Still inside of the expanse that covered the forest with metallic items scattered around and a circular, segmented ring of clouds in the sky, Allen collapsed to his knees as he gritted his teeth in pain. His arms were hurting very much more than he would have expected them to after the battle with the draugr specter.

“What happened to your arms!?”, Nera yelled out to Allen in worry as she kneeled down as well and examined the dark red scars strewn across his limbs. They resembled burn marks and had a pattern like a leafless tree.

“I..don’t know. They just showed up out of nowhere and now it feels like my arms are on fire.”, Allen grunted in pain trying to bear it as best he could but was having trouble doing so. It was an excruciating feeling like his arms were constantly being run over with red hot tongs.

Nera unconsciously reached out and the tip of her finger made miniscule contact with one of the burn marks for the briefest of instances which caused Allen to yell out in pain.

“Dammit! That hurt like hell!”

“Oh...Sorry, about that.”

“It’s..alright.”, Allen uttered hoarsely.

Nera did not quite believe that and looked at her hand. Curiously, she had also felt a tinge of pain as well. She also noticed that although he had flinched, he had stopped himself from pulling his arms back. Nera immediately understood the meaning behind this gesture.

“You don’t have to put on a brave act.’

“I don’t know...what you’re talking about.”, Allen rebuked while breathing heavily and sweating profusely.

“Your arms look like they were jammed into electrified barbed wire and you’re clearly in terrible pain, no one would blame you for pulling them away after that.”, Nera assured.

“I know, I just had no reason to. I trust that you’re not gonna do anything to make it worse. You’re actually kind of gentle.”

“Me, gentle?”, Nera scoffed at the idea and then held up her hands.

“How about you let me check out your hands and arms then? Doesn’t seem like you can move them that much right now.”

“Uhh, sure. Everytime I try to move anything past my forearm, I get hit with a jolt of pain instead.”, Allen breathed in a large volume of air as Nera slowly drifted her hands to his. She then carefully placed her fingers on his wrists to avoid any of the burn marks and turned his arms around to view the bottom of them.

Just as she suspected, there were burn marks here as well. She then noticed that the pattern they took roughly aligned where the nerves in his arms would be. After a few moments of pondering, she came up with a hypothesis about the nature of the marks and released his wrists.

“I think I know what’s going on now.”, Nera declared grimly.

“What is it?”, Allen was afraid of the answer from her tone of voice.

“Peripheral neuropathy, the nerves in your arms and hands have sustained some damage.”

“Huh, how did that happen!?”, Allen asked in surprise.

“Your nervous system is what regulates the flow of mana for you, so you must have overexerted the nerves in your arms just now. I’ve never heard of something like this happening to a Crafter but you’re a different matter, a normal human’s body probably isn’t suited to using mana as freely as a Crafter’s can.”

“So what can I do to fix it?”

“I think just waiting it out should be fine.”, Nera answered.

Allen was about to breathe a sigh of relief but a worrying thought crossed his mind.

“Does this mean I won’t be able to use mana without this happening again?”

“I don’t think so, it only happened today and you’ve used way more mana than that before. The cause then must be something special you did today. So it’s probably the result of the…”, she trailed off leaving Allen to answer the question on his own.

“Subtle iron is the cause.”, Allen uttered.

“Bingo. Concentrating that much mystic energy for that long must have put a mega large strain on your nerves and damaged them.”

“So you’re saying it’s a double-edged sword that harms my fucking nerves themselves. What kind of lousy technique is that!?”, Allen bemoaned in frustration. Wanting to run his hands through his hair in irritation but still only being able to move his fingers wildly now.

“Glad you understand, lackey. You shouldn’t use Subtle Iron anymore. Keep on using mystic energy recklessly and your limbs will wind up paralyzed permanently.”, she warned forebodingly.

“Wait, like never again? But I spent hours practicing that.”

“Did you not hear what I just said? If you keep using that move, your limbs will literally become noodles you lead head!”, Nera loudly berated.

“But we might’ve not been able to beat that specter without it. Are you sure there isn’t some other way to avoid peripheral neuropathy that doesn’t involve taking that move out of my arsenal?”

