Chapter 2
The deep forest, as elves and High Elves call it, is apparently known outside as the Pulha Great Forest.
More precisely, only part of it is the deep forest where elves and High Elves live.
High Elves live in the center of the deep forest, while elves live around its outer edges.
A barrier imbued with the spirits' power surrounds the deep forest, confusing monsters and other races and driving them away.
In other words, once you cross the deep forest's boundary and take even a single step beyond the barrier, you're completely in the outside world.
But that didn't mean...
"I never expected to be attacked by a monster the instant I took one step beyond the barrier... The outside world is exciting."
Yet I never dreamed I'd immediately be surrounded by a pack of large wolf monsters called Forest Wolves.
Was the Pulha Great Forest a dangerous place, or was I simply unlucky? I wondered which it was.
Even if this wasn't the deep forest, it was still a place enclosed by trees.
When I directed a pleading gaze at the trees, they moved their roots to drive away the Forest Wolves and let me take refuge in the treetops.
...Now then, with my immediate safety secured, I had to decide what to do about the Forest Wolves growling beneath the tree.
More specifically, whether or not to kill them.
In truth, hunting Forest Wolves wasn't particularly difficult for me anymore.
I could safely hunt them simply by shooting arrows from the treetops.
However, since all the arrows I had were nothing more than sharpened sticks, they might not pierce a monster's hide, so I'd have to shoot them in the eyes.
But the High Elf settlement had almost no entertainment besides difficult target practice, and after doing little else for a hundred years, hitting a target was easy for me no matter how much it moved or how small it was.
So what troubled me wasn't how to hunt them, but whether I should kill them in the first place.
I mean, they had attacked me, so there was no real reason to hesitate. Still, I didn't want to eat wolf meat, and stripping their hides here would be a pain.
Of course, carrying the heavy carcasses of Forest Wolves with me was out of the question.
I could probably carry their fangs and claws, but there were simply too many of those as well if I had to deal with the whole pack.
So killing one or two was one thing, but killing any more would really just mean killing them for the sake of it.
"Hmm... Well, all right."
For now, I'd hunt one or two.
If that made them flee, I could take their claws and fangs and bury the carcasses. If they didn't flee, I'd think about what to do then.
I nocked an arrow, drew the bow taut with a quick creak, and fired twice in rapid succession.
I aimed at the largest Forest Wolf in the pack.
I figured that if it was the pack leader, there was a good chance the others would flee if I brought it down.
The first arrow flew true and pierced the large Forest Wolf's eye. As it yelped and reared back in pain and surprise, the second arrow punched through its open mouth.
"Good."
I felt a small sense of satisfaction at having fired the arrows exactly as intended.
Whatever it is, it's good to have at least one thing you can call a special talent.
It builds confidence, and in some situations, it can even save a person's life—as it just did for me.
The Forest Wolves, thrown into confusion by the loss of their leader, turned tail and fled between the trees as soon as I raised my bow again.
...I see.
Apparently, monsters were more intelligent than I'd thought.
I was glad to avoid any needless killing, but I would surely encounter monsters again from here on, so I made a mental note never to let my guard down.
"Yeah, good. Thanks."
I thanked the tree that had saved me, stroked its trunk, then jumped down from the branch and landed.
I took the stone knife from my pack and quickly stripped the claws and fangs from the Forest Wolf that was already dead.
The stone knife was no match for a Forest Wolf's hide, claws, or fangs, but if I used it skillfully, I could still remove the claws, slice through the gums, and pull out the fangs.
After stowing the claws and fangs in my vine-woven pack,
"Spirit of the wind."
I muttered, calling out to the wind spirits nearby.
This was spirit arts in action—the act of calling out to a spirit and borrowing its power.
The wind spirit understood my intent and created two vortices rotating in opposite directions, grinding the remaining Forest Wolf's body, hide and bones included, into mince.
It was a truly gruesome sight, but crushing the body this way let it return swiftly to the earth and become nourishment for the trees standing here.
In other words, this was my way of thanking the trees that had saved me earlier.
Of course, the one doing the work was the wind spirit, and there was no way to thank a spirit that had neither a body nor physical needs, but I could at least offer it my sincere gratitude.
"...Now then."
Once I'd finished all the cleanup, I deliberately said that aloud to pull myself together.
How many times would I encounter something like this before I made it through the Pulha Great Forest and reached a human settlement?
After all, I'd taken only one step beyond the barrier of the deep forest.
The road ahead was long, to say the least.
But even so,
"The outside world really is exciting."
A smile naturally spread across my face.
Even an accident like this was wonderfully fresh stimulation for someone like me, who had grown tired of my long, slow life.
My heart leaped at the mere thought of what I might do with the claws and fangs I'd obtained from the Forest Wolf.
The larger fangs looked as though they could be ground and sharpened into a dagger or the blade of a large knife, while the smaller ones could be strung together into some kind of ornament.
Since it would be a shame to the Forest Wolf I'd killed if I failed and wasted them, perhaps I should first learn how to work knives and make crafts from someone.
Anyway, my goal was a human settlement.
I wasn't foolish enough to skip through the forest, but apparently, holding back my feet, which were quickening with anticipation, was going to be quite difficult.