“…I have a bad feeling,” Alnea said, glancing into the depths of the forest, while continuing to do his part of the exploration.

  “…What is it?” Yuri said, not showing any reactions on her face, so as to not worry the other Star Seekers. “Did you discover the tracks of the other Wanderers?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Then what are you worried about?”

  “…There is something wrong with this forest.”

  “…I thought that was obvious.”

  “You also know that the forest is strange?”

  “…This is the Final World. An incomplete world that has suffered from spatial displacement for the most part of the past decade. It would be strange if nothing was wrong about it.”

  “…I am not talking about the entire Final World. I am talking about this forest… Have you not noticed how strange the fog here is?”

  “…The existence of the fog in this weather itself is strange.”

  “…What do you mean?”

  “For fog to form in such warm conditions… Maybe, if this place was near a large water body, like a sea or an ocean… Regardless, the conditions of this forest are not conducive for formation of a fog. At least not for a long time. Yet, the fog here seems to be perpetual…”

  “…Ancient.”

  “…In any case, everyone should know that there is something wrong with the fog.”

  “…It is not just the fog,” Alnea said, as he observed the forest breathe in the fog, and then exhale it, bringing order within the chaos. “The entire forest is strange. From the trees to the swamp, the rivers and lakes, and even Oren Beasts that we have encountered… Everything is strange… As if this forest is a giant, living creature, and we, its invaders.”

  Yuri paused for a fraction of her moment, before quickly regaining her pace and catching up with Vestia. Noticing the questioning look from the blue robed girl, she shook her head, and assured the latter that everything was fine. Maybe, if they had not been in the Final World, and had not begun their Final Trial, she might have stopped and insisted on knowing what happened. In their current situation though, she could only nod along, and believe in Yuri.

  Yuri, on the other hand, quickly resumed her indifferent look, just as she resumed her duties. Still, she could not forget what Alnea had said. And so, while exploring the forest, she also began observing it more detail. From the trees and the Oren Beasts holing up in those trees to the land they were standing on and the air they were breathing, she observed everything. Even the swamps, rivers, and lakes that he had mentioned. Until she finally found what he was talking about.

  “…There is indeed something strange about this forest,” Yuri said, once again trying not to let her emotions show on her face. “What are you going to do?”

  “…If we did not have to explore this place as part of our Final Trial, I would have suggested leaving this forest as soon as possible.”

  “Clearly, that is not an option.”

  “…The next best option would be to explore the secrets of the forest. What exactly is the forest hiding? Is it really like a living being? And if so, what sort of creature is this? There are so many things about the forests that we do not know… If we explore the forest without knowing these secrets, it would be akin to leaving a dagger hanging above our heads. One small mistake, and…”

  “But exploring the secrets of the forest has its own problems.”

  “…If we end up disturbing something we cannot handle, we would not be able to bear the consequences.”

  “…There is something else that you are forgetting,” Yuri said. “With no idea of where to begin looking, how much time do you think exploring these secrets will take? Do you really think we have the leisure to go around the forest, without even knowing what we are looking for?”

  “…If we focus on completing the Trial, we will be facing unknown dangers. If we deal with the unknown dangers, we will not be able to complete the Trial. And if we do not deal with those dangers, we still might not be able to complete our Trial… At this point, I honestly do not know what I should do.”

  “…The thing that you need to do the most is to stop thinking so much.”

  “…It is not as if I can stop thinking just because I wish to,” Alnea mumbled. “Sure, I can suppress my errant thoughts, and can even Clear a part of them, but I cannot stop them from coming to me.”

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  “Then Clear what you can, and supress the rest. You are not alone. There are others who depend on you. You cannot afford to let your thoughts overwhelm you.”

  “…It is exactly because others depend on me that I cannot stop thinking so much,” Alnea mumbled, glancing at his teammates speeding through the forest. “I do not want to endanger anyone’s life…”

  “…Your indecisiveness is the greatest danger to everyone’s life.”

  “…What if I make a mistake?” Alnea said, pouring his emotions into his voice. “What if I make the wrong decision?”

  You can make wrong decisions, but you should never hesitate,” Yuri said in solemn voice. Maybe even in a stern tone. The kind she had not used in quite a while. “Everyone makes mistakes. It is because we make mistakes that we learn. You should not be afraid of making mistakes, but of not learning from them. This is what you once said. Are you not going to listen to your own words?”

