"Ah... what a man must sacrifice for some noble titties? Ethan settled into the carriage provided by his father, his face contorting in boredom.
Technically, that noblewoman's enormous tits weren't to blame for his situation.
But it wasn't as if the system was going to take any responsibility, right?
It had been over ten hours since the journey began, but he felt as if he had been traveling for weeks.
With his eyes fixed on the carriage ceiling, he muttered, "System, are you there?"
Talking to the system was a habit Ethan had developed to combat boredom in a world where he didn't have all the distractions of his previous life.
Most of the time, he got no response, and when he did, the words were usually incoherent, as if obscured by strange interference.
After a few seconds of silence, he insisted, "Do you have any plans to give me real rewards, or are you just going to keep giving me missions for nothing?"
[Integration with Gaia system incomplete, unable to access main systems...]
[Calculating rewards... unable to calculate rewards, integration with Gaia system incomplete.]
[Attempting forced integration...]
[Failure, Gaia system did not respond, world not yet integrated with Gaia system...]
[Calculating estimated integration time...]
[Gaia system integration will occur in approximately five days.]
"What?" Ethan stood up abruptly, hitting his head on the carriage ceiling.
'Shit...' He massaged the sore spot, his eyes fixed on the system messages.
"Gaia system? Not yet integrated with this world? What do you mean?" He asked, but there was no answer.
"Ah... I don't even know if I'll be alive in five days, you bastard..." He sighed heavily, leaning back on the uncomfortable seat.
He knew the Eternal Forest well enough to know that his father had basically sentenced him to death.
But still, a little hope wouldn't kill anyone, right?
Shaking his head, Ethan just closed his eyes.
The trip to the Eternal Forest took just over four days.
Normally, it would be a journey of weeks or even months without horses, but luckily, they used a teleportation station to a town on the edge of the forest.
As he stepped out of the carriage, Ethan looked from side to side.
They were in the middle of nowhere, and on the horizon, a dense forest of dark foliage stretched as far as the eye could see.
The trees were the tallest he had ever seen, forming an almost impenetrable wall of wood and leaves.
"Young Master Ethan." The knight who was escorting him approached, giving a respectful and formal salute.
"The count only gave us permission to take you this far. You will have to make the rest of the journey alone."
The slight smile Ethan had been wearing as he stretched disappeared instantly, and he stared at the knight in disbelief.
"This is... a joke, right?" he asked.
"These are your father's orders, young master. We are not allowed to enter the Eternal Forest."
"It can't be..." He clenched his teeth, his gaze turning to the dark interior of the forest.
Ignoring his expression, the knight handed him the reins of a horse and a small piece of yellowed metal.
"It's incense to ward off monsters. It's not entirely effective, but it will help," he explained, pointing to the object.
Without waiting for a response, he returned to the carriage and left with the guards, leaving Ethan alone.
"Shit..." He sighed heavily, looking at the horse, his only remaining companion.
He was as good as dead, right?
Ethan even thought about running away, but he knew his father well enough to know that the old man had put a tracking device on him somewhere.
He watched the sun on the horizon. It was morning, and he needed to hurry if he didn't want to spend the night in the forest.
Luckily, he had brought few belongings: a suitcase and two backpacks with some personal items and clothes, including his sword.
The weapon, with its long silver blade and black hilt encrusted with gold and diamonds, looked more like an ornamental piece than a functional one.
Its value probably exceeded a small fortune.
But despite its sumptuous appearance, it had been forged by one of the greatest blacksmiths in the kingdom.
Its blade, made of a type of magical steel known as white steel, had an unmatched ability to withstand mana and aura.
Not even the blow of a third-stage warrior would be able to break it.
Ethan fastened the sword to his waist before stowing the bags on the horse's back.
Mounting up, he tapped the reins lightly, and the animal began to trot toward the forest.
Although he was not a great warrior, in reality only a first-stage aura user, it should still be enough to put up some fight.
