You've come pretty deep into the woods.

　It took about an hour to advance, burning trees and demons.
　A long path of ashes had been created behind me.

　I made sure it was a straight line, so if there were people on this path, I would be able to see them.
　If we're lucky, we might be able to spot Mira.

　As I was thinking about this, a person jumped out of the immediate area.
　Could it be Mira?

Nuh-oh!　What the hell is this?

　Not at all.
　He was an old man who looked nothing like Mira.

　And he's huge.
　He's probably over 190 in height.
　On top of that, he has a good physique.
　I don't know why he was wearing short sleeves even though we were in the forest, so his well-developed arms were in full view.

　Still, it smells pretty bad........
　With shaggy white hair and tattered clothes, he looks like a hobo.

''Kid, could it be that you've done this?
Yeah, but,
"Ha-ha!　You're good!　But I am no match for you.　Doryaaaah!

　For some reason, the mysterious old man rivaled me and thrust his fist out with his cleaver spirit.

　Zgooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Oh....

　I couldn't help but marvel at the sight.

　The trees in front of us were smashed into pieces of wood, creating a path that stretched for several meters.
　Perhaps he had converged his fighting qi into a fist and fired it along with a fist strike, but it was quite powerful.

''You see that!　Hahahaha!

　An old man with a dynamic laugh.

　He's an oddball by all accounts, but maybe he's looking at Mira.
　I asked him, just in case.

'My God, a child is lost!　That's a lot of work!　I'll help you find it too!

　He offered to help me, even though I didn't ask for it.

'Don't worry!　I already know these woods inside and out!　After all, we've been wandering around for six months already!
I think you're the one in trouble.
'Don't be so sure!　Hahahaha!

　It's not a case of laughing.
　I mean, no wonder it stinks.

　I'm not sure how many things are wrong with the old man, but he can be an asset to the war effort.
　I've been using magic for an hour straight, even though I have plenty of magic power.
　It's a good thing I'm not the only one who's been in a position to do that.

　So, we made a road (?) and I followed behind him.

'Doryaaaah!　Nooooooooo!　Shut up!

　The old man pushed forward with an angry voice.
　Sometimes he would deviate from the straight line, so it took some fine tuning, but thanks to him I was able to conserve my strength and go deeper into the forest.

　And then.

''Kishaaaaah!''

　Suddenly, a mysterious creature jumped out of the bushes.
　As it was, it bared its fangs and leapt at the old man.

''Nuh-oh!　Phew!

　The old man panicked for a moment, but as expected, he punched it away with his reaction.

''Gah!''

　It screams as it crashes into the trunk of a tree.

　It's about the size of a human child or goblin.
　It has four limbs, a curled back and a small head.
　And it wore something like an aura of darkness--

I mean, that's...

　It looked familiar.
　The one we encountered in the lower levels of the dungeon.
　Is it the same kind of demon as that one?

　The mysterious demon attacked the old man again.
　The old man returned fire.

''Hnu!''
"Geez!
Oh!
Shh!
Move it!
"Pfft!

　He might be a bit stronger than the one I encountered in that dungeon.
　Still, the fight was even, or maybe the old man had a slight advantage.

''Mwah!　You're running away!

　Deciding that it couldn't win at this point, the demon suddenly turned on its heel and tried to flee.

''I won't let it.''
Huh?

　If left unattended, Mira could be in danger, so I blocked the demon's escape route.
　I take a heel-drop to the head and unleash my magic from my face to the ground.

'Inferno.'
Gah!

　A mysterious demon that echoed the voice of the demise while being consumed by the flames.
　It turned to ashes as it was.

''Hahahaha!　What a brilliant heel drop that was!

　The old man runs over to me happily.

　Just so you know, I've learned all the skills of the Sword Fist Fighter.
　But I can't compare to an expert fighter like my grandfather.

I thought that wizards were only poorly trained people, but there are others like you!　Hahahaha!







　After that, the old man and I pushed on through the forest for several hours.

　I decided that we wouldn't have come this deep into the forest, so I decided to turn back once.
　We made a clean straight line, so we didn't have to worry about getting lost.

'Hm?　Really?　I thought I could defeat the Lord of the Forest with you.
"Lord of the Forest?

　I felt like this old man had completely forgotten that I was looking for someone, but I was curious, so I asked him back.

'Hmm. As its name suggests, it's a demon that rules this forest. According to one theory, it is a mythical -- nuh-uh?

　Suddenly, the old man falls down with an unnatural movement.
　I jumped down from the spot as quickly as I could, trying to ask him what the hell was going on.

'A branch?'

　The thing that snatched my leg was what looked like a tree branch about ten inches thick.
　If you look closely, you can see it tangled in the old man's leg.

''Noooooooo!''

　The old man was being dragged by that branch deep into the forest.
　I chased after the old man while burning the branch that tried to get entangled again with red magic.

　And--

.........

　We came to a slightly open area, which is unusual in this forest of dense trees, and there was a large tree that towered high like a tower.
　The width of the tree's trunk would easily exceed ten meters.

　The monstrous large tree had a face made of a hollow.
　It was probably a kind of tree, but I couldn't imagine how long it had been growing like this.

　This is probably the owner of the forest my grandfather had mentioned.