Ellis turned three today.

For most children, turning three was a momentous occasion worth celebrating, but Ellis wasn’t like most children. In the first place, even if he was technically three-years-old, it was questionable whether he truly counted as a child.

He didn’t really view himself as a child, nor did he even look like one. In his case, age really was just a number.

Either way, whether it was turning three or turning thirty-five, none of it really mattered to him. Within this forest, time blurred. The concept of years become vague and uncertain. The only indicator of time was the ever-shifting cycle of day and night. If that cycle persists for too long without any break, then you simply begin to lose track.

Ellis had lost track a long, long time ago.

Was he actually three or did he simply want a place holder for all the lost time he had wasted wandering this forest? He did not know. Just that, he had a gut feeling that he might be three... then again, his instincts were as valuable as a speck of dirt.

Since it was a bother to worry about something this trivial, Ellis stopped worrying about it. He decided that today would be his third birthday. Any time that passes from now on would be measured using today as a milestone.

After thinking this far, he let out a long sigh.

Truth be told, he was tired. Ellis did not know how much longer he could keep this whole thing up.

Aside from that little stint with the wooly sloth, their group had done nothing but continually follow the river. Of course, they have yet to run into any form of civilization.

Ellis calculated a few things out in his head. He estimated that they traveled at a rate of four to five miles a day. It was somewhat slow, but that was normal. After all, they faced constant attacks from all sides. It was similar to a trial of fire. Ellis and the group continually faced opponents of increasing strength the further they traveled up the river.

The side effect was that Ena and the wolves had gotten a lot stronger compared to the past, but that was beside the point. He had climbed the rock wall nearly two years ago. Two years was equal to 730 days (at least by Earth standards). five miles every day for over seven hundred thirty days… that was more than three thousand miles traveled!

This damn river was at least three thousand miles long! What’s more, even now, he still couldn’t see the end.

What sort of concept was that? Not even the Amazon river was that long… or maybe it was, Ellis did not really know, but his point still stands.

Back then, Alma had vaguely claimed that Lull was larger than Earth. He was just now beginning to understand how big that difference really was.

Ellis let out another sigh. It really did feel as if they hadn’t made any sort of progress. This river, this forest, was it really uninhabited? If that’s the case, then why was he still following the river? What if there was a better, quicker way out of this hellhole? Should he just pick a random direction and hope for the best?

Up until now, he always had a tangible goal in front of him, but for the first time, Ellis felt utterly and completely lost.

Just as he was sinking further into despair, Ena suddenly hopped onto his head.

He briefly looked up. “You’re back already?”

Lately, she had taken to traveling via the trees. Ena jumped from canopy to canopy, at a height so great that she looked like a red blur amidst a background of green. It was somewhat scary, but Ena was a nimble girl. Falling was the least of her worries. In fact, she possessed an ability that could even slow her descent.

After seeing it in action, Ellis quickly figured that it was some sort of wind-element magic. It made some sense, especially considering the fact that the corresponding color was a light blue that resembled the sky.

When she landed on his head, he briefly noticed that her tails were glowing with a dark purple light. Ellis had seen that color a few times now, but he did not really know what sort of element it corresponded to. It also didn’t help that every time her tails glowed purple, nothing really happened.

Amidst his confusion, Ena suddenly pointed to a certain direction.

Ellis raised his brow. This was certainly new. Up until now, aside from that incident with the wooly sloth, Ena has never once shown this much initiative. “Is there something there?”

She nodded. And that was all the response that he needed. Ellis, who wanted a change of pace, wordlessly followed her guidance.

The group wandered the forest for a good while. Ena single-mindedly guided their way, while Ellis hoped for just a little bit of added stimulus to his monotonous daily life.

Eventually, five days passed.

At this point, what little hope he had in his heart fizzled out.

He stared at Ena with scrutinizing eyes. “You, are you sure there’s something there?” Ellis truly felt exasperated. This detour was taking a whole lot longer than he originally expected.

In response, Ena vigorously nodded her head.

At first, he had the intention of arguing, but after some thought, he eventually dropped the topic. For now, he chose to believe. Like that, thirty more days passed. On the thirty-fifth day of their detour, they finally arrived at their destination.

