Deep within a vast, primordial forest, a canopy of thick and gigantic trees stretched endlessly toward the sky, casting deep shadows over the forest floor where weird, exotic plants grew in wild abundance.
In this forgotten expanse, ferocious wild beasts roamed freely, thriving in an ecosystem that flourished with little to no disturbance from outside interference.
Silently navigating through the dense brush, a small group of three travelers moved with cautious steps.
Their presence sharply contrasted with the untamed wilderness around them, making them look entirely out of place among the ancient, gnarled roots.
The oldest of the group held a meticulously detailed map of the area, tracking a route designed to navigate them away from known danger zones and completely avoid any hazardous confrontations with the forest's most fearsome existences.
"Young Miss, please slow down! You will get hurt if you keep rushing ahead," a huge, middle-aged man exclaimed, his deep voice carrying a heavy tone of anxiety as he tried to advise the teenage girl for her own safety.
Looking at his tense expression, it was entirely apparent that he was far more terrified of the girl accidentally tripping and injuring herself than he was of an sudden interception by a wild beast.
"Yes, Miss. Gill is right. There is absolutely no need to be so incredibly excited," another voice chimed in calmly.
The speaker was a teenager himself, yet a heroic aura oozed from his steady presence, his hand resting naturally on the hilt of his weapon.
"Gill, Eta! How can either of you expect me to be calm right now?" The teenage girl turned around, shouting back with a bright laugh as she continued skipping playfully around the mossy boulders.
She was an extremely pretty girl, with a radiant, childish cuteness very apparent on her delicate face.
She wore a fine, sky-colored dress whose rich fabric and pristine tailoring clearly indicated her high noble prestige. "I am finally getting my very own companion beast today! In the future, maybe I will finally be able to become strong just like daddy. This has always been my lifelong dream!"
Both of her companions could only manage a wry, helpless smile at her boundless energy. The two males wore identical outfits, clad in heavy, articulated knight's armor that clanked softly with every step. They were presumably the personal guards assigned to protect this noble girl on her venture.
"Besides, it's not like anything wrong will ever happen to me with the two of you watching my back!" the girl spoke excitedly, her face full of absolute confidence in the martial abilities of her guards.
"Even though that may be true, the—" the huge man, Gill, began, attempting to gently lecture her on the unpredictability of the wild, but the younger knight smoothly cut him off.
"Miss is entirely right, Sir Gill," Eta said, looking at the teenage girl with a warm, extraordinarily tender gaze.
A deep layer of quiet adoration and love swam within his eyes as he smiled at her. "With the two of us here, nothing could possibly go wrong. Master himself was entirely sure of our strength; that is precisely why he left miss safety solely in our hands."
The middle-aged veteran, Gill, caught the distinct look passing through the young man's eyes, but he chose to keep completely mum, simply shaking his head in a silent, internal sigh.
He knew all too well that the young knight named Eta had harbored a deep childhood crush on the young miss for years.
Yet, even though Eta was a talented, bright individual who had miraculously managed to reach a level of strength equivalent to Gill's own at a remarkably young age, Gill knew it was all for naught.
The unbridgeable social gap between a common guard and the daughter of a noble house was simply too vast to ever overcome.
"See? Eta said so himself! In these outer parts of the forest, there is absolutely nothing for us to worry abo—"
The girl stopped abruptly midway through her sentence, the playful words dying in her throat as her gaze fell upon a peculiar, horrifying scene that instantly snatched her attention away. She stood frozen, staring straight through the gap in the trees into a slightly open clearing.
A little far from where the group stood, stretching across a huge patch of ruined land, a colossal mountain of white beast bones lay scattered and littered everywhere.
Finding bones in the deep wilderness was a completely common occurrence, but the sheer volume of the skeletal remains piled here created a suffocating, deathly presence that paralyzed the air.
Catching onto her sudden change in behavior, both knights instantly drew their weapons and rushed to her side, their eyes widening as they took in the full scope of the clearing.
A ridiculous number of dead beasts lay decaying in various states of putrefaction. The ground was heavily covered in crushed, splintered rib cages, and several massive apex predators lay missing entire sections of their bodies, as if they had been surgically dismantled.
The scene did not resemble the feeding den of a gluttonous, ravenous beast; rather, it bore the hallmarks of a massacre.
A pungent, sickening smell of decomposing meat permeated throughout the entire area, stinging their nostrils.
"What... what is this?" Eta spoke, his voice wavering slightly as he looked toward his veteran companion.
The young girl was thoroughly shocked, her face turning pale as she glanced toward Gill to see if his rich database of knowledge could provide an explanation.
Gill was a seasoned knight who had served her noble family for an long period of time; his experience was incredibly rich, and he had successfully navigated the deep wilderness on countless dangerous occasions.
If one were to ask who the strongest warrior in her family's entire territory was after her father, it was definitively Gill.
