Neo stood in the open ground near the center of Nyx tribe when the system interface flared to life in front of his eyes. Another quest notification. He focused on it at once.
Quest: uncover the demon presence in the forest. And kill as many you can before high rank demons managed to enter.
Note: their hidden spot is in the heart forest. You should look there.
Failure: your death and everyone you loved death.
Rewards: ability to smell any scenes and discern for who it belongs to.
Time remaining 4 day.
Neo went silent. The words hung there, cold and clear. Demons were already inside the forest. He had to hit their den hard and fast before the higher ranks forced their way through. He shook his head once. Waiting was no longer an option. The clock was already running.
He remembered the heart of the forest from the books Sai had shown him earlier. That place held the densest natural mana in the entire region. The leylines fed the trees and soil without pause, keeping the whole forest alive. If demons had nested there, the damage could spread fast.
Neo sighed. He could keep searching on foot, but that would waste hours he did not have. An idea formed. He could ask Veya to craft a device that scanned for demon energy. That would cut the search time. He nodded to himself, then glanced across the clearing, deciding who to take first.
His eyes landed on Sakura at the far end. She stood looking up at nothing in particular, quiet and still. Neo called her name. Sakura turned at once and ran to him, her steps light but quick.
"What’s wrong?" she asked, voice sharp with concern.
Neo walked the last few steps to her and kissed her without warning. The contact was firm and brief. When he pulled back he said, "You’re coming with me. We’re going to fight some demons."
Sakura’s eyes widened for half a second, then she nodded hard. No hesitation. Neo took her wrist and looked back at the others gathered nearby.
"Sakura and I are leaving now," he told them. "Protect the tribe while we’re gone."
Martha and Sai both nodded. Neo raised an eyebrow at the smooth way they accepted the order. In the short time he had been away from the daily running of the group, those two had settled into quiet leadership. They were the oldest, and the rest of the women already looked to them. He shook his head, accepting it, and pulled Sakura’s wrist as they turned and left the Nyx tribe grounds behind, heading straight for the heart of the forest.
They walked in silence at first. Neo watched Sakura from the corner of his eye. Her pyro core had grown stronger since the last time he checked it. Both the quality and the raw quantity of her mana had jumped. She noticed his look and grinned.
"That’s from training with Luna," she said. "I asked her to push me. She didn’t go easy."
Neo nodded. The improvement was real and useful. He opened his system map next. The display had changed. Accurate points and distances now filled the image instead of the rough outlines he was used to. He asked the system about the upgrade. The answer came back clean: the map function alone had improved. Everything else stayed the same.
Neo accepted it and checked the new data. The heart of the forest showed clearly, along with a marked spot near a lake where the demons were hiding. He had planned to stop and see Veya for a scanning tool, but the upgraded map made that unnecessary. He kept walking.
Sakura spoke up after a while. "Where exactly are we going?"
"Heart of the forest," Neo said.
Her eyes widened. "So we’re going to meet the attributes women?"
Neo tilted his head. "Attributes women?"
Sakura nodded, serious now. "There are ten of them. Each one represents an element. You don’t know? Goddess Pyra, the one who chose you, is one of them. She holds the pyro element. That place is sacred."
Neo raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Will we find her there?"
Sakura shook her head. "I don’t think so. Each of the ten usually stays in her own domain."
Neo took the information in and said nothing more. They reached the lake soon after. The water sat still under the trees, the air thick with mana. Neo scanned the area with both eyes and system. The map put the hideout very close.
"We split up," he told Sakura. "Each of us takes a section and looks for any sign of their hideout. Footprints, broken branches, mana traces, anything."
Sakura nodded once and moved off without another word. Neo took the stretch of trees closest to the water’s edge. He walked slow, checking the ground, the bark, the air itself. He tried to catch even the faintest trail. Nothing. No prints. No disturbed leaves. No residual demon energy he could feel. He let out a short breath.
He looked up at the sky and raised his voice. "There’s a time limit on this. I need their hideout now."
He stopped walking and rested one hand against a thick tree trunk, ready to take a deeper breath and reset. Before he could, the trunk gave way under his palm. The solid wood turned into open space. Neo fell straight down into the sudden hole.
He hit a hard floor in a dark room and rolled once, rubbing the back of his neck. The fall had stung. He opened the system map at once and found Sakura’s marker still moving above ground, circling her search area. Relief cut through the pain. She had not fallen into the same trap.
Neo stood and looked around the black space. He pulled a spear from storage and fed intense pyro mana into the tip until it glowed like a steady lamp. Light pushed the shadows back. He walked forward, covering ground at a steady pace, until the scene ahead stopped him cold.
Huge glass boxes filled the chamber. Each one held a single person. The people inside fought waves of monsters, blades and spells flashing against claws and teeth. Above every box a glowing screen tracked the kills and the credit each fighter earned. Neo’s mouth stayed open for a long moment. The scale of the setup was deliberate and cruel.
A hand landed on his shoulder from behind. Neo turned. A smiling demon face looked back at him.
"I am the one responsible for this plan," the demon said.
Neo drove the spear forward with everything he had. The blade cut clean through the demon’s arm. The severed limb dropped. The demon jumped backward, already regenerating. Flesh and bone rebuilt in real time until the arm was whole again, as if nothing had happened.
Neo focused the system on the figure.
The wood demon. Level peak tribal god level.
Family name: nyxon.
Current status: curious about mc presence here.
Neo tightened his grip on the spear until the wood creaked. "What do you want from a plan like this?"
The demon grinned wider. "Karma. To accumulate enough karma as those adventurers kill the monsters there. Then using that karma to corrupt the leylines of the forest and make it easier for the high rank demons to enter here."
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