A day had passed since I had stepped into the forest, and since then, I had been beguiled three times. The first time is for one and a half seconds, while the other two are for a few microseconds. The time may seem small, but for a person of my level of strength, it is more than enough to finish the job thoroughly. I had been cautious, keeping my thoughts in control, but still got beguile. It is not easy to defend against them; the whole forest is full of them. It might not seem like it, but every second, I am fending off hundreds of attempts of beguilement. I am succeeding in most, and it is due to it I am standing here. If I drop all the defenses, then it wouldn't take even a second for the place to beguile me. After testing a few things, I had increased my speed; while the slow speed is cautious, it is also detrimental. The first two things were able to hit me because my slow speed kept me in the area enough for them to infiltrate my defenses and affect me. It is not just a speed I have increased; I have been actively manipulating my defenses to align better against the dangers of this forest. Very few inheritances and bloodlines give freedom with defenses, and even those which give couldn't be compared to me. My defenses are malleable; I could use them in any way I want, and I am doing that; the effects of that are incredible. "You little minx!" I said to the deep red root buried in the ground; the energy of it had infiltrated my defenses and started to affect me. Thankfully, I noticed it immediately, and now, I have taken the bastard out, and it disappeared a moment later. It is now part of thousands of resources harvested from this forest. Hun! Nearly an hour passed when I suddenly stopped and moved toward left; before stopping about a minute later and watching a huge Crockman. "Hahaha… the victory feast, made from the human's powerhouses themselves; such delicious humans, I wish I could eat such delicious humans every day," laughed the Crockman and tore away another huge chunk of the tree and ate it; its mouth had made a loud crunching noise before gulped it down. I shuddered, watching it; if it had been a normal tree, it would have been fine, but the tree was far from normal. It is the thing that had beguiled it and now forcing it to eat it; with every bite, the effect of beguiling is getting stronger and stronger. The effects of it have already become strong, and after a few bites more, it could forget about getting out of its effects. Even now, it could be said to be too far gone that there is no hope of it relieving itself from the beguilement. My seed is showing everything to me, and now the question is, what do I do with this bastard? I could simply kill it, but I would be wasting a peak-High Grandmaster with a bloodline; that would help me produce a good number of resources. I thought for a moment, and a second later, the bastard is in my core. I was a little hesitant about taking it due to a large amount of hallucinogens in its system. I fear it would burst all out if I tried to harvest it, but when I thought about it and realized the difference in level between it and me, I realized it is not that dangerous, even if hallucinogens inside it hit me on the face. I could bear their effects. So, I took the risk; it will also be beneficial for me since, with it, I will know whether things like these could attack me when I harvest them. In ten seconds, I got my answer. I now do not need to worry about whatever is inside my energies attacking me; once the runes get hold of them, then I will refine everything, including whatever that is inside me. The next two hours were silent; I only got beguiled at once, and I came out in less than a second. It made me even more cautious as, unlike before, my defenses were changing to the need, and despite that, the forest kept affecting me. The only thing that makes me happy is the distance I am crossing; I have already crossed more than half of the distance, and if I keep moving at such speed, then within ten hours, I will reach the last leg. Hun! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺 A few minutes passed when I began to hear the sounds of battle; while many Grimms and humans were avoiding the battle, some just did not care; they were hell-bent on killing the enemies. Hearing the sounds, I changed my route and moved toward it, and three minutes later, I reached it, and the moment I saw who was fighting the battle, my eyes couldn't help but blaze in anger; it was not a Grimm that made me angry, but a human. I have never personally met the old bastard, but I hate them to the bone; I hate him as I hate the Silas Bishop. Even more than Silas Bishop, as at least he cares about his race to risk his, but this bastard cares only about progress. I am talking about High Healer Carmichael, the greatest healer in the world. The bastard caged himself in an unknown place before the start of the war and did not come, even when the war began; Grand Lords themselves had gone to ask him to come, but he did not. Wanting to focus more on preparation to become a Grand Lord. I, Grandmaster Charline, Marina, and thousands of other healers did our best, and if he had been there, we would have been able to save even more lives. The bastard might be selfish and greedy, but he was the best healer in the world. I feel quite proud that I was able to beat the bastard, even before I reached the Tyrant. The twins were the last people he had come to see before he went to seclusion, and even with the knowledge and experience he had, he was not able to cure their problem and had even declared, and nobody else would be able to do it, but I did. I was quite surprised to see him, as when I was at the entrance of this thing, I did not see him; he likely had come in after I came inside. He is in great trouble; now, he is fighting against a very powerful Grimm, a Golden Fire Werewolf, who has created a core. Still, the old man is fighting against it and is still alive, which is quite surprising considering he is a healer and healers don't have that strong fighting power. Though despite all his power, he is in bad shape; the injuries had piled up across his body, and looking in the direction of the battle, it wouldn't be long before Golden Fire Werewolf took his head. I truly want to let that happen, but unfortunately, I cannot do everything I want; there are things I need to do, things like saving this detestable bastard.