The day passed. The shadows that covered the forest grew taller while the darkness grew even darker. Night had finally fallen.

Strangely enough, they did not encounter any monsters today. This was certainly unusual. In the past, there was no such thing as a monster-free day. Whether it was a pack of pushovers or a solitary loner with great strength, there was always something there to fill the void.

Today had been different, but Ellis was similarly clueless as to why nothing had attacked them. Was it because of their new tag-along? Did the group’s combined ‘aura’ scare everyone else off? Or maybe this was just the nature of the forest itself? The further upstream you go, the fewer distractions there will be.

Ellis silently took note of this little incident.

Meanwhile, the group decided to set up camp by the river. Ellis was somewhat new to the concept of ‘setting up camp’. In the past, it was usually just finding a place to lie down and sleep. Aside from the occasional cook-out, there really wasn’t much of anything else.

After hesitating for a moment, he began setting up a campfire. In actuality, it was just a matter of piling up sticks within a circle of rocks, not really anything to write home about.

As he worked, Ellis furtively glanced over towards Grisella.

With the use of a tarp and five sticks, she set up a simplified tent. It was triangular in shape and had an opening on both sides.

“Why can’t you just set up your cottage again?” He asked as he watched her work. Her broomstick artifact had the ability to transform. In terms of the most helpful artifacts in the world, her broomstick certainly ranked quite high.

Grisella shook her head in response. “It’s not that I can’t, but rather, it’s too troublesome to do so. The process of transforming the broom into a cottage is both arduous and taxing. In short, it’s not worth the efforts, especially if I’m just going to use it for one night.”

“I see…” As expected, nothing in life is ever easy. Even a convenient artifact like the broomstick had its own limitations. Well, it did not really matter to him. After all, he was used to sleeping outside. What’s more, this time, he had clothes on. A shirt, pants, shoes, and a cloak. There was even a blanket somewhere around here.

It was a simple attire, but to Ellis, it was comparable to an expensive Christmas present. It was certainly better than being buck-naked.

No, he wasn’t worried for himself. He was worried about her. Can Grisella really survive sleeping out in the open like this? Even though she wore thicker clothes than he did, Ellis had a feeling that she wasn’t a very outdoorsy kind of person.

With such thoughts running through his head, Ellis began preparing dinner. He did not want anything too special, so today, he decided to stick to the basics. Something simple and quick. For example, Roasted hydra meat.

As he continually pulled out various ingredients from Ena’s spatial artifact, Grisella suddenly shouted.

“What is that?” Her eyes narrowed as they locked down onto the slab of meat in his hands.

Her nose slightly quivered. There was a very distinct acrid smell to it. Most normal people wouldn’t even notice it, but as an Alchemist, she could clearly tell that the meat was covered in poison. What’s more, strong mana fluctuations were exuding out from that slab of meat.

“Hydra meat.” He answered. “Well, technically speaking, it’s probably chuck or maybe rib eye? I’m not too certain.”

“Hydra?!” Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “You… you’re joking, right?”

“No, Hydra meat is not something that I can just joke about,” Ellis stated with a somewhat prideful expression. To him, it was a godsend ingredient. It was delicious. Not only that, but it had amazing staying power. Even though he had eaten nothing but hydra meat for over a year now, he still wasn’t bored with it.

“Y-you… just where the hell did you get such a thing?”

“We hunted it.” He stated rather plainly. After a few seconds, he muttered underneath his breath, “Don’t really think it needs that much explaining…”

In the face of Ellis’s lackadaisical attitude, Grisella couldn’t help but twitch in frustration.

Saying that you hunted it… is a Hydra really something so easy to hunt!?

To her understanding, there was only one group of Hydras living within this forest. It was a family that consisted of five individuals and led by a monster that was practically at the precipices of Calamity-class. They lived in a swamp south of the river, right where the forest bordered with the Plains of Death, which was another forbidden region.

No… they’re not the only ones, but… She suddenly recalled another Hydra. Strictly by location, then it was certainly a more convenient monster, but there was one key problem: it was an extremely strong monster.

The dots quickly connected in her head. Almost immediately, her skin paled.

These guys hunted one of Ilpin’s Overlords!

Within the one hundred years that she had spent living in this forest, Grisella had managed to gather quite a bit of data on the surroundings. In short, she probably knew the layout and monster composition of nearly half of the entire forbidden region.

For a place as large as Ilpin Forest, that was an amazing feat, especially for just one person. It was comparable to someone mapping out all of America’s streets and highways with nothing more than a pencil and paper.

Part of the reason for her success was because of the fact that she was not as confrontational as Ellis and his group. Compared to these guys who fought everything their eyes could see, she much preferred sneaking around and avoiding combat whenever possible. Unlike them, with the help of her magic and her own ingenuity, Grisella could traverse hundreds of miles in a single day.

Back to the topic at hand.

