`Oh, oh, oh,

　Such voices echo through the woods at night, and the sleeping Dougzas quickly wake up.
　It was fortunate that winter was over and spring had come, and that they were not using tents.
　As soon as they wake up, everyone immediately picks up their weapons.
　The movement was ingrained in my body, not in my thoughts.
　It's probably a testament to a certain level of ability as an adventurer, albeit overconfident.
　At any rate, each person begins to act with a weapon in hand.

"That was Locula's scream!? Was he the lookout?"
"Yes, but what in the world is this forest where monsters don't appear?"
"Don't be silly! This is a frontier!? I don't wonder what happens!"

　Slaisha screams at the broken lines of her peers.
　That's right, there's no point in doing things in this frontier in the way they've been doing things in the way we've been doing things.
　No, on the contrary, it's even dangerous.

"Leave it behind in the fight! Now it's time to save Locula!"

　Dougza screams, and the words calm down Slaisha, who is about to bleed into her head, and she begins to move to rescue her companions.
　Originally, it was a party of five, and as long as there was no rokura, it would be a party of four.
　When the four of them turned to hear the screams...

"Not here?"

　Seok-nan looks around, but there is no Locula anywhere.

"Why did you go into a forest like this in the first place? I told you in advance that you shouldn't go into the forest."

　Three others nod to Dougza's words.
　Yes, we don't know what's in the forest because this is a remote area.
　That's why I told everyone to stay out of the woods before I camped... not out of the woods, but out of the woods.

"This is not the time to say such a thing, is it?" Anyway, we must find Locula."

　Slaisha's words, I guess, have made him agree.
　Dagza nods and screams into the woods.

"Rokura! Where are you? Answer me!"

　It was originally very dangerous to scream like this in the woods at night.
　But I guess it's inevitable to find a companion.
　Others, like Dougza, shout to the surroundings, but there is no answer from Locula.
　Half an hour's search... Eventually everyone gathers underneath the daguza.
　The seriousness of everyone's faces is probably because the fact that there is no response to such cries means that they are very unlikely to be alive.

"What shall I do?"

　It's clear what it means.
　Even if you search so loudly, Rocula probably won't be alive anymore, as long as he doesn't show up at all.
　Locula is undoubtedly the best warrior in Dougza's party.
　Such a rokula was killed in a short time with little effort.
　If an enemy comes out, do they have a chance of winning? It's only natural to think so.

"What are you going to do? It's fixed." I must find Locula, or I shall take her revenge!"

　Dougza's voice echoes through the woods.
　Dougza has an overconfident and aggressive personality, but since he's in charge of the party leader, he's also very much a camaraderie.
　In the first place, no one will follow a rough, peerless man as a party leader.
　Therefore, it was only natural to think of finding Locula or, if she had been killed, taking her revenge.
　However, Seok-nan puts a stop to such a daguza.

"Wait, Dougza," Given that Locula was so easily attacked, the enemy should be considered a fairly strong opponent. I don't know if it's a monster or a thief, but to someone like that...
"Wow, oh, oh, "Oh, my God!"
'What!'

　There's a sudden scream in the middle of the conversation.
　That's close at hand, too.
　Dagza, Slaisha, Seoknan are the ones with the voice reflexively... they look where they should have been until a few seconds ago and each hold their own weapon.
　But there's no one there.
　...yes, there were certainly friends there a few seconds ago, but now they're gone clean and cleanly.
　It's as if being there was a mistake.

"Up!"

　In the meantime, Slasha was the first one to scream.
　Dagza and Seoknan look up reflexively at Slaisha's words.
　where his head was bound by ivy... all his limbs and torso, and his crippled companions appeared in the moonlight falling from the thickets of trees.
　No, considering the angle of the neck, life itself would have already disappeared.

"Ivy!? Why is it..."
"What!"

　Dougza's words remind me of Slasha's examination of the forest.
　A quiet... a forest that only exists in birds.
　I thought of it as a place where powerful monsters were, or likely to have been, but was that completely wrong?
　Yes, we've never encountered it, but we still know it.
　A monster mimicking a tree... Trent.
　Trent itself is a Rank D monster, not that powerful.
　But that's only if there's only one enemy.
　What if this place where we are... or if all this forest is Trent?"
　That means we're in the middle of the enemy.
　Slaisha herself doesn't know exactly how big the forest is.
　Still, it is clear that there are not ten or a hundred trees growing.

"Dangerous, Slasha!"

　Thinking that their current situation is critical, Dougza shouts and pushes Slasha's body.
　No, it's not a gentle act of pushing, it's a more correct expression of pushing away as much as possible.
　Shocked away by a strong shock, Slaisha looks behind her instantly, balancing herself so she doesn't fall.

"Oh my gosh!"

