The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Novel

Many people looked at Davey, who felt uncomfortable. However, only a few of them approached him with clear hostility in their eyes.

The corruption spreading from within the forest had yet to touch the residential area, which was why it still remained beautiful.

—This small untouched space is the only place where you can summon high-ranked spirits.

The Forest of Elves was brimming with the spirits’ energy. After all, the spirits’ companions were elves and the same was true the other way around. Wherever the elves existed, spirits existed. In other words, spirits would only appear where elves have gathered.

For Davey, preliminary work was very important. Aside from the elves’ personal narrative, Davey also walked around the forest to check things with his own eyes. Whether it was in the field of medicine or in any other fields, problems and complications could only be resolved after carefully checking the root of the problem.

“When it comes to spirit magic, the richer the spirit energy present in nature, the higher the chances of summoning spirits.”

—But those things are meaningless for you, right?

“Now, why would you say that? Regardless of the summoning’s success or failure, the type of spirit that I can summon still changes depending on the circumstances.”

There were still huge distinctions between the same lower-ranked spirits. For example, there were spirits with high purity and spirits with plenty of impurities. Simply put, just like there were differences between first-class water and fifth-class water, there were also differences between spirits.

“There’s certainly a difference between supreme-ranked spirits, albeit a bit weak and indistinguishable. However, this does not exist among spirit kings.”

The differences between the spirits were very miniscule. However, since Davey decided to do it, he thought that he should do it properly.

[It hurts…]

Davey gently placed his hand on the tree’s bark where the contaminated spirits were dwelling before releasing a weak stream of holy power. Although he believed that it was not good to experiment with the patient in front of him…

“Can you hold it in for a bit?”

[We trust you… human.]

[Fifth Class Holy Magic.]

[Purify.]

[Aaaaaack!]

A brilliant white light formed at Davey’s fingertips and pierced through the tree trunk. Unfortunately, nothing changed. Only the spirits’ screams rang out in Davey’s ears. Theoretically, if they were truly suffering from pure corruption, then there should have at least a bit of response at this level of purification magic.

—Nothing… Absolutely no reaction at all.

“I’ve only heard about how contaminated spirits that are at the end of their lives can’t be cured by holy magic. It seems like it’s true.”

Davey found out that the system was different. Just like how he had used his death mana to deal with the death knight’s disaster with Illyna, each power had a different code that corresponded to their own system.

—In the first place, spirit mana is mana created from the changes in mana, holy mana, or devil mana.

And that was also the reason why Davey did not try to pull spirit mana on its own.

“How to say this, it’s a bit different from spirit mana?”

Davey placed his hand against the wrinkly and rough tree trunk once again. This time, he released spirit mana.

“The corruption is a problem among the spirits, and a problem of the spirits should be solved with the spirits’ power.”

—There’s nothing that you can’t do. A swindler with a ridiculously out of this world cheat sheet.

Perserque shot back and glared at Davey.

“To be exact, spirit mana is like the spirits’ fuel. I’ll give you a good example.”

Davey explained it in a way where the affinity with the spirits was like one’s riding skills, with the spirit mana being the horse and the spirits being the carriage. If one used their spirit mana to bring out the spirits’ power, then the spirits would move.

“The purification of this corruption can only be done if the carriage moves. The principle is similar to how a carriage works. If your horsepower is low, then the heavy carriage will not move. For example, using weak spirit magic with some spirit mana would only slow down the corruption’s progress by a bit.”

There were quite a lot of pathways, just like how Davey’s mana pathways were, so he had to try them out blindly. However, doing so would only have the tiniest bit of effect.

—How uselessly detailed.

“No power in the world exists without plenty of details.”

If something could be easily explained in a few words, if something like that truly existed, then it would be god’s miracle. The prime examples of that were the holy magic engraved on Davey’s body, as well as someone ranking one’s item in their own pocket plane without the owner’s permission and locking it out of their reach. Basically, these were things beyond one’s grasp.

All illnesses and diseases should be properly diagnosed and researched through a step-by-step process. If Davey decided to just summon a spirit without knowing the root cause of the problem, then there was a high chance that it could become a trap. Nothing would be more embarrassing than that.

“Hey,” Davey called out to the young elf that was tasked to follow him and watch his movements.

