"Wait! Where are you going?!"
Just as Ryougi Shiki and others were leaving the car, Olga Marie and Gray also ran over, seeing the three planning to leave the car, Olga Marie was immediately shocked.
"Isn’t this forest blocking our way? I’m going to kill it right now!"
Ryougi Shiki proudly shook the dagger in her hand, and upon hearing her reply, Olga Marie was taken aback.
"Wait, are you looking to die? This is Fuhai Forest’s child! Why isn’t Red Ponytail stopping you?"
"If they want to go, let them."
Just then, Fang Zheng also poked his head out, answering Olga Marie’s inquiry.
"These young ones should learn to fight monsters and upgrade. Just one Fuhai Forest child, I believe they can handle it. So, go ahead and do your best."
Having said that, Fang Zheng waved his hand and returned to his room. Hearing his response, Olga Marie was incredulous. She couldn’t believe he would say something like that! After all, that’s Fuhai Forest’s child, one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors’ children, a superior Dead Apostle descendant! Any ordinary magician would stay behind closed doors at this moment; not to mention, the cold alone is enough to struggle with.
And these girls... they actually still want to head inside to eliminate Fuhai Forest’s child?
Are you kidding!
"Wait!!"
Seeing the three about to leave, Olga Marie sighed.
"I will follow along with you."
"You?"
Upon hearing Olga Marie’s words, Ryougi Shiki looked at her in confusion, while Olga Marie humbly snorted, turning her head away.
"Of course. You aren’t orthodox magicians, you know nothing about this forest. Setting out like this is simply courting death. By following, I can at least offer some advice."
"But..."
Hearing this, Seo Shizune couldn’t help but speak.
"Miss Olga Marie, you just lost your follower, maybe the culprit is still watching you. Wouldn’t it be safer if you stayed here?"
"Don’t underestimate me!"
At that moment, Olga Marie stomped her foot.
"I am the successor of Animusphere, and Trisha has long trained me to be an independent magician! I’m not as weak as you think!"
"............."
No one could say a word. Although they wanted to remind Olga Marie of how she cried herself to sleep in Red Ponytail’s embrace yesterday...
"I’m coming too."
At this moment, Gray also walked over and spoke.
"Miss Gray? Don’t you need to take care of your master?"
"In such cold weather, if this continues, my master won’t hold up. I’ve already asked Coles to look after my master."
If that’s the case, there’s nothing left to say, let’s go.
"Phew..........."
Stepping out from the warm carriage, the icy chill hit them, making everyone shiver involuntarily.
"It’s so cold........"
Seeing the swirling snowflakes and the biting chill ahead, Olga Marie frowned.
"I mean, do you really plan to venture into the forest in these conditions to kill Fuhai Forest’s child? In these circumstances, without even finding it, you’d freeze to death first."
Indeed, just as Olga Marie said, in this heavy snowfall and piercing cold, surrounded by unfamiliar terrain and dense forest. In fact, this chill isn’t ordinary; though the Magic Eye Collecting Train had turned on the heating after entering Fuhai Forest’s child domain, the cold was still unavoidable.
After all, this is a nature of a Dead Apostle, not simply mist.
That’s why Gray took the risk to come out; otherwise, her teacher wouldn’t hold up.
"Please wait a moment, let me try."
However, everyone also realized this problem, then Olga Marie saw Asakami Fujino step forward, approaching Ryougi Shiki, then extended her finger to draw something in the air in front of Ryougi Shiki, muttering to herself. Then she walked toward Shizune and repeated the action.
Is this some sort of magecraft?
Olga Marie frowned, crossing her arms, watching the scene, then Asakami Fujino approached her.
"Um... May I?"
"Of course, I want to see what you’re up to."
"Then, excuse me."
While speaking, Asakami Fujino repeated the action and lightly pointed at Olga Marie.
In the next moment, something magical happened.
Olga Marie realized the biting cold previously in the wind had suddenly disappeared! Although the wind still blew and the snow continued to fall, she felt no trace of chill! No, it’s not that there was no chill, the horrifying cold that made one shiver was now completely insignificant!
"What did you do? How did you do it?"
Seeing this, Olga Marie was astonished. If a magician uses some method to resist the cold, then Olga Marie could understand, as magicians possess magic crests, which enhance their physical qualities and even immunity to some specific climates.
But Asakami Fujino easily released a peculiar magecraft, seemingly applicable to everyone!
Not only that, what surprised Olga Marie even more was that during this process, she kept observing the changes in the "Mana" around her. In fact, when Asakami Fujino cast spells, there was indeed a change in Mana, but its extent was comparable to nothing more than a basic suggestion Magecraft!
However, the effect of this Magecraft nearly reached the level of a typical Magecraft!
To put it simply, it was like someone hitting the jackpot on a slot machine, winning five hundred thousand with one coin. Once, you could say it’s luck, but if you succeed continuously three times, it’s no longer luck!
As for whether Asakami Fujino mainly used the magic power within her own body, Olga Marie didn’t even consider this possibility. She could sense that the magic circuit within Asakami Fujino wasn’t particularly extensive. If she were using Magecraft in the way magicians from the Clock Tower did, the second spell alone might be enough to deplete her completely.
"Eh?"
Faced with Olga Marie’s inquiry, Asakami Fujino was momentarily stunned.
"This helps us withstand elemental damage and adapt to the current environment..."
