The beasts' Forest:

Susan looked around her in annoyance and confusion as she tried to find what was wrong with the place they were in, Adam was sitting with his back against a tree a few steps away from her, with an interested expression on his face as he looked her way, he had a relaxed and calm air about him.

Repressing the annoyance and irritation she was feeling, Susan, took a deep breath before turning to look ahead once again

She had no idea what she was searching for, or why, what happened was that as they moved through the forest, and as she was still somehow lost because of what Adam had just told her and what she found out about herself, Adam suddenly stopped moving and had her stop too as he asked while gesturing with his head to where they had been heading:

"So, do you notice anything weird about the place in front of us?" He had a haughty and provoking smile on his face as he said that.

She looked to where he pointed with confusion and how she wasn't able to notice anything weird at all, that place was like any other part of the forest they passed through, it had trees, some bushes and some grass, the only thing that was a bit unusual about it was how there was a small clearing in the middle of their path.

However, even the clearing was normal, it had a calming and refreshing feel to it, the grass around it was strong and green and the trees on its sides were tall and healthy, she noticed nothing unusual.

"I... Can't see anything?" She answered truthfully and not without a great deal of confusion

Adam just gave a small smile and said as he turned around to sit under a nearby tree while taking a piece of grass and putting it in his mouth, he was the image of comfort and relaxation:

"Take your time then, we will be staying here till you figure out what's wrong with the place, just make sure not to go any further," his expression as he said that was still clear in her mind, and even then, after who knows how much time has passed, she still felt a bit of annoyance and anger just from thinking about it.

She almost just wanted to sit down and not care at all about what he asked her to do, but her pride wouldn't let her, so she just gritted her teeth and looked on again

Suddenly, just as she threw a resentment filled gaze at the clearing ahead as if it was the source of all her suffering, Susan finally noticed something.

She felt as if she had caught sight of a hint of bright red colour. Thinking that she must have misseen, she looked again.

In a somehow hidden space around the centre of the clearing, she again saw that same red colour, it was hidden under a few leaves and she wasn't able to see what it really was.

Moving a bit to the side while trying to get a clearer look at it, she finally saw the object in its entirety.

It was an almost perfectly spherical blood-red ball, it had a smooth shiny surface and after laying her eyes on it stood out quite a bit.

As soon as she saw the blood-red sphere, a thought flashed through her mind, a recent memory from one of her lessons with Adam, as he liked to call them.

Remembering that, cold sweat broke out all over her body and her face paled as she retreated back unconsciously.

"Oh, it seems that you've finally noticed it, but it took you way too long, that was unfortunate," she suddenly heard Adam's voice from behind her as she trembled from what could have possibly been her end.

"It's... It's an Exploding Fungus," she said in a mix of fear and shock as the idea that death was just a few steps away from her sunk in.

Exploding Fungus was one of the many things that Adam spoke about along their journey in the last couple of days, it was considered to be one of the most lethal silent killers in the forest.

It was possible to find this fungus in small clearings all over the Beasts' Forest, this fungus had many sensors that manifested in a mess of entangling root-like growths that covered the ground under the cleaning, these roots were relatively weak and broke easily.

The fungus' main body, that usually hid at the centre of the clearing under the ground, used these roots to make out where its prey was. As soon as the prey steps into the clearing, those roots snap, sending feedback to the main body which uses that as a mean to pinpoint where the prey exactly is.

When the main body decides that the prey was close enough and that it would be able to take it down, the blood-red sphere, which was the only part of the fungus that was above the ground, would explode, sending lethal red fog all around it at shocking speed, most people and animals that triggered that wouldn't have the ability to avoid this fog after it is sent all around.

The fog itself was poisonous, but that wasn't the worst part, that was that it also had a strong fast-working tranquilising effect, which meant that one won't be able to run from the radius of the explosion if they happened to inhale even a small bit of it.

A while after the prey that was down because of the poison falls, long and flexible suction tubes leaves the main body under the ground and start pumping in digestive fluids to the fallen body, before the main body starts consuming it slowly.

