Unsealing Emptiness

He decided not to fly all the way as flying from above would not help to find any Beasts nor would he be able to figure out why it was considered so dangerous.

He came down from above and landed right in the messy jungle. It was around the same place that he had passed through previously with the convoy.

Although he was on his feet, his speed could not be compared to when he was here with the group. He jumped from one tree to another.

Just then, he remembered the two baby drakes whose parents he had killed. Though they were in the opposite direction, and he did not have any reason to go there. There wasn’t much about the baby drakes that he was curious about.

Keeping his thoughts straight, he kept his pace and would rest whenever he thought like it.

It was the same old forest as he had left it, but just like he knew, the number of trees kept increasing the more he advanced towards the middle.

.....

A few days were spent like this.

There wasn’t anything that he could do really. It was the same old forest with an excessive amount of vines hanging from the trees.

Although he moved fast, there was almost no noise whatsoever. Still, a random Beast would sometimes pop out of nowhere to block his way.

Sometimes, Ozul did not even care about and kept advancing when he noticed that the Beast could not follow behind, but if it was able to, then he immediately killed it off.

These Beasts could not sense any Mana from him and came to have a meal, thinking that he was an easy target.

Ozul did not mind it, everyone was desperate for survival in this world.

‘Though some survive by not dying, while the others by finding a meaning...’

. . .

A few days and Ozul had to slow down since it was a completely different area.

He had read that the Beasts at Rank-9 were not so wild. They create their own habitats and places to live. He was most likely to miss these places if he kept going at his pace.

Right now, he looked around and found himself in a place with taller trees. He was not aware of the reason, but the tall trees created more space, which let him have a better view.

At the same time, Ozul kept his senses to a minimum safe level that he thought would be sufficient enough.

He had made the mistake of not being careful before and the incident of Elemental Lotus had taken him off guard. If he could, avoiding another situation like that would be for the best and less time-consuming.

Today, he hadn’t encountered any Beast under Rank-6. There weren’t so many higher-ranked Beasts either, but such an area would have directly been banned by any and all authorities if it was accessible to everyone.

Roaming here was nothing more than suicide.

Occasionally, he had seen a few Rank-8 Beasts which included a weird kind of Lion with a fire mane.

It was fighting with a group of peak Rank-7 Beasts who were all on the losing end of the battle while the Lion only seemed to be toying around with them.

When Ozul passed by the group fighting, the Lion ignored his presence as he felt no Mana from him. Those Rank-7 Beasts were too much fun for him to direct his attention to anything else.

Ozul also did not have any attention to disturb his little play. There was no time to pity those Rank-7 Beasts when he himself was here to kill Beasts in order to increase his strength.

It was getting dark, so he found a big tree branch to lie down. The canopy of the trees around this area was really thick so it was hard to see the sky, but Ozul was still at peace with no sunlight.

Overall, these days were peaceful but also boring.

. . .

It was this day when something unusual really happened. Ozul woke up when he sensed a dense body of Mana nearing him.

‘...A Rank-9 Beast? Why would there be one here...’ Ozul thought before getting off the tree.

He stood there waiting for whoever or whatever was coming his way.

A few moments later, he saw the surroundings getting a little darker and greener?

As his view was getting compromised, Ozul immediately put his senses to their maximum. Sensing around, he could only feel dense Mana surrounding him.

‘This is strange...’ Ozul could see the Mana increasing, but there was nothing in sight that he could relate to this.

However, he did not have to think for much longer when the Mana surrounding him suddenly started to distort. Ozul readied his Ball of Purity since he was completely clueless about what was happening.

“Who... are... you...”

Ozul immediately turned around as he heard these words.

However, there was nothing behind. Only some more distorted Mana that he could not figure out the reason for.

‘The voice just now... Is it someone above Rank-9?’ Ozul could not help but think of this possibility.

Just as he was contemplating his options, he again heard the voice, “Who... are... you?”

This time, the voice wasn’t from behind but from his side. Again, there was nothing but empty air.

“What are you?” Ozul asked without replying to the voice’s question.

“I... asked... first...child...”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ozul was firm in his decision. What was he even supposed to reply to that question? Introduce his name? He was pretty sure that the voice did not want his name.

The voice stayed quiet after his reply. Ozul also closed his eyes since they were only distracting him. He relaxed his body and concentrated all around him.

“It... is... futile... child...”

Ozul did not know why this strange voice kept calling him child, but he refrained from answering this time at all.

“Fine...”

*Fuu...zmhh...*

Ozul heard as he opened his eyes to see a weird creature in front of him. It looked like a humanoid woman, but something different.

Suddenly, Ozul raised his brows when he realized something.

‘The Dark Druid?!’ Ozul remembered that he had read something about this thing in the journal book that he had with him.

This Dark Druid, as Ozul had read was something that even the author of that book had no idea about.

The only thing even mentioned in the book was only the rumors of how a greenish-black substance was seen around the forests. People had started to call it the Dark Druid since this thing was only seen around the forests.

There were Druids in this world which were considered no less than legendary creatures on the Mainland. These creatures were said to have some special connection with nature.

Even while being nearly at Rank-10, these creatures never sought to kill or harm other lifeforms. Though they seemed to be pretty aggressive whenever it came to harming the nature around wherever they stayed.

With the appearance of humanoid females, they were known to be the protectors of the forests.

Mages also avoided these creatures since they were pretty hard to deal with. Not to mention, each one required to involve a Rank-9 Mage to subdue.

Unlike the Druids known to regular people, this Dark Druid was said to be the only of its kind. Although said to be Druid, people had no real evidence to say that it really was.

It was difficult to confirm because this particular one’s existence wasn’t known to everyone. Only those who had encountered it did try to find any records and would sometimes stumble upon the words of thought to be a crazy person.

At least this was how the author of the book mentioned that he confirmed this creature’s existence.

Ozul noticed that whoever first named it as Dark Druid did not do it any justice. There was actually nothing Druid-like with this thing in front of him.

Although it did have a womanly and humanoid appearance, it did not have any leaves or half of its body made up of plants, unlike what a Druid was supposed to look like.

Though the Dark part, Ozul understood very well was probably because of the completely black eyes of it.

“Will... you... reply... now... child...?”

The Dark Druid spoke with a ghastly tone. Even with such a tone, Ozul felt as if there was only softness in her voice.

Along with her calling him as a child, and not having any malicious thoughts against him, Ozul eased his stance.

‘Whatever it is, it is strong...’ Ozul could still not determine the extent of its power.

“child...?”

The Dark Druid spoke again, making Ozul come out of his thoughts.

“What are you?” he asked, again ignoring the creature’s earlier question.

The Dark Druid did not seem to mind his behavior but was keen on not answering first this time either.

“...”

“...”

The two continued to stare at each other for a couple of minutes when Ozul sighed first.

He didn’t think that she would also become stubborn this time. It was also his turn to answer actually, so he gave up first. He couldn’t estimate her strength; it was better to play safe.

“I am Ozul Ashfall, now what are you?” he said.

“I did not ask your name... child,” This time, the Dark Druid did not pause after every word.

.....

“Why did you stop pausing?” Ozul suddenly asked. It was the first question that came to his mind.

Even the Dark Druid seemed to be caught a little off guard with the question.