Taking the girl's token of appreciation and the carefully selected gift, Noah didn't mention the incident while eating dinner with Leiden that evening, only presenting the painting to him.
"Thank you, Noah. That's very thoughtful of you."
After listening to Noah tell a few Eastern fables, Leiden also seemed to develop a considerable interest in Eastern culture.
...
After resting for the night, Noah set out early the next morning according to his planned route, arriving at the forest south of the Imperial Capital.
From this point onward, everything ahead was a danger zone demarcated by the Imperial Army.
Within this forest lived a massive number of Danger Beasts, and entry was generally prohibited.
He was able to pass through the soldiers' blockade because he had a permit issued by someone else.
After he entered, a guard even voiced his concern. "Hey, is it really okay to let a kid like that enter the forest all by himself?"
"Stop worrying. You've only been here a few days, so you don't know that it was the same last time. A kid about that age entered alone with an army pass and stayed inside for a full ten days before coming out. Rumor has it she killed over two hundred Danger Beasts."
"T-Two hundred..."
The rookie guard exclaimed in awe. Because it was simply too fantastical.
One must understand that even the weakest Danger Beast possessed the ability to kill a human, and this forest housed a large number of Class 3 or even stronger Danger Beasts. It was notoriously dangerous.
If it were him, he figured he wouldn't survive half a day before having to flee from inside.
And that was assuming he could even make it out alive—which was still a huge unknown.
"Are all kids nowadays this amazing?"
"Hmph, don't go asking about those things. Just do your job guarding the gate properly."
....
After entering the forest, Noah pulled a map out of his backpack.
"Tch, the most recent map was actually drawn three hundred and fifty years ago. The Empire truly is a mess."
Keep in mind, this was a forest less than two hundred kilometers from the Imperial Capital.
Let alone three hundred years, even updating the map once a year wouldn't be excessive.
When he learned he could only find a map of this place in the library, he was momentarily left speechless.
That being said, because he wanted to see the materials of this world, this map was necessary.
For natural resources like mineral veins, a mere three hundred and fifty years basically meant no changes at all.
Since this world possessed lost crafting techniques like Orichalcum, mineral ores should also be quite abundant.
There might even be ores with special effects.
For him, who possessed [Truth Seeker], as long as the object entered his field of vision, he could ascertain the material's properties and functions.
Rustle—.
The leaves rustled due to Noah's movement.
Because humans rarely entered here, the vegetation growth clashed with the structure of the human body.
Conversely, the lower parts of the plants deviated and dispersed, indicating that many small animals roamed here.
In other words, there were no Danger Beasts roaming nearby.
The stronger a Danger Beast was, the more massive its body would be—this was somewhat common knowledge.
And the highest tier of Danger Beasts were the Dragon-type Danger Beasts, possessing a physique and appearance akin to dragons, along with power just as formidable as their looks.
[Fog Lamp Flower]
Can emit rays of light that pierce through the fog during heavy fog weather, serving as a guide, much like a beacon in the dark night.
Poisonous
Small animals gnaw on its roots to stave off hunger.
Taste: Sour and astringent.
'A plant I haven't seen before. Interesting.'
The forest south of the Imperial Capital.
For thousands of years, it had been referred to just like this, without even a formal name.
But before coming here, Noah had discovered in the library that this place wasn't entirely nameless, it merely lacked an official name publicized by the Empire.
In the past, there had also been villages here.
The people who lived here at the time called this forest the "Forest of the Lost."
Because every once in a while, a dense fog would generate here. Inside the fog, apart from the glow of the Fog Lamp Flowers, nothing else could be seen clearly; one couldn't even see their own hand.
People who lived here generation after generation could sense the omens right before the heavy fog arrived, but outsiders lacked this ability.
Noah researched it and believed this probably wasn't a natural phenomenon.
Judging from both latitude and climate, this forest should not have been capable of producing mist on such an exaggerated scale at any time.
Perhaps it was caused by some kind of material, or perhaps even by a certain Danger Beast.
According to the records, more than five hundred types of Danger Beasts existed here, ranging from harmless to dangerous.
The ratio was roughly two to eight.
The forest had a central point, and from there, it spread outward in a circle.
For every six hundred meters one ventured deeper, the danger increased compared to the previous layer.
At present, Noah had already gone eleven hundred meters in, yet he had not encountered even a single Danger Beast.
Logically speaking, there should have been quite a few small animals appearing around here.
'That Esdeath… It's only been ten days. She couldn't have wiped the place clean, could she?'
Probably not.
Although she was a battle maniac and deeply obsessed with hunting, she was different from those who enjoyed tormenting the weak.
She would not chase weaker prey around endlessly. Instead, she would seek out the strongest opponent from the beginning and fight it to the death.
He continued deeper, reaching two thousand meters in.
At this point, it should be about right.
As expected, moving through the forest was far too inefficient.
Rather than continuing like this, it would be much clearer to look from above.
Noah casually tossed his backpack toward a thick tree.
With a light tap of his right foot against the ground, a stone spike rose out of thin air and nailed the backpack strap to the tree with a thud, hanging it there.
Noah manipulated the direction of gravity.
In the next instant, the surrounding trees were affected by the distorted gravitational field.
After rising roughly two hundred meters into the air, Noah reset the direction of gravity and hovered there, looking down over the forest below.
....
Just as looking at sand in a desert, or water in the ocean, the boundless forest filled his vision with nothing but lush green.
"No wonder people get lost here."
