I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 528: Kanpf’s Great Leap Forward 3

While the plains of the 51st floor had barely differed from those on the 1st floor, the forest of the 61st floor was quite different from the 11th floor's forest. The first thing I noticed was the sunlight. As viewers and internet communities would say, if the 1st floor was a forest layer, this place was dark enough to be called a deep forest layer.

Unlike the 11th floor where pleasant sunlight filtered gently through swaying branches, here light barely passed through leaves rather than branches.

Fallen leaves covering the ground, moss clinging thickly to trees, vines adding to the density, and just enough sunlight to see what was directly ahead combined to create an eerie scene more fitting for a horror movie than a beautiful natural landscape.

"It's hard to walk quietly here."

"Can't be helped. According to the reports, there aren't any monsters in this area, probably because of the forest fairies."

Only our footsteps broke the forest's stillness. The sound of leaves crunching and dry twigs snapping echoed loudly, but no birds or insects stirred in response. Like the witch's forest, was this a place devoid of small creatures, home only to plants?

If so, could the monsters here be plant-based? I'd seen creatures that might have been plants or tentacles writhing in the contaminated swamp layer.

But if tree monsters like ents or spriggans were lying in ambush, would Grace be able to detect them as living beings? While pondering these strange thoughts as we walked through the silent forest, Grace suddenly raised her hand to stop us.

"...Something's strange."

"Hm? What is it?"

"It feels like someone's approaching us, but it's unnaturally imperceptible."

"The forest has been quiet all along. What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain... it's more of a feeling..."

At her puzzling explanation that she couldn't sense anything, yet somehow sensed that something was even more undetectable, everyone tilted their heads but stopped to take defensive positions. Katie and I took the front and rear, while Irene stood in the middle ready to deploy sacred law—a defensive formation.

I raised my shield to my chin, positioned to charge forward at any moment while trusting Irene's sacred law, when suddenly someone addressed us.

"Hmm... Hey, humans."

"...What the?!"

Right above our heads.

Not from the front or back, but directly overhead, a forest fairy peeked down at us from between the dense branches. Just as the reports had described, an impossibly beautiful woman whose allure couldn't be hidden even by the dark forest shadows was looking down at me, her long ears twitching.

Then, like an acrobatic monkey, she swung around the branch and flipped upside down before dropping gracefully in front of me, embodying the typical K-elf appearance.

Golden hair flowing to her waist, emerald green eyes, flawlessly white skin, pointed ears that twitched alertly, a slender frame that looked a hand span taller than Grace, and a glamorous figure that even leather armor couldn't conceal.

"Wow, she's truly beautiful. Our party members are all lookers, but an elf really is an elf."

-Oh ㅋㅋ who was that person offering the mission earlier? Anyone want to add to the fifty thousand?

-Holy shit ㅋㅋㅋㅋ is that the elf average? When can we break through season 2 and get there?

-Is there any chance of recruiting an elf companion early if we keep rolling the early lottery? Do elves only appear after floor 50?

-Now I understand why beautiful women are called elf women...

-But why isn't she shooting arrows? Do elves judge people by appearance too? Has she fallen for Teacher Roland?

While the viewers and Han Se-ah were mesmerized by the elf woman's beauty, the forest fairy who had been examining me like a curious animal lowered her bow and approached us slowly with her hands raised. Not metaphorically—literally like a wild animal trainer, cautiously.

Looking carefully at where her green eyes were focused, I noticed she was staring intently at my waist area, partially hidden by my shield.

"...What's that thing you're carrying? The natural energy is too pure to be coming from a human."

"Natural energy? Are you talking about this?"

Seeing the forest fairy so openly lower her bow, I lowered my weapon as well and opened the pouch at my waist. The object she seemed interested in must be our quest reward from Elize.

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The amber-like stone was too bulky for a ring and would clash with Irene's Goddess pendant if made into a necklace, so we had planned to have it crafted into a bracelet. Though not yet processed into an accessory, we each carried one since they supposedly warded off evil energy on their own.

As I pulled out the amber-like quest reward from my waist pouch, my companions each took out their own from their pockets.

"Woah~ Goodness! You humans are cleaner than I expected!"

"Cleaner?"

"For these to maintain such purity even in human possession means you're worthy guests, unlike those who disturb the forest. ...But what about you? I couldn't sense anything, yet you pulled something from thin air."