At this moment, Gill's face was completely grim, his eyes scanning the structural damage of the carcasses. "There must be a dangerous beast residing within this sector. Although this is my very first time witnessing such a bizarre scene, looking closely at these beast corpses, many of them belong to exceptionally high-level species, some far stronger than even myself. For an entity to be capable of slaughtering so many of them effortlessly, it is definitely a highly dangerous existence. We have likely strayed into the dangerous border of the inner region mistakenly. We must vacate the premises right now!"
Eta nodded rapidly, his face pale as he gazed upon the shattered skulls of predators he would struggle to fight one-on-one.
Even though he was a certified genius knight with boundless potential, having matched Gill's power, he was still far too green.
He severely lacked the battlefield experience and practical survival knowledge that Gill possessed.
Consequently, he didn't even attempt to argue or say otherwise after the veteran made his decision.
The group unanimously agreed to leave immediately, turning on their heels to flee away from the suffocating clearing.
However, as they desperately tried to retrace their original path, they quickly discovered fresh trails of several predatory beasts gathering around the periphery, forcing them to rapidly alter their route and plunge deeper into an unfamiliar quadrant.
After half an hour of intense, breathless rushing through the thick brush, their attention was suddenly pulled toward a beautiful scene ahead.
They burst through the treeline, coming across a small, rolling hill completely blanketed with vibrant, snow-white flowers.
These unique flora were known as ozanama, an exotic ornamental flower widely known for emitting a soft calming scent that instantly cleared the mind.
Yet, what forcefully took their attention was not the breathtaking beauty of the flowers, but a strange, solitary figure casually laying right in the center of the white flower bed.
The stranger lay comfortably on his back with his legs lazily crossed, his arms folded neatly behind his head to serve as a makeshift pillow.
It appeared as though he were simply taking a relaxing nap right in the middle of a dangerous, uncharted wilderness.
He was draped in a simple, immaculate snow-white robe that flowed seamlessly into the surrounding petals.
The figure was that of a young man, yet he looked incredibly imposing. His long, pitch-black hair rested completely open and unrestrained across the earth like a dark waterfall, creating a charming contrast against the sea of white flowers. His skin glowed with a beautiful, pale radiance under the dappled sunlight filter.
Sensing their approach, he lazily raised his head and turned his face toward them, a relaxed smile on his lips.
His deep eyes were black, and his facial features were breathtakingly handsome. Although his complexion looked a little sickly and pale, that subtle trait did not reduce his charm one single bit.
This mysterious figure was, of course, Leylin Farlier.
A full three months had passed since Leylin had initially intruded into this foreign world.
Throughout this entire duration, he had confined himself to his hidden sanctuary, thoroughly researching the unique anatomy and physiology of the exotic animals he captured.
As a bloodline enthusiast, finding a world populated by so many distinct beasts endowed with latent bloodline traits was far too tempting to ignore so much so that he hadn't felt the slightest desire to leave the boundaries of this forest for the past ninety days.
He had spent his time steadily working to minimize the natural law suppression of this world, while his undead summons continuously hunted the surrounding forest, capturing various wild animals and bringing them directly to the mouth of his subterranean base.
This seamless supply chain had enabled him to conduct countless clinical research experiments.
Over the months, various apex predators had been hunted, captured, and cut into pieces by Leylin inside his laboratory, allowing him to add several interesting beast spirits to his growing summoning army.
His summons had also continuously roamed the wider forest layout for surveillance, marking numerous 'Hotspots' to map out anomalous energy zones.
Just yesterday, his surveillance network had delivered critical information regarding the very first sighting of living humans within his territory.
Drawn by the development, Leylin had finally exited his long seclusion to step out into the open.
'If I choose to concentrate solely on laboratory experiments, it might take me years before I am fully satisfied,' Leylin mused silently, his black eyes locking onto the trio. 'Furthermore, simply studying the biological structures of native animals is not enough to truly comprehend the underlying laws of this universe. It is finally time for me to explore the outer territories, as I am highly eager to secure a general understanding of this world's cultural baseline and power distribution.'
Gazing at the noble lady's entourage, Leylin could immediately feel a slight, familiar resonance vibrating from the two armored individuals guarding her.
As a Spirit Knight himself, there was absolutely no one alive who was more profoundly familiar with the intricacies of the Knight's Path than Leylin.
Consequently, despite the strange exotic differences in their internal auras compared to the standard life seed essence of his home continent, his sharp senses could easily trace the general outline of their power levels, categorizing them as roughly equivalent to Grand Knights.
The teenage girl in the sky-colored dress, however, gave him a weird, unconventional feeling.
Mentally triggering A.I. Chip, Leylin initiated a scan.
[Beep! Scan Target Initialized...Strength: 0.5 | Agility: 0.2 | Vitality: 1.1. Energy Assessment: Power level estimation aligns with a standard Level 1 Acolyte.]
[Anomalous Variable: Target possesses zero traceable spiritual force signatures. Internal energy derives from an unrecognized source...]
Leylin's eyes glinted with a fascinated intensity as the A.I. Chip's data finalized.
She possessed the exact energy potencies of a Level 1 Acolyte, yet strangely enough, he could detect absolutely no spiritual force radiating from her soul. Instead, her body was humming with something entirely else.
'Is it probably the source energy of this world?'