38 The Forest 1

Another month passed and Teo's leg was almost fully healed by now. It still was not as good as new, but he could walk just fine now and knew to appreciate his regained mobility.

Everything went its usual way, yet Teo still felt different. Changed, somehow. Even after Jack had gotten discharged and started coming to school again, they did not spend as much time together as they used to. There was this... something, between them.

They were still best friends, at least Teo did not really have many other friends, but Teo preferred to spend much of his time alone now. Of course, Goliath would not leave his side, but that was something completely different.

Contrary to the expectations of his family, he performed very well in school lately, and naturally even better in Enchanting. Apparently, he was channeling his stress and frustration into studying and practice, which may not be very healthy, but definitely very effective.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

Right now, Teo was heading through the thick underbrush of Thorn Forest. To be more specific, through the branch of the forest right behind the family mansion. He was not sure, when exactly he had started to come here, but it had become a habit of his for sure.

When Teo was younger he had already liked to explore the outer stretches, as any curious child would, but lately, he had been heading in deeper and deeper, often spending hours on his trips.

He had followed a worn-out path from the mansion to the east and headed into the thick of the forest from there. After a while, he separated from the trail that lead further ahead to the quarters of the nearby woodchopper camp and cut his own path through the vegetation.

Teo was looking for a runlet of water he had found on a previous expedition. It was not easily found though and he had only stumbled upon it by pure chance back then. The small stream lead around one mile to the northeast, where it originated from a freshwater spring that had expanded into a little pond over the years.

The pond was located right in the middle of a small clearing and housed numerous water lilies and mysterious fish. The area around it was both spacious enough to move unhindered and discreetly sheltered by thick blackberry bushes and various trees on all sides. It was the perfect place to try out new techniques, far from prying eyes, as well as the only place where he did not have to hold himself back.

If he were to find some valuable herbs on the way that would just be an added bonus.

Thorn Forest was a literal treasure trove of plant life and lured a great number of adventurers into its depths every day. Some made it back, a few richer than ever, others were not as lucky.

Since the different herbs had a wide range of functions and uses in Herbology, Alchemy, and even Enchanting, they had learned to classify and categorize the most common ones in school.

Teo finally found the stream after a bit of searching and followed it to the northeast, the most incompletely mapped part of the forest. The overgrown forest tended to lead inexperienced adventurers in circles, but thanks to Goliath's inherent sense of magnetic fields he did not have to rely on luck to find his way.

Teo also was not afraid of the wild animals he could encounter here, a stray wolf would not pose much of a challenge to him anymore and it was pretty unlikely to encounter a real magical beast in the vicinity of the city.

If he marched a few dozen kilometers deeper into the forest or tried to cross over the Black Mountain Range that was a different story though. There were even stories about Dragons, Griffins and other legendary creatures, who no one was sure if they really existed or not, making their nests on the sharp cliffs and volcanoes of that hazardous place.

After the short trip, Teo incinerated the last patch of Thorn bushes blocking the way and entered the clearing around the spring, which was as fragrant and rich in flowers as always.

'I can't point out why exactly, but I am getting a strange feeling from this place. Every time we come here I feel... comfortable; it's hard to explain,' Goliath transmitted the same thought to him, he had voiced every single time they entered this natural cove, deep inside the forest.

"That's still not very surprising. I told you before, look around! This place is full of flowers and buzzing insects, it's beautiful! Just look at the rich Mana suffusing the place, who would feel uncomfortable here?" Teo said cheerfully. He really liked this particular clearing. Just like Goliath he could feel some kind of unexplainable connection to this place.

Goliath materialized and stretched himself out, he did not get many chances to walk around on his own and he was not about to waste this one. The Mana really was dense here, able to fully support him without the need to hold himself back. Meanwhile, Teo sat down on a large rock and eagerly dug into the provisions he had taken from his backpack.

Naturally, Goliath was not appeased by Teo's childish explanation and sniffed around the place on his own, while the boy was still busy with his metabolism. He had found nothing so far, even though he had been looking around every time they came here, something was bothering him about the place. He would always look into the depths of the pond for a while, unable to see its bottom, but always decided against taking a closer look. He would sink like a stone after all. He had even analyzed the water several times and had found nothing special except for it's high Mana content.

Teo stowed away the leftovers of his abundant lunch-box and watched amusedly as Goliath ran around the place like a curious child. It was time to train now.

He had quickly recognized the potential of the place when he first set foot in its vicinity. The naturally Mana-rich environment made it a lot easier to compress Mana and grow his core while supercharging. The clear and unusually Mana-rich Water was what got him to follow the stream towards its origin in the first place.

When training here, he would be able to achieve a lot more in the same amount of time, making the effort it took to get here more than worth it.

After diligently training every day for several years, Teo had managed to grow his Mana Core considerably and it was slowly approaching the proportions of one of his small fists. Recently it had become a lot harder to grow it further though.

It would still willingly take in all the Fire Elemental threads it could get, but it was becoming harder and harder to squeeze additional Mana into it. Teo had even discovered, that Mana Threads under a certain compression rate could no longer be incorporated into the core at all.

Only special places like this, possessing exceptional Mana density, would allow for further improvements. 

Teo spent around 3 hours training, until he was completely exhausted. Not only did he work on his foundations in this time, he even practiced new and old combat techniques and the set of sword skills his grandfather had taught him.

Alternating between mental and physical tasks, he did not stop until he felt himself nearing his limit in both aspects.

He splashed some of the crystal-clear and ice-cold spring water onto his face and then took a huge gulp with both hands. It was incredibly refreshing.

Not only because of its temperature or even the fact that Teo was really thirsty, he felt like it could refresh his spirit and renew his vigor with a single sip.

The effect was not big, but his Mana and stamina really did regenerate somewhat faster than usual and after less than an hour he felt eager to go for another round.

Of course, he knew better than to lose himself in training and still remembered his obligations. If he wanted to make it in time for dinner he would need to head home soon.

Teo had not left the spring for long however, when he heard several indistinct voices from a distance. Someone seemed to be shouting from at least several hundred meters away.

That was all it took for his natural curiosity to take over and he quickly decided to take a small detour.