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Chapter 214: Zal

The furry guy appeared from the dark bushes carrying a big gun as he stare at us.

"Are you the guys who entered the Dark Forest who didn't bring any Illusion Repellant Necklaces? You all have guts to challenge this place despite the dangers it possess."

"Illusion Repellant Necklaces? What the heck are those?" Yami scratched his head.

"Ha? Seriously? You humans don't know it? Isn't it well known and common sense to the humans to wear one if they wanted to venture inside the Dark Forest. How come you guys are ignorant about that?"

"Hey! Do you think we are an id-" before Yami can finish saying anything, Ishana covered his mouth and wryly smiled before she speak in behalf of our group.

"Ah, we are travelling around the world looking for strange phenomenas and recording them. We have wandered here when we saw the darkness enveloping this forest without knowing about the necklace you are saying."

The furry guy nodded by Ishana's explanation and pulled out 4 pieces of necklace with some sort of magic stones embedded on the pendant.

"Wear those necklaces. Those are the Illusion Repellant Necklaces that I mentioned to you guys. Also, if you wanted to investigate this forest, you need to know some of the necessary rules to avoid losing your lives here."

I frowned on how easygoing he was towards us even though we are humans and we are also strangers.

"How come you seemed to have low guard towards us? We are humans and we are also strangers," I asked him.

"If you guys are people who have some sort of ulterior motives for us, I would have left you guys there on your predicament and if someone survived, I will shot your heads with bullets from my gun without hesitation. I can see if the person is someone who is holding ulterior motives. Now, did that satisfy your curiosity?"

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"Honestly speaking, no. But that would suffice for now. And thanks for these."

"No problem. Many of the travelers who do not know this forest gets killed here which is why, us demonfolks are being called as dangerous individuals even though we are not the ones causing the phenomenon in this forest."

"So you are helping people who wanders here without the proper equipment to lessen the notoriety of this forest, am I correct in my assumption?"

"Yes. At least, some humans can stop this form of stigma against us, even by little bit."

"Then, how will we address you?" I asked.

"Call me Zal. I am a normal citizen that is living near the Dark Forest and is helping all the people who are in need of help, though I choose who are going to be saved and those who deserve to suffer and get lost based on their inner thoughts of why they are crossing this forest. No one would cross this place without any motives. So, what shall I call you guys? What are your names?"

We introduced to him our names and nodded hearing our names. He keeps on talking while we are traversing the forest though he sometimes makes some stops as he aim his gun to somewhere and shoot something lurking in the darkness.

I also notice that the Dark Forest is not that dark than before after we wear the Illusion Repellant Necklace. The fog-like atmosphere enveloping the area is also gone, allowing us to see the surroundings much.

"I scanned the necklace you are wearing and I can confirm that it has the properties of Blue Lace Agate, however, it looks more similar to a lapis lazuli. It has a stored mana which seems to be the reason it was repelling weak illusions," Blue said to me suddenly.

"Really? It does indeed look similar to a lapis lazuli but why is it containing the properties of a Blue Lace Agate?"

"It might be due to the difference of Earth and this world. I will not be surprised to see more kinds like this in your travels."

Around an hour later, we have finally broken out of the forest without meeting any kind problem to stop us. Aside from the stops, we are not delayed and circled around the forest for long.

"Finally! Praise the sun!" Kyouya said and stretched his arms to the sky.

"Yes, indeed. The feeling of dread disappears the moment you get out of the forest. Makes you want to thank the sun and air the moment you get out," Zal said as he reloads the gun.

"Huh, I thought I would see dark corrupted place based on the rumors and talks of the people in the capital about the demonlands. Turns out, they are not different in the human territory!" Ishana said after observing the surroundings the moment we got out of the forest.

Ishana's words is true and even if you try to find the differences between the two territories, they don't really have any distinguishing difference aside from the residents of the land.

"Follow me, we will talk inside my house. We can't talk here as the beast will still attack outside the forest until we reach a certain boundary where those monsters won't dare to cross."

It was a few minutes from the forest to reach Zal's house. Although he looks like a hunter, it seems like we are wrong as we arrive and entered his house. It was actually a small smithy and Zal is the blacksmith.

"Feel free to sit down and rest, I will prepare some water and some food to you."

After that, he left us and go to the kitchen. He returned a few seconds later while carrying some snacks and water. I asked Blue to scan for any impurities on the food and water to be safe like additives added to our food to poison and kill us. Thankfully, it was not and Zal is indeed an honest guy.

"So you guys wanted to investigate the forest?" Zal asked as he sits down on the edge of the table.

"The forest was very ominous and since we are investigating and recording things like this, we wanted to survey the forest and learn more about it," Ishana said.

"I have some details I can share though this is not a guarantee to be that helpful to you guys since we are talking about the Dark Forest here. But if you guys still wanted to know, I will not hesitate to tell you about it."

"Every info counts," I said.

"Then, I will begin. You see, the Dark Forest was not like this before. It was a hidden history but I myself know the hidden truth. The Dark Forest is formerly known as the Verdant Forest and was lushing with life and resources. It was big enough that the demonfolk and the humans are fighting for the rights of the forest's ownership.

The humans are trying to claim it as their own and the demonfolk are pretending the humans from doing so since the forest doesn't belong to anyone except for the Mother Nature. That resulted to the human's ruler to get angry and instigated a war.

During the war, the humans summoned a hero and decided to use the Hero's power to destroy us. However, the hero stopped and decided to side with demonfolk, resulting to the king to brand the hero as traitor. And the hero was chased and killed in deep forest. but little did we know that the hero would be the one to cause the Dark Forest to be born."