Chương 22: Something New

****(POV)

What?! The spider, one of the guardians, is now unconscious! How did such a thing happen?!

The main requirement to become one is to be powerful enough to defend our home against would-be invaders. How is this possible?! This needs to be investigated!

"Quick! We'll head there to check on her!"

Could this be a coordinated attack? Should I task the two fools with protecting him while he runs under Yggdrasil's cover? This is bad what should I ….

[Stop worrying, she's fine. She was simply exhausted.]

She was simply…Oh my god. This is even more unbelievable. I am a ghost myself and I have no confidence in having more endurance than her.

One of her special abilities is to be able to convert her fury into mana. She is one scary lady once angered. She is also extremely competitive. Getting the best of her no matter the situation is close to impossible. Even when training.

I need to rush there as soon as possible. I feel like there must be something wrong here.

"You two make sure to protect him, I'll be right back!"

They should be able to do this job well. I fly toward her lair. Not to waste time, I pass through all the physical objects on the way.

Finally, I find her, on the ground, suffering from mana deficiency.

Her courtyard is a crime scene. Completely destroyed beyond recognition. Yet the sides are still intact. Everything is concentrated upon the dummy she got from the dwarf.

That is something I had to convince him to craft her. That did reduce by a lot the damage she caused the forest. This way she had a way to vent.

I need to know! I transfer some mana to her carefully until she opens her eyes.

"What happened?"

She seems lost for a moment.

"The most despicable thing in existence."

For her to use such words it must be serious!

"An enemy? Where did they go?"

She sighs deeply.

"No, the newcomer is extremely talented in creation magic it seems. He managed to create a spirit on his first try."

"Wow, that's amazing! This is great!"

She shudders in fear.

"No, it's not. The thing he created was extremely scary. He enchanted the dummy. No matter what I did it would keep taunting me. I couldn't stop myself from attacking it. I was about to burn my own soul for more power when I fell unconscious from mana deficiency. If the fight had lasted a little longer, I would be crippled right now."

What?! How is this possible?! He almost defeated a guardian of the forest by himself?! Could the two idiots be right about….

"Don't overthink it too much old ghost. He almost killed himself by casting that spell. It should be that thing, a beginner's miracle. Quite sad how wasteful this one was. Had he enchanted any other item I could have just destroyed the vessel to get rid of the spirit. It just happened that a truly perverse spirit got merged with the perverse skills of the dwarf."

I need to be careful. I almost lost my reason for a second. If he truly was Yggdrasil's teacher there would be no point asking us to teach him. This one coincidence almost made me lose my wits. Yes, that theory of theirs is way too ridiculous.

"So, will you keep teaching him magic?"

She gives a self-deprecating laugh.

"Honestly part of me is scared to teach him now haha. Also, we know he has potential for creation magic. For now, we should find a way for him to become more proficient at it. This is the opposite of my specialty, destruction magic. We can also teach him various other things. Once he has learned it all, I can then try to teach him again."

No matter how it came to be, making this spider scared is one hell of an accomplishment. I wonder if he has realized how amazing that is. Earlier he seemed a bit embarrassed, but he barely reacted. I guess he hasn't figured out all the implications this has.

This is a good thing. I will keep mum and let him believe nothing special happened. This way he won't get complacent for something that at the end of the day happened from the culmination of both luck and potential.

If he doesn't train seriously, he won't ever reach greater heights. Whatever the purpose in this I'm sure Yggdrasil has a plan for him. We just need to wait for his awakening and keep doing our best in the meantime.

"Right, how about you help him create a house for himself? It wouldn't be good to have him remain a vagrant. Most of the residents here are beasts so they won't even think about that."

"Ah…true. I kinda forgot that part too. I think he has been living with the bear so far. It won't do. Not for one that Yggdrasil has expectations for."

"Alright. I'll leave him to you. I need to recuperate. Both physically and mentally."

I nod and leave her alone. Today has been hectic. First of all, he came out of nowhere, then this. This feels different. I truly love this forest very much. It is where I plan to spend my time until I eventually disappear from this world.

This place has always remained unchangeable and relatively peaceful. For once something is out of the ordinary. This newcomer himself I feel will disturb the tranquility of the forest. I am still not sure how I feel about it.

Will it be a breath of fresh air or will it leave us, the old generation, lagging behind?

I don't know why but I feel like the upcoming days are going to feel fuller than many of the previous years added together.

I can somehow notice something light up inside of my being. A little spark that has been slowly disappearing from my undead being. A little spark called hope.

The future is now uncertain. There is a certain excitement to this. What has fate in store for all of us?

I truly wonder.