Chapter 58: Lost Path

Ren stopped and looked around, breathing hard from his shoulders.

While he had been running desperately, he hadn’t had the time to bury any of his “small boxes” in the ground. He tried focusing his will, attempting to make the buried boxes glow as markers. But within his field of vision, he couldn’t see any glowing boxes. The forest remained dim and unchanged.

The soil at his feet, the pattern of the trees—everything looked the same.

A cold unease crept into his chest. His lips trembled.

“…C-calm down!”

When he looked up, patches of blue sky could be seen between the branches.

“It’s fine… It’s still daytime. I haven’t gone deep into the forest… probably…”

Trying to reassure himself, he buried a small box at his feet as a marker and made it glow slightly to confirm it.

“It’s too late to use this as a landmark now… Ah! That’s it!”

Ren suddenly had an idea and buried more small boxes around him. He placed a total of four, forming the corners of a square. Then he declared:

“Alright, let’s make this our starting point! And then…”

He turned toward the direction he had come from.

“This is the direction where the Great Boar was. The dangerous side.”

He buried another small box beside the square to mark that direction.

“Phew.”

He let out a small breath and looked at his hands. From his earlier fall, dirt and dried grass were stuck to them. He washed them off with water magic, but noticed a shallow cut on his palm, with a small amount of blood oozing out.

“Oh… healing potion!”

He remembered the basic healing potion he had made by the river. He had wanted to test it immediately after making it, but he hadn’t gotten injured back then. Now was finally the chance to use it—and that thought lifted his mood slightly.

He took out the small box containing the beginner healing potion made from healing grass. He had wanted a proper bottle to store it, but hadn’t obtained one yet.

“Umm… I guess I’ll just try pouring a little.”

The book had explained how to make the beginner healing potion, but not how to use it. It had only been a reference guide for crafting, not usage instructions.

He dripped the bright green liquid from the corner of the box.

As the green droplets fell onto his palm, they shimmered faintly. When the liquid flowed across his hand, the cut shrank until it was only a faint line.

“Oh! It worked… right? Amazing. There’s still a faint mark, but…”

Ren brought his hand close to his face and examined it closely, eyes wide with admiration. Then he looked at his knee.

His pants weren’t torn, but there was dirt and leaves stuck to them. When he pulled the fabric up, he saw a scraped, reddened patch of skin underneath.

He washed it with water again, then applied the healing potion. The green liquid ran down his shin. The wound closed up almost completely, leaving only a faint trace. However, a slight pain still lingered.

“Oh… it’s working!”

It didn’t seem to heal instantly, but the bleeding had clearly stopped and the wound had closed. Ren felt like trying it a bit more and checked his arms and sleeves for other injuries.

“…Phew.”

After finishing his inspection, he took out a water flask and cup from his small box and drank some water. He had panicked when he thought he was lost, but after treating his wounds, he felt much calmer.

He looked around again and listened carefully, then turned in the opposite direction from where he had come.

“First, I’ll try going this way. If it’s wrong, I’ll come back.”

Carefully burying small boxes as he walked, he proceeded forward. If it didn’t seem like the right path after some distance, he planned to return to the marker and try another direction. The direction where the Great Boar had been was too dangerous—he intended to leave that for last.

“Still daytime… still daytime…”

He occasionally looked up at the sky as he walked.

Rustle.

“!”

At the sound of rustling leaves, Ren immediately pulled out a small box.

“Small box!”

Thud!

A long, thin creature with horns and a yellow-green body— a horn ferret.

“Squeak!”

“It’s back again! Small box!”

Another horn ferret leapt at him, but he raised his box as a shield. When it collided, he pushed it forward, and it was absorbed into the box.

“…Phew.”

After sealing away three horn ferrets, Ren looked around again. The forest was so dense that even though it was daytime, the ground-level shadows made it feel like dusk.

Feeling uneasy, he looked up at the gaps in the trees. The sky was still blue.

From somewhere far away, a faint howl like a wolf echoed, making Ren flinch.

“…I should turn back…”

Looking down at his feet, he focused his will. A buried small box glowed softly in response. That light helped calm him a little.

With slightly hurried but steady steps, he followed the glowing markers back.