Chapter 2: Umbral Forest.

I reached the Skyrail station faster then expected, thanks to me getting lucky with an empty taxi on the way.

Within 10 minutes I was at the station. The station looked like a giant tower, at least as tall as a 50 floor building.

I got up the building on an elevator, which took 30 seconds to reach the top.

The top looked exactly like any regular train station. The only difference being the glass doors protecting the civilians from falling off the building through the train's path.

I went up to the ticket counter and booked a seat to the 'Umbral Forest' which was 650 km away from my residence. Although it was so far away, with the train, I would reach the place within 1 and a half hours.

I boarded the train and got myself a comfortable seat beside the window. As the train started moving, I admired the modern city passing though beneath me.

As I was admiring this scene, I thought about the plan to get myself the huge powerup that would probably end up being the main thing keeping me alive in the later chapters.

The power-up I am talking about was a skill book, of which only one existed in the world, or at least that was what the novel said. The skill book would grant me 'Gravity Magic', one of the most powerful skills in the novel, which would have been originally used by a villain, who would get in the way of the protagonist.

'Well, I'm gonna take it. I don't really care much about the main storyline honestly. That skillbook is simply the quickest way for me to get extremely strong very quickly.', I thought to myself.

'Although its not strong enough as the main protagonist's skills... If I grow myself well, maybe I can stand as equivalent with the protagonist.'

I reached the destination in just under 1.5 hours. I got out of the train, left the station, and booked a taxi straight towards the forest's entrance.

The Umbral forest was a forest that was originally a part of the Amazon Rainforest. After the emergence of mana, the size of the forest grew drastically and it became the biggest forest on earth. It was also the place where I would find the gravity magic spell book.

I know that I will have to fight some monsters on the way, so I was prepared. My energy magic was pretty much the most average type of magic to deal damage. It was basically non-elemental spells like 'Magic Arrow' and 'Magic Net', etc. That being said, not many people in the world had proficiency in non-elemental magic. It was probably the reason why Samuel got accepted into Nexus Academy.

In the novel, one of the main cast would get their hands on energy magic, but quickly dismiss it as an 'useless' skill.

The most useful spell under Energy Magic would be 'Reinforcement'. Although, it doesn't apply to living things and its effects wouldn't last very long. There are enchantments which are better than that.

Still though. It was the only thing I had at the moment, and I had to use it to the fullest.

The taxi stopped before a border with a fence gate in front of us and a small two-Storey building beside it.

The building had some Hunters in them who worked for the government. They saw my student ID, congratulated me for it, and let me inside the forest.

"Be careful, though. Even if you are a student in Nexus, the are still very dangerous areas and monsters inside the forest. Keep clear of them, alright?", said a male hunter before I departed.

I agreed with him and left.

'Sorry, bro. I won't be heeding your advice today.', I thought to myself as I went deeper inside the forest.

Initially there were some dirt roads on the ground, which were created by people travelling on them for many years.

After about an hour of walking, I deviated from the paths which were starting to get narrower and narrower.

I knew that the villain who got the power had came inside the forest from that same entrance, walked for an hour in this path, and then deviated form here and just followed the setting sun.

Well, it was still noon, and the sun was nowhere near setting, so I just followed west after looking at the compass in my smartwatch.

I walked for more than two hours. I didn't find the landmark mentioned in the novel.

There was supposed to be some kind of stone building, and inside it I had to find a skeleton holding the skill-book.

While travelling and sill following west, I came across some monsters. Nothing too big, just a few red wolves. This part of the forest were apparently infested with wolf-type monsters, and Red wolves were extremely common here.

There were 4 of them. I casted Magic Net while aiming at a pair of them when they were standing right next to each other. A medium sized white magic circle appeared on my right palm, which was aimed at the wolves, and soon a luminescent white fishing-net like thing shot out of the magic circle. The net flew towards the wolves, and before they could react, they had been trapped inside the net.

I immediately casted the Magic arrow, with my left hand, and luminescent white arrows shot out from a small white magic circle that appeared on my left palm, towards the trapped wolves, penetrating one of them, and gravely injuring one of them.

I then turned my attention to the other two wolves who were already charging at me. I waited until they got close enough, and casted Magic Spike right after they jumped in the air and were about to land on me. Two white magic circle suddenly appeared on the ground beneath the wolves and from the magic circle, came out two white luminescent spikes, impaling the two wolves and killing them on the spot.

The last wolf struggling inside the net was the last one left. I killed it using a Magic Arrow.

'Everything went according to plan... I would have stood no chance if the wolves had spotted me beforehand...', I sighed inwardly while thinking.

I continued walking for one more hour and finally found the stone building. It looked like a 2-storey brick house. There was a lot of vines and creepers growing on the walls of the place.

I walked inside the building and immediately spotted the skeleton wearing purple robes, holding a purple book tightly with its bony hands.

I strangely didn't get flustered after seeing this scene. I had expected to feel something along the lines of discomfort or even fear, but I felt...nothing.

I walked over to the skeleton, snatched the book from its arms, breaking them in the process, and I also made sure to the take robes it was wearing as well. Taking off the robes were a more difficult task as I had to practically destroy the skeleton entirely to get the robes off of it. It also smelled like rotten corpses, so I definitely had to wash it before I got back.