  “…What should I do?”

  “Just make a decision and stick to it.”

  “And if things go wrong—

  “Then adjust your decision accordingly,” Yuri said, finally dropping the solemness from her voice, lacing it with a hint of mirth instead. “Do I even have to teach you something so simple now? Where is the clever Alnea that I know?”

  “…I understand,” Alnea said, and took a deep breath, before finally coming to a decision.

  “What did you decide?”

  “You will know in a while,” Alnea said, as he raised his hand, signing everyone to stop. “There is something else we need to deal with first.”

  “Why did you ask us to stop?” Cecilia said, turning around to look at him with a questioning glance. “It is far too early to reach our daily goal. And I still have over half of my Spirit Power left. You should also be the same. And everyone else will only have a greater reserve of Spirit Power. Even with the most conservative estimate, we can go for another couple of hours without rest.”

  “…About that,” Alnea said, pointing to the other side of the river to their left with his chin. Following his action, everyone turned towards the other bank, and saw traces of broken roots and upturned debris of earth. If that was all, then they would not have been surprised. Any random Initial phase Oren Beast could do greater damage if it so wished. Rather, they themselves had done greater damage to the forest by just rushing along the way. The clear human tracks on the ground though…

  “You might have to revise your estimates.”

  “…I do not think the estimates of how long our Spirit Power can last is what we should be worrying about right now,” Karl said, staring at the remains of the camp on other side of the river. “The track looks fresh. We will have to go there in person to determine exactly how fresh—

  “About half an hour,” Alnea said, withdrawing his gaze from the other side of the river, and glancing at his teammates. “There is barely any movement from the fog around the camp for those Wanderers to have left any sooner, and had it been any longer, there would have been signs of the ground healing itself.”

  “…Ground healing itself?”

  “Movement from the fog?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I will explain later. In any case, those Wanderers should have left their camp for only about half an hour, so they should not have gone too far.”

  “…Should we look for them?”

  “No need. They should be coming back here in a while.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “…It is obvious, once you know how to look for the signs,” Alnea said, glancing at the forest around them. “We have not encountered any Oren Beasts for a while. At first, I thought that it might be because the overlord of this territory is particularly ferocious, but it looks like I was wrong.”

  “…Did those Wanderers clear out this area?”

  “Most probably,” Alnea said, glancing back to the remains of the camp. “They should have had the same idea as us.”

  “What if this is just a temporary camp?”

  “…It is not.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “We made a temporary camp because we came to Final World before the Final Trial began, and we did not know what we were going to face. We needed to secure a base in case the Final Trial made us face our enemies right away. These Wanderers, on the other hand, had no such worries. Yet they still spent the extra effort to clear out this area. Do you think they would done so just to create a temporary base?”

  “…Though what you say does have its merit, creating a base camp next to a river does not makes sense,” Vestia said, shaking her head. “Even if they clear all the Oren Beasts in this stretch of the river, it will be only a matter of time before more Oren Beasts come swimming this way. Even if they keep clearing this stretch every day, it would still not be safe.

  “No one should be stupid enough to create their base camp here. Maybe, if it was a lake, or a swamp, it would have been possible. A river though… A base camp is called a base camp because it is a place where Wanderers can relax. If they have to keep up their guard even in their base camp, what would even be the point of creating this base?”

  “…Good point,” Alnea said, nodding in satisfaction. “There is just one thing you are missing.”

  “…What is it?”

  “Do you see the tree over there? The second one from the river… Right, that one. There is a Glyph Array inscribed on its trunk. Do you see it?”

  “…Do you mean those scars on the tree?”

  “…Like I said before, this forest can heal itself. Maybe it cannot regrow its broken roots and branches right away, but it should not be a problem to restore the scratches on its trunks in a few hours. Those ‘scars’ that you see… Those are Glyphs. And yes, I did see them flash. But only for a moment.”

  “They flashed only for a moment?” Yuri mumbled. “They do not seem to have immediate effect on our surroundings… So, is the Glyph Array meant for detecting intruders in a certain range?”

  “…A Glyph Array that can only detect and not warn its owners would be useless,” Alnea said, following the flow of the river with his eyes. “Those Wanderers should already know that a group of Wanderers have intruded into their territory. And if they care about this place enough to lay down a detection Glyph Array, they should care enough to come back and defend this place.”