　And what Slaisha saw when she turned around was the creeping roots of a tree penetrating Dougza's body from below.
　It has more than one or two roots. I'm sure you've easily exceeded ten.
　That much root penetrates Dougza's body... and grows roots all over his body.
　You can see the roots spreading throughout the body through Dougza's skin, as if the blood vessels were pulsating.
　When Slaisha and Seok-nan see it, they stop moving because of the shock.
　Of course I know what Trent is like.
　I didn't know everything about Trent perfectly, but I still thought I understood most of it.
　Such information doesn't exist in Suresha and Seok-nan's knowledge.

"D..."It's probably the effect of Trent's roots being eroded. The words are already broken and very difficult to understand.
　But Slaisha and Seok-nan, who still understand how their leader said the word, kick the ground with almost a reflex movement.
　By all means, to escape from this forest... perhaps from the forest of Trent.

"Dagza... wait, I'll definitely bring you some help.

　All Slaisha could do was scream that way.
　Anyway, now I'm out of this forest... I'm going to run through it thinking that I'm going to escape from a forest worthy of being called the Death Forest.
　Fortunately... or perhaps that's the other way around, Trent, who makes up the forest, doesn't seem to be moving.
　Then we can escape from the forest.
　With that in mind, I keep running...what I see before my eyes knocks Slaisha and Seok-nan into despair.
　It's a place where we camped.
　No, there's no problem with that's all.
　But the fact that the camp was completely engulfed in the forest either meant that it was growing rapidly... or that trees were moving.
　And given Trent's presence, it's almost certainly the latter.

"Oh my gosh!"
"Seoknang!"

　Surprised that the camp had been engulfed in the woods, it stopped for a few seconds... but with a few seconds, it was enough time for the two men surrounded by Trent to be attacked.

"Run away, Slasha! Tell this to Gilmoo!"

　Body, feet, hands... ivy is wrapped all over the body and tries to pull Seoknan into the forest.
　Seok-nan tried to prevent it by thrusting a dagger into the ground, but the power to pull it with ivy must be stronger than expected.
　The dagger stuck in the ground only lasted a few seconds.
　Slaisha immediately reaches out to Seok-nan and tries to pull her body out of ivy, but as soon as she reaches out, Seok-nan is dragged into the forest.

"Seoknang, Seoknang!"
"Please, Gilmoo!"

　As he screams, Seok-nan disappears from Slaisha's view.

"d*mn!"

　I've lost my company again.
　Though she thinks about it for a moment, Slasha immediately runs on the spot.
　In an instant, a vine that grows from deep in the forest hits the place where Slaisha's body was located like a whip.

"Sorry!"

　Only Slaisha would know how much thought was contained in the word.
　You can't even take your luggage out of the encampment, which is being swallowed up in the woods, and you start running in a situation where all you have to do is bow and arrow.
　Fortunately for Slaisha, the forest did not erode so fast.
　That's because some distance from the camp has not yet been eroded by the forest.

(I can't believe Trent is so assembled... and Dagza's case is not very much, but it's not just Trent!)

　Tears overflow from Slasha's running eyes.
　The distance from the forest must have relaxed him a little.
　There were a lot of parties, but for Slasha, Dougza was never a bad match.
　Having chosen a career as an adventurer, it's not that I never thought of this possibility.
　But still...
　They probably didn't think at all that it would really happen to them.

(If only he had stopped more when Dougza said he was going off the road... No, he should have stopped when he said he was going to Gilm. Why... Why...?

　As she runs, tears trickle down Slasha's eyes.
　His eyes are usually a little drooping to show Slasha's strength, but from what I see today, he didn't seem to be that strong-willed.
　As she runs, she looks behind her many times and sees if there is a forest... ...that seems to be Trent.
　Naturally, even adventurers wear out their physical strength if they keep running.
　However, he ran frantically, fearing that if he stopped for a moment, ivy would grow again from somewhere.
　There is also a feeling that we should inform Gillum of this incident as soon as possible.
　However, there was more of a sense of mission than a sense of mission, and there was also a calculation that perhaps we could save the Doughers.
　For Slasha, there are many problems, but she is a forgiving partner.
　The bond is deep and firm because we've been through the crisis of our lives so far.
　Sleisha continues to run toward Gillum, breathing heavily.
　I wonder how long it's been since I ran. Before we knew it, the moon had set, a symbol of night, and the sun had risen into the sky instead.
　Slasha herself doesn't know how long she's been running.
　The ground you're stepping on has changed from grassland to stone paving.
　That's right... we were back on the wrong track following Dougza's words.

"Oh, hey! What's wrong? Are you all right?"

　It's probably because Slasha was driving along the road in an extraordinary sight.
　An adventurer who happens to pass by...an adventurer based in Guilm who is commissioned to collect medicinal herbs with special magical powers to make a potion calls out to Slaisha.
　It was not until she was approached that Slaisha noticed the person in front of her... she opened her mouth.

"Please, comrades... help your comrades, the forest... the forest... the forest bites you..."

　Unable to say anything more, Slasha passed out beyond her physical limit and fell down at the adventurer.