Yerna held Luke’s hand and hummed as they walked through the forest, deep in thought.
Three years; in three years, Luke would have had enough time to adapt to the world.
It would be nice if he could find a partner in those three years, but honestly, Yerna didn’t have the confidence to do so.
‘Unless there’s someone good…’
However, having never had romantic feelings for anyone since birth made it challenging for her to know how to engage in a romantic relationship.
Yerna certainly wanted to experience love.
Everyone said it was wonderful, and she was curious about what it felt like to be loved by someone other than her parents.
‘What am I even thinking?’
Three years was quite a long time, even by elven standards.
Well, she would think about it later.
For now, let’s just focus on the walk.
Looking down, she observed Luke’s reaction, and it was clear he seemed much more at ease walking in the forest than in the city.
In the city, his eyes were constantly darting around, scanning this and that, but now he looked remarkably calm and composed.
‘It seems Luke feels good in the forest.’
He even looked like he was smiling for some reason.
—
Luke was currently meditating.
Typically, meditation involves sitting in one place and maintaining a peaceful mind while focusing on oneself, which is a difficult task. But for Luke, it was as natural as breathing.
So of course, he could do it even while walking.
A calm state of mind.
Having already grasped the laws of mana as a grand mage, there was no way he could not handle his own mindset.
“……”
During his time in the forest, Luke had continued to meditate while reading books and acquiring knowledge.
Even in the forest, localized mana depletion was happening.
‘Since I’ve absorbed this much mana at Yerna’s house…’
It was understandable that a staggering amount of three million gils in mana fees had occurred.
At that time, he had been so intoxicated by the mana he was absorbing that he hadn’t noticed, but the amount of mana Luke absorbed back then was enough for an ordinary family of four to use for over a year.
‘But even after absorbing that much, I still can’t make the second circle.’
Luke couldn’t help but marvel at his body’s sensitivity to mana.
He licked his lips, recalling the taste of the highly concentrated mana from that power plant.
That concentration, said to be 400 times in its natural state, was essential for Luke now.
He wanted to reach the second circle as soon as possible to escape the stress of having to manage this natural mana consumption.
However, considering the previous incident, he likely wouldn’t just walk in there again.
Moreover, now that he knew the price of that mana, he understood it was considered theft.
If Luke hadn’t realized it from the beginning, it would have been one thing; now that he knew it was theft, he had no desire to repeat that act. Instead, he intended to repay it later.
So, the forest suited Luke perfectly.
Unlike in the city, the forest didn’t price the natural mana.
In that respect, the forest could be considered quite nice.
The problem was that monsters were attracted by mana.
Luke’s eyes remained watchful, calmly scanning his surroundings.
He was still at the first circle.
One circle.
Having only a single circle inherently resulted in a lack of maintenance power, causing the gathered mana to scatter.
As a result, first-circle mages usually aimed to reach the second circle by consistently refilling their mana through meditation.
Of course, typically, the amount of mana leaking out was not much of a threat.
In the first place, the second circle should be able to be engraved with just a small amount of mana…
However, due to how special his current body was, resulting from his curiosity, his first-circle mana had swollen to ten times the amount he remembered.
Thus, the amount of mana that leaked out was ten times that of a regular first circle.
Gathering scattered mana to create the second circle.
No mage had ever attempted such a feat in the forest.
Because monsters, sensitive to mana flow, wouldn’t leave a mage doing that alone, and a typical first-circle mage would be defenseless against such monsters.
‘But isn’t it too quiet?’
While Luke wasn’t expecting an attack from monsters, there was something odd about the complete absence of monster appearances.
He asked Yerna, who was humming and strolling along the forest path, “Yerna, is the forest always this quiet?”
“Well, since it’s winter now, maybe there are no insects and the animals are all hidden away in hibernation? Why?”
“It’s not that; it’s just that I can’t see any monsters at all.”
Suddenly, Yerna thought.
‘Ah, could it be that he wanted to see a monster?’
She looked down at Luke, beaming with a smile.
After all, there were plenty of scenes in fairy tales where heroes faced off against monsters, so perhaps he had developed a fantasy about them.
“So you were looking around so much because of that?”
“Exactly. But, I can’t see a hair of any monster.”
