The Great Forest of Tob.
Shrouded in perpetual mist and shadow, this vast woodland pulsed with life—and danger. The calls of wild beasts, shrieks of unseen birds, and occasional rustles of movement filled the air like a natural symphony… though the melody tended toward the unsettling.
But danger was relative.
For most people, the Great Forest was a death trap filled with fangs, claws, and enough creepy crawlies to give a seasoned adventurer insomnia.
But to Lyle? This place was practically home.
"Ahh, finally," he murmured with a grin, arms stretched wide as he took in a deep breath of the humid, earthy air—an oddly refreshing cocktail of dew-soaked bark and rotting leaves. "Smells like home sweet hell."
Beside him, the barghest, his loyal, bone-shackled minion, wagged its tail, chains clinking with every step. "Awoo!" it howled joyfully, eyes glowing with excitement.
With the situation in the royal capital wrapped up and both Imina and Leinas now well positioned, Lyle had seized the opportunity to retreat once again to his favorite XP farm: the Great Forest.
Sure, the undead-ridden Katze Plain was also a good grind spot, but with the ongoing war between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire, getting caught in crossfire wasn't on today's itinerary.
Besides, Lyle had his eye on new territory: the vast wetlands beyond the forest, and the Azerlisia mountain range even further out. He had plans.
"Only two Tier-3 Angel Scrolls left. And I haven't even made a single Tier-4 yet..." Lyle muttered, checking his inventory with a grimace. "And the magic reserves in the Orb of Death are down to around forty points."
Leveling up, crafting scrolls, and recharging magical reserves—those were his holy trinity right now.
He flicked his wrist, and an iron longsword materialized in his hand. With a smooth motion, he hurled it forward.
Thunk!
The sword speared clean through a tangle of underbrush and skewered a fat rabbit ten meters away.
A pulse of magic shimmered from the armlet on Lyle's wrist—his "Forest Traversal" artifact activating. The dense greenery ahead seemed to bow in submission, vines parting and shrubs shrinking back to clear a path.
Strolling up to the rabbit, he tugged the sword free. The poor creature's legs were still twitching reflexively, but its skull had a new ventilation shaft. Very dead.
"No need to pretend to be a spell-slinger out here," Lyle mused. With a lazy flick, he tossed the rabbit to the barghest.
Chomp. Gulp.
And just like that, the entire rabbit—fur, bones, and all—was gone. The barghest looked thrilled. Lyle? Less so.
"No XP," he muttered, eyeing his status screen.
Ah, yes. The dreaded XP decay.
As your level increases, the amount of experience gained from low-level creatures drops like a rock.
He remembered vividly: when he hit level 20, his final experience point had come from killing a rabbit. Those were the days.
But now?
He could slaughter a whole warren and not get a blip.
[Experience: 30,998 / 10,000]
"Over thirty thousand... Will that be enough for two levels?" he wondered, excitement and impatience warring in his chest.
The class he had his eyes on would only unlock if everything lined up. His current class, Cursed Knight, had already cheated the system a little by absorbing cursed energy directly, bypassing the usual XP drain.
The downside? No XP bar expansion.
The upside? A potential for crazy efficiency in the late game.
But all that was theory. First, he needed results.
He pulled his eyes off the status window and focused on the forest ahead.
He was deep in the central zone now. And this place wasn't just any part of the woods—it was the domain of one of the Three Great Rulers of the Forest: the southern magical beast, the Wise King of the Forest, Hamsuke.
Of course, the creature hadn't been named "Hamsuke" yet. That would happen later—by a certain skeletal overlord with a flair for dramatic titles.
"Let's give our king a reason to show up."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Five ogre corpses crashed to the ground as Lyle emptied them from his inventory. He raised his hand.
"Undead Arise."
An invisible wave of necromantic magic pulsed out, flooding into the bodies. Within seconds, the ogres groaned, twitched… and rose.
"March."
The undead ogres lumbered forward, their enormous bodies barreling through the forest, smashing through vines and brush like they were tissue paper.
Birds scattered in alarm, their shrill cries echoing through the trees.
A few predatory beasts, offended by the intrusion, leapt out to defend their turf.
Big mistake.
The ogres barely broke stride as they tore through them.
[Gained Experience: 37]
[Gained Experience: 51]
[Gained Experience: 29]
Lyle gave the alerts a glance, then turned his eyes to the sprawling green maze ahead.
The forest had fallen eerily silent, the occasional birdsong now distant and sparse.
He frowned, alert.
"Stay sharp. Listen for movement."
The domain of the Wise King was noticeably more intricate than the goblin-infested northern territories. Also more dangerous.
And unlike goblins, who'd eat anything from rats to their own dead, the Wise King didn't need to eat to inspire terror.
"Awoo..." The barghest growled low, ears perked.
The ogres' thunderous advance was clearly shaking up the ecosystem. Insects went quiet. The wind felt heavy. Even the trees seemed hesitant.
Something bigger was coming.
CRASHHH!
A loud rustle to the northwest—then immediate silence.
"Found him," Lyle murmured, eyes gleaming.
This wasn't just about gaining XP. He had deliberately stirred up a racket to bait out the one and only Wise King of the Forest.
The Great Forest was enormous, and even with his artifact, grinding XP efficiently here was tough.
Last time, after massacring goblins by the dozens, he'd drawn the attention of the Adventurer's Guild. Investigators had shown up. That was a wake-up call—he couldn't afford attention. Not yet.
Rustle. Crackle. Crunch.
The sounds grew—too many directions, too fast.
"Surrounding me?"
That was fast.
Lyle's legs bent, stance lowering. His grip on the sword tightened, eyes scanning the shifting underbrush.
Yup. Definitely stronger than the other two forest bosses.
But he had a plan. He needed that one spell. With it, everything else could fall into place.
FWISH!
Something silver streaked from the left. One of the ogres didn't even get to react—half of its body vanished in a blur of speed and violence.
Within seconds, the other ogres were reduced to meat confetti. Limbs, guts, and gore now painted the forest floor.
The hound whimpered and dropped low to the ground, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.
"Moves like that… in this kind of dense terrain… and still no tree damage?" Lyle mused, astonished. "This thing's got Forest Traversal too, or something like it."
A chilling realization.
In the anime and novels, the Wise King rarely displayed magical power, but it was said to have eight distinct magical patterns—likely racial traits. This creature was no mere beast.
Then—
His gaze snapped forward.
There.
About twenty meters ahead, partially obscured by trees and thickets, stood a towering silver-white creature. Even with limited visibility, Lyle could make out the hulking mass and gleaming fur.
He didn't hesitate.
He yanked on the hound's chain and flung it backward, out of harm's way.
THUMP.
The silver blur moved.
Trees parted like illusions. It was as if reality itself bent to make way.
In a single breath—
The Wise King was upon him.
A silver shadow engulfed him, and a piercing, high-pitched shriek tore through the air.