Noah casually muttered a complaint, but his expression grew a little more serious.
Although he hadn't seen anything strange, he was not mistaken about this feeling of being watched.
He could see it.
Two hundred meters high.
Even from the ground, as long as the distance was not too great, he could still be seen.
Though he hadn't caught sight of the target, whatever marked him as prey had already locked onto him.
Like the first person to break the rules of the dark forest, he would naturally become the prey of every hunter and predator within it.
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
Noah altered gravity, restoring its direction, and his entire body fell toward the forest, landing right back at the point where he rose from.
He manipulated the earth element into the shape of a hand, brought his backpack over, and put it back on.
'So then, the first one to arrive would be...'
'Hm?'
'It's already here?'
Its speed was impressive.
Without a doubt, it was a danger beast.
The other party made no attempt to hide its killing intent. Even from several hundred meters away, that pressure was enough to make someone tremble.
"Roar!"
Boom—
The forest was thrown into chaos beneath the charge of that enormous creature.
Looking at the massive tiger-type danger beast making such a forceful entrance before him, Noah immediately used Appraisal.
"I see. An Earth Tiger, huh? This is my first time seeing one in person."
Roar!
A tiger even larger than an African elephant roared before his eyes.
Noah now personally understood just how shocking such a sight could be.
Within that roar, the air twisted into ripples, and his skin could clearly feel the vibration.
A pungent stench of blood spread from the creature's mouth, which was as large as a house.
'The gazes... have decreased.'
It seemed the others chose to avoid him out of fear of the Earth Tiger's might.
Apparently, even lower-class danger beasts with low intelligence still knew how to seek benefit and avoid harm through instinct.
"Oh? You can't wait anymore?"
Noah dodged the Earth Tiger's attack, a trace of excitement appearing on his face.
Because he remembered that the corpse of an Earth Tiger, even its bones, was quite valuable material.
No matter which faction he sold it to, he could make a decent profit.
A gigantic claw came slamming down from above, almost like a building collapsing.
"Release..."
The boy murmured that name softly.
Pieces of metallic gauntlet materialized one by one, covering his hands all the way up to his forearms.
The palms and backs of the gauntlets were engraved with many magic circles. Treating those circles as part of the gauntlet's construction was a small trick.
"Magic Reinforcement."
Noah activated Raven Feather's characteristic, raised both hands above his head, and directly took the blow.
Their sizes were disproportionate, yet in a contest of arm strength, they ended up evenly matched.
The Earth Tiger felt the resistance beneath its claw. Realizing that its prey was not crushed as easily as usual, it became even angrier.
"Hm."
"Not bad strength, but it's only has strength."
Magic light shone from Noah's hands.
Power surged from his core, and his body leaned backward.
The Earth Tiger's enormous body was actually dragged by him.
"Up!"
Noah exerted all his strength and let out a low shout. He grabbed the Earth Tiger's claw and lifted it up.
"Awooo!"
The ferocious Earth Tiger could be considered one of the higher beings on the food chain in this Lost Forest.
It had probably never been overpowered by sheer strength before.
"Ora!" Noah got carried away.
With a shoulder throw, he slammed the Earth Tiger hard into the ground.
Splurt!
A pillar of blood surged upward, rushing into the sky and bringing a rain of blood down upon the forest and the earth.
Noah blankly looked at the sudden rain of blood and frowned slightly.
When he realized that the Earth Tiger's body was full of large holes pierced through by trees, his eyes widened.
"Damn it."
He got too heated and messed up!
All this blood was precious material.
He couldn't let it go to waste.
Noah raised his hand. In an instant, the rain of blood and the blood pillar seemed to freeze in place, no longer moving.
'How exactly does one create the legendary storage space? Recovering material this huge is difficult.'
He carefully stuffed the blood back into the Earth Tiger's corpse, closed the wounds again, and patched every leaking spot.
If it were placed at a certain angle, someone might even mistake it for a living Earth Tiger.
'But this really was a blind spot.'
These trees, which were everywhere, had such hardness that, combined with his strength, they could actually pierce through the Earth Tiger's body.
No wonder there were no lumberjacks in this forest.
An ordinary axe would probably be ruined after chopping down just two trees.
As danger beasts went, a mere Earth Tiger was still too weak.
At most, this thing was around the level of a second-class danger beast.
There were no good reference targets, and the only ones Noah could think of were Kurome and the others from Class A.
Enemies of this level were something Kurome and the others could also defeat without much effort.
"Going back and forth would be troublesome. I might as well build a base here and use the materials on-site... Hm, that way I can also keep the ingredients fresh."
'Wait, did I just say ingredients?'
'I meant materials.'
Then he would choose a suitable location.
Manipulating gravity, Noah arrived at an area close to the center of the forest.
Perhaps because it was too central, there were no danger beast nests here.
Maybe powerful danger beasts had territorial awareness, so they deliberately kept their distance from one another.
'Hm. It's decided. I'll build my base between their nests.'
"Then let me remodel this place on a grand scale!"
Noah pressed both hands to the ground and focused his mind.
Under his control, the earth became as soft as cement and began moving flexibly, almost like a sea ruler.
The steel reinforcement was also made from local materials. He manipulated iron sand, then refined it with iron-smelting magic.
After working busily for four or five hours, Noah dragged the Earth Tiger's corpse inside as soon as the basic construction was complete.
Now he no longer had to keep using Weaver to conceal the smell of the Earth Tiger's corpse.
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator