Sorry for this slower update. I'll be having slower updates for the next few weeks due to exams... and as always, please do post any comments about your thoughts and suggestions. Please enjoy this chapter. :)

~ The Forsaken Woods, East of Capital Marth

“Looks like you have found your echo. Was everything fine? I heard some loud movements in the woods after you have sounded the horn…”, Ed asked as I quickly slid down the tree to the group.

“Hey! Hey! What was it like? Was it a loud grumble? Or was it a soft mumble? What kind of companion have you found? Tell me tell me!”, Pion and Gion looked at me excitedly, eagerly expecting an answer.

The rest of the group are also rather curious, as one can usually tell what kind of magical beast it is through its echo. I could tell for most of those echoes roughly what kind of magical beasts I have attracted, except for that one I have chosen.

Well, let's just say that I attracted some particularly troublesome ones coming straight towards this location.

“Other than that, it seems I have attracted some particularly undesirable partners…”

The rest of the team was a little confused, but a loud roar from within the woods shook them back to work.

Following the echo, it seems like it was coming from somewhere in the mountains not too far away.

As we re-entered the woods, one could feel the ground tremors from the beasts as they neared the clearing, even if it was on the other side. Ed looked back as the sound of falling trees approached the clearing, but quickly turned and never looked back again.

It wasn't too troublesome of a hike to the mountains, but it certainly felt longer than I thought it would. The summit of the mountains could be seen as we hiked towards the source of the echo.

It wasn't too troublesome for me, since I simply raised the earth to go up cliffs, when my path was blocked by plants I simply pushed the ground apart to create a new path. So I have been walking mostly a straight line towards the source of the echo.

Of course, the forest isn't that forgiving, there were still some obstacles in my path to walk a straight line. Man-eating plants, huge trees, monster dens, random monster encounters.

Huge trees weren't much of a problem, though it did take a little effort to blast a hole through it.

Lower-leveled monsters were left to me. A quick memory-rewrite does the work, even though they are magical beasts, they are still quite similar to animals, so I just had to adjust the memories and instructions according to their minds. I studied everything about animal psychology in the past, but I never knew I would be using it in this way.

Dealing with the more powerful monsters were left to the rest of the team, and they indeed have great teamwork with their pets- no, companions. It was quite a surprise though, seeing that those companions can transform into a larger version than what they were.

Lloyd’s fire dragon would transform back into a more normal sized dragon fledgling, but even at that size, it was several times larger than an adult human.

Pion’s monkey would transform into a larger version of itself, becoming as tall as Pion himself.

Ed’s little fox became a larger, more mature and scary looking nine-tailed fox, though slightly smaller than Dyoll, the fire dragon.

Hylia’s companion, previously unknown to me since it never showed itself, didn't transform. It was a little snake, and most of the time it was coiled up, sleeping in Hylia’s backpack.

Luckily or unluckily, we didn't encounter any higher-leveled beast, or our intimidation technique would have failed and they would have to engage in battle. Still, I want to see what are their fighting capabilities, if anything.

Sure enough, after hiking for what it seems to be an hour, we reached the entrance of a cave at the base of the mountains. I knew the echo came from within.

What kind of magical beast resides in a cave? The echo doesn't feel like it was a magical beast, but could things other than magical beasts respond to the horn?

“Wow this is quite far away. I've never heard of a cave in this place before. And one this big too.”, Ed said as he and the rest of the team inspected the cave. It was indeed a rather large cave, and old one too.

The ceiling was tall, very tall, filled with extremely long stalactites of various lengths. It was quite wide too, but the ground had plenty of holes and cracks that I would not want to fall into.

In fact, more than a cave, I would describe this as a huge hole in the mountains. It was no ordinary hole, however. There seems to be a severe lack of mana flow inside this hole, as if it was sealed for some reason.

“Dyoll said that there doesn't seem to be any magical beasts in the cave… are you sure this is the right place?”, Lloyd asked as Dyoll shook its tiny fiery head.

“I am quite sure that it is coming from inside the cave, since I'm having a headache from all that ringing here… Maybe it's just trying to hide its presence.”, I replied as I looked in the direction of the echo. It was straight into the cave. Pion and Gion looked even more excited than before though.

