Travelling with a group of elves that actually knew what they were doing was a great boon to Ethan, literally thirty minutes after they made that deal he had warm food in his stomach, the food was just simple meat with some salt but anything was a god send when you had an empty stomach.

Truth be told, after that it went kind of downhill, he continued on his way but was now surrounded by a bunch of elves that really didn't want to talk to him, making for a very awkward silence that felt oppressive . He painted a bad picture with his actions when he captured them but he felt that they could at least show some form of interaction but they acted more like emotionless robots. The leader of them decided to at least walk next to him and offered short answers to his questions.

Time remaining in the tutorial: 25:03:11:57

After checking his timer he realized how much time was already gone from those thirty days, his eyes wandered down to Lorena and he decided to ask her a rather simple question.

"Where do you suspect the necromancer is hiding? The woman I fought seemed to be excellent at using the energy of the jungle to cast her magic. She must have felt the putrid energy somewhere in this forest if she is connected to it."

Lorena looked uncomfortable and seemed to be torn between answering him or keeping her mouth shut. In the end she talked, they asked him for help after all. "The matriarch felt him but after the guardian descended from the mountain the whole forest felt numb to her senses, the cold magic of the guardian lingers for a long time. She suspects that the necromancer is masking his presence somehow, using the guardian's energy as cover after the failed ritual."

Ethan sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, those elves should have started with that, but hell no, they rather walk around for two days without mentioning something important like that. He stopped and turned to Lorena. "Alright, here is what we're going to do. It's quite easy actually because to locate the necromancer you need to find two things. Dead animals and living animals that flee from those dead animals. Because if I felt one thing in my entire life it would be that putrid stench of death magic. Good for us is that animals are a lot smarter than we're so they avoid those areas altogether. With this being your territory I'm sure you have people capable of detecting that. For now we might even spot something from above."

He slammed his staff into the ground so that he and Lorena ascended on a pillar of ice until they stood over the forest. Ethan looked around and hoped to see something in their vicinity, birds flying away or circling around an area would be the easiest but the animals on the ground could also provide a location if he managed to spot it.

In the end it was Lorena that saw something. Her finger pointed to a location right next to the lowest mountain. "Look there, I see mountain lions and mountain goats fleeing together, that is something unheard off. Also there are massive colonies of birds on every mountain but here it looks almost dead."

With squinted eyes he tried to see something but his vision wasn't nearly as good as that from an actual forest elf, especially with his low perception. "If you say so then that is the direction we need to go in." The pillar descended and moments later they stood back on the ground. Lorena walked forward this time, already acting more decisively and Ethan followed her, again surrounded by the other elves. He was interested if he would find James there or not, his guess was he prepared more of those rituals but how or why, that was still something he couldn't begin to understand.

It took almost another day to reach the foothills of the mountains, the jungle became more treacherous and wild the closer you got to those mountains. They were lucky that the animals all fled from this place and they only had to worry about the plant life in their vicinity. Of course having experienced rangers at his side made the way a lot easier.

Ethan kept himself in the background most of the time, he wasn't good at stealth and if James was really messing around here again he didn't want to be the one to spook him and walk into a trap he wasn't prepared for. So he waited while Lorena sent some scouts out instead. They stood next to each other on one of the larger branches, high in a tree. Ethan leaning against the trunk, his eyes fixed on the jungle below.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. "I hope they find something but even better if they find nothing. I have to say it again, but nothing good will come of me being here, James will be gone in around a month just like me." he looked at Lorena, she looked nervous like she could feel the pain of the jungle around him, like a taint spreading along its roots.

The moment they stepped on the branch she had those hate filled eyes fixed on the dead plant life that was a clear indicator of foul magic being used. Nothing else could bring such vibrant plants to just die. Ethan looked back to the clearing, a few minutes later a noisemaker arrow flew high over the canopy.

"That's our signal, it seems like it's safe to go down." He gave Lorena a small nudge and jumped from the tree, landing on a snow cloud that carried him over the forest.

"Time to see what James planned to do here…"

Ethan made his way down to the clearing and jumped from the cloud, his feet landing softly on the spongy ground. His eyes wandered over the scene that unfolded in front of him. In the middle of the clearing was another ritual circle, the same one he saw around the guardian tree but this one was a lot smaller than the previous one.

His eyes were glued to the center of it, a large white feather was stuck in the ground, while it could be from any kind of bird Ethan knew this must be from the guardian, the size alone was indicator enough. With his interest peeked he started to study the ritual circle, while most of the runes were a mystery to him, some he could recognize. He saw runes for weakness, curse and death. The feather was a clear connection to the target of such a ritual. On each focal point of the ritual a heap of dead birds is laid out, chosen because of the racial connection but also to supply life energy, flesh and bones.

Overall it was crude work, he couldn't find the finesse of a skill but this was magic implanted straight into someone's memory, because while the basic work was correct it lacked true understanding of the art of ritualism. Ethan himself was only beginning to dip his toes into the topic but he could identify the work of a total beginner if he saw it. This ritual in front of him was the work of a total beginner with the memories of a grandmaster. At least it felt like it.

While studying the ritual he noticed the elves looking around, he could see that they felt a bit useless right now, unease clearly written all over their faces. So once he finished gathering information he waved them towards him. "Make sure all the animals get buried a good distance away and erase all those lines you can see."

Ethan himself plucked the feather from the ground and looked over it, his pale fingers gliding through it, he could feel the strength inside of it, the cold it radiated combined with a touch of the divine. A seraphic snow owl indeed, he thought. Ethan held the feather out so that Lorena, who had approached him from the side, could inspect it herself. The moment she touched the feather a sigh escaped her lips.

"This is indeed the feather of our guardian, I can feel the connection between itself and the jungle clearly. What is this man planning to do with the feathers? Did he do the other rituals so he could collect these?"

"I'm not sure, but it's a good guess. This was after all the target of the ritual we see here. Personally I would say he tried to spread out multiple rituals to weaken the guardian, but I don't think he could kill it even when weakened. Hm…we should try to find a clue where he might be going next, either magical or mundane. We also need a few mages here, preferably those that can follow his rotten path through the forest. No matter how good you're, it's almost impossible to not leave some kind of track. That is true for normal and magical footprints." he took the feather from her, his pale blue snake eyes wandering over it once again.

"Let's finish up here while you try to connect to your matriarch, I'm only making suggestions but please ask her for an opinion, I'm sure she has a lot more knowledge than me on that matter."

"I will do that, the others are busy anyway." She sprinted away to the closest tree that had a sufficient height. Ethan's guess was that they used some kind of signal system, maybe sounds or some form of telepathy. Ethan's eyes wandered over the clearing for one last time.

"Nobody can hold a grudge that long, I didn't even do anything to you James…it was your decision from the start." He sighed and looked to the sky. "Soon…I will be back soon."

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