Kiara was greeted to a familiar place.

The forest of [Elvenheim].

Creak—

She turned around and saw the camouflaged door closing.

She didn't forget to add a mental note, in case she forgot where this door was.

She looked around and only saw trees.

That's what forests are.

An odd unsettling feeling washed through her.

Kiara shivered.

She immediately scanned the whole place.

The moment her search ended, the unsettling feeling amplified.

Kiara racked her brains for an answer and found it.

There were no sounds.

No wind, no animals, no bugs.

There's not a single hint of noise besides her footsteps.

She stopped moving, standing still.

Mental power is a versatile power system, it's uses are more flexible than others.

An invisible wave of mental power burst out of Kiara.

It passed through everything in a hundred meters distance before disappearing.

It ignored physical aspects and just went through trees and branches.

After it passed, Kiara paused for a second, before a similar burst of mental power washed over everything again.

It repeated for another three times before she stopped completely.

This technique is a mental power skill that can be used by capable mental power users, it's not rare as long the user has enough mental power.

It scans everything it passes and feeds the information back to the host.

It's a perfect technique for scouting.

The only downside that it uses a significant amount of mental power because of the pseudo-materialization nature of the technique.

Depending on the mental power and will of the host, the information digestion is slow or fast.

After the five bursts of scouting technique, Kiara stopped and pondered over the information sent by the feedback.

There are no animals nearby. There's not even a single hint of ants or bugs.

Kiara frowned.

They're completely gone.

She turned to a certain spot twenty meters away from her and saw a tree containing fruits.

At least they didn't take the food with them.

Kiara smiled wryly.

Although she could substitute the energy used by her body using mental power, it could not completely cover the expenses.

That's why she still needed necessary fat and nutrition for her development.

Although the fruits and berries wouldn't help with the training, it should at least let her maintain at top condition in case of any fights.

Kiara walked for a short while before stopping at a tree.

Mental power materialized and cut off all the branches holding the fruits simultaneously.

She grabbed one and plucked it from the branch.

It's a pity that she didn't have a storage artifact, or else she would have taken all of the fallen fruits.

She didn't waste all of it though, she ate all of them in just an hour.

After digesting all of it, she already felt better.

"I forgot that we're in elvenheim. No fruit here are normal."

Kiara bitterly smiled.

Her condition before could be said to be a person walking through mud, but now that her body is not exhausted, she could be said to be walking through a paved road.

Her mental power and body completely synergised now.

"Looks like I could continue my body strengthening."

Kiara smiled.

A single tree could completely recover her injuries, and it's just a normal tree.

...

After recollecting herself, she continued on walking.

She often released bursts of mental power to search for more fruits, while simultaneously searching for any signs of life.

The situation is already serious when she was contained in a prison room, but the lack of life around the forest made her think that something catastrophic happened here.

Although there seemed to be no life besides her, she remained cautious.

Who know what is lurking behind these trees?

...

Time passed.

Kiara have walked over four hours.

The sun is already at its peak.

Outside of her expectations, nothing actually happened.

She peacefully passed time developing her petite body, while finding trees to feed on every once in a while.

Her small body could already top an average adult in terms of strength.

Once she doubled these conditions, mental power should be already negligible for a method of body strengthening.

"Nothing really happened."

Kiara suddenly felt disappointed.

...

Two hours later, she exited the woods.