Back in front of the walls constructed around the cathedral, Ashton took another breather. He had called the elementals, beside the wisp, back into his vessel already, but Poppy and the treasure pixie were outside. They must have heard what Ashton said to Clementine's mother just now.

  "Sorry about that, you two. I just got a little angry just now," he apologised, but Poppy seemed to be alright. Instead, she just seemed to be worried about Ashton more than anything. As for the treasure pixie... they were a bit shaken up.

  Fairies were completely, totally honest beings. As such, they valued honesty above all else, but that didn't mean they didn't have other values. So, hearing Ashton say those things that were so honest to what he felt, while also being generally quite horrible to tell others, must have been a bit of a shock.

  But despite that, even though they were shaken up, it seemed like they somehow warmed up to Ashton a bit.

  Either way, that didn't mean Ashton felt that they were willing to form a contract with him, at least not right now. It was weird, he had a pretty clear feeling for that ever since he met this fairy. Then again, he hadn't really been paying attention before that. But the vast majority of beings in the world, whether they were monsters or people, weren't candidates for contracts as a baseline, even if they didn't even know the concept. Mostly, it was just a sort of 'lack' or 'apathy' toward the idea, and for those that knew more about Ashton's powers, it was a general 'dislike' of it. Not that Ashton wanted to form a contract with a human anyway. That still felt a little too... iffy. Maybe if he met the right person.

  Most importantly, since the treasure pixie disliked the idea of a contract with Ashton, he decided to just keep moving to look for another place for them to stay. It wasn't healthy for a pixie to move around like this, away from a place like where they were born. Poppy was just a special case because of the contract.

  "Poppy, could you cast your spell on me?" Ashton asked, and Poppy slowly nodded her head. A flower appeared around his feet and briefly enveloped him. He could feel the magic course through him, and a message appeared.

  [Contract | Flower Pixie - Level 4 -> Flower Pixie - Level 5]

  Poppy's levelling speed had been a lot slower than that of the others, since her ability was a little more niche. However, now that she was at level five.

  "Hm... Poppy, when I wake back up, do you want me to teach you a new spell?" Ashton asked as he started to run forward. Instantly, Poppy stared up at him and climbed up to his collar, trying to see Ashton's expression properly. She saw his light smile, and immediately nodded her head.

  "Great. Now, I don't know a lot about pixie magic, but I do remember a couple spells that were used by a Flower Pixie I used to know. I remember the structure of the magic alright, so I think we should be able to figure out how it works together."

  Poppy nodded happily and excitedly, tucking herself back into one of the pockets within the cloak as Ashton ran through the streets with the speed-boost of the 'Flower of Swiftness'.

  The cathedral was relatively in the middle of the town, but it was still pretty far away from the closest part of the forest. And even then, it wasn't a part that was particularly... special. There were a few particularly beautiful areas within Drakewood's forest; ones that Ashton would consider closer to what 'nature' really was than others and might be locations that fairies could feel more comfortable in.

  However, those areas were also the ones visited most frequently. While fairies weren't exactly shy, sanctuaries were generally formed in places that people didn't frequent often.

  At the very least, Ashton also knew of places that he could definitely avoid right now, such as hangout spots where teenagers would gather and have big parties. Those were neither particularly beautiful, nor far enough away from people. Or, there were areas famous for massive amounts of rubbish having been dumped there.

  While these places might be interesting to look at for other reasons, that wasn't what Ashton should be focusing on at the moment. First, he just had to see what kind of monsters were here in the forest.

  Generally, in places where less people naturally gathered, there were also less monsters. Though the ones that were there tended to be a bit more dangerous. While there were monsters like the giant spiders and the red wolves, the majority of monsters here in the city were humanoid. But in a forest, that was the other way around.

  While there was the rare humanoid, most of the monsters would be animalistic, so for most people it was a harsh change of pace.

  While on his way here, Ashton already encountered a couple more animalistic monsters than in the middle of town, just because they wandered in from the forest. There were more red wolves, various types of monstrous mice, and there were a lot more bats hiding out near the forest, too.

  But almost immediately as Ashton walked into the forest itself, past that artificially created cut-off line, he was assaulted by various insect monsters. They were mostly different kinds of beetles and other common bugs that any kid growing up here was familiar with, ranging from the size of Ashton's fist to that of his torso.

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  First there were two monsters that would be annoying to others, but were pretty simple for Ashton himself. The Rock and Wood Beetles. They both looked almost exactly like their namesake when they were still. These sorts were ambush predators, but if you knew they were there, they were easily taken care of.

  And since Ashton could see the concentrated mana within their bodies, he was the one to make the first move. The wisp split in two and quickly slammed into the various beetles hiding on the ground or on the side of the trees.

  Though, that sound did attract the attention of other nearby monsters. A group of shieldbugs came at him. Ones like these were, while also on the smaller end of the spectrum, one of the more sturdy monsters, as their name implied.

  As Ashton swung his staff, the barbell, at the group, they immediately linked together to form a larger and sturdier shield. Their speed was impressive, but sadly, they met the wrong opponent.