“No point thinking about it now. Since Dyoll said that there isn't any magical beasts inside, why not check it out?”, I assured the team as I raised a rock path straight towards the echo to avoid the holes, cracks and spikes on the ground.

As we continued into the cave, the light behind us only reached so far. Not long after, it became pitch black, so I had to create a small ball of fire as a torch. Quite strange, since the cave was rather straight all the way.

As I got nearer to the echo, the sound of the footsteps slowly became softer as the echo became even louder and louder. It wasn't just tugging at my heart. Now it wants my ears to feel pain.

It was not long before we reached the end of this unnaturally straight cave.

There was not much.

No, really, it was just a large wall at the end of the short journey.

Sure, the large walls had a strange fossil embedded in it, and there was a dusty old sword plunged into the ground, but that was it.

Hylia upon seeing the fossil, her eyes lit up as she took out her notebook and started scribbling down notes and sketching this fossil. The rest of the members were also interested at the fossil, poking it and touching it, even Ed is collecting a sample of the bones.

But I of course, my attention wasn't on the fossil, but the dusty sword. Is this like one of those fantasy RPGs where you test your mettle by pulling out the sword? And then if you can do it, you become the hero?

Well, if the dusty sword didn't already crumble on my touch… maybe I'm too good to be the hero? Hahaha!

“Umm, i-is it you who sent out that weird signal?”, Something spoke to me through what it felt like telepathy.

I looked in the ashes of the crumbled sword and found a shiny gold ring in the dust.

“Are you talking to me? A ring?”, Hohoho, this is interesting. Isn't this like one of those RPG items that have their own personalities and can talk to you? But a ring… what can a ring even do, it's not fluffy nor cute.

“Ah… aah! Ahem! Yes! It is I, the great dragon queen of the Marth forests, Sulteedenatzkruscher!”, The ring spoke back to me.

“What? Ahh… sorry to tell you my queen, but this place is now called the Forsaken Woods.”

“Aahh… looks like I have been gone for too long, stuck in this tiny ring, unable to move even a bit for… umm how long was it… pretty sure it was two or three thousand years... “, The queen replied with a rather sad tone nearing the end.

“Oh and yes, it was me who sounded the horn. I didn't think a ring could answer that call though.”

“I-it was you? A puny, insignificant human, could call out to me, the great dragon queen? Isn't it a thousand years too early for you, a worthless human, to be my companion?”

“Hmm, oh well then.”

“Hey guys, there doesn't seem to be anything else here, looks like this wasn't the place afterall.”, I told the team whom were still examining the place.

“Wha-”

“At least this was an interesting site. We’ve collected anything we could about this place already, so let's go then.”, Lloyd nodded as he looked at the fossil for one last time.

“Wai-”

As we were about to go, suddenly a wall of rock was raised in our path, blocking our way.

“Aa… ahh p-please… don't l-leave me here…”

In place of the ring, a girl on her knees has appeared in tattered clothing, roughed up, long green hair, and sad puppy eyes with tear beads already forming and dripping down her puffy cheeks. Puffy cheeks.

That… that’s kinda cute.

…

“Alright, clear. There doesn't seem to be any threats there anymore.”, Lloyd reported as he peeked through from behind a tree to the clearing.

We let out a sigh of relief as we headed back towards the world tree into the lodge, where large monstrous footprints could be seen on the ground at the other side of the clearing.

And not to mention the unnaturally large amount of felled trees around the area.

Good thing we escaped fast enough.

Salty returned back into the gold ring, which was on my index finger, where it fits perfectly and snuggly. I guess I decided to choose her as my companion.

It took a bit for the rest of the team to understand that this ring is now my companion, though inside lives a dragon queen. Pion was rather excited to meet her, but seems like she is sleeping in the ring. Lloyd didn't say much but was quite amused. Ed and Hylia just accepted things as it is, they just gave up trying to question everything that happened.

I thought there would be more to this companion-getting ritual, but it seems like that was it. No special chants or anything, as long as we both accepted each other, we are companions. Pretty straightforward, I wonder how this system came into place.

That aside, I do hope Salty gets a good rest, it is her first contact with other people after such a long time afterall. I can sympathize with that to a certain degree.

But I have to admit, she was kinda cute.

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