Both of them decided to take a more stealthy approach this time, they walked a few hundred meters away from their last entry point and this time Ethan didn't take any chances and crawled over the ground. The moment he laid down he could feel the front of his robe getting soaked, the ground was muddy and wet, grass constantly took his vision away and the bushes and shrubs that covered the forest floor ripped his clothes open which luckily repaired themselves with a bit of time. He even lost his hat at one point and had to crawl backwards to retrieve it while silently cursing the plants around him.

Overall it was exhausting and humiliating in a way. From becoming a spell slinging mage to literally crawling to avoid his enemies. It was no exaggeration to say this was something he could do without for quite some time, even better if he never had to do it again. Sadly he already knew the disadvantage he had in this jungle, because he was many things but definitely no ranger so he didn't have too much hope in traversing the forest without alerting these elves. The moment he laid eyes on the village his hope was crushed into a pulp, because the so-called village was definitely a number too big for him.

When Nora told him she found a village or frontier outpost he expected thrown together huts, some palisades and a few soldiers on guard duty. In his mind he thought this was like the situation he encountered at the goblin camp. It took him a moment to realize how long ago that actually was, at least to him it felt like he lived a whole lifetime and now the difficulty ramped up considerably.

In front of him was a fucking fortress, high in the trees it rested on thick intertwined vines that formed a complex network, a floor that looked like puzzle pieces made from hardened bark was laid out on the vines and offered stable footing. Surrounding the platform were walls covered in thorny bushes, guards were posted on the wall and Ethan would bet all his non-existent money that more of them were hiding in the trees that surrounded the village.

The construction of such a behemoth was only possible because of the eight trees that grew in a perfect circle around it. Tall and thick as redwood trees, they pierced the sky and looked more like silent guardians than actual plants, watching over the forest and judging those that would harm the plants and animals under their protection.

Lying there, covered in mud, torn to shreds by branches and thorns, Ethan had to consider his approach for the situation that presented itself in front of him. A frontal attack was plain suicide, something he would have accepted before the tutorial but now he wanted to live for more than one reason. He extended a silent "fuck you" to the system for messing with his life and thought about other approaches.

While poison or more specific plagues were an option he didn't know how successful his attack would be with his new class and damaged mana channels. Even getting the plague inside would be the first challenge, the height alone made every attempt a lot more difficult to do it unseen. His best bet in that regard would be insects but he wasn't an Entomancer, or whatever you call an insect summoner.

The third method could be the slow and steady approach, winter wasn't something rushed, it was a slow transition from the orange of autumn to the white of winter and maybe Ethan should do the same, using his magic to lower the temperature, followed by snow and a stubborn frost that had the tendency to be very slippery. It could be amusing but would it be worth his time? His best guess was that he would enjoy some curses getting thrown around and giving people a cold.

Then it dawned on him that he was, once again, a dumbass. Because the best method would be to just leave, thinking about it Ethan realized he didn't need to pick a fight here, sure they shot and wounded him but he wasn't a monster out for the blood of intelligent creatures, he was the invader here after all. Even if you could argue those elves were only tutorial monsters he could still walk away and just do his thing, use the time to finally train instead of running around in circles to please some system enforced event.

Crawling backwards he managed to sneak away the same way he came here, with Nora's guidance of course, because while his aura ability gave him benefits, perception was clearly not one of them. When he finally emerged from the tree line he felt relieved, a tightness in his chest he didn't know was there vanished and his breathing was instantly more relaxed. Standing up he followed the edge of the jungle, further away from the elves and their fortress/village.

"You know, I think I dodged a bullet just now. The last circle was so full of violence, military tactics, diplomacy and fighting in general. The ending was just a bloodbath I would gladly forget if I could. There was literally no need to engage in fighting again but my brain just took it as the default for a moment."

Nora wrapped herself around his shoulder, the tip of her tail hugging his neck as she sent Ethan her thoughts on the matter.

