Chapter 435: "Forest Palace"
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Hana gave Seiji the information on several Spirit Worlds and their locations, including the Spirit Worlds' consistency, the Spiritual Creatures contained within, as well as the general environments of those Spirt Worlds, the precious resources already discovered within, and the factions that he might meet in those Spirit Worlds.
All this information was doubtlessly valuable. Seiji passionately expressed his thanks, but his younger sister felt only disgust.
'Ahh, my tsundere younger sister is so cute~!'
Seiji was quite grateful as he mulled over which Spirit World location he should try going to based on the information Hana provided to him. Finally, he decided upon...
Nagawa Amusement Park!
That was the place where he met with Iroha Hasegawa and Naoki Hasegawa.
The main reason was that the Spirit World located here had a relatively high amount of "silver fruits."
Silver fruits were a type of fruit that had absorbed a high concentration of Mana. If Spiritual Ability users ate silver fruits, they'd be able to improve their Spiritual Power as well as Mana!
Later that night, Seiji finished making his preparations and left by himself.
After Shika learned what he intended to do, she wanted to follow him, but Seiji convinced her to stay behind at home.
"I'm only going to check out the situation. I definitely won't take any risks," he told her.
Well, since this was his first time visiting a Spirit World, this was indeed true. He mostly wanted to check out what a Spirit World was like.
It would be nice if he could find some silver fruits. If not, that was perfectly fine as well. After all, this was still a precious resource not found everywhere, and there were competitors as well.
Seiji took a taxi to Nagawa Amusement Park. When the driver almost reached the park, he suddenly stopped the taxi and was unwilling to drive any further.
The driver had been affected by a spell… a barrier placed around this area.
This was a spell placed by various allied factions to prevent ordinary people from entering this area.
Seiji paid the driver his taxi fare and walked the rest of the way by himself.
When he got close to the park's entrance, he saw a group of people… they were all Spiritual Ability users.
Some of them were wearing normal clothing, while some of them wore rather special clothing. Some were wearing special equipment, and some were wearing heavy weapons…
This was the second time that Seiji had ever seen so many Spiritual Ability users gathered in one place. Compared to the Winter Snow Festival party, this felt more like a cosplay convention to him.
Well, that's what any normal person would probably think if they saw this scene.
'Should I go over there and approach them?'
After some consideration, he decided to wait outside, slightly farther away.
Time passed just like this as Seiji observed the situation. Roughly fifteen minutes later, something began glowing in the amusement park.
This light was a mystical light that could only been seen using [Astral Vision]. At first, the light was white, then it transformed into green, then red; the colors kept changing and changing. Not only that, the light kept expanding and rising, finally becoming an incredibly large sphere of light!
It was as if an aurora borealis had landed on earth. It was incredibly beautiful.
After the sphere of light stopped expanding, the Spiritual Ability users all jumped within it and vanished into the light.
Seiji walked over as well and jumped into the sphere of light.
His vision was filled with light for an instant before clearing up.
'So this is what a place that's transformed into a Spirit World looks like…' Seiji was quite astonished as he glanced around him.
He was now in a gigantic ancient temple whose ground was cracked and walls were collapsing. The roof also had roughly half of it missing.
Grass and weeds were growing everywhere, and small gray butterflies were dancing in the air. Vines thicker than human legs were growing out of the huge cracks in the ground and spread throughout the grounds and the walls, reaching above the roof.
Light illuminated this place from above and created a light yellow pillar of light where specks of dust were visibly floating.
"Forest Palace."
This was the name of the Spirit World that Nagawa Amusement Park would become every night.
The basic environment here was a mixture between a forest and an ancient palace, hence the name of the Spirit World that the mystical society came up with.
Setting aside the plants here, it was still unknown which country and which era this palace was from. The only thing certain was that it definitely wasn't from Sakura Island.
Seiji felt that the current scenery in front of him resembled something he would see in an anime about adventuring in another world, one with mystical and fantastical elements.
At this moment, a huge shadow completely blocked out the light above him.
