From the gears and items kept in the guild to the maps and information that he had seen, even a child would have guessed that they were heading to a ruins of some kind. Of course, being a child, Astolfo guessed it too.

‘He’s all scary like a gangster, so is he asking me to earn my worth or something…?’ He thought, following Morris through the forest outside Vicino town.

He preferred it this way. From what it looked like, and no matter how incongruent the assessment was, Morris was kind but not naïve. Instead of handing Astolfo fishes, he was teaching him how to fish, and Astolfo was surely not going to turn such a golden opportunity away, and so, he gladly followed him to the ruins.

The remains of the civilization were created by the great ancient gods. A place that was stagnant with unimaginable amounts of mana from the ancient ages, brimming with the will of the ancient gods and their followers.

The universe was a cold place, forever expanding in attempts to achieve equilibrium in itself. A state where nothing moved, nothing changed. Everything that exists, resists the universe, and mana was the proof of that existence. Mana manifested the will of everything in existence, it was the medium through which all that existed could persist.

Everything influenced mana in some way or another, arcana and aura were but further derivations of mana, the Assimilation level of a person was a measure of how much their existence was in-line with mana, and even the property that each person’s mana had was but a reflection of the core of their will. The living and the dead, the organic and the inorganic, the tangible and the intangible, mana moved according to the will of everything.

And the place where the remains of ancient existences with incomprehensible strength laid were places that were influenced in such ways that defied common sense.

Those places were the ruins.

And Astolfo was in one such ruin right now.

There were no gates or entrances anywhere, there weren’t even any paths leading to the ruins, making their route a rough and uneven one that took long to tread through. The ruins and their surroundings were places completely untouched by the people of today. If he had to guess when he had entered the ruins though, it would be when the trees started following their movements with their eyes.

Morris indifferently passed through the forest, shoving the vines and branches in his way away while Astolfo follow behind him on high alert. The trees ahead would rustle and shake as their branches turned to face them. As they got closer, the faceless trees followed their movements by turning again.

The deeper they went into the forest, the more trees came to life.

Astolfo could feel the quality of mana change with each step he took.

Soon, the two reached a place that was covered with trees. A barricade of wood and leaves covered their fronts to the point even a cat would struggle to pass through. Astolfo thought they would turn now, but Morris confidently stepped ahead. He increased his pace and rushed into the trees. Just as it seemed as if he would crash into the trunks, the trees rolled around and pulled him in before blocking the path again.

“W-what…?”

Astolfo blinked and rubbed his eyes before nodding resolutely. ‘Of course, this much is to be expected from these places.’

Then, Astolfo lightly stretched his legs and shot forward. He narrowed the distance like a bullet and passed through the woods—

BAM!

—not. A loud thud rang out as Astolfo gloriously kissed the tough trunk of the trees with whole his face.

“Shit!” He groaned in pain as he backed away and stumbled up. “Why this goddamn.” Astolfo grit his teeth and kicked the tree. The tree shook from his kicks, then a small dead branch fell from the tree and smacked itself right on the boy’s head.

Astolfo held the top of his head and breathed out fumes.

“Just what did that thug do?” Astolfo closed his eyes and tried to remember Morris’ movements. Even by Vincent’s standards, Astolfo’s observation skills were exceptional. He could recall everything Morris had done perfectly. From the way, his shoulders pumped up and down to the way clothes fluttered in the air. After picking up the pace slightly, he had not changed it. He moved as if in tune with something and his ears had lightly twitched too.

“Tune?”

It wasn’t uncommon for skilled people to enhance their senses using mana, the twitch in the ears must have been a result of that. Astolfo himself couldn’t copy it, he was barely at Assimilation level nine. His mana reserves were low as his body couldn’t stand too much of it, that was also why he primarily used magic which required him to materialize his spells outside his body as compared to the sword which he had practiced directly under a monster.

With a click of his tongue, Astolfo materialized a simple wind spell and increased the frequency of sound waves moving around him. He focused on the voices and could barely hear the sound of singing.

Dozens of screeching voices broke out in rhyme, reciting verses in the language of this place with the rustles of leaves as their metronome. Astolfo matched his feet with the verses of the poem, stomping on the ground as each line ended. At last, he jumped into the wall of trees. The trunks of the trees rolled about and pulled Astolfo within before ejecting him out on the other side.

Beautiful springs and fields of flowers unfolded in front of his eyes. Rich air filled with the scent of roses blew gently across the lands, waking the small bugs sleeping atop the budding flowers. Shrubs and trees of green and gold stood majestically on ends, with a single hut made of deteriorating wood at its center.

Standing beside him, the worried Morris let out a sigh of relief. The trees outside were singing in the language of this country, their verses were words of instructions on how to pass the first trial of the ruins. It would have been difficult for anyone who couldn’t understand the language, and as far as Morris knew, the kid couldn’t hear at all. It was a necessary test to find if he could continue on this path.

“Good work.” Morris gave Astolfo a thumbs up and the boy nodded.

“For now, our work is just to locate the connecting passage and find its conditions. We won’t be looking around much.” Morris led the boy past the flower fields and towards the stone ridges on the flowing streams.

The exploration in the ruins of Bragi had begun.

