Chapter 12 – Cecil Syren

Lucca watched the monsters being dealt easily by the corp. After that he felt the stare of the young woman and the bearded man – (It seems they have noticed me) – Without further ado, he jumped down the hill and approached them.

“What are you doing here, kid?” – Asked the bearded man while looking at Lucca, he had felt his presence since he climbed the hill and saw his reaction, therefore he judged he was ‘normal’.

“Speaking with y… No, I’m traveling”

“Traveling, ho? In the middle of the forest?”

“Yes. I have to go to the church in the fort city north of here”

“Fort Muno? Church?” – Since this squad was from the fort city themselves, he was aware that the church from Muno was known for two things, helping the people in the fort and training new apprentices – “So you’re going there to become an acolyte?”

Despite Lucca’s young appearance, the man knew that from his observing the battle from a good point, his equipment and the fact he was just walking in the middle of a forest infested with monsters without any visible wounds was a certificate that he could handle himself.

“Yes, I was supposed to go to the fort to end my test, so I decided to go through the shortest path, this forest” – At this moment the man raised his eyebrow slight and the young woman giggled – “but, it was a mistake.”

“That much is obvious, even if it’s the shortest path, it’s a den of monsters, you should know better” – reprimanded the captain.

“Fufufu… don’t be so hard on him, captain. He’s right, here is the shortest path to Muno from the capital, fufufu…” – Interrupted the young woman while seeing she was enjoying the situation – “Well, it’s another story if he can exit out of here alive though.”

“That’s the problem! Ha… who knows what would happen if he didn’t meet us.”

“I’ve only come here to warn you about the forest, but seeing such a large force it seems you guys are here to deal with the problem? Then I’m going”

After that Lucca turned and was ready to go, but he was stopped by the beautiful girl and asked about what was that warning. Lucca told them about what happened last night, the plant monsters acting wild, showing vitality unimaginable for plants, and how all the other monsters were hiding.

“Hmm, the golden boy gave us good information, captain”

“Plant monster showing abnormal behavior, no signal from other monster all night long and purple mana fog covering in the night…” – The man remembered a similar case in this forest from decades ago – “This could be troubling”

“Do you know what is happening, captain?”

“If what the boy told us is the truth, there were two similar events in this forest in the past, in both of them the cause was a mutation (evolution) of a dryad, called Moon Dryad.”

Moon Dryad is a variation of the normal dryad, but instead of basking in the sun, like the normal plants, adored to stay under the moonlight, in a place with large quantities of mana, if a strong dryad lived for long enough while basking on the moon, would evolve into moon dryad, while the strength wasn’t raised that much, the Moon Dryad was capable of ruling on the nearby plant monsters.

But the greatest problem was that each night she would be fed, like a queen, from the nearby plant monsters until the point she would get strong enough to the point she would become a perfect monster.

“What are we going to do, captain?” – Said the girl, even though she didn’t know about this Moon Dryad, from seeing her captain reactions, she knew it was a troublesome opponent, therefore she showed a smile.

The captain could only sigh, he was ordered to investigate the cause of the abnormality, but he was greeted by a serious case, furthermore he had to deal with this girl, who enjoyed annoying him as much as she enjoyed fighting.

“We are from Muno, we can’t just sit by watching, although it’s a troublesome opponent, the reports weren’t from long ago” – Paused lightly while looking the red-headed girl – “so we should be able to exterminate her”

(Moon Dryad? Controlling over the plants? That’s troublesome) – thought Lucca, while he moved his line of sight to the girl, he saw her glowing smile – (But, they said they will take that down, furthermore she’s that happy)

Lucca knew from the fight before that they weren’t normal, the girl looked she could barely wait to fight the troublesome monster, while the captain, despite complaining, showed an air of confidence, so he decided.

“Since you guys are from Muno, I will accompany you guys as my guide as payment for the info!”

One sided declared, when the captain was ready to retort, the girl jumped in the middle of them – “Hahaha! That’s right golden boy” – she extended her hand towards Lucca – “I’m Cecil Syren and this old man behind me, its captain Windser”

“Lucca Bright from the desert city”

“Hahaha! That’s good, that’s how a boy should act!”

Cecil continued laughing, it seems she enjoyed the clueless boy presence, the captain could only sigh. It seems he worries had just augmented this day.