This is a Lunamaria story that Author wrote as a bonus SS for the third volume of the book. Due to circumstances (deadline over), it didn’t become a bonus,
The timeline is at the beginning of the second part, when the Sora was away from Ishka.
The Titis Forest was more ravaged than ever before.
It was already known as a forest of magic, where powerful magical beasts abound, but now it was even more dangerous.
The cause was, needless to say, the appearance of the Hydra. And even after the Hydra, the culprit, was exterminated, the chaos did not subside. The poison left by the Hydra still continued to contaminate the forest, and the magical beasts that had been driven out of their habitats were rampaging everywhere.
Some of them overflowed out of the forest during the stampede of the rampaging magical beasts, but that was only a small number compared to the total number of magical beasts in Titis.
Lunamaria and Miroslav entered the forest at such a time.
Their purpose was to raise their level. It goes without saying that Titis Forest is dangerous right now, but on the other hand, it means that they are more likely to encounter magical beasts that usually hide deep in the forest. It was a great opportunity to gain experience and raise their level – Lunamaria agreed to Miroslav’s proposal. She answered almost immediately.
Normally, Lunamaria would not have answered immediately, even if she agreed to the other person’s proposal.
Lunamaria had not placed much emphasis on level until now. Level was nothing more than a result of her activities as an adventurer, and she had no idea of risking danger for the sake of raising her level.
But now Lunamaria was obsessed with leveling. In the mind of the elf sage, there was the attack of the Demon Island forces. She remembered being twisted by Klimt Berch, one of the Green Woods warriors, without a fight, or so she could say.
Neither martial arts nor magic worked at all. If Klimt had any intention of killing her, her head and body would have been separated by now.
He said his level was “50”.
Ergart, the guild leader who is regarded as the best in Ishka, is a first-class adventurer, and his level is “35”. The Duke of Dragnaut, who is said to be the strongest in Canaria, probably hasn’t reached “50” either.
That’s what level “50” was.
Klimt was the same age as Sora, so he must have been under twenty. It was surprising enough that such a young man could reach level “50”, but his older sister Claira, who was the same age as him, was even more powerful than her brother.
And the fact that even those two were only “promising young talents” in Demon Island left Lunamaria speechless.
Now that there is a gap between Sora and the Mitsurugi family, it is very possible that someone with the same or more power than Klimt and his group will attack.
She couldn’t do anything in her current state. Lunamaria thought so and chose to raise her level even at the risk of danger.
However, there was a limit to this. No matter how many magical beasts they killed in the forest, it was impossible to raise their level by ten or twenty at once. Miroslav had raised her level by four in a short period of time at Mount Skim before, but that was because she had a cheat of a large amount of magic stones. It would take decades to reach level “50” in a legitimate way. Of course, the Mitsurugi family wouldn’t give them that much time.
She was aware of that. She came to the forest for two reasons. One was that she thought it was better than doing nothing. And the other was that a certain idea flashed through her mind and prompted her to act.
“The secret of the Phantom Blade Style, the Soul Equipment, is to control the power of the Anima, as Master said. If my guess is right, and there is a connection between the Demon Gate and the Anima, then if I fight near the Dragon Hole, which has the same nature as the Demon Gate…”
Even those who are outside of the Phantom Blade Style and the Mitsurugi family can perceive the Anima. That was Lunamaria’s guess.
She thought about asking Sora to take her to the Dragon Hole, but from her experience of going there several times, she knew that Sora hated the existence of the Dragon Hole. He would probably object if he heard her idea.
So she decided to go there on her own.
Leveling up in the deep area was the first step. She would gain strength and challenge the Dragon Hole without relying on Sora.
…It was too roundabout to say “haste makes waste”. With Lunamaria’s current strength, it would be difficult to get out of the deep area, let alone the Dragon Hole.
But she thought that this was the only way to reach the same level as Klimt and Claira, and Sora.
What came to her mind was Sora’s cheerful face when he practiced with Claira.
In Lunamaria’s blue eyes, there was a color of impatience that was unlike a sage.
