"Heroes, huh?"
Compared to the mildly disinterested Velzard, Rimuru was brimming with curiosity.
This was her first time encountering heroes from another world.
"Don't get your hopes up too high, Rimuru. You might be disappointed."
Damien gave Rimuru a heads-up before instructing Treyni to proceed with the positioning and teleportation.
"Rustle~ Rustle~"
In a dense, shrub-filled forest, moist soil crunched under the tread of standardized military boots.
This was a team of about 500 people, led by the majin Razen and three otherworlder heroes.
"What kind of place is this?"
"It's hot, humid, and crawling with bugs... miserable!"
Unlike the forest in the original story, this one, nurtured by Treyni and other elementals, teemed with life far surpassing anything outside.
This temperate forest had practically turned into a tropical jungle.
The Falmuth soldiers, intruders in this domain, were suffering even before encountering any magical beasts.
Among them, Kirara Mizutani complained the loudest, nearly dragging down the entire team's morale.
"The magicules in the air are a bit too dense."
To be honest, Razen had never seen a place like this.
Across the entire Cardinal World, such a high concentration of magicules was downright abnormal.
'It's hard to imagine how terrifying the magical beasts born from such dense magicules would be.'
For some reason, Razen was starting to lose confidence in this mission to conquer the Jura Great Forest.
"What's with this forest? It's way too quiet."
"We've walked so far and haven't even seen a single magical beast. Something's gotta be wrong, right?"
Shogo punched a massive tree, snapping it in half and startling a flock of birds into flight.
"Swish!"
A blade flashed, and several birds fell from the sky.
Their wings were severed, but they weren't completely dead, writhing in pain on the ground.
"Just ordinary beasts."
Kyoya crouched down, inspecting the grounded birds with disdain. "Sure, they're bigger than normal birds, but they're nowhere near magical beasts."
As he spoke, he prodded the birds with his sword tip, his eyes gleaming with the pleasure of tormenting flesh.
Razen ignored Kyoya's little hobby.
Having lived for centuries, he'd seen all kinds of people.
"The Jura Great Forest wasn't like this before."
Razen recalled his last visit to the forest. "At the very least, we should've encountered one or two magical beasts by now."
This exploration was far stranger than any before.
The initial hazy mist, the seemingly guided travel route, and the complete absence of magical beasts... it was all unbelievable.
'If it's not bad luck, then someone's orchestrating this.'
Razen, an experienced mage, quickly deduced the issue behind the situation.
'Who could it be?'
'To have such power and influence over such a vast area...'
'Dryads?'
At that moment, a name from legend inexplicably surfaced in Razen's mind.
'No way...'
But he quickly dismissed the thought. 'If the new Demon Lord comes from those mythical creatures, we're in serious trouble.'
Dryads were already among the highest-ranking elementals. If they awakened, who knew how terrifying they'd become?
At that point, every surrounding nation would face a nightmare.
"These trees are getting annoying, aren't they?"
Suddenly, Kyoya proposed an idea: "Why don't we just burn them all down?"
"Burn..."
Razen's heart skipped a beat at Kyoya's words, his gaze toward him shifting.
These otherworlders really had no fear of death.
Setting fire to the forest? Forget the potential Demon Lord here... angering the Dryads alone would be more than they could handle.
"Hah, that's not a bad idea!"
To Razen's dismay, Shogo and Kirara wholeheartedly supported Kyoya's plan.
The three turned their gazes to Razen, awaiting his decision...
"Boom!"
"Crash!"
Meanwhile, in another forest.
Unlike the Falmuth group's experience, the team led by the Three Beastketeers had been under constant attack from magical beasts since entering.
"Here they come again."
"Are the magical beasts here a bit too dense?"
Suphia pierced a bovine magical beast's head with her claw, feeling the surge of magicules in her body, a grin spreading across her face. "But man, this feeling of getting stronger through slaughter is exhilarating!"
"Careful, Suphia!"
From behind, Albis used her petrifying gaze to control the magical beasts while warning her comrade: "Don't stray too far from the team... watch for traps!"
"Got it!"
"Everyone!"
After instructing Suphia, Albis immediately ordered: "Prepare for the next wave of magical beasts!"
The Lycanthrope's numbers surpassed those of the Falmuth group.
A full 800 high-ranking Lycanthrope warriors, averaging A-minus rank.
Such a force, in human nations, could rival an elite army of 10,000.
It was clear the Eurazania had spared no expense to explore the Jura Great Forest.
"Huff~ Huff~"
"Is it finally over?"
Another wave of beast tide was repelled by the Lycanthrope. Albis looked at the blood-soaked Suphia and chided, "Seriously, can't you care about your appearance a bit?"
With that, Albis summoned a water orb and began washing Suphia from head to toe.
"Haha, that's why we've got you, Albis!"
As for Suphia, the girl transformed into a majestic white tiger, basking in Albis's care.
"Right, Phobio?"
"Yeah."
Phobio, a leopard Lycanthrope, also shifted into a robust black panther.
With the help of other Lycanthrope, he cleaned the grime off his body.
"In just these few hours, my magicules have increased by at least thirty percent!"
Keep in mind, the Three Beastketeers were the closest to Demon Lord Seed status among Lycanthrope.
Their magicule counts were just over 100,000.
Originally, they were far from reaching 200,000.
But in that single battle, Phobio's magicules had jumped from 100,000 to 130,000.
***
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