"So, approximately how long can it last?"
"Twenty-four hours."
"Are you kidding me?"
Hearing this, Olga Marie was genuinely stunned. Among the magicians she knew, none could maintain a single Magecraft for a whole day. It is well known that most Magecraft today requires continuous consumption of magic power to maintain, so magicians in this world typically only prepare Magecraft for battles, and do not use it for everyday purposes.
This is also why someone like Emiya Kiritsugu could succeed repeatedly.
Unfortunately, however, Asakami Fujino and the others were not learning Magecraft, but Spellcraft.
While Olga Marie was questioning her life, on the other side, Ryougi Shiki and Seo Shizune weren’t idle either. Ryougi Shiki cast Owl’s Insight and Feline Grace on herself to enhance perception and agility — that was her reason for choosing Transmutation spells as her main course. After all, for Ryougi Shiki, her attack method, the Eye of Direct Death, could already finish off anything, so she required support spells to strengthen herself.
Otherwise, no matter how powerful the Eye of Direct Death was, without speed and reflexes, it was futile.
As for Seo Shizune, she cast Preemptive Strike on herself—this was a standard opening move for a Prophet Mage.
As the sole Protection Class Mage among them, Asakami Fujino had the most taxing role. She not only had to cast resistance against elemental damage for everyone to combat the cold but also cast Armor Spell to protect them from harm, plus a Magic Alarm to ensure they weren’t ambushed...
This left Olga Marie and Gray utterly bewildered.
Especially Olga Marie. In this world, there are hardly any Magecrafts with particularly long durations, so magicians generally only cast them when needed. The way these three frantically cast spells on themselves before the battle even began seemed unimaginable to Olga Marie.
If Emiya Kiritsugu encountered mages from the Main World, he wouldn’t even know how he died. Because things like Origin Bullets are basically ineffective against mages from the Main World.
The Origin Bullet is able to destroy a magician’s magic circuit because Magecraft in the Type Moon World requires magicians to activate circuits and sustain them with magic power.
In the language of the Main World, this is essentially a "guided" type spell, akin to keeping a computer running by using electricity continuously. If there’s a power outage, then naturally, the computer is down, and it might even burn the motherboard.
But Protection Magic from the Main World is generally the kind that once released, doesn’t need to be maintained with personal magic power; it just keeps working until dispelled or destroyed by a Grand Disintegration Spell or the like, or triggered.
So, if Emiya Kiritsugu were to use his methods against mages from the Main World, the Origin Bullet would essentially be nullified by Protective Arrows or simply blocked by a Shield Spell.
Of course, the Main World also has "guided" spells, but these are generally attack spells, such as lesser Magic Missile Storm, Magic Missile Storm, Enhanced Magic Missile Storm, Ultimate Magic Missile Storm...
Let’s see if Emiya Kiritsugu dared to fire amidst an overwhelming barrage of Magic Missiles. Magic Missiles are homing and impossible to dodge. Even if Inherent Time Control accelerates to sixteen times, if a Magic Missile targets you, death is inevitable.
"Alright, let’s move!"
Ryougi Shiki, Asakami Fujino, and Seo Shizune were in the Type Moon World, but the education they received was from the Main World spellcasters, so their methods were the same as those of Main World mages: first, make themselves invincible, and then do whatever they want. So, after confirming the spells were fine, Ryougi Shiki was the first to dash into the forest, with the rest hastily following.
Thus began the five-person "Fuhai Forest’s Children" instance journey.
Ryougi Shiki and Asakami Fujino were in charge of offense, Seo Shizune handled support, Gray was the T, and Olga Marie... uh...
She might as well idle at the fountain.
However, as they made their way through the forest, they didn’t encounter anything—no minions, no elites, and definitely no BOSS. Besides the snow, there seemed to be nothing in the entire forest.
"I say, where are you planning to go now?"
"Shizune."
Hearing Olga Marie’s inquiry, Ryougi Shiki spoke up. Hearing Ryougi Shiki’s call, Seo Shizune closed her eyes, remained silent for a moment, and then pointed to the northeast.
"Go that way."
"That way?"
Looking in the direction Seo Shizune pointed, Olga Marie frowned. The area was completely blocked by trees. There was no way to pass through; how could one go that way?
"Leave it to me."
Seeing this, Ryougi Shiki’s eyes lit up instantly. She then walked up, and Olga Marie and Gray saw Ryougi Shiki take out a... folding knife.
That’s right, a folding knife, seemingly no different from an ordinary fruit knife. Ryougi Shiki casually wielded the fruit knife, lightly scraping it against the trees before her.
Just one stroke.
The next moment, several towering trees before Ryougi Shiki collapsed instantly.
"This is...?"
In this instance, it was Gray who was more shocked than Olga Marie.
She wasn’t a magician, but she had a strong understanding of combat. Gray could tell that Ryougi Shiki’s slash wasn’t some secret technique, nor did it involve any special moves. She merely slashed lightly, and the force and speed were such that Gray wondered if she even managed to cut through the bark.
Yet, with just that slash, the towering trees shattered into pieces?!
However, before Gray could ponder further, Asakami Fujino’s voice suddenly rang in their ears.
"Watch out, it’s an enemy attack!!"
Even before Fujino’s voice faded, from all directions in the forest, dozens of sharp, giant branches darted toward the group of five like venomous snakes.

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