Nera furrowed her brows in annoyance then a little less as she thought more about it.

‘He’s right, Subtle Iron was really helpful in the fight and it was even twice as strong as my attacks. But it comes with too much of a cost, unless…’

“On second thought, you can keep using Subtle Iron. You kept it up almost the entire time while we were fighting the draugr specter so if you use it more sparingly, you could prevent the nerve damage from overexertion. Try to focus your mystic energy that densely only when you need it for something like an attack or blocking.”

Allen nodded., “After dealing with this, I’m definitely going to use Subtle Iron more carefully now.”

Gaining some movement in his hands and wrist back, he gave Nera a thumbs up and Nera gave a faint smile back.

‘I wonder if by the time we get that amulet, will I have caused him more harm than good.’

***

“Alright!”, Allen shouted as he stretched his arms and hands along with twisting his wrists. Five minutes and he had regained a full range of motion in them and the pain had faded almost completely.

“It’s just like you said, now let’s hurry and check up on that guy we saw earlier.”

“Yeah, move quickly. There could be other specters still around.”

They proceeded to go back to where they had first spotted the draugr specter and the blonde-haired man was still lying against a tree unconscious. They were relieved by this and Allen then walked up to him and shook him by the shoulder. He groggily opened his eyes up.

“Huh, where am I?”, he looked around in a daze before his eyes widened in realization.

“This is that forest in Atelier City.”, he then got up slowly, clutching his head.

“Ugh, what happened to me?”, he questioned the two of them.

“A wild moose rammed you into that tree. We warned you about them, remember?”, Allen deceptively explained.

“We then watched over you until you woke up.”, Nera started laughing for a little bit longer than normal.

“Ah, that’s right. I should’ve heeded you two good samaritans’ warning.”

“It’s all good. By the way, you talked this forest like you weren’t from around here. Is that right?”, Allen asked.

“Yes, I recently moved here after the “Rising Stars NIght” just like a lot of other people drawn in by the shining lights. I’m a machinist at a factory close by here. My name’s Osvald.”

After he introduced himself, Allen and Nera did the same.

“For such an advanced city, it’s strange that it has such dangerous wildlife roaming around.”, Osvald continued.

“Yeah, it’s awful with it, isn’t it?”, Nera responded.

“Well, you can’t say Atelier City is known for its animal control that’s for sure.”, Allen added.

“That is true.”, Osvald laughed and Allen and Nera followed. Nera laughed for a few moments longer than normal this time as well. Allen then absentmindedly put his hand against a tree and felt a sharp pain on his hand. He quickly took his hand off it.

“Sheesh, my hand’s still a bit sensitive.”

“I’m guessing it has something to do with why your hands are bandaged.”, Osvald inferred.

“Uh, yeah. I spilled some boiling water on them while cooking and the burns flared up a little while ago.”

“Ah, must feel terrible. Here…”, Osvald reached into his pocket and pulled out a white spray container and a green one that looked like bug spray and then put the green one back into his pocket.

“...This can alleviate pain from injuries like burns and cuts. It might help.”

“Thanks.”, Allen took the spray container then turned around. He proceeded to partially unwrap his bandages and apply the spray. Meanwhile, Osvald was looking curious as to why he turned around to do so.

“He’s mega self-conscious about his burn marks. I would be too if I hurt myself that badly because I was really awful at cooking.”, Nera said to Osvald in a mock whisper with her hand on the side of her mouth.

‘I wish I came up with a less embarrassing story.’, Allen thought in annoyance. He saw that the burn marks were still clearly visible on his hands along with the faded scars from when he had been pierced by the thorns of the mandrake specter.

‘My arms really might become unusable at this rate.’

After he finished applying the spray and wrapping his arms back up. He turned around and returned the container to Osvald. The spray had worked to reduce the pain by a large margin.

“I really appreciated the help.”

“It was no problem.”, Osvald replied, waving it off.

Although he seemed friendly enough, Allen was still dubious about his reasons for coming through the forest. With the spray he let Allen use and the bug spray, he seemed way too prepared for the woods if he was just using them to get to the graveyard.