“Is that a… no, what is that?” Ellis widened his eyes in shock.

It was too far for him to properly make out, but amidst the backdrop of nature, that thing clearly stood out as a manmade structure.

Ellis hurriedly ran towards it. By the time he got there, the look of confusion on his face had intensified.

“This thing, is it a gate? It’s definitely a gate, right?” The more he spoke, the more unsure he was of his own words.

An impenetrable gate.

That was his immediate reaction upon first seeing the structure. Still, calling it a gate wasn’t quite right either. It wasn’t just a gate. It was… Ellis did not really know what the hell this thing was.

It consisted of a dark-brown wall that towered well above his head. Pointed vertical spires stuck out from the top of the structure. In all sense of the word, the thing in front of him was a gate. There were even two watchtowers that flanked both sides of the entrance.

It was a gate. It was certainly a gate, but… this thing, it was not made out of stone or metal, rather, it was crafted out of wood.

On paper, a wooden gate within a forest did not seem all that out of place. This thing was different, however.

Essentially, it was not manmade.

The gate itself, it looked as if it had been grown through the combined powers of sunlight, fertile soil and fresh water. The surface of the wall creased and contorted like the trunk of a tree. Thick roots jutted out from the ground beneath the wall, while green foliage covered the tops of the two watchtowers.

Rather than something manmade, it resembled more like a distorted piece of nature made to mimic man’s efforts.

He gingerly touched the wall. “It feels identical to tree bark,” Ellis mumbled quietly to himself.

What on earth could grow something like this? Was this thing even grown?

Ellis thought for a moment before he cocked his arm back and threw a punch.

BOOM!

He instinctively winced. His fist sank an inch into the wall. After he retracted it, he quickly noticed that his knuckles had turned red. They were slightly injured. It only took a few seconds before they healed back to normal.

“Like I thought, this thing is exactly like the trees growing in this forest.”

This revelation only brought on even more questions. The trees within this forest were so sturdy that not even his super-strength could greatly damage them. The most he could do was leave small indentations, like what had just happened a few seconds ago. What sort of being was capable of manipulating such a rule-breaking life form?

Someone that capable… without a doubt, that unknown someone was definitely a cheat-like existence.

Ellis hesitated for a long time before he eventually passed through the gate.

Inside was a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing, there stood a single spiral tower. It somewhat resembled the sort of tower most commonly seen within medieval fairy tales. You know, the type of place where they keep all the pretty princesses locked up.

Like the gate, this too was made out of molded wood. From afar, it looked exactly like one of the many trees that populated this forest, albeit a bit shorter. Moss grew on its dome-shaped rooftop. It slightly resembled the forest canopy.

There were no windows anywhere on the tower, only a single opening near the base. When he entered the tower, unsurprisingly, the entire structure was hollowed out. Nothing but a single spiral staircase that led all the way up.

Curiosity got the better him. He ascended the staircase. Due to the space limitations, he had the wolf pack wait outside, while he took Ena up with him. She lit the way forward with the help of her fire magic.

The tower consisted only of two floors: the ground floor and the top floor. When they reached the top floor, Ellis observed his surroundings.

A sparsely decorated circular room.

There was nothing inside except for a single black statue that stood in the middle of the room. Unlike everything else within this entire place, the statue was made out of stone. A black stone that resembled obsidian.

Depicted was a beautiful woman with a veil covering the top half of her face. Her appearance somewhat resembled a bride at a wedding, except her outfit was different. Instead of a beautiful wedding dress, the woman was clothed in an extremely thin robe that outlined her entire body.

Truth be told, the sculpture was quite well made. The woman in front of him appeared life-like and her figure flared out in just the right places. It was almost as if the sculptor had purposely exaggerated her proportions to maximize the woman’s attractiveness.

Ellis honestly believed that no human could possibly possess such beauty.

“…”

His face slightly reddened. It had been a long time, so it really couldn’t be helped. His lower body reacted to the statue. It was an action completely beyond his control.

“Kyu?” Ena’s sudden voice spooked him. Judging by her expression, it was as if she was asking, ‘What the hell’s wrong with you?’