He couldn't see clearly just what had blocked the light, but it definitely wasn't an easy Spiritual Creature to deal with.
Spiritual Creatures… or maybe more accurately speaking, these Spirit World Creatures... Some were passive and wouldn't attack first, while others would automatically attack humans on sight. These creatures were considered a threat while exploring a Spirit World.
Seiji turned around to see a wall of light behind him.
According to the information he received from Hana, as long as he walked through this wall of light, he would be able to return to the real world. However, if he re-entered this Spirit World, he might appear at a different location. Basically, the location he entered in the Spirit World was random.
He decided to remember this current location. At the very latest, he would have to leave here before the Spirit World deformed, or find another pillar of light that someone else arrived at to exit this world from.
Seiji began his adventure and set forth.
The moment he walked through a door, he met with some creatures.
Wolves… three completely pitch-black wolves with a misty red glow in their eyes.
He already had information on these wolves. They were the most common aggressive monster in the Forest Palace. They were dexterous and agile, and acted in groups.
The three black wolves roared lowly and rushed at him in unison!
Seiji cast the [Body-strengthening spell] on himself as he withdrew his Kapok tree bark wooden sword for battle.
Slice, slice, slice…
He won easily!
The injured black wolves didn't bleed. Instead, a faint red mist bled out from their injuries.
Not long after they collapsed, they vanished completely in a black-red mist, and left nothing behind.
"There's no benefits to fighting monsters, I should avoid battling as much as I can." Seiji now had a better understanding of how things worked here.
This was no game. The Spiritual Creatures wouldn't drop any equipment or items, and grinding these monsters would have absolutely zero benefits for him.
He raised his guard and continued onward.
Gigantic trees and vines, various flowers and butterflies, a broken-down palace, tall towers, clear rivers… With all these elements combined, the overall scenery was quite beautiful.
If this had been a tourist spot, it would definitely be one of the top-level tourist attractions!
Unfortunately, this was no place suitable for tourists. Various dangerous creatures lived here, making it impossible to admire the scenery.
While black wolves were individually weak, they could become problematic in large numbers.
Above the black wolves were black monkeys, black tigers, and black bears. These three monsters were all capable of using the spell [Mana Bullet], which made them more troublesome to deal with.
The highest-level monster was the black eagle. Black eagles could be met in the wide-open areas; with one flap of a black eagle's wings, it would cast a cascade of [Mana Bullets] at you. Its high speed dive attacks were also quite powerful.
Seiji met a black eagle while searching. Although Seiji felt that he should be able to defeat this monster as well, Seiji chose to avoid it and not waste his energy fighting against an aerial enemy.
After searching for quite a while, he discovered nothing whatsoever. Nor did he come across any other people.
'Adventures in real life are nothing like games.' He sighed to himself.
In RPG games, there would always be labyrinths where fighting the monsters would give the main characters experience and items, with various treasure chests along the path, or interesting puzzles blocking the way, or special events…
Reality wasn't so kind. There were no benefits to be gained from fighting monsters; he had to keep up his vigilance at all times while proceeding and couldn't even enjoy the scenery. He didn't know where he should go, or how to find what he wanted…
Seiji suddenly stopped in his footsteps.
That was because he faintly heard something worthy of his attention.
After carefully listening to discern the direction the sounds were coming from, he increased his pace and cautiously proceeded in the direction of the sounds.
Then, he saw a small clearing.
There was a large tree over twenty meters tall in this clearing. Its leaves were black, and it was blossoming with red fruits that resembled peaches. There were also a few fruits that were silver… silver!?
'I found the silver fruits!' Something flashed in Seiji's eyes.
There was a gigantic green-black eagle monster in front of the tree… There were green scales on its body, and it had an extra set of green claws. Its size was more than twice as large compared to the black eagle that Seiji met earlier!
Three Spiritual Ability users were currently facing off against this gigantic black eagle. They were all wearing uniforms that resembled special ops forces, outfitted with helmets and guns. Their guns kept shooting out spiritual bullets that landed on the huge black eagle's body.
The two sides were currently battling!