Patting Luke’s puzzled head, Yerna said, “I’m purposely walking in a direction without monsters. Monsters are dangerous, after all.”
“Hmm?”
Luke was puzzled.
He genuinely felt no traces of monsters at all.
To maneuver like this, sensory magic would need to cover the entire forest.
However, Luke couldn’t detect any traces of sensory magic.
It didn’t make sense, even considering that Yerna’s race was the elven kind, known as forest fairies.
There must be some magic he didn’t know about, he concluded.
As that thought crossed his mind, Luke’s eyes lit up as he asked Yerna, “How do you know where the monsters are? What kind of magic do you use?”
“Oh, we have tools given to our forest keepers. Haven’t I shown you before?”
Yerna pulled out a palm-sized rectangular object.
“What is this…?”
It resembled a mobile phone but was not one.
It was thicker and had a sturdier mana arrangement that signified communication.
‘Is it communicating with something?’
The screen displayed a map that looked as if viewed from above the forest.
Luke was slightly taken aback.
‘The map is incredibly detailed. It’s like… a “photo.”’
It appeared to be so intricately crafted with no inconsistencies.
However, it was not a typical map, as blue dots and red dots were conspicuous.
But what did the red dots mean?
Looking closer, they seemed to move slightly as well.
“It looks like the dots are moving?”
“Oh, that! The blue ones are the forest keepers, and the red ones are the monsters. As you can see, the other forest keepers are diligently fighting off the monsters.”
“What…?”
Luke was genuinely shocked.
In the past, the best he could do was rely on trained falcons for reconnaissance.
Even so, there was no assurance of accuracy, which meant the costs to prepare for monster attacks were substantial.
In a war, more accurate information could be gained by hiring mages to share their vision, with administrators marking positions on maps and issuing commands in real-time.
But the manpower and time wasted in that process were certainly non-negligible.
Yet, this tool bypassed all those steps and displayed everything at a glance.
What if such a magical device had existed back then?
In the great war against the demon race, it could have saved at least a million, if not ten million lives.
This was an incredibly powerful magical tool.
“What is the name of this map?”
“They call it GPS.”
A map that displays the locations of monsters and allies in real-time.
Had this existed 5000 years ago, merchants and military forces would have purchased it at any price without hesitation.
And yet, it was being distributed to all forest keepers…
“Is there no security issue with this? If someone were to steal it, wouldn’t it be prone to misuse?”
“Well, there is a password set, so…?”
Yerna pressed a button to lock the screen, revealing a prompt that read, ‘Password required.’
“My goodness.”
‘Even self-security… This seems like a magical artifact worthy of dreams. But I have no idea how it works at all.’
Luke frowned slightly.
‘The main setup is just communication magic…’
No matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find any spells related to “sensory.”
For someone with magic sight like him, it was quite frustrating to encounter a magical tool whose principle he couldn’t grasp at all.
In fact, Luke didn’t know yet, but the GPS device merely received sensory information transmitted from a magical satellite and displayed it; it couldn’t operate independently, so even someone with magic sight would find it challenging to understand its workings easily.
Seeing his expression, Yerna thought, ‘Maybe he really did want to see a monster.’
She gently advised Luke, “If you really want to see monsters, let’s find a safe haven like a zoo later. Wild monsters are dangerous, you know.”
“Is that so?”
In truth, Luke wasn’t very interested in monsters, so he didn’t comprehend Yerna’s words and merely responded adequately.
At that moment, he had to uncover the secret of the GPS.
The impulse of curiosity akin to a cat, combined with the scholarly fervor of a mage, made Luke say as if it were his life’s desire, “Is it all right if I keep holding this magical tool and looking at it?”
His tone was filled with tremendous eagerness.
‘This is just like when I first saw a mobile phone…’
Yerna smiled at him and handed over the device, saying, “Then, would you like to guide the way? But only towards the direction without monsters. If we encounter any monsters, there will be no zoo.”
This second challenge was a warning not to take unnecessary risks, given that Luke had been eager to see monsters.
“Understood. Of course, I will.”
Naturally, Luke nodded vigorously and accepted the GPS device.
Meeting monsters in this forest was something Luke was also not particularly welcoming.
Though he wasn’t very interested in the zoo.