Even most bones would get dissolved, and the rest would be dragged underground by the main body.

With all those thoughts going through her mind, Susan shuddered as she took another step back.

"Yep, and as I said, you took your sweet time recognizing what it was. Anyway, what's important is that you did at the end," said Adam as he glanced to where the blood-red sphere was hidden.

"What now?" She asked as she too frowned in hesitation, "should we change our trail or what?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, there's no need for that, we will just deal with it," answered Adam as he shrugged his shoulders in an unconcerned manner.

She didn't get the chance to say anything before Adam waved his hand lightly, getting a semi-transparent milky white barrier to enclose the whole clearing. Then he had one of the gigantic hands appear inside the barrier and at the centre of the clearing, exactly above the exploding blood-red sphere before bringing his hand, and by so the gigantic hand, downwards.

Everything happened so fast, it didn't even take a fraction of a second for the hand to reach the ground below, and even less than that for the whole space inside the barrier to be filled with red.

In a delayed reaction, Susan jumped in her place in shock and a curse on the tip of her tongue, only then did she understand what Adam meant by saying that the red fog from the blood-red sphere had a crazy momentum, she couldn't even see how it moved, one second it wasn't there and the other it filled the whole barrier.

"Wow..." She couldn't help but say as her wide eyes looked at the bloody barrier then at Adam on her side who his hand was still lowered and seemed to have caught something, then he lifted it and clenched hard.

"What are you going to do now?" She asked after calming down a bit

"Now we burn it," he said in an easy-going tone as he snapped his fingers، and as he did, orange dancing fire filled the whole barrier.

"That blood-red fog is some kind of spores from the fungus, a strong enough fire should be able to deal with them," He continued as he watched the burning flames inside the barrier.

Susan too watched the swirling fire inside the half sphere and the feeling she had since Adam told her about what was wrong with her got even stronger.

After the flames disappeared completely and the clearing was left as nothing more than a patch of black wasteland, Adam finally had the barrier disappear.

Only then did Susan notice the huge shape at the centre of the burned up clearing, the shape itself was burned up to the point that almost nothing could be made about its normal shape, but she could somehow guess how it looked from what Adam told her and a bit of what she saw, a blob of intertwined roots and tubes around two meters in height.

Susan wasn't able to stop herself from imagining those tubes as they wrapped around her and pumped her with digestive fluids, consuming her from the inside.

She felt a shiver going down her spine as she looked away, the image was hard for her to handle, "that's disgusting..."

Suddenly a hand fell on her shoulder and she jumped a bit from surprise before giving Adam an annoyed look.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean that," he said with a barely held chuckle, but before she could make her irritation known, he continued with a serious expression.

"I did all of this just so you know that the forest isn't safe, we were extremely lucky these past few days and we didn't face any strong monsters, and those that we did pass by simply didn't notice us, but you have to know, inside a place like this, beasts and monsters aren't the only thing to worry about, there are a lot of things that can kill you in a matter of seconds and without you even realizing it.

"Actually, this Exploding Fungus wasn't even the first entity like this we have met, it was only the one I decided to tell you about, Beasts' Forest is one of the most dangerous places in the world and just because we haven't met anything bad doesn't mean that we won't at all, you have to be more careful from now on."

Susan patiently listened to what Adam said, knowing well that he was only saying that for her betterment. Even before entering the forest, she knew how scary it was, and though they were few, there still were times when some strong monsters from the depths of the forest passed by her village, and in those moments she lived some of her life's scariest instants.

"Don't worry, I'm still here right now, so for now you don't have to worry about all of that, but who knows when that is going to change, you might find yourself alone in the forest again, and you would have to rely on yourself then."

The idea of being alone in the forest made her blood turn cold as a part of her wondered how long she would survive before some kind of monster would have her as a meal. But she repressed those thoughts and nodded to him resolutely, she was going to live and if she was lucky, she might even...

