"My Goal" I muttered.

  Alvin seemed keen on my answer.

  I couldn't answer him immediately, as my words were stuck in my throat. My gaze subtly shifted towards the moon as I drifted into thought. I knew the general direction I wanted to tread. My past life made me regret so much. Only in death had I finally confronted myself. Before that, I grew complacent and slowly lost control over my own life. The duty my job gave me, the burden society ingrained in me, and the ethics and morals my country preached to me—all of that made me lose the connection to my true self.

  That led me to never truly know who I was—no, what I truly am. I had suffered an insurmountable amount of regret already. I am tired of regretting. If I had a choice in this life, it would be to live by my very own choices and believe in my actions. I don't want to die with regret in my heart again. That I was sure of.

  I turned towards Alvin, who sat beside me. His attention was fully on me and the words I was about to speak.

  The forest was quiet, except for the occasional crackling of the wood. The scenery was serene—almost fairytale-like. My words echoed through this mystical forest, almost breaking the otherworldly charm.

  "I want to live according to my own will. I want to embrace the chaotic aspect of life and death. I want to tread on battlefields, climb on top of the highest mountains, and visit the most exotic places in this world. Those are my goals."

  Alvin was quiet for a moment. His eyes reflected the flickering firelight, softened by something that might've been understanding. Then he chuckled. His once sad eyes were full of joy, as he finally seemed to be in a good mood again. He turned his face towards me.

  "What a lofty goal you have, Nestor! I thought you would have said something along the lines of: 'I want to be the strongest!' I didn't take you to be such a noble man."

  Alvin visibly enjoyed my answer as he made fun of me. My face turned slightly red as I avoided his gaze. We continued to talk until late at night. Paired with the crackling firewood, the comforting moonlight shone down upon us, as the heat of the campfire seemed to warm our very hearts. That night, we shared our goals with each other, planned our future, and got to know each other a bit more. Starting tomorrow, we swore to give our all in pursuing strength.

  Both of us woke up as the sun already hung high in the sky. The refreshing spring air coursed through the forest. The once frosty pine forest had transformed into a land full of lush greenery over the course of the last few months.

  Today I led the way as Alvin followed me from behind. We sighted a valley in front of us and decided to approach it. The wildlife was fully active. Birds chirped in the distance, and bugs hummed all around us. We saw footprints of all kinds of animals in the mud, and even saw the imprint of bear paws.

  The dense forest became less dense the nearer we came to the valley. The noise of birds became less frequent, while the humming of bugs became the dominant sound. As we both stepped into the valley, we were mesmerized. Beautiful spring flowers of all colours littered the clear valley. All kinds of flowers resided here. I took a deep breath. It was like I breathed in the aspect of vitality itself, as the fragrant odor spread through my lungs. Alvin seemed to experience it too. We surveyed our surroundings—everything seemed normal.

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  We didn't leave the valley immediately, though. This valley was a perfect open space to spar. I locked eyes with Alvin.

  "Want to spar?" were the words I blurted out.

  Alvin answered by making some distance between us without losing sight of me. I quickly pursued him while chanting Moon's Disk. Alvin immediately responded by chanting a spell that materialized a torrent of waves against my Moon's Disk. He knew its weak point was the aspect of continuous penetration. My Moon's Disk could penetrate even stone, but even that had its limits. Every time it penetrated something, it would naturally lose momentum and therefore penetration power. Alvin's wave of waves countered my spell. He had already discovered that fact in our spars beforehand. I wouldn't have cast such a lethal spell if I wasn’t sure that Alvin could defend against it. The cast of Moon's Disk wasn’t to injure Alvin, but to distract him. Unfortunately, he saw right through me, as I never left his perception. Alvin immediately cast Water Nails. An array of nails made out of translucent water shot towards me at lightning speed. I couldn't even muster enough time to think as I instinctively raised an Earth Wall. This course of battle was foreseeable, as this had happened many times already.

  Behind the wall made out of earth and some rocks, I cast Moonlight Veil. I got cloaked in moonlight again, as the world took on a dreamy fa?ade through my view. I drew my dagger as I closed the distance. Alvin already sensed something was off. With more time, my mana would run out, while Alvin had a clear advantage in this aspect because of his reduced mana consumption when casting water spells. Alvin immediately cast one of his new spells: Water Hedgehog's Spike Release. An uncountable number of spikes appeared around Alvin, cloaking him in a spiky armor that immediately shot out in all directions. Each and every one of the hundreds of spikes had the potential to break my Moonlight Veil upon contact. Water Hedgehog's Spike Release wasn’t a spell lethal on contact, but when Moonlight Veil came into contact with any magic foreign to lunar magic, it would dissipate.

  I simply ignored Alvin’s spell as my dagger stopped in front of his throat. I got hit with many tiny water needles, but most of them didn’t even penetrate my clothing before dissolving.

  "My win," I exclaimed.

  "I know," Alvin answered. His face seemed dissatisfied as he continued:

  "Let’s go search for magic beasts."

  I chuckled a bit. Alvin had defeated me a few times before, but I held the edge over him in most fights. The fights that he won were the ones where my mana pool ran dry.

  We made our way even deeper into the forest. I was almost at the point where I couldn’t memorize the way back to our camp. We had marked some points to help us find our way, but it would get more difficult the deeper we explored.

  I made a big X mark with my dagger on a tree trunk. In my left hand, I held a dead hare—our food for today. Alvin had already prepared a campfire. As always, we practiced our Aldivian as we made small talk.

  "How long have we been here already?" Alvin asked me after he gulped down his food.

  "Since we left our camp?" I asked back.

  "No, Nestor. Do you know how long we’ve been in this world already?" Alvin clarified.

  I had to think for a bit before answering. I took a bite of the hare leg and swallowed.

  "I guess we’ve been here for around half a year."

  Alvin nodded in agreement.

  "How long do you plan to stay up here before we make contact with the outside world?"

  Alvin’s question caught me off guard. I hadn’t really thought of going down this mountaintop in the near future. Maybe we should descend soon.

  "Do you want to descend this mountain?" I answered his question with my own.

  Alvin hesitated before speaking.

  "Not yet, but we can’t possibly stay here for the rest of our lives, right?"

  He was right. We couldn’t stay here forever. It would only stall our progress and ultimately lead to stagnation.

  No. We needed a plan. A future where we could grow stronger and more experienced. But I knew we hadn’t experienced all this mountain had to offer yet. There must be some king of the magical beasts. It wouldn’t make sense if the strongest beasts in the forest only amounted to this. No, somewhere in this forest, the existence of a top predator was assured. I won’t leave until I beat this foe.

  "We can descend the mountain after the ‘King’ here has died."

  Alvin didn’t expect me to add something to his statement. Puzzled, he looked at me.

  "You mean... there is something strong here?"

  I quickly answered Alvin, not letting his doubt settle.

  "There has to be."

  Alvin’s words seemed stuck in his throat as he absentmindedly nodded at my words.