I open my eyes.

...

Good...

My memories are intact.

Lately, I've been waking up without my memories, so I was kind of concerned.

But looks like it's fine this time.

Grabbing my sword, I get up and exit the cave I slept in.

The sunlight just started to peek through the trees.

Let's get going.

After making sure I still only have the curse of misdirection, I activate my quest pointer and start following it.

As I go, I shift my thoughts to something different.

Namely, the fact that no monsters are attacking me.

Why not?

Are they afraid of me?

Is the general power level in this place much lower than what I'm used to?

It could be.

But...

Why was it, that even the wimpy squirrels dared to jump at me when I had no memories?

Did I lose something more than just memories?

Hmm...maybe it's just my aura.

After all, I was even wimpier than those squirrels without my memories.

That's probably it.

As similar thoughts float through my head, I keep following the quest pointer.

|= Two days of forest crossing later =|

This forest is seriously huge.

I have already been traveling for three days, but I still can't see the end of it.

Moreover, these past few days, I barely encountered any animal or monster I could hunt for food.

Just a few abandoned corpses and not much else.

But today, I finally met the thing I dreaded.

Type: Monster

Name: -

Gender: Male

Race: Hirnio treant

Status: Angry

Level: 537

Health: 26853/26853

Mana: 19021/19021

...or rather, something similar.

Hirnio treant?

What is this?

His leaves are orange instead of yellow, but other than that, he looks the same.

And unlike the yellow treants, this one is all alone.

...

But I won't get cocky this time.

Even if he is slightly different, he might still curse me.

[Blazing vortex]

My attack engulfs the treant without giving him a chance to act.

Suddenly, a violent explosion brightens up the surroundings and all that's left are the treant's ashes.

Hmm, he seemed to be even weaker than those yellow treants.

Or rather, what was that explosion about?

It was way stronger than what I expected.

Did something from that treant strengthen the blast?

Hmm...

|= Another day of walking later =|

Type: Monster

Name: -

Gender: Male

Race: Aresi treant

Status: -

Level: 741

Health: 37853/37853

Mana: 25021/25021

Aresi treant.

Another type, huh?

This time, it has black leaves.

But...

Something feels weird.

It has no status.

Usually, there would at least be their mood.

But there's nothing this time.

What does that mean?

...

Well, no matter.

Let's just kill him and move on.

[Blazing vortex]

My spell hits him head on.

And after a few seconds, the vision clears up.

...

But it barely did anything.

Health: 31474/37853

What's up with this one?

I hurry and start preparing another spell.

But then I realize...

He isn't retaliating.

Rather, he isn't even moving.

He is just staring at me.

Huh...?

Why isn't he attacking back?

After staring at him for a moment from afar, I decide to just walk around him.

He is a lot harder to kill for some reason.

And since he isn't actually hostile, I can just avoid him instead of wasting mana.

And so, I walk around him while keeping an eye on him.

But he doesn't make any move.

He just stares back at me.

After passing him, I check my status just to make sure.

Status: Cursed

Still only the curse of misdirection.

Alright then...

I keep following the quest pointer while thinking back on the mysterious treant.

And soon enough, I meet another one.

Black leaves, no status.

Maybe he won't attack me either, so I'll try to sneak past him as well.

While keeping my eyes on him, I walk around just like last time.

He seemed to have noticed me, but kept being idle and completely ignored me.

...

How strange, these treants.

Usually, strong monsters attack me and weak ones flee.

But these things do neither.

I wonder why...

|= One more day of travel later =|

I have met about nine of these black treants already.

All of them are the same.

No status and no will to fight me.

At some point, I stopped minding how odd they are and just treated them as a matter of course.

Also, at some point I noticed a tall mountain in the direction I'm headed in.

It's still very far away, but could that be the 'Lightning mountain'?

Since the quest pointer heads straight in that direction, I think, it's safe to assume that's it.

But maybe just calling it a 'tall mountain' is an understatement.

After all, it goes even above the clouds.

Since I need to get on top of it, won't I reach the world's limit like that?

That would make this quest impossible...

Let's hope that won't happen.

Anyway, with that mountain in the distance, I can actually use that as my landmark now.

I don't really need to use the quest pointer all the time anymore.

With my objective finally in sight, I continue onward.

On my way, I meet yet another one of these black treants.

But this time, it's different.

Status: Despairing

Despairing?

What is that supposed to mean?

Unlike the others, this one started going after me the moment he noticed me.

It surprised me for a moment, but I was still able to dodge it's attack.

However, some of the black leaves got scattered around and almost touched me.

I quickly gained some distance and checked my status again.

Status: Cursed.

Still only one curse...that's good.

The treant raises its branch-arm and tries to hit me again.

I dodge while preparing mana.

[Blazing inferno]

The attack pushes him back, but as expected, does very little damage.

Health: 26478/29753

When the fire subsides, the treant's visage is revealed again.

But this time, he doesn't move in for an attack.

Instead...

He turns his wooden head upward and lets out a sound.

...

That really reminds me of something.

Without sparing a second, I pull out the sword from my storage and prepare some mana.

[Phantom annihilation]

The screeching sound echoes through the forest as the treant and some trees behind him are cut in the middle.

