Together we rested in the light of Polaris until morning. Once the sunlight of light finally grazed the treetops of the forest, with a few rays pushing through the foliage onto the ground, I opened my eyelids and witnessed the true colours of the monster realm. The centipedes were long gone, with only carcasses of the few remaining around, the ones that were pierced with Nila's magic. It was apparent that they left much sooner than the arrival of the dawn, since I was able to fall asleep only after my ears no longer registered their crawling around our "campsite".
The appearance of those insects was grotesque, however, it seemed normal upon closer examination of surroundings. The vast grasslands along with weed and foliage of trees were painted a darker shade of purple, nothing green ever caught my attention here. Tree barks were not straight, but rather wavy, as if those were hundreds of millipedes resting all around it. Tree branches were not natural either, there were just a few of them, all were rather short, but tree leafs were longer and wider, with various holes like that of monstera.
With the glory of the day, bird songs have arrived, but all of them were rather disappointing, reminiscent of the craws or frogs. But the birds I saw were too far away in the sky to find any difference from those of the human realm. I finally turned to my right, where Nila was still slumbering, her face appeared to be present with a line of drool coming down her cheek. I was quite envious of her state, as I could hardly sleep while surrounded by giant insects ready to indulge in my flesh, but it seemed like Nila was not bothered by their presence what-so-ever.
I shook her by the shoulder and yelled in her ear, "Wake the hell up!" Then, she swiftly pushed her body upwards, headbutting the side of my head. I fell over and held onto my head in pain, Nila, apparently, did the same as she quietly groaned.
"Dusk…" She said, and I turned my head to her, only to be met with the coldest of glares I have seen from her so far, "If you do it again, I will start tying you up every time you sleep."
"T-this is because you never wake up when I ask you normally!"
"Dusk… I am serious, never do that again."
The sheer pressure I experienced from her eyes was no joke, I backed off immediately and murmured, "I am sorry."
She sighed upon hearing my words and stood up, casting her gaze around the place we were stationed at. Then, she shook off her dress from dirt and summoned her staff. After taking a peek at her notes, she cast another spell by the name of "Canopus Libra". Immediately, several stars formed at her staff tip, there were more of them than in any other spell I saw beforehand. Soon after, they began swirling around one single star until the bright light swallowed them all and came in contact with Nila's clothes. As if fire spread through her entire body, removing any imperfection that was visible in an instant. Afterwards, Nila's dress looked fresh, unlike her hair that was still a mess.
"Did you just clean your clothes with a spell?"
"That's right, would you like me to clean yours as well?" She asked and pointed her staff at me without even hearing my answer. The same process occurred, rendering my wear clean. If only it could wash my hair and body as well, regardless, I was quite impressed by her skill.
"This is quite neat, you can do anything with magic, huh?"
Nila nodded, showing a proud smile, "It is a mistake to think that battle spells are the only worthwhile magic, there are tons of possibilities hidden in stars."
Her words made me consider the naming scheme behind the spells. The spells she used bore peculiar names, especially Polaris and Betelgeuse, those were the names of the stars. Now, however, she used not just a star name in her spell, but a whole constellation. Previously I had deemed it a coincidence, but now I was not so sure about it, thus I asked, "So the spells are named after stars, huh? This is all human magic, right?"
Nila nodded and then tilted her head, "This is correct, that's a good insight for someone illiterate."
I frowned at her, despite her statement being truthful, but then she raised her staff once again and summoned a single star to cast Sham, "Human magic is based on the breath of cosmos, mages use their bodies as conductors and borrow magic of celestial bodies to cast spells. Natural magic, on the other hand." She raised her other hand and a slash of wind escaped from her palm and left a deep scar in the same tree, the damage was greater than that from Sham, "Our very soul is used to produce the attack. To learn human magic, you must possess knowledge of stars, but to learn natural magic, you must possess an inner sense of magic and talent. This is why your only option to become a mage is to learn the way of human magic, it is simply faster and risk-free."
I nodded at her explanation, then looked back at the poor tree, but then noticed that some of its bark was moving, "What the hell is that?"
"Those are Pleuropods, if there is no prey around they rest on top of the trees. There were far fewer of them when I last crossed the monster realm, even for a breeding season. I wonder if this infestation will become a problem in the future."
While Nila casually stepped forward, away from the lone star that protected us from monsters, I shivered at the thought that these trees were indeed covered in nasty insects. I hesitated to leave the safety of Polaris, but upon seeing Nila strolling further away from me, I caught the courage and stepped into the danger of the Monster realm once again.
"Are there any other monsters besides Pleuropods or whatever they are called?" I asked in a shaking voice, to which Nila raised her head and pointed at the sky, "There are some fanged eagles soaring above, at the very least those birds certainly look like those… We might also stumble upon darewolfs as the monster realm around Schöltum region is their common hunting ground. Another problematic monster would be giant soil worms, but they usually live in plains, and you can easily tell their presence by their burrows."
"All of these sound dangerous."
"This is a given, monster realm is mainly inhabited by carnivorous animals, or rather even man-eaters, we are on a plate of every single species here. This is the reason why the monster realm was never domesticated."
Nila suddenly stopped and raised her staff upwards while rotating her whole body to face the sky. She summoned several piercing spells and as I raised my head, several birds fell down nearby, their deadly landing was escorted by a painfully loud boff. Their bodies did not disintegrate as it happened with the darewolf and carrimorpha back in Schöltum, and I did not really have time to wonder why, as I felt something crawling up my knee. I immediately drew my dagger and stabbed a few times before even looking at the intruder of my personal space. Naturally, that was the same centipede which stalked us all night at this place.
After I removed its body, Nila called out to me, "Now we should run."
We dashed forward with Nila repelling several centipedes or rather pleuropod's that attempted to land on us from the trees. I turned to her and hurriedly asked, "Why can't you just summon Polaris?"
It was a spell that should repel monsters, but I did not see her even attempt to use it. Without a second thought, she gave me a clear answer, "Polaris in motion is useless, our only option is to simply run. Luckily, this monster realm strip is not long. At this pace, we should arrive at the other side in a few hours."
Although she said it with a confident smile, I was not as excited about the constant game of tag against the abominations that inhabit this place. Monster realm was indeed a dangerous place.