The constant fighting had you on edge, even I felt like that and you know how little my emotions usually affect me. I would be worried if you didn't think about defending yourself.

"I think you're right, still that would be the first step to becoming something less than human." he stopped walking and looked to the clear blue sky, he snorted a laugh and added. "Or rather something less than an elf."

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Nora sent him a weird sound, something that sounded like a mixture between a hiss and chuckle.

As long as you don't try to play the hero I'm fine, so don't go off now rescuing maidens from towers or try to kiss them while sleeping. Leave that to those goody two shoes that fumble around with their swords.

"Are you really laughing at me? You know I had a moment here, also how do you even know that stuff? We never talked about something like that." With a huff he continued on his path. He would try to find a gap between the elves' outpost. He was sure there must be more of them, maybe all around the circle but no system was perfect and there were always cracks you can slip through.

You should learn how to shield your thoughts even when distracted, especially when you think about your precious runes or about magic. You're my companion so I thought I would learn more about you that way, it's a lot easier than talking about everything when we don't have much time to just sit down and talk.

Ethan sighed and shook his head, a smile on his face when he looked at Nora. "Can't really blame you, huh? Well as long as you keep it to yourself I'm fine with that. I can'T learn that much about you because I already know you for your entire life after all."

He stopped walking again and looked into the jungle, this time he had a good feeling and walked into it. Maybe he finally had some luck, the start of this circle wasn't the worst out of the four but the most annoying for sure.

Finally, Ethan got lucky, his feeling served him right for once and he managed to go deeper into the forest. For him it felt like he wandered half a day, because each meter he walked was a small conquest in itself.

After the first few hundred meters he formed a machete from ice, sharpened it with his magic and hardened it with a breath of frost. It was so simple and elegant and when he cut through the bushes and vines, it was also quite effective, now he just needed some face paint and some war movie music in the background.

During his hike over roots and through the undergrowth he found no animals, no monsters and no elves. It was like the forest was dead, well not quite. Insects were plenty and constantly buzzing around him but after some angry stares and his aura flash freezing most of them even they left him alone. The hundreds of insect corpses in his wake were a good reminder.

When evening slowly approached he looked for a suitable hideout, while he could just make a hideout with his ice even a blind person could see that a cube of ice didn't belong here. So Ethan spent the rest of the day looking for a hiding place. In the end, he crawled into an abandoned burrow that must have become too small for the previous owner; claw marks were scattered around the entrance where it had been enlarged to fit the animal's size.

Sitting there against the wall he froze the entrance shut with an almost transparent ice that wasn't as noticeable, he made sure to leave some holes for air to travel through, a more embarrassing death couldn't be possible after all he's been through to die from suffocating.

With his finger he drew some runes into the dirt, he had gotten used to doing this every night to not only practice them but also to unlock some new runes, it was becoming harder each day to advance his knowledge this way, he needed a challenge. Ethan could feel them, lurking on the edge of his mind but they still eluded him every time. It seemed like his advanced ritualism wouldn't offer him more.

Ethan laid down, his staff resting on the burrow's wall and the hat served as a thin pillow, his eyes wandering one last time to Nora.

"I think you should go out tomorrow and look for animals, having me stomping around like some fool won't work in the long run and the chance that I become an expert ranger in a few hours is very slim. Not even divine intervention could help us out with that."

Well at least the system already helped out again, Ethan thought, all the small wounds and his shoulder he was hit in healed a lot faster than he expected. His mana channels in particular should have taken months to recover instead of days. The system was meddling with their lives and he was angry and relieved at the same time.

Nora lifted her head from the coils off her body and looked at him.

Sure, I wanted to suggest it in the morning but you beat me to it, just leave a bigger hole for me on the edge of the entrance and I will go scouting. But now I wanna sleep, I moved a lot in the last days as you couldn't carry me and my body still feels sore from the red sand. Let's rest for now, good night Ethan.

Good night, he answered and closed his eyes. This might not be the best day of the tutorial but right now, in this one moment, he was glad to be here.

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