“You seemed rather prepared for the woods. Did you really come through here just for a shortcut?”, Allen asked bluntly.

“To tell the truth, I was on my way to visit the graveyard but there was another reason for me to come to this forest.”

“What was it?”, Allen questioned.

“I’m sorry, I’m not really sure I can tell you about that.”

“Hmm, you really can’t tell us? Just what kind of secret is it?”, Allen asked while he and Nera looked at Osvald in suspicion.

In response, the man was about to speak but hesitated for moment as he gathered his thoughts before saying, “It's...about my late uncle...he left something here for me and I’m trying to find it.”

“Oh, I thought you were just a nature collector or something. Sorry for prying.”, Allen said. Despite being curious to know further about this, he did not want to intrude on something that seemed deeply personal to Osvald. Nera looked regretful as well as for the intrusion.

“Nah, it’s fine... You two protected me just now. Who knows what could’ve happened to me if I was on my own. Besides, maybe you guys can also help me figure out where exactly my uncle put what I’m looking for.”, Osvald tried to lighten the mood a bit with an upbeat attitude.

“Huh? He didn’t tell you where it was?”, Nera questioned. His story was starting to seem rather odd.

“Yeah, that’s kind of strange. Is it like a time capsule or something? Hold on, is your uncle even from Atelier City?”, Allen inquired.

“No to all of the above. Let me explain, my uncle never lived in Atelier City but he did own some land close by it, up until about a month ago in fact.”, Osvald stated with a resigned look on his face.

“That’s the same time when Atelier City relaxed entrance into it.”

“Yeah, that’s also when they dedicated themselves to expanding and took up a lot of land around it, including all of my Uncle’s land.”

“That must’ve sucked, Atelier City sure does like waving its power around.”, Nera responded.

Osvald nodded in agreement. “It was especially bad since my uncle owned a factory complex on that land. They compensated him well but it still would’ve been a hassle to build up everything from scratch somewhere else.”

“That doesn’t make sense, how could a city forcibly take someone’s land that’s outside its jurisdiction?”, Allen pointed out, confused by the situation.

“Because Atelier City has a ‘great’ working relationship with the government, apparently their new projects will be a great benefit to the country allowing them to get away with stuff like that.”

“I didn’t know that was the case. ...I guess I was too preoccupied getting in myself to look over their underhanded business practices. I did see they were going to make more factories to start exporting more of their technology around the world.”

“I hadn’t even heard of Atelier City until a month ago. Don’t you think it was odd that a city as advanced as this could be so closed-off and obscure. They must be dealing with some very shady stuff with the government to make that possible.”, Osvald’s amiable demeanor had vanished almost completely as he looked sternly at them.

Allen was not quite sure how to feel about this new information while Nera seemed kind of nervous and averted Osvald’s gaze. Noticing their trepidation, Osvald relaxed a little and sighed.

“Well, that’s at least what my uncle thought, which is part of the reason he wanted to come to Atelier City, to figure out what was going on for himself. I, on the other hand, was a little bit less suspicious. I wanted to see this city for its marvels, to work on its amazing technology, and become a part of something extraordinary instead of just working at my uncle’s old factory...”

“Even if your uncle hated the place.”, Nera voiced what he was thinking.

Allen resonated with Osvald’s sentiment. He had also moved to Atelier City for similar reasons.

“Yeah, I thought things were going well even if that was the case until last week when he suddenly disappeared and was found in the streets shredded into pieces.”

Allen shuddered at the sudden dark turn the conversation had taken.

“...And do you think Atelier City has something to do with that?”, Allen asked shakily.

“I’m not sure. I knew he had been snooping around in places that he shouldn’t but I wouldn’t think they’d go that far to keep him quiet. However, in his will, I received this letter from him.”, Osvald reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a folded piece of paper then opened it up for them both to read.

Dearest nephew,

If you’re reading this then I have regretfully met my død. This may be incredibly unsettling to you

in such a tumultuous time as this, but I am sure that you will have the strength and intellect to

persevere through it. However, be mindful to be able to see the skog through the trees. Things

may not always be what their outward appearance suggests. There will also be harrowing times

further on in your life when you will need to call upon the valor lagret inside you and face it

to the best of your abilities. Never forget your honor and drive that has taken you this far Osvald.

