Chapter 36

Finally reaching our destination, which was practically still forest, I gently got of Mr. Bear's back. I used his fur as a ladder and climbed down, he didn't seem to care and that annoyed me for some reason. I planned to use the excuse 'with these weights on jumping off from this height would damage my kneecaps.' But now I didn't have the chance to do even that, thanks a lot Mr. Aloof bear.

"Your thoughts are not yours alone here, and that's not all that isn't yours here." Mr. Bear's voice(?) echoed in my head.

'Well that's annoying…' so even privacy is a privilege? Wow. Anyway, that should mean he's been aware of my thoughts from the start, explains why I never see him open his mouth when he speaks so telepathy? Or something else? But that really doesn't explain why he speaks the same language as I. 'Mind telling me Mr. bear?' I thought, since he could read my mind opening my mouth seemingly became tedious.

"That isn't why you're here child, I have no intention of answering any questions either."

Since he can kill me with ease especially as I am now, I won't bother being difficult. Might as well get done with this and leave.

"Then why am I here? You should be aware I can't use mana. I'm I some sacrifice or something?"

It would be a lie to say I wasn't interested in whatever this guy had in store for me. On my way here I noticed (barely) how the other creatures seemed to fear him, but since he was moving at such a terrifying speed it, I would be confusing their fear of him from the fear of an unknown object moving at such speeds but since it was him moving at such a speed it doesn't change the fact that they were scared of him, in short what the fuck is this thing? It speaks human language, better yet he doesn't open his mouth and it goes directly to the brain, his speed is contrary to his size and lastly how the flip did he know I was approaching the forest when, I assume, our distance is so great.

Despite us reaching here in like 5 seconds, the distance he covers with a single stride a lone is a lot, in truth I have no idea the exact distance a single stride takes but I do know that me moved his limbs only 4 times the entire journey here. And the distance from the outskirts of the forest to the center isn't short, the center of the forest is actually just a little out of school bounds.

"What I need isn't you but what you have." Mr. Bear's voice rang in my head once more, honestly it's an irritating feeling, having something transferred directly to your brain feels weird and a bit repulsive, at this point I slightly shiver every time he speaks. Is that why he hasn't spoken more than 19 words? I don't want to imagine the sensation of having his voice constantly streamed to my head for more than a minute, he must be aware of how uncomfortable It is.

'Then why not just rip them off my body? You clearly have more than enough strength to do so.' Well despite that, I was thankful he went through the trouble to come to me and bring me all the way here.

"Okay, sure I don't mind. So what do I do?." Being an earth elemental, with such strength at that, you would expect him to be able to get Nako no problem, 'I guess he too has his own short comings.' Part of me wanted to ask why he couldn't get it since his element is earth, his element so literally mining after all.

"Follow." His voice resounded in my head once more and a so did another shiver.

Walking into a random direction, Mr. Bear moved without bothering to check If I'm actually following.

'How kind.' I thought sarcastically, since my I was sealed I couldn't defend myself and he wasn't sure if I would actually comply, he was basically saying 'follow to live or run and die.' Well, it's understandable after all I have the choice not to help but he can still get these bracers by force, so I guess he's also showing me how my life isn't in my hands.

'I've died, twice at that so this really doesn't scare me, and I guess that's why I'm more carefree now.' I also don't care even if he's aware of my thoughts, for me to actually care he's having to also be aware of what actually happened to me.

"At least act like you care!" I shouted at Mr. bear as I followed at a casual pace, lightly jumping as well. You know when there's this one drink or food that you've never tasted, and the first time you taste it it's amazing?. Then you get addicted to it and eat it constantly, or at least more than you thought you would be? Although I've experienced death only twice, and I' not even sure if it was really death or something else. I still became aware of my end the first time I died, I can't say I'm still fine with death I'm still scared of it, but not as much as I was before. One could also ask 'despite you going through the negative mental status effects of the darkness element, why is it that now you chose to be carefree?'

Even though the darkness element can tamper with your mental state, it can't replicate death unless you've experienced it or something in relation to that. In essence all It does is take your fears and project them to you and your experiences, it makes you go through them once more but with more difficulty and more negative end results, although death is a fear since you're not sure what it feels like, all it can do is just give you the sensation you think it is or just give you a black screen (Emily tried and her target's description was 'black everywhere'). And death really isn't a fear for people who haven't seen it happen, if you have never seen a creature dying in front of your eyes or it being killed then you'll be unaware of how easy it is to take a life. Since Mr. Flake's 'live sessions' I've always denied how easy it is to take a life, I guess it was a self-defense mechanism or something but ever since I experienced it for myself…..you get it.

The center of the forest was dim, but you could at least see what's in front of you, not far but a reasonable distance. This is to be expected but the variety of trees here was amazing small, tall, thick or thin-ish, I'm a botanist or whatever studies plants and flowers but some of these trees and plants look important, especially the plants. Naturally I wondered how they would grow in such a dim environment, looking around the plants for some special something(?) That would make them grow so lush.

Soon spotted the reason. It was literally all around me and on me. Different areas have their own natural mana density, and a forest naturally has one of the highest Natural mana densities. Areas like deserts, oceans, and thunder clouds each has their own elemental attributes contributing to its mana density and mana type. So naturally a forest would favor a nature user and a fire user, both in mana and field advantage. By Mana type I mean the specifics in mana in simple terms, mana is just like air all gases are present and its collectively called 'air' same goes for mana, but its components are the elements.

As such, an area that exceeds a certain attribute level becomes a mana zone. Where I am right now is the center of the forest son naturally the place is flooded with rich natural mana and obviously these plants would grow with it's aid. And since I'm wearing these dammed things I'm not aware of the mana levels in this area. Just to throw this out there, natural mana favors all despite one's element since nature symbolizes harmony and impartialness it also begins to affect one's physicality when exposed to a dense amount for long and that would explain why Mr. bear is so huge and strong.

'Training here would accelerate my growth greatly. But I'm not in a rush, Emily and the rest should train from here.' The growth possibilities are endless, but then again the creatures here aren't so kind .

"We're almost there."

Mr. bear's voice interrupted my thoughts. 'I was just about what to say for you to let us train here but since you already know, what's your response Mr. Bear?.'

"That's a question."

'Can't say that wasn't expected.' Since he seems to really hate answering my questions I took that as a no. well, better luck next time me.