For one hundred years, she cataloged the monsters of Ilpin forest. In that time, she discovered pockets of influences scattered across the entire region. These pockets were usually governed by abnormally strong monsters (creatures she dubbed as Overlords).

The area outside these pockets was where the rest of the residents eked out their lives. For example, a normal burrow wolf (not the irregulars that followed Ellis) would fall under this category. They lived within the outer-rings, fighting out among themselves and running for their lives whenever someone even marginally stronger would come along.

The Hydra that she knew of lived in a black lake connected to the river. It was a fairly strong Overlord.

By chance, she had stumbled across its territory fifteen years ago. Back then, it had been recovering from a fight with another overlord of a neighboring pocket. The only reason why she had managed to make it out of such a dangerous situation alive was purely because the Hydra was still recovering from its fight.

Hydras were creatures that grew stronger with each battle. After surviving such a near-death experience, there was no doubting its future strength.

Did Ellis really kill that Hydra?

She couldn’t believe it. No, it was almost impossible to believe, but after seeing the hunk of meat roasting on a stick in front of her, Grisella had no other choice but to believe it.

Suffice to say, she was amazed, but more than that, the fact that they were about to brazenly eat such a precious thing nearly brought tears to her eyes.

Hydras were high-value monsters. The meat on their backs, the blood in their veins, even the grime between their teeth, every part of a hydra was valuable. Adventurers who successfully manage to hunt one down would instantly transform into overnight tycoons. It was the type of wealth that one could live off of for ten generations.

As an alchemist, her heart bled.

She watched as Ellis sprinkled something black all over the meat. It kind of resembled black pepper, but smelled somewhat acrid. She could not identify what sort of seasoning he was using.

Grisella gritted her teeth. In an attempt to dissuade him from wasting such precious materials, she said, “You know, that thing’s poisonous.”

“Poison?” Ellis tilted his head. He licked off the last bits of dragon spice from his fingers. “Is it? Really? We’ve been eating it for quite a while now, I don’t really feel all that… ‘poisoned.’ What do you guys think?”

He turned to the wolves.

Like him, they tilted their heads in confusion. They could not quite understand what this tag-along was saying.

Unbeknownst to Ellis, the wolves had long since grown immune to the Hydra’s poison. This was all due to their experience with the near torturous blood pool.

Watching everyone’s clueless faces only served to irritate her further. She opened her mouth to say something, but after a while, she shook her head.

“Never mind...” For some reason, she couldn’t help but feel defeated.

She breathed out an airy sigh. Grisella stared up at him with complicated eyes. “You really are a giant enigma.”

To that comment, Ellis once again tilted his head. “If you want to know something about me, then just ask. I’ll be happy to answer.”

Well, as long as it's within reason, of course.

She paused for a moment. Grisella had a lot of questions, but sifting through those questions took a while. After a few seconds, she asked, “Then, who were you before?”

“What?” He furrowed his brow.

“I mean, homunculi don’t really have memories. At least, normal ones don’t.” She explained. “It’s only normal. After all, they possess only the bare minimum of cognitive function. In short, they don’t really have the brains to recollect any memories. But you, Ellis, you’re different.”

Her eyes glistened with excitement. “you can talk, you can think, you can do all sorts of things that a regular human can. So, I have to wonder; is there a soul inside your body?”

“…” Ellis did not answer. He briefly recalled his time in the darkness. A light. A formless mass of light drifting through endless nothing.

“Do you remember anything from your past? If so, what makes you so special? What differentiates you from the other countless comfort dolls and brainless servants scattered all across Lull? What is it? What makes you, you?”

There was something in there. She knew it. She felt it. There was something in there that made it possible for Ellis to become a ‘functional homunculus.’

For her pursuit of alchemy, she needed to find out.

“…”

Once again, he remained silent.

He thought about it long and hard. Should he tell her? He had gotten to know Grisella quite well within the past couple of weeks, but to reveal what was arguably his greatest secret just like that? Should he? Should he really?

After a long time, he let out a faint smile. “I’m sorry. I don’t really remember much of anything. My memories only go back to the day I first woke up in that mausoleum. Aside from a few tidbits of information regarding my lineage, I’m afraid there isn’t really anything else.”

Ellis shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh…” Grisella sighed in disappointment. Her earlier excitement deflated. “Well, that’s unfortunate…”

Ellis turned back to the fire. He absentmindedly stoked the flames.

Even after he had gotten to know her, they were not yet at the level where Ellis could wholeheartedly trust her. At least, not yet. Whether they can continue towards that direction, or if something happens in the future to change all that… well, that was still far away for the current him.

Ellis was a lot of things. He was not very serious about keeping things secret, nor did he really do much preparation towards his ‘fated enemies’. He might even be a little bit naïve, and some might even call him thoughtless, but even for someone like him, there was a line that he did not dare cross.

His greatest secret was certainly one of those lines.

As the smell of roasted meat danced through the air, the last bit of light eventually faded over the horizon.