Chapter 333
WHAT'S NEXT?
IAM simply sat down not too far away from her, keeping the distance that she seemed to like keeping.
During this time… his eyes never left her. His thoughts were unknown and deeply hidden at this time as minutes dragged by.
Natsuki, who had leaned against the tree while sitting, almost resembled a forest goddess resting. But this vision was slightly marred by the low-hanging fog and the twisted, wrinkled trees that looked like something out of a nightmare. Her eyes were wide open as she too seemed to be staring deeply at IAM.
She suddenly spoke,"I wonder how that creature at the front got hurt… That might be a problem… perhaps it means someone has been here before… Did you see something?"
IAM let out a faint smile as he said,"Do you not recognise it?"
Natsuki was silent.
"It's actually from your sword… It got stuck in that tree over there. I'm actually the one who pulled it out… That's how I found you."
Natsuki nodded and said nothing. Her curiosity was satisfied, and she seemed content with his explanation.
IAM looked at her while shaking his head.
"Are you not going to explain why your sword was all the way out here in the first place?"
Natsuki almost seemed like she wasn't going to respond, before she said with slight difficulty,"I… was taking down a group of deadline creatures. One of them had begun to run away… I didn't want to risk it bringing more problems by letting it get away… so I tried with my sword. But the further away it is from me, the harder it is to control. I watched as my sword, alongside the deadline creature, disappeared into the distance before I had to sit down to concentrate to retrieve it. There was a moment where I was struggling… but I guess that was when you pulled it out… Thank you."
IAM wanted to tease her about how this was the most he had heard her talk, but decided to hold back his tongue and said,
"No problem, I—"
"Could I take a look at the flag?" she interrupted with an inquiry."It is mine now… right?" she added.
IAM paused, then grabbed it from his waistband before tossing it over to her. She caught it with ease.
"I couldn't find anything interesting about—"
Before he could finish, the very top of the flag, where the actual black fabric was, began to glow light blue.
Looking at the colour that seemed to be teasing him, he asked,"How did you do that?"
"I just tried to cycle mana through it," she said simply.
He had not explored that direction—or rather, he couldn't—as he wasn't using his mana. Yet another thing that was a hindrance.
IAM began to wonder when the day he didn't have to hold back would arrive… where he could show himself to the fullest with his full strength. Instead, until that day came, he would have to tuck away all his brilliance into a corner for now.
"What does it do?"
Natsuki twirled it around and gazed at it for a bit, before finally declaring,"Nothing… you gave me a glow stick."
IAM swallowed."We might need to gather all the others first… maybe that's another way to end the trial if we aren't able to kill all the deadline creatures."
Natsuki agreed and asked,"So what now?"
"We need to find the others first while killing all the deadline creatures that come our way… we should try and recruit others if possible."
"Ok. Get up… let's go. I've recovered enough mana," she said commandingly as she stood up.
IAM couldn't find a reason not to oblige.
Natsuki looked at the flag in her hand, which had stopped glowing after she stopped supplying mana, and said,"Can you hold on to this for now?"
"Oh no, I wouldn't dare, it's all yours," he said as he waved his hands. His plan wouldn't work if he was the one holding it, and he couldn't exactly go "Wait! I'm only holding this for her! It's actually hers… go! Go attack her while I hold on to this!"
She squinted her eyes, before hooking it to her waist horizontally as she led the way in a random direction.
IAM began to follow, but he could only take a few steps before his instincts began screaming at him. He stopped and looked around, searching for the source of this unease.
Natsuki noticed and turned around.
"What is it?"
"Something's wrong…"
At his words, her eyes partially flashed gold as she too began to look around.
Suddenly, rustling and sounds of approach could be heard as they backed away from the trees and into a slightly more open area.
The rustling only grew louder.
At first it was faint—almost easy to dismiss as wind dragging across bark or branches shifting under their own weight. But it didn't stop. It multiplied...
The fog began to stir unnaturally, curling and parting in places where nothing should have been moving. Shadows slipped between the twisted trees, stretching and shrinking as if the forest itself was breathing. Shapes emerged only to vanish again, never fully revealing themselves, forcing the eye to constantly chase movement that refused to settle.
Sounds seemed to be coming from every direction, and they had already drawn their weapons. IAM suddenly said,"We are surrounded!"
As if on cue, from various areas around them, a variety of deadline creatures ranging from low to mid novice could be seen approaching.
All sorts of noises could be heard as they drew closer… Their terrifying visages could be seen as they were all focused on the two.
"This is unusual behaviour…" IAM suddenly said. "They wouldn't be grouped up like this and move so silently to ambush us… something's wrong!"
Just as he finished his words, both he and Natsuki suddenly made eye contact, before their eyes were drawn to the contoured waist of Natsuki—where a certain black flag was. Just seconds ago, it had been used… could it have sent some kind of signal?
IAM and Natsuki met each other's eyes once again, many thoughts flashing by as words didn't need to be spoken for them to understand what had happened.
With a slightly grim face at the numbers that were still growing, Natsuki said,"You gave me a troublesome glow stick, IAM," with a bit of emphasis on his name at the end.
"…Maybe it's just broken?"