Barrett took out a white wool coat from his spatial ring, wrapped it around his head, then carefully climbed up a tall pine tree. Although his body was burly and strong, he climbed trees more nimbly than a monkey.
At the top of the snow-covered pine tree, Barrett poked out half his head, gazing into the distance. At the other end of the forest, flames burned into a leaping line of fire, with rolling smoke and dust blotting out the sky.
Someone was setting the mountain on fire.
Barrett took out a brass telescope, put it to his eye, and after adjusting the focus, finally saw clearly: a column of tall skeletal knights, holding lance-shaped magical devices, burning the trees. The magical devices spewed out blinding flames, gradually devouring the forest.
In the sky, a fierce whooshing sound came rushing, and Barrett ducked under the leaves. A huge peryton spread its wings wide, whistling as it skimmed ultra-low over the ground. That was definitely not a beast that should appear in this season.
Besides the peryton, there were several slender bone dragons circling high in the sky, wind elements propelling their bony wings, seeming to search for something.
Barrett jumped down from the pine tree; he was one hundred percent sure that the army from the Great Tomb of Nazarick was searching for them.
He asked EeDechi, "Do you have the ability to avoid magical detection?"
EeDechi nodded. "My bronze seal has a passive that makes me immune to all detection magic."
No wonder Ainz Ooal Gown would use such a primitive method as setting the mountain on fire. Barrett pondered countermeasures inwardly; if they stayed here any longer, they would definitely be found—they had to leave quickly.
To devise a proper escape plan, they must know their exact location, otherwise they could only run around the forest like headless chickens. But looking around, everywhere was just trees and snow, the scenery monotonous and dull—how to find a way out?
"See if there's any special terrain nearby?" he shouted to EeDechi.
EeDechi had better eyesight; she pointed not far away. "There's a river over there, but it's frozen solid, and there's a tributary."
Barrett dashed over. He pulled out a compass and saw that the river ran north-south. With the bitter cold, the river surface was completely iced over and blanketed in snow, making it impossible to tell the flow direction.
"What now?" EeDechi was a bit on edge; through the thick canopy, she spotted the scouts soaring in the sky too. The two adventurers were currently just using a white bedsheet tied to their backs as makeshift white cloaks for basic cover.
Barrett carefully chipped a small hole in the river's ice; the layer was thick, and he had to stick half his arm in before his fingertips could feel the water's flow direction.
As he yanked his arm out, a bighead carp leaped from the ice hole onto the surface, splashing crystal-clear water and tracing a powerful arc through the air. To help this fish craving oxygen and freedom, and keep it from suffocating on land, Barrett grabbed it by the gills, bundled it in a cloth sack, and stowed it in his spatial ring.
This was an unexpected bonus; if they made it out in one piece, tonight's campfire meal would feature fresh fish soup.
In the forest thick with pine groves, the river flowed from north to south, with the tributary veering southeast. Gazing into the far distance, two majestic peaks stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a colossal mountain range that towered to the heavens, blocking the forest's northwest.
Piecing together the scraps of info, Barrett figured out their position. He pulled several maps from his spatial ring—a big one and a few smaller ones—and pored over them for comparisons.
The wind howled as the peryton with its stag head and raptor body dove past, whipping up a wild gust that shook the snow right off the tree tops. At its closest, the peryton was only fifteen meters(49 feet 2.52 inches) up; they could even make out the branched, craggy antlers on the beast's head.
The more dire the crisis, the steadier Barrett got. Panic wouldn't crank up his thinking speed—only ice-cold calm could snag that slim chance of survival in a tight spot.
His fingers slowly slid across the parchment map, and in a flash of insight, he finally spotted the spot that matched their surroundings.
They were still inside Re-Estize borders, but far from the capital, deep in the southern reaches.
This was the Voss Forest, edged by the Nega Mountain Range, with the river labeled "Duruk Grunak"—a mouthful of a name that twisted the tongue.
Barrett once had a dwarf buddy, so he knew this was a straight translation from dwarven into common; in dwarven, it meant "Falling River."
He traced the river's path on the map, and sure enough, at the end was a massive waterfall. The river looked like it'd been sliced clean in half, plunging over the falls and splitting into three smaller streams.
"What now?" EeDechi leaped down from the top of a pine tree, her legs sinking into the snow up to the knees; she was freaking out a bit. "The forest's got skeletal knights torching the hills from every direction, and a whole line of undead soldiers marching this way—we're totally surrounded."
Barrett shoved aside a patch of snow, pressed his ear to the ground, and listened for a moment; his face went grim.
In the forest, the lockstep footsteps rang out crystal clear, nothing like a human army—probably less than five minutes before they hit their spot. Sure, low-level undead were no match for Barrett and EeDechi, but the two adventurers would blow their cover for sure.
The distant pine grove suddenly started swaying and shaking, the whole forest booming with deep, rumbling roars; the ground quivered faintly, like the woods itself was pissed off.
Barrett got it—the forest's guardians, the treants, had woken up. The Voss Forest went way back, packed with ancient trees over a thousand years old. No need for wood elf whispers; magic's nurturing had already sparked sentience in some of the plants.
The ground's shaking grew louder, like giants thundering across the wilds. Deep in the forest, massive trunks lifted up, then crashed down—that was the treants on the march.
To guard the forest, the treants were sure to attack the Sorcerer Kingdom's army. The undead soldiers had no choice but to pause their search, battling the giant treants that were everywhere, buying the two adventurers a short breather.
Barrett and EeDechi dashed along a string of winter wolf tracks in the snow, using the wolf prints to hide their own. The river had long since frozen solid, its surface firm and piled with snow, like it was snug under a white cotton blanket.
The two adventurers tromped across the ice and slipped into the dense woods on the far bank. But after just a few steps, they had to turn back, because up ahead, a few treants were locked in combat with several red-winged demons, leaves and fiery blasts swirling together.
"Hold up!" Barrett halted and asked EeDechi, "How long can you hold your breath?"
"Hold my breath?" EeDechi was baffled. "If I just stop breathing, I should last a pretty long time."
"Try it out."
EeDechi sucked in a huge breath, like the bellows of a giant clan's forge pumping hard. The air churned, whipping into a vortex around her. A low-pressure zone formed in her vicinity, squeezing air in from every direction.
Barrett, standing beside EeDechi, felt like he was running out of oxygen; he grabbed his throat and coughed loudly. "Alright, alright, I buy your lung power and breath-holding chops. Hurry and lay out a short-range magic teleportation circle."
"I don't know how to draw teleport circles, and the space in this forest is probably sealed off anyway," EeDechi shook her head.
"Drawing a short-range teleport circle is just a fake-out to confuse them—we'll head another way soon."
EeDechi nodded okay. She pulled The Mystery of Magic from her spatial ring, flipped to the section on teleport circles, and copied it straight from the book, etching a intricate pattern into the snow. Barrett dug out a few magic crystals and set them into the circle.