**

Bragi, the wise ancient god who reveled in poetry. The followers of such a god lived with verse on their tongues and quills in their hands. From the fluttering of a butterfly in a run-down house to the blankness of a foggy night, everything was an inspiration in their heads.

The sanctuary of such artists and poets naturally reflected their nature, being filled with places full of variety and intrigue. And thanks to a large amount of mana concentrated in the ruins, various creatures had flocked to the place like ants chasing after a sugar crystal.

Morris’ gaze stuck to the rough map of the ruins. They had climbed upstream from the singing woods and were now traversing through fields of sugarcane.

“The sightings were located north of the fields, at the bridge going past the path of coal,” he said as he lowered the map towards Astolfo and pointed at the corresponding parts of the map.

Though he didn’t understand what Morris said, Astolfo could understand the map thanks to the symbols on it.

“Now, you take the lead.” Morris pointed at Astolfo and then gestured at him to walk with his two fingers placed in front of his chest.

Astolfo vaguely understood his signal and pulled out the compass he had taken at the explorer’s guild. Rechecking with the map, he turned towards the north and moved ahead. Unfortunately for them, no paths were leading through the sugarcane fields and they had no choice but the navigate through the crops.

Though he could make do with most positions, Morris’ official spot was in the rear. After asking about the boy’s prowess from Skipper, Jimmy, Derrick, and the others who couldn’t join him due to their explorer rank being too low, he concluded that Astolfo’s position was best suited as a vanguard or a scout.

Astolfo took the lead with careful steps. The tall cane crops reached as high as his neck, making navigating through them very difficult. Astolfo calmly pushed the obstacles aside and maintained a steady pace. Morris nodded in approval. A scout was also supposed to be a pacemaker in the exploration team.

The boy kept one eye on the compass and led Morris through the fields by taking the cleanest path available. As they crossed half of the expansive fields, Astolfo suddenly stopped.

Morris watched as the boy carefully ran his gaze through the fields from one end to another.

-SHAA!!

A blob of black shot out of the ground! Astolfo slightly tilted his head and dodged the creature. The monster unraveled in the air, showing its deadly proboscis and dozens of legs. The bug-like creature growled as more of its kind jumped up at Astolfo.

The boy nimbly back away, taking cover with the sugar canes, and dodged the monsters. Seeing a chance, he clenched his fist and swung it towards one of the creatures.

“Wait! Stop!”

Morris called out and stretched his hand, but Astolfo had already pulled back. The boy turned to Morris with a questioning gaze.

“These are slugs, they suck out your mana.” By pointing at himself and making a cross with his hands, he continued. “Don’t, let, them, touch.”

Astolfo tilted his head slightly before shrugging. The magic slugs had stabilized themselves and were facing their prey again.

With a shout, one of the slugs pounced at Astolfo again. The boy pushed his hand out, his thumb and pointer fingers outstretched like a gun.

“Bang.”

Air coalesced at his fingertips into a small pebble and shot out with fierce force, knocking the slug away. Astolfo clicked his tongue and jumped to the side, pointing his finger gun at the next slug.

“Bang!” He mumbled again.

A cannonball appeared.

Before Morris could blink, the ball of wind darted through the fields, crushing everything in its way. The cannonball tore the canes apart and smashed into the slug. It couldn’t even scream before it was torn to shreds.

“Huhuhu!” Astolfo grinned. He shut his mouth, suppressing the desire to break into an explanation, and turned to the other slugs. The stupid creatures completely ignored their dead brethren and got excited at Astolfo’s magical output.

Two slugs jumped at the boy.

Astolfo dived forward and disappeared into the canes.

The slugs fumbled around before growling in frustration. Their proboscis’ extended and darts of gooey black material shot out of them. As the slugs started running wild with their attacks, small shots of air neared them but they barely dodged it.

The slugs turned towards the source of the attacks and loaded their darts when a cold wind blew and both of them froze on the spot, alongside several dozen of sugar canes.

One last slug was left alive. Flustered, it turned towards the still Morris standing at the back lines. The slug hissed and sped towards Morris. The face of the still man came into the slug's view and an instinctive fear took over its body.

The slug made a mistake.

It wanted to go back to its mother, it could hear her calling. Alas, she had died ages back.

The slug prayed that could turn back, and god heard its voice. By some miracle, it stopped in midair. A golden hue covered its body as the slug thought of its mother watching over it from slug heaven.

Before it could offer a word of thanks, though, immense pressure came onto it from all sides. The world was crushing into the creature. Its shell caved in, its internal organs twisted and its muscles squeezed together. The slug turned into a ball of black muscle and dropped dead on the floor.

Behind it, Astolfo retracted his Psychokinesis. This time, it was his turn to give Morris a thumbs up.

The scary man nodded and Astolfo grinned before stretching his arms and setting ahead again. Following from behind, the stunned Morris thought back on what he had just witnessed.

Wind and Ice Magic from the Elemental Series.

Psychokinesis from the Supernatural Series.

And that output… it was all above [Intermediate] Rank at the least.

All of it… chantless.

It was hard to believe it when he had heard it from others, but witnessing it firsthand was even more stupefying.

“Just what kind of monster did I bring along…?”