He awkwardly coughed. “N-no, nothing’s wrong, don’t mind me.” He dismissively waved his hand. At the same time, Ellis subtly turned his body away from the little fox. The last thing he wanted was to expose such a shameful display to a child.

After a full minute of vigorous math problems, he finally calmed down. Ellis turned back to the statue.

This time, he ignored the thing’s blatant sex appeal and closely observed it. A heroic stance that conveyed both resolve and dignity. Beautiful flowing hair fell all the way down to her feet. The woman carved in stone held a nine-foot spear aloft with a single frail hand.

Ellis felt that there was a story hidden beneath this statue, but he did not really care enough to find out.

He hesitated for a moment, before he gingerly stretched his hand out. He touched the statue.

Now, don’t misunderstand. Ellis definitely did not have perverted intentions. He simply wanted to experience the texture of the stone. Was it smooth like jade or course like gravel? The possibility that it might feel like the supple flesh of a young woman’s body… that totally did not cross his mind.

To his disappointment, the stone statue felt like normal stone.

After a while, he noticed something peculiar. The statue, no, the material that this statue was made out of, it was rather sturdy. No matter how hard he pressed or pushed, it would not break. As a test, he directly punched the statue’s face.

BOOM!

The air around him shook, but the statue remained stationary. He glanced down. For the first time, he noticed that the statue’s feet were completely submerged in wood. Thin, vein-like roots wrapped around the woman’s ankles, threatening to swallow the entire thing whole.

As for the statue itself, it was completely undamaged. The only thing that had broken was Ellis’s fist. Thankfully, it healed after a minute or so.

He widened his eyes in surprise. “This statue, it’s even sturdier than the trees in this forest.” He was naturally amazed. At the same time, a curious light ignited within his heart. “What exactly was this statue made out of? Was it possible to create weapons out of it?”

After some quiet contemplation, he immediately got to work.

Ellis moved his hands along every bend and contour of the statue. He was not doing anything particularly perverted, but rather, he was searching for weak spots. Seeing as brute strength had proven useless against this thing, he wanted to see if there was some other way to break or process the material. He even had Ena attack the statue using her fire. Unfortunately, the statue did not melt, nor did it show any outward reaction to the heat.

After a bit of investigating, he finally found something. There was a noticeable crack that ran around the statue’s wrist. It was the same wrist that held the spear.

He grabbed the hand and gave it a vigorous shake. It was faint, but there was definitely some wiggle. The connection between the wrist and the rest of the statue was loose. Without hesitation, he grabbed the woman’s hand with both of his own and forcibly pulled.

Ellis exerted a fair bit of effort but the wrist eventually snapped.

Everything from the wrist down clattered to the floor. That included the hand as well as the eight-foot spear attached to it.

He quickly grabbed the spear. For a moment, his eyes sparkled. “From now on, I’ll use this thing.” He declared to no-one in particular.

Although the hand attached to it was a bit bothersome, the stone spear would make for an excellent weapon. At the very least, it was crafted out of a substance that he could not break even with his monstrous strength. Wasn’t that exactly the sort of thing he had been looking for?

“Still, it really would have been better if this damn hand wasn’t still here.” He bitterly mumbled to himself. He tried to pry the frail-looking hand away from the spear, Unfortunately, his efforts were to no avail. The hand was located near the blade and as a result, it made the spear somewhat top heavy.

Ellis eventually shrugged his shoulders. “Well, it doesn’t really matter all that much.”

Although his new weapon was slightly unbalanced, it was still within the acceptable margins.

He inspected the rest of the room but found nothing of value. The only thing in here was the statue. In fact, the cobwebs that covered the walls and ceiling indicated that this place had not been visited in quite some time. If this had been a normal tower, then by now, it would have long been in ruins.

For all intents and purposes, it was abandoned.

Even after reaching such a conclusion, more questions popped into his head. How long ago was this tower abandoned? Was this place even older than Alma’s mausoleum? And lastly, this lady, who exactly was she?

He had a sinking feeling that her identity was not so simple.

Ellis hesitated for a moment. After a while, he turned around to leave. There was no point staying in this place any longer. He gave the statue one last look before he descended the spiral staircase.