***
The Eternal Forest was dark and uninviting.
Following a map he had received when leaving his family's castle, Ethan advanced through a long-abandoned trail.
The Count had not sent men to that region for some time, and undergrowth had already taken over the path.
Even so, the absence of dense trees on the trail provided enough direction to guide him.
Luck smiled on him, as no monsters crossed his path, although distant roars and the constant feeling of being watched kept him on alert.
And so he continued.
Minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, and soon the system's deadline began to shrink.
In the middle of the afternoon on the penultimate day, Ethan decided to take a break by a crystal-clear stream.
His horse was tired, and so was he.
With his eyes alert to his surroundings, he remained beside the animal as it drank from the stream, one hand always on the hilt of his sword.
After thirty minutes of rest, he prepared to resume the trail.
However, something stopped him at the last moment.
His eyes scanned the forest as the steel of his sword slid through its leather sheath.
The horse whinnied anxiously, retreating to the edge of the stream, increasingly agitated.
Ethan let go of the reins, allowing the animal to flee while he faced whatever was lurking.
Suddenly, a creature emerged from a nearby bush.
Small and with green skin, its red eyes fixed on him and its disproportionate jaw full of rotten, sharp teeth twisted into a grotesque smile.
"A goblin!" Ethan hissed, sensing the nauseating miasma exuded by the creature.
The goblin leaped toward him, its small rusty cleaver striking his sword.
Ethan pressed on, and the goblin's body was thrown backward, hitting a tree with a crash.
He barely had time to catch his breath when two other creatures, armed with makeshift wooden spears, appeared, a third behind him.
"More than I expected..." he muttered, spinning to dodge the attack and delivering a fatal blow to the goblin's neck.
Before the goblin's decapitated head even hit the ground, Ethan took off, the aura exploding in his legs as he catapulted forward.
He could feel at least a dozen surrounding him.
Although he was seen as a talentless brat by his father and the nobles of his age, since arriving in this world, Ethan had still been trained by the most skilled swordsmen in the kingdom.
He knew how to deal with a rabble of goblins.
He spun his body as another goblin advanced toward him, his feet sinking into the damp ground as his sword flowed in a downward strike, sinking into the creature's shoulder blade, turning its rib cage to dust and piercing its lungs.
He barely had time to react when a second goblin appeared from behind, the blade tearing a deep gash in Ethan's leg.
The young man spun around, kicking the small creature, breaking a few ribs and sending it crashing into a tree.
The moment he put his injured leg on the ground, he felt a jolt of pain.
He forced himself to ignore it, cutting toward a third and then a fourth goblin.
In just a single second, he had already taken down five.
But their numbers seemed to keep growing.
An arrow whistled through the air and lodged itself between Ethan's ribs, missing his lungs by just a centimeter.
Ethan gritted his teeth and ran without stopping, his aura preventing him from collapsing under his injured leg.
At that moment, a nearby bush shook and another goblin lunged at him, its rusty blade aimed at his neck.
"Shit, there's no time!" he exclaimed, trying to raise his sword, but the goblin's blade was already inches from his throat.
Suddenly, intense heat filled the air.
Ethan instinctively closed his eyes as a fireball fell on the creature, engulfing it in flames.
The creature collapsed, screaming in agony as the flames engulfed it.
Falling to his knees, Ethan struggled for a few seconds to compose himself and understand what had just happened.
"A mage!," he exclaimed as he stood up, his eyes finding a figure sitting not far away.
She was a woman of stunning beauty: carefully tied blonde hair, clear blue eyes, framed by a delicate and harmonious face.
Her voluptuous body was covered by a long white dress, the neckline revealing a deep valley where her huge, soft, pale tits met.
The woman stood up and ran towards Ethan, whose eyes did not leave the sway of her breasts.
So big... so beautiful...
"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice as soft and melodious as the finest elven flute.
She crouched down in front of him, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled him towards her.