Rioneed: VRMMORPG

Ibro didn't have time to even feel shock as he was moved at once to find everything around him disappearing. This time his journey was much smoother and faster than the first time coming here. 

Throughout his return journey, he was thinking about how strange his pre-reincarnation name was Rioneed. There were many hidden secrets from him. 

He swore that one day he would know everything hidden from him. He tried to repeat his name a million times not to forget it, but he did eventually. 

When he returned again to his original place where he left, he found that he was standing inside of a huge pit. On the outer border of it, Nicole was sleeping there. He moved near her. 

Once he saw her angelic sleepy face, he felt some unexplained pain in his heart. That didn't prevent him from trying to wake her up. To his surprise, she didn't respond to him. He felt weird. 

What was happening to her exactly? He looked around him. He was searching for anything that might have poisoned her perhaps, but he couldn't find anything. 

He didn't know how to use his spiritual sense yet or he could have examined her and assessed her exact condition. 

He knew they couldn't stay here for a long time so he carried her in his arms and started to move away from here. Throughout their travel to here she had explained the nature of this forest to him more than once. 

That info helped him a lot. Now as Nicole had something happened to her, she became a burden on him, not a helper. If he could leave her in a safe place and leave he would do that, but there was no such a place here. 

This forest was full of monsters. He thought about evading the central region and taking longer detours, but his speed of travel had decreased by a large margin. 

He would need a longer time than expected to reach the academy, even if he went through the central forest. That made him decide not to take a detour. 

Their time was limited. Ibro moved carrying Nicole towards the unknown. This time he tried to keep his distance from any group of monsters. Monsters here tend to gather around in groups. 

That created a zone that was considered as safe zones between their areas of dominance. 

Although he couldn't assess the situation better as he lost the godlike scout ability of Dronil, he tried to assess the situation using what Nicole has told him before. 

This little info about the habits of the monsters in these woods helped him a lot. He didn't stop in his tracks even for a second to rest. He knew that he didn't have this luxury anymore. 

The third day had ended without any events at all. He wanted to kill monsters badly so he could raise his stages and try his new power after his breakthrough, but he had not found a suitable target to do so. 

All the monsters he found were in groups. He didn't stop at night as he continued to move forward. According to Nicole estimation, they needed another two days to reach the central region of the forest. 

Now a day of the two had just ended, which made him have the second and last day before entering the deadly zone. His mind was all filled with his hypothesized strategies about how to pass through this zone. 

Nicole didn't have any info about this region except it was very dangerous. That lack of info made him not confident in his ability to pass it safely. He didn't stop trying to wake her up but all was in vain. 

She was like a sleeping beauty that was immersed in her childish peaceful dreamy world. The night was a really dangerous time for such a handicapped Ibro. 

He started to travel very slowly for a while before he gave up this strategy. He looked for a safe place where he put Nicole down and he sat there and tried to eat some stored baked meat that she did before. 

Her cooking was really good and he already missed her delicious meals.

"What are two young kids doing in this forest?"

Ibro suddenly heard that sound coming from behind him. He turned at once and took out his sword and stood shielding her from that stranger. 

He was just one middle-aged man who didn't seem to care about Ibro's actions at all.

"Don't be afraid like that, I mean no harm to you. Now tell me what are you doing here?"

"Why should I tell you?"

The man suddenly floated in the air for a few meters above the ground. He was declaring his superiority Over Ibro in this simple way. Ibro felt a huge threat coming from that man. 

Why were everyone here this super strong?

"We needed to cross the forest to the other side," Ibro knew that he couldn't resist that man so he decided to answer his question. 

After all, it was easy to know their goal here.

"So you don't enter here to kill the monsters for their cores?" That man asked directly this question while looking straight towards Ibro who replied:

"No, we just want to cross this forest safely."

The man seemed not to be convinced by what Ibro just said as he argued:

"But I can smell the scent of monsters' cores on both of you."

Ibro didn't get what that man meant but he said explaining:

"When we entered the forest we met many monsters who tried to kill us, so we killed them."

The man looked silently towards Ibro who was feeling nervous. If he was alone he would have some confidence in escaping here alive. But what about Nicole? He couldn't just leave her like this, right?

"We will see if you are lying or telling the truth."

Suddenly that man took out a long bamboo flute and started to compose unique tunes with it. 

After a few seconds, a small shaped monster that was like a crystal blue fox appeared. When he neared that man, a miraculous change appeared. That fox changed shape rapidly to take a human form. 

She was a gorgeous lady that Ibro couldn't find a speck of doubt over. If he met her anywhere else he wouldn't suspect her origin at all. Suddenly he had a strange thought, what if that man was also like this fox? 

Ibro recalled Nicole's words about the nature of the central forest. Were these two from the central forest? What would they do to them then?

"This human kept moving in our forest holding this other human around. He didn't kill any monster the previous day. 

It was obvious he was scared of us so he didn't dare to get near any of us," that fox lady pointed to Ibro and spoke in a childish cute tone that surprised Ibro. 

The man neglected his reaction as he asked the fox lady:

"Did they kill any monster before?"