A week later, their convoy finally passed through the towering silver gates of the Capital. Exhausted but energized, Hector dismissed his junior mages and rushed into his tower-office, scrolls tucked beneath his arm.
The moment he sat, he began tearing open the sealed letters and investigative reports forwarded ahead by the southern outposts.
His expression hardened.
There had been rumors, of course.
Whispers of "monsters the size of carriages," "demonic shapes moving between trees," and "forest shadows turning solid."
But the written accounts were worse.
Elven scouts had discovered multiple dungeons hidden within the inner layers of the Elven Forest—places where the mana density twisted so severely that space itself seemed to fold inward. Reports described the creatures emerging from those dungeons:
