands financially, he lacked more vision than his own senior noble status prevented him from having.
'it's still as lush as before'
I commented as I looked at an old tree that I remembered distantly.
Although he was determined to risk my life to be able to continue compressing the first layer of aura, he was neither crazy nor suicidal.
It is not in my plans to go to the heart of the forest and challenge the dungeon.
No matter how weakened a dungeon was by a recent siege, nothing was ever safe, only the remnants of a dungeon of the lowest level were capable of murdering entire cohorts of multiple people who had no understanding or access to aura or mana.
So today was very simple, killing a wasp-class beast with my bare hands.
'Well I'm not exactly going to kill him with my bare hands, I'll use a sword.'
I thought distractedly as I wandered through the forest.
The reason why I was trying to become an acolyte in this archaic way is because of Silfried's own recommendation, captain of the knight order of my fiefdom.
Silfried captain of the Crystal Swords.
'It is a name quite in keeping with my barony'
I thought briefly as I investigated the ground in search of recent footprints or something that would tell me that there was a beast nearby, which was quite difficult to see as it was already twilight of the day.
Hesitating between continuing with the hunt and retiring to the place where I am staying.
I decided to stay but quicken my pace.
While I was exploring for prey I started thinking about my family.
The Ghialand family, my family title dates back 70 years when my grandfather, an archmage of the 8th circle, helped the crown of Krendrania redraw new borders with the neighboring country of the giants.
In gratitude, the crown granted him a noble title with a name that matched his specialty, which was Sub Ice Magic, which is why the name of the land was Ghialand. It was the size of the land in the title combined with a cut-out phrase that It was called ghiaccio which meant ice in the runic language.
Ignoring that little curiosity that my father loved to tell, I thought about my situation.
Although he had a decent amount of resources from being the son of a noble, my potential on this path could not be the same.
I was going against the path that my father and grandfather had laid out.
My grandfather a noted archmage, my father a man who had become a 5th circle Grand Mage before the age of 25.
'well nothing stops me from becoming a magical swordsman, I don't have to just be an aura fanatic'
I thought to myself, suddenly a sound reached my ears. It was the characteristic sound of a branch breaking under a footprint.
I turned quickly towards the place of the sound and saw a tree branch of considerable size broken in the center.
"You are here already"
The beast's deranged eyes and mine met directly.
I gripped the handle of my sword that was on my back tightly.
Today one of us was going to die in a terrible and vile way.