  A weaker fighter's weapon might have bounced off their hardened carapace, but Ashton knew how to fight armoured opponents like these well enough. Though, it wasn't like these guys were particularly strong, there were just many. The biggest benefit they had was that, when one of these shieldbugs died, they would shift around and fill in the gap from before, continuing to move forward until they surrounded their prey and suffocated them.

  But in this case, they couldn't even reach Ashton's feet before all of them were killed.

  As he continued on further into the forest, there were definitely a lot more insects mixed into the monsters than he expected, but that wasn't all.

  There were 'Forest Mice', particularly large mice with fur that looked like grass and a venomous bite. Then, 'Stomping Rabbits' that would jump around their prey and hit them with their powerful hind legs.

  'Spiked Foxes' also quickly appeared before Ashton. They essentially had the quills of a porcupine, but were much faster and more agile, and actually pretty cunning when it came to the tricks they played.

  All in all, to Ashton... this place was an absolute treasure-trove. Those fox quills were hollow and amazing receptacles for small amounts of poison or potions to be stored in to be used in combat. The fur of forest mice was a vibrant green that could be extracted into pigment beautifully, and had a strong affinity to 'nature'. And the stomping rabbits... they were frankly just delicious. And of course, all the insects made for great potion ingredients.

  He made sure to collect things that were going to be useful, but he still kept his actual goal in mind the entire time, too. Both Poppy and the treasure pixie were keeping an eye out for anything that seemed like the presence of other fairies or even a sanctuary, but there wasn't anything for now.

  For now, Ashton continued forward, moving away from town. Since he was here anyway, he should do this anyway. As he moved through the forest and fought more and more monsters, soon, a large wall appeared before him.

  It was something that was visible to the human eye. A large, translucent wall that stretched up impossibly high into the sky, though you couldn't see it on the horizon and it only revealed itself when close enough. Ashton actually couldn't see what was beyond this; his mana was blocked from moving outside of the bounds of this barrier.

  This was the 'Region Boundary'. It wasn't passable for normal players. Ashton slowly placed his hand onto the cold, smooth surface.

  [Warning! You have reached the border of the [Drakewood] Region. Region Borders can only be passed by [Nomads]]

  [Do you wish to be designated as a [Nomad]? Yes | No ]

  There was no reason for Ashton to even think about it, and he selected 'no'. Being a nomad right now would bring nothing but trouble.

  The reason he came here was to figure out how big this region actually was. If possible, Ashton wanted to make a map in the future. Hopefully the Pen of Insight would level up soon. Though, whether or not they would choose an advancement that would allow for mapmaking was a bit of a gamble.

  For now, Ashton made his way a bit more into the middle of the forest so that the pixies could sense as much of the area as possible. Of course, it was possible that there was only a sanctuary in the part of the forest beyond the border, and if that so happened, Ashton would have Poppy help the wingless pixie over there.

  Luckily, that border was really only a thing for people with access to the system. From Ashton's understanding, the only ones that did get the system were those belonging to the dominant civilization in whichever world it appeared in. Fairies didn't count amongst that, at least not here. Maybe if this sort of thing ever happened in the Feywilds, but that was unlikely. That was a place that was completely different to other worlds in the first place.

  For the next few hours, Ashton continued on through the forest, just fighting monster after monster. There were a few mana wells here, but Ashton took their boss monster down and just continued on.

  This all did result in a few level-ups though. Ashton's own level didn't increase, but both the Gnome and Salamander got to level 9, and the Sylph reached level 10, and would be ready for an advancement later. The Backpacker also levelled up once more, since Ashton was collecting so many new things, reaching level 9 as well.

  He was about all of this, but he didn't find any clues toward a sanctuary at all. He was worried this would be the case. Then again, Ashton barely moved through a quarter of the forest so far. It surrounded Drakewood in almost every direction after all. From what Ashton could tell from the border, the forest seemed to actually take up a surprising amount of space. More than half, if not two-thirds, of the entire area of the Drakewood region. But since 99% of people lived within the town, the focus of the quests was in there as well.

  Ashton was a little annoyed that there was so much area to cover, but he was also quite glad that he could freely go around so much of this forest without bothering with the border.

  Right now, Ashton's focus had to change a little, since he was getting close to a particular place.

  Before he left, he made the others thoroughly search the community for any information on Marked, and even had them make posts to ask for information. Since Ashton couldn't see what was written on screens, he wasn't able to get the help from the Backpacker directly anymore and had to prepare like that whenever he was with other people.

  And luckily, they found a few hints. One of them led to a place near here.

  While most people decided to stay in the town, there were a few individuals that did venture out into the forest. Ashton came across quite a few corpses by now as well. But amongst the ones that came here, there were some that said they saw what looked like a person directly controlling the insects here in the forest.

  The place they were spotted should be pretty close. Hopefully Ashton could find them fast enough. He didn't have long left awake, and by the time he woke back up, the second main quest would already be over. If Ashton didn't manage to kill a few more Marked, he would fail the Executor's quest, and he was pretty sure that the contract he could form with them might be one of the more useful ones.