His upper part slides off to the side and the bottom part topples over few seconds later.

After the trees behind him are done falling down, the silence returns.

...

I wait for a few minutes with my guard up, but nothing happens.

Huh...

I thought it was just like the dragons.

But I guess not.

Sigh...

What the heck is wrong with those treants...?

After staring at the treant corpse for a bit, I stored my sword again and turned around.

|= The next day =|

...

I have arrived at...something.

Among all these trees, I found a large clearing.

And in the middle, there is something strange.

It's looks a little like some slime, in the sense that it's spread all over the place and is transparent.

But this thing also dimly glows and doesn't really have a color.

And unlike slime, it isn't clear where its body's 'border' is.

It looks something between a fog and a slime.

...so what is this?

Type: Spirit

Rank: 7

Location: Cursed forest

Attribute: Despair

...not a monster?

A spirit?

Rank seven...?

And what is this attribute...?

Despair?

Is that why those black treants were acting to strange?

Hmm...

Well, I'm not going to approach it.

Something similar to what happened to those treants might happen to me.

And it doesn't even have health, so I doubt I can even fight it.

With these thoughts in mind, I take a long detour around the clearing.

As I go, I notice that I'm really tense.

For some reason I feel a sense of dread with that thing around.

Finally, after passing it and continuing forward, do I let out a sigh of relief.

...

Something was familiar about that thing.

Did I already encounter it before?

Or maybe something similar?

...

Did I...lose the memories of meeting it?

No, but...

I should get my memories back when I die, right?

...but I still don't remember anything before the dungeon...

...

I continue walking as I think about this.

Eventually I'm about to just dismiss these thoughts like usual, but this time, I decide to think seriously about this.

The god said something back when we met...

Something like, we had a deal...and when I do my part, he will return my memories.

Which means, he took my memories...?

Hmm...

I sit down and think.

Going from my latest memories backwards.

I entered this forest and had to deal with the curses.

Before that, I defeated the three dragons and avoided fighting the titan dragon.

To get there, I traveled from the lizardman village, where I met Zarrdos, Suddon and others.

The path to the village was filled with annoying invisible poisonous things...

Before that...I met with god again in the dungeon's last room.

I got teleported to that place after riding a boat with...

...Blizzard, Darius, Dan...the princess...and a few others.

I visited the royal kingdom and helped with the hero summoning there.

And before that, I defeated the nightmare dragon and the big turtle in Henduria port.

I got there with the help of Feldo and some merchant, who let me ride on their boat after helping them fight off pirates.

I happened to meet them by chance when I was running on water from that small island.

That was just after I finally got out of the dungeon.

Up till then, my memories are pretty clear, except for forgetting a few names and other details.

Even though a lot has happened, it wasn't that a very long period of time.

But memories from the dungeon are much blurrier.

Before entering the final room, I managed to contract the nightmare dragon.

I still remember a lot of my attempts at him.

Before that...

There was the door and key.

Who was...ah, the skeleton.

Right, the lightning skeleton held the key and I had to defeat him.

I defeated him by using a clone carrying an armageddon scroll.

And then I created my own key to open the door.

Prior to that, there some water caverns and an ogre with tentacles somewhere in there.

I don't really remember the first time I challenged the skeleton though.

Before the water caverns was the giant spider.

I always just slashed him with phantom annihilation.

What was my first encounter with him?

Can't remember at all...

Before the big spider, there was that expansive spider area.

I think I used to get lost a lot there...maybe.

But now, I can only remember those five spheres I always went through to get to the big spider.

Before that area, there was the colossal purple slime.

I passed by him using the flower that repelled him...err some slime rose or what was it?

But I used to use armageddon on him, when I didn't know how to create items with phantom magic.

Before the slime was...

...

Wasn't there some kind of dog monster I befriended at some point...?

No, but...why would I do that...?

That would just slow me down...

...whatever.

Going more backwards, there was the griffon.

At this point, I can't remember my first encounter with him at all.

The same goes for the red slime and ogre duo.

And the gargoyles as well.

Hmm...

It looks as if I gradually forgot things, not as if I was made to forget everything all at once...

Did the god really made me forget?

Ugh, this is why I never thought too much about these things.

He said something along the lines of making me remember when I finished all of these 'extra stages', right?

So let's not think about all of this and just finish them.

I get up and start following the quest pointer again.

|= Five days later =|

At last, I have reached the end of the forest.

In these past few days, I encountered more of these treants.

This time, they had either blue or purple leaves.

They acted like the yellow and orange ones and were easily defeated as well.

So the only odd type was the black leaved one...

But it doesn't matter.

I'm finally outside of the forest.

Before me lie some plains with bits of grass here and there.

And a little further away, is the mountain I'm headed at.

Status: Refreshed.

Also, I'm not cursed anymore.

It's strange to not be able to smell that sweet scent anymore.

But it seems, that the sweet scent marked the curse of misdirection, so it's good it's gone.

I look toward the huge mountain extending above the clouds.

Now, let's go.

Bonus:

This marks the end of the Journey through the monster nation arc.

Next time: The lightning mountain and Gundar's temple

"Hey!"

"You promised me I will get to ask some questions!"

Next time.

"Come ooooon!"