I waited patiently in my shroud, listening out for any movement. The sound of buzzing continued but the insects were much further away than before. It was only when their sound receded completely, that I retracted the shadows around me, shirking it closer to myself but remaining covered.

The trees had stopped moving but the forest was too suspicious to let my guard down completely. First was the whispering and then the attacking branches. Quite frankly, I didn't feel it was safe to come out, so I stayed in my shadows. At least if anything entered, I could face them in the dark where I had an advantage.

I counted down the seconds while I waited, but as my frantic snake heart calmed down, I began to feel pain. I examined my injuries and saw my beautiful wings had been poked full of holes! I'd just got them, and they were already damaged like this.

It was simply too much!

I activated [Regeneration] to heal them, but at LV1, it took quite a while to repair the numerous tears. In that time, I observed the forest, but it remained quiet with no movement at all. I was beginning to feel a little silly for remaining hidden like that when there was no one interested in me anymore.

I sighed. And since I had some free time, I decided to interrogate Sensei.

"Don't you have some explaining to do?"

Sensei was calm as usual. «You should start your journey back to the cave, it's dangerous here.»

Hmph, this sly fox.

Like I would be distracted by that. Trying to change the subject won't work!

«Your nestlings will be on their way back by now.»

Ah! I wonder how their hunt went!

Since I checked the timer, six hours had passed. If I wasted more time here, I would miss their return, so I started moving back towards the insect cave as it was the quickest way back.

While the forest was silent and quite beautiful, it was still eerie, and I didn't want to stay there any longer. With every tree I passed, I kept feeling eyes staring at the back of my head. I would hear some angry whispers but when I turned back to look, the trees were perfectly still.

Honestly, I did not feel safe to release my shadows yet. Neither did I want to risk flying again, as my wings were still sore, so I stuck to the ground. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.

Sensei saw where I was headed and complained.

«Do you want to get stabbed by insects again?»

My plan was to distract them with bait, or maybe use [Mimic] to slip past them, but Sensei firmly opposed it. «If you don't know the way, use the Atlas. It's there for a reason.»

But your Atlas is rubbish, I wanted to say.

However when I accessed it, to my surprise most of the forest area was illuminated.

«You've already explored most of it while underground.» Sensei added flatly.

True to what he said, I could see the pathway and the rooms I'd created to extend the cave, displayed on the atlas underneath the pink forest. I could even see where my path stopped to enter the insect cave and my uneven flightpath that illuminated more parts of the forest.

Was it actually not as big as I thought?

I followed the underground path leading back to the cave and although it went up a slope, it was actually quite straightforward. The forest seems quite devoid of creatures and there was quite a lot of damage done to the trees where I'd crashed into them. But the presence of something hostile never seemed to fade.

I thought I saw a small face peering at me from behind one of the trees. In the mist, it was hard to tell, but when I looked at it, I only saw the glowing outline of a tree. So I appraised it.

--------------

Name: Valdium Tree

Specie: Common Cermifer

A fruitless tree native to the Ailith labyrinth. It is home to a variety of creatures and can grow for centuries on fertile soil.

[Rarity: F-]

--------------

My appraisal result was also normal.

The ground was covered in soft pink leaves where a bunch had gathered after falling and I couldn't imagine any of it would try to hurt me. But I peered warily at the tree and continued to move.

"How can you use magic?" I asked Sensei.

«The same way you can.»

"What kind of magic? Can you use air magic?"

«No.»

"How long have you been able to use it?"

Sensei sighed at my repeated questions. «As long as you have.»

"Ahh, no way. Show me. Can you use telepathy?"

«If you can't use [Telepathy], how do you expect me to?» Sensei grumbled.

But then he added. «I don't have true access to magic, but I can use it with you as the conduit.»

Ah…so he was useless without me.

"I didn't think you could do anything at all." I laughed. "So, knowing you can do something is impressive enough. Now, what else can you do? Is it because our cores are connected?"

«Do you ever stop talking?» Sensei said in an irritated voice.

And I laughed out loud. "Now you know what it feels like to have you in my head all the time."

Sensei fell silent and I smirked proudly.

He must be thinking how much of a saint I am for putting up with him for so long.

But what he said next shattered my illusion. «You do realise, I can choose not to hear your voice if I wish it.»

I was stunned. "What do you mean?"

Sensei chuckled sinisterly. «Okay, say something…now»

"You are a useless piece of **** system and I want to drag you out of my head and smack the hell out of you."

There was silence.

«Done?»

I nodded, feeling like a weight had been lifted. "So...What did I say?"

«I don't know, I didn't hear a single word.» Sensei said proudly.

"What? Damn it!" Does that mean he just muted me?

«Your endless chatter is intolerable, and your pace is slow. So, hurry up.»

"You ass! How long have you been doing that?"

«You really don't want to know.»

This stupid...I wanted to scream! Now it made sense why he sometimes went quiet for long stretches at a time. It never even crossed my mind that I could be put on mute.

How dare he! The shameless bas-

Ahhh!

I felt the ground give out under me and I was tumbling down a deep hole. My vision spun and everywhere I looked was dirt and soil. I spread out my wings, in a bid to fly but numerous tree roots appeared to tangle around my body, pulling me further down.

"What's happening!" I screamed out loud.

«I told you to hurry. Now, you have to deal with them.»

I finally stopped tumbling and hit the bottom of the hole with a loud bang. Looking up, I saw more tree roots gathering to cover the opening like webs.

"Deal with who?"

I heard more whispering – this time they seemed to be coming from down inside the hole. More roots twisted and spread to hold me down, and I slashed through them with my poison blade. But with every cut I made, the whispers turned angrier and much louder than before.

So loud that for a second I thought the ground around me was talking, but I'd already scanned around and there was nothing aside from me.

Soon however, none of the roots tried to touch me, instead spreading upwards to cover the opening of the hole like prison bars.

I spread my wings and rose up in the air, I'd already prepared my poison spheres again to slash through the roots, when I felt a severe pain in my head. I winced and ducked my head, but the pain persisted until I heard a small voice speak directly into my head.

[Don't do that! You've already angered them enough by destroying the trees!]

It was a frantic voice that sounded like a child's and since I'd experienced [Telepathy] before, I searched around for the source.

Focusing on the opening above the ground, I saw a tiny figure peering at me from behind my root cage bars.

No more than four inches tall she looked like a tiny girl with bare feet and almond shaped black eyes. She wore a delicate dress made out of moss and leaves in the same shade as the tree's and her skin was dark grey and there were two ominous horns growing out of her head.

She didn't seem angry, rather she smiled savagely, showing two rows of perfect tiny fangs.

I hesitated, she was very tiny, but her appearance was quite sinister. I could probably kill her easily, but what the heck was she talking about?

[Who did I anger?] I asked.

[The spirits.] The tiny girl replied. [They want payment for the damages you caused.]

What damages? She couldn't possibly mean the trees I hit, right? I seemed to recall getting bashed first.

[You hit me first.] I grumbled angrily.

[You trespassed. And stole.]

[What? I didn't steal anything!]

[You did.]

[I did not.] Wait, why was I arguing with a child.

[The spirits demand payment.]

As she spoke, more roots crawled down from the opening, the entrance to the hole seeming to shrink the more she talked. Hold on.

[What payment?] I had a bad feeling about it.

[You become fertilizer.] The tiny girl smiled with fangs exposed. [The price of destroying our forest is to be buried forever with us. Our roots will grow stronger with you as nourishment.]