The willpower and kunnskap you gain from them will be your keys to your success in this life.

With my greatest hopes, your prideful Uncle, Gerlach Harvalson

“There’s something a little off about this letter, Some of the words are in another language.”, Allen pointed out.

“That’s right. My uncle and father are from Norway and would occasionally sparse it throughout their talking but the way it was done in this letter is too orderly. He uses exactly one Norwegian word in every other sentence.”

“So you think it’s some kind of code?”, Nera prompted.

“Almost definitely, individually, they mean “death”, “forest”, “stored”, and “knowledge”.”

“That’s like some kind of secret message you’d see in a spy film. All those words can come together to say ‘a death forest with stored knowledge.’ Makes a lot of sense why you’d come here then.”, Allen surmised.

“That’s so cool! Not your uncle dying of course but finding a hidden secret revealed by a mysterious code is mega exciting!”, Nera exclaimed, practically hopping with anticipation.

“Things you find exciting are really weird.”, Allen commented. It seemed odd to him to be excited about this when she’s fought secret monsters before.

Osvald forced out a smile at Nera’s enthusiasm though. His sullen eyes showed a different story to her but only a small flutter of her eyes revealed it had any affect on her, she knew lukewarm sympathy from a stranger would not be enough to ease his pain.

“In a nutshell, that’s the gist of it. You think you two could help me find it? We may find something rather noteworthy.”

Nera nodded immediately while Allen pondered about it for a moment. He had a strong curiosity to know more about what Osvald’s uncle could have found but was hesitant about it since it could lead to them possibly being in conflict with Atelier City itself and he did not want to meet the same fate as Gerlach had if they really were the cause behind his death.

“Hmm, fine, but you’ll have to pay us for it. No good deed comes free.”

“Is it even a good deed at that point if he’s paying us for it?”, Nera asked and Allen shrugged in response.

“Sure, I’d be happy to. But before we decide on that and get looking, how about we head to my Uncle’s grave first? I really do want to pay my respects today.”

Allen and Nera both agreed to his request both wanting to head out of the still unreceded expanse. They noticed the clouds up above were starting to fade and lose their geometric pattern which was a good sign that it was going to vanish soon though.

The forest was densely packed with trees with long and far-reaching branches. The trees were also so tall that they extended high into the sky which made their immediate surroundings significantly dim. All of these factors combined made seeing things far away from them more difficult than normal.

After walking for several minutes through this forest, the group suddenly noticed a faint sound close to them, Nera only a second sooner. In one swift moment, three shadowy vaguely humanoid creatures leaped down from the treetops at them.

Allen barely had time to cover his arms with aura to block as one of them swung its frighteningly long claws at him. Nera, meanwhile, was able to fell another one of them with a strong kick to its side, tearing it in half and causing it to disintegrate into a cloud of miasma.

A spray of blood rose up into the air in the corner of Allen and Nera’s eyes. Osvald had been attacked by the third specter with it ripping out large chunks of his leg and his shoulder in two slashes of its claws. Without any hesitation, Allen formed Subtle Iron around his arms and punched straight through the chest of the monster, sending its specter stone flying out from it and causing it to break apart as well.

Nera then sliced the shadowy monster that was about to attack Allen from behind with her gauntleted hands, vanquishing the last of the shade-class specters.

They both quickly got to the side of Osvald who had collapsed in a large pool of his own blood. His voice was hoarse as he uttered out., "I have to make sure...that my uncle’s efforts aren’t wasted…”, Osvald's eyes then closed as he passed out from blood loss.

“No,no,no, this can’t be happening!”, Allen shouted. Digging deep trenches in the ground with his fingers.

“Allen…”, she drifted an unsure hand to his shoulder but was stopped by his sudden exclamation.

“Nera! Take him out of here as fast as you can and get him some help. We can still save him!”

“Got it! I’ll run as quickly as possible. ”, Nera gently picked up Osvald and put him across her back and rushed away in a blur. Allen tried following after Nera but quickly lost sight of her in the thicket of trees.