Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[OP: ]

After Eon and the others resolved the matter regarding the first prince, they got back to their own preparations.

They were going outside for the first time ever since they came to the tower.

While the preparations did not include much, they needed supplies and they needed to check the path that they were going to take.

They had to confirm their destination and when they would be back. Then they needed to match their time since as soon as they were coming back, in a day or two, they were supposed to return back as well.

The work needed to go back was almost finished as well. Now, the only thing remaining was the final preparations.

"I think she's going to be surprised when she sees you." Zoe was in the surveillance room looking at the picture of a certain white squirrel.

It was a chubby creature.

There were many creatures of various ranks around her. She was simply living her life while the creatures that should have been wild and more aggressive were simply living their own lives in harmony.

The palace where they were living seemed pretty well built. Every creature of different nature here was living in peace and harmony, there were conflicts but she even solved them. She helped them in any way they needed.

She cured them emotionally. She looked after them when they needed it. Every time there was someone that needed her help, she would forget all her laziness and come running for help.

"She's the same as I remember…"

There was a warm smile on Eon's face as he looked at the lazy friend that he remembered. She was the first friend that he made in this damned forest, the first Person that helped him, that gave him the good night's sleep that he could never get in that place.

"Perhaps she has gotten chubbier though, haha~." He could not help his laughter at that moment. But then again, he could not wait to meet this chubby squirrel.

The time they spent together was brief. The chances that they would meet again were pretty slim as well. If it wasn't for Anna's accident, they would not have been here anytime soon.

Initially, he was planning to come back only after he finished his academy life. But fate wanted something else perhaps…

"Haaa… I've missed her." He smiled at her warmly, nodded at Zoe, and then, shifted his gaze to the last footage of the Prince's party.

"Whatever made them come here, those guys came knowing what they were gonna face." He had been watching their movements through this footage for a while now.

Time was slower inside the tower so the things happening outside were relatively faster. The prince's party had been in the forest for a while now, and they had done a lot while they were here.

"Those guys secured a primary base and established a research and data center. They aren't here simply to gather materials, they are actually gathering all the data about the place that they can."

Through the footage, they found out that the team was there for a thorough investigation.

They were using all kinds of artifacts to gather data on the plant life, on the creatures, collecting samples for different things, they were even going as far as collecting data on the Mana in the environment.

The vice captain of the group was an Elder mage, and she had been a researcher for a good part of her life. Magic was not the only thing she had mastered over the years, she had experience in other fields as well.

The other members of their group were also great at these things. They knew what they were doing when collecting each sample. They were observing their surroundings.

They had secondary bases throughout the areas that they were crossing connecting to their secured primary base.

They were moving slowly but the speed at which they were covering the areas was nothing less than astonishing for both Eon and Zoe.

"They are pros for a reason, alright."

It was obvious that they weren't doing this for the first time. They had been around many sites around the world and they had discovered many sites around the world as well.

The places that they had discovered and helped to clear were already not a small amount, but they had not just found the places or gone around them.

They had analyzed the place. Their team consisted of people that were experts of their fields and aside from combat oriented individuals, the people in their team were mostly either creators, scholars, or research experts like their vice captain.

There was a person who was an expert of energies among them, one was a grandmaster alchemist, there was a master artifact creator, and one of the fastest hammer workers. One member of the team was one of the most knowledgeable people in the entire world– an elder dwarf who, though not oriented with blacksmithing, was a great scholar and seeker of truths.

It was not a usual party, but perhaps that is what made them climb to the highest rank within the association in a very short span of seven years.

Before them, it was unheard of for someone to achieve that rank in such a short time span, but they made it happen with their recklessness, passion, and abilities.

"You wish to be like them, brother?" Zoe asked even though she knew the answer to that question.

"No." He answered with a smile, a warm smile as he looked right into her eyes. "I don't want to be like them. I simply want to be someone that can live a good life with the people I care about."

Be it the prince or the other members of his party, all of them were pretty distant from their families.

Not all of them had families, but they still had people with whom they had unique connections. They had a place that they belonged to and a place to return to, but they chose not to do so.

The life of an adventurer, the life of thrill and the life where they explored the world was something they cherished more than the people that they were close with.

For them, their party was everything– which was something special in itself, but at the same time, they didn't spare much time for their other close ones.

"They are great… but they aren't what I want, Zoe."

Eon did not want what those people had. He did not want a party that had gone around the world and established itself. He did not want to be someone well-known for his achievements.

All he wanted and cared about were the people that he cherished. He could not bear to stay away from them for longer than he needed.

Each moment he spent away from them, even right now, was unbearable to him. The pain of being away from them to him, was much greater than any accomplishment that he could obtain by traveling the world with a party as great as theirs.

"A better world." That's what he wanted– for them, and for himself.

He was going to go to great lengths to make that world a reality. He was going to pull out all the cancerous bastards that polluted the world, be it a demon or a messenger of the divine.

A better world did not mean a world free of darkness or evil. To him, a better world was simply a place where his people could live without any problems.

"I'm selfish, but not for myself."

The people in the prince's party had their own goals that brought them together and closer. They were together not because of unquestionable faith in one another, but because of a goal that they shared with each other.

They would undoubtedly leave their backs to one another and trust them with their lives, but they still had a goal that connected them, not a bond of selflessness.

"I want to be an adventurer who sees the world, Zoe. Not someone who enters a forbidden forest with the people I care about willingly.

However important it might be, I would always be against it if I had the choice."

Even right now as they were finishing the preparations to enter a new world, somewhere new that Anna and the others would not understand readily, he was hesitant.

On one side was his love for his sister, while on the other side were his concerns for what might happen when they go out into the forest.

The love had triumphed over the concerns like always already, however, they had not gone away or vanished into the thin air.

They were still there, with him. He would still be against it if it was simply about him… but it was more than that.

Anna needed this exposure. The rest of them needed this, and so he was nobody to stop them from having perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see just how dangerous, ferocious, and magical the great forbidden forest actually was.

"So, let's do our best out there and show everyone some fun things, ok~?" With a bright new smile, he pushed away the screens and faced his younger sister.

"Yes~! Let's do our best~!" She smiled and hugged him enthusiastically.

It was obvious that he wanted her to look after the others that she will be carrying around and she obviously was going to do that.

She knew just how important these few days were going to be for everyone.

So… she was well aware of her own responsibilities in this entire trip as well.

'Hopefully, we'll do ok.'