One week later.

Vandalieu was breathing in the winter air that was surprisingly clear despite the humidity of the forest, while crushing medicinal plants, minerals and magic stones into powder to use as alchemical catalysts when his movements suddenly stopped.

「Boy, if you do not concentrate, who knows when you will learn the skill… Boy?」

Zadiris, who had been watching him work, she was confused to see his hands unexpectedly stop.

Vandalieu was looking into empty air, nodding and shaking his head, making noises as if responding to someone speaking to him.

「Boy, have you finished stuffing the roots? Shall we stop the lesson here for today?」

Worried that she had been forcing too many lessons on Vandalieu, Zadiris called out to him uncertainly, but it didn’t seem that he was hallucinating from being too fatigued. He turned his head to face her.

「I just heard from a Kobold Shaman’s spirit that there’s a large village of Orcs deep in this Devil’s Nest, led by a Noble Orc, and he seems to think that this Ghoul village is a nuisance to him.」

Thanks to an information leak from this spirit, Bugogan had failed to keep himself hidden.