"Come on now, we have to start moving again, we still have a few more hours of sunlight, let's move for a bit more till we find a place where we're going to spend the night," said Adam as he saw her nodding to him.

For the rest of their journey that day, Susan tried her best not to let her thoughts stray and to concentrate on what was around her and for any danger.

Adam on his side tried to help her as much as he could, by speaking about different dangers they might face and how she should react to them to survive.

Finally, after a few more hours, and after many similar scans, Adam stopped and crouched down as he slowly put his palm against the floor, soon after, Susan felt those waves she came to expect as they passed below her.

When that happened, as she did many times that day, she closed her eyes and tried to feel it more, but unfortunately, just like how it went all the previous times, no matter how she tried and how she concentrated, nothing worked, all she felt was those waves, that she then knew where pulses of mana, as they passed below her, and as soon as they went by her she could feel nothing else at all.

With some disappointment, Susan lifted her head to look at Adam who had opened his eyes and was standing up, this time it seemed that he found something because he looked to the side and said:

"Come on, I found a good place for us to camp tonight, and it's quite close by," with that he started moving again.

With the promise of finally stopping down for rest, Susan found her mind wandering again, with a thought that never left her mind ever since she had that talk with Adam making itself known again.

She was so into her thoughts that she didn't notice when Adam, who was walking ahead of her, stopped. If not for him taking a step to the side, she would have bumped into him.

"Tsk, and I had talked to you about paying attention and being always focused just a few hours ago," he said as he shook his head.

Susan felt some embarrassment but she tried her best not to show it as she looked ahead at where they were going to spend the night:

"This is it?" She asked with not a small bit of scepticism.

"Right, isn't it great," he answered joyfully.

Right in front of them, behind a small clearing, there stood a high cliff face and in that cliff face there was a small cave, the cave seemed a bit deep and dark, giving a scary feeling, Susan didn't know if sleeping outside would be better.

"Could something be living in it already?" She asked hesitatingly.

"No, don't worry, my scan didn't show anything like that, and I'm still going to give it a closer look after we're there, I'll be able to tell for sure then," he said before adding as he moved, "come on, let's take a look inside."

Susan followed reluctantly while grumbling.

From a first glance, it seemed to Susan that the cave wasn't inhabited by anything, and Adam's thorough scan gave the same result, so it seems that they had found their camp for the night.

Adam took his time cleaning the cave from all insects, reptiles and other creatures that lived in such places as she headed to close by trees to collect some firewood, it didn't take her that long because they were inside a forest, so she soon was back with the first bundle and found that Adam had cast a few shining milky white spheres in the cave, which lit it in its entirety, making it seem much more habitable.

The cave was around 3 meters in height, 2 to 3 meters in width and 4 meters deep, and after being cleaned, it actually didn't seem that bad

"So, how are you doing? I noticed that you were out of it for most of the day, I know that what you have found out about yourself must have been alarming, if you want to talk about it I'm here, and I have nothing better to do," After having their dinner, and as they were getting ready for sleep, Adam suddenly said

At his words, a pang of panic hit her, then she calmed herself forcefully, she had no reason to panic after all.

With the first instinctive reaction out of the way, she didn't know what to say for a while.

"No... I'm alright," she finally started, "I'm dealing with it well, I think... It's just..".

She couldn't bring herself to say it out loud, it felt like an idiotic childish thought, one that refused to let her be since their talk that morning, and no matter how she tried to get herself to understand that, and that she shouldn't waste her time on it, that didn't succeed and saying it was easier than doing.

Looking at Adam, she noticed the honest expression on his face, as if he really wanted to help her, she didn't know what to say.

Even though Adam did a lot of questionable things around her that made her more than a little bit worried around him, she at least knew that he was probably a good person, he would probably try helping her as much as he could, or at least tell her straight away if what she was thinking of was impossible.

Thinking of that, Susan made her mind, she turned to him and asked with a small but resolute voice:

"Do... Do you think that I'll ever be able to use magic?..."