The elf examined each of our amber crystals like a gem appraiser, then smiled brightly. But her expression suddenly froze when she noticed Han Se-ah pulling her stone from her inventory rather than a pocket.

Seeing those beautiful forest-green eyes fill with curiosity, confusion, and hostility left Han Se-ah flustered. She'd been snickering about how the quest reward had allowed us to easily gain elf favor, but now she alone was under suspicion and didn't know how to respond.

"Um, I'm the hero?"

"Now you're lying too? I sense traces of holy power from this man, not you."

Ah, so she could sense the holy sword too.

※

Han Se-ah was only able to escape the forest fairy's suspicion thanks to Irene's vouching. The forest fairy seemed to believe Irene's words when she summoned holy power, suggesting that the fairy's original world might also have had a goddess opposing the Demon Lord.

Though I couldn't draw the holy sword due to its cooldown, the forest fairy nodded, saying Irene's holy power was enough to convince her. Then she declared it was perfect timing and invited us to the forest fairy village, making Han Se-ah's and the viewers' eyes gleam with excitement.

"...Your gaze is rather disrespectful. I sense strange desires."

"Well, she's a mage. Seeing a species from another world probably sparked her scholarly curiosity."

"Is that so? I suppose I'd be curious too if I saw dwarves made entirely of stone."

Perhaps for this reason, the forest fairy quickly befriended Irene rather than Han Se-ah. Whenever the fairy reacted uncomfortably to Han Se-ah's desires, Irene desperately defended her, creating an ongoing comedy routine between them.

Whatever this pure natural energy was, it had transformed the initially cautious forest elf into a chatty companion. Strangely, Han Se-ah couldn't see her stars or title and didn't even know her name, yet they were already exchanging all sorts of stories.

The forest fairy village was hidden by magic and inaccessible without an invitation; the outside world had become chaotic because of someone called the Demon Lord; refugee influxes into the forest were causing trouble for their scout teams—and so on.

As their conversation continued, Irene seemed to perceive the pure forest fairy as someone younger than herself. Like an older sister caring for orphanage children, she began sharing stories of our adventures. The forest fairy showed particular interest in Manaashi, the black naga warrior who had converted to the Goddess religion, and the stone dwarves, the craftsman race.

"By the way, was there a race similar to stone dwarves in, um, Fairy-nim's world?"

"Fairy-nim? Oh my, we haven't even introduced ourselves. You can call me Alseith. It means 'forest.'"

"Alseith, Alseith... That's a pretty name. I'm Irene."

"Thank you. Anyway, to answer your question, we did have earth fairies. They were similar to what you call stone dwarves, but the problem was they kept disturbing the forest claiming they were building things, so our relationship wasn't great."

"But why stone dwarves...?"

"Well, you said they live inside rocky mountains and eat stones, right? Such a race wouldn't harm the forest, so we could probably befriend them."

As we walked through the forest following Alseith and Irene, who were exchanging all kinds of stories, sunlight suddenly pierced my eyes.

The forest had brightened as if we'd returned to the 11th floor. At the same time, the freshness of the air I inhaled deeply felt like it was cleansing my lungs.

I thought we'd been walking normally, but had we passed through some kind of barrier simply because a forest fairy was leading us? Glancing around, I saw Grace, with her exploration passive, looking surprised as she gazed wide-eyed at our surroundings.

"What's this, Elseith? You brought humans? ...Are they even human?"

"I sense both natural energy and light energy... could they be half-bloods?"

"Eek! Stop that mage!"

The trees that grew straight upward had branches spreading like intricate mosaic artwork, as if tended by a skilled gardener, allowing sunlight to pass through. Their thick trunks, showing no signs of being cut or broken, had swelled to form homes for the forest fairies.

So this was the forest fairy village, naturally formed with bright sunlight as its fence. Rather than houses made of wood, they were trees that had grown into house shapes, and from inside them, fairies emerged one by one to greet us.

The forest fairy village was filled exclusively with women, as if modeled after nymphs from Greek and Roman mythology. Forest fairies in light, loose clothing that left little to the imagination, fairies whose skin glistened with sweat as if they'd been training, and fairies who screamed in alarm at the sight of Han Se-ah all rushed out.

"What's wrong?"

"That, that woman will burn down the forest! With her evil magic that summons magical potions from thin air!"

...That accusation seemed a bit too credible to be slander. Was she some kind of prophet?

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