“What, human?”

The elf looked quite hostile. However, the elf wouldn’t step out of line and would only be slightly disrespectful towards Davey. Well, this was all thanks to what Yuria had said when everyone had gathered earlier.

[I hope the Moon Forest’s residents are not that shameless to the point where they cannot tell the difference between kindness and hostility.]

Of course, Davey still received quite a lot of hostile gazes since he had smashed their barrier apart. But thanks to his promise, he could control the level of hostility that he was up against.

It would not be too strange if the elves snorted at Davey and called bullshit for his words. However, Yuria had heard of Davey’s previous achievements, so they seemed to believe him for now. They could directly feel the incomprehensible spirit affinity flowing in Davey’s body.

“What? Do you think holy magic is so amazing? What are you doing over there, being so distracted?”

“Don’t! Don’t… Don’t make me laugh! Do… Do you think someone like me will be curious about some human’s magic?!”

“Why don’t you stop pretending that you’re not interested?” Davey asked.

The elf widened his eyes and turned his face to the side.

Davey felt his eyes burn in disgust when he saw the young elf act so shy and embarrassed. He believed that Yuria Helishana, the leader of this forest, was close enough with this elf, Verdis, to call him her best friend. If that was the case, then he could trust his credibility for a bit.

“If you have something to say, then quickly spit it out.”

“You are in a contract with a spirit, yes?”

If Davey caught Verdis trying to cheat his way out of this situation, then he would definitely send his hands flying away. Verdis looked at Davey as if pondering deeply over the matter. Then, with a sigh, he said, “I have a contract with the intermediate-rank spirit… Undine.”

“Intermediate-rank, perfect. I’m sorry, I have to check something, so can you call her out for a moment?”

Verdis sighed at Davey’s request, silently stretching his hand out as droplets of water started to gather around his fingertips until they formed the figure of a very small girl. The only difference the girl had with humans were her ears, which were shaped like fins, and the horns sprouting on her forehead.

“Now, use the spirit’s power to purify this tree. Make sure to use all of your power for this.”

“Why on earth should I…”

“You don’t want to save your forest?”

Verdis flinched at Davey’s question.

“I’m in the process of verifying something. Go ahead.”

“Damn…” With a frown, Verdis conveyed his will. His contracted naiad immediately reached out, her expression strained and her eyes turning from red to black.

Once the droplets of water flew from Undine’s fingertips and entered the tree, changes immediately took place. It was just for a brief moment, but the corruption seemed to have faltered before quickly returning to its original state.

At first, there seemed to be nothing wrong. The corruption appeared to be ordinary. However, Davey, with his Death Spirit Eye open, caught something. He muttered, “The corruption has devoured life force, and in large quantities too.”

“What… Do you mean by that?”

“Do you have missing elves or ones that died in the village?”

“That… That… Why?” Verdis flinched in doubt and suspicion.

“This is very important. Are there any? Or are there none? If you lie, then I won’t be responsible for the consequences that follow.”

Perhaps it was because Davey had a grim expression, but Verdis quickly turned pale and said, “There… There have been quite a few accidents in the village lately. There was a herd of monsters that suddenly descended and tried to invade our territory. We lost a few lives from that incident.”

“Their bodies?”

“All of them had been cremated and sent back to Mother Nature...”

“Did one of the conservatives say that?”

Verdis frowned at the implications of Davey’s words. He spat, “What the hell do you want to say, human?”

At this point, the elf’s tone had gone curt. He seemed annoyed by Davey.

Davey turned around with a cold and frosty smile on his face. “You better hope that it’s not what I think it is.”

The accelerated corruption and the devoured life force, as well as the source of the life force… It was already obvious to Davey where it came from.

***

Davey found it worthwhile snooping around and doing repetitive work around the forest. After all, he was able to buy enough time by smashing the barrier apart, which had allowed him to twist the spirit mana flowing in the forest and block the root cause of the corruption for a while without anyone knowing.

Davey found out that the corruption had a total of seven sources. And as he went around, he infused some spirit mana in them and blocked them from creating unnecessary variables in the meantime.

What Davey did was similar to applying a very strong tape on a crack that leaked contaminated water. Originally, at the rate at which the corruption was spreading, it would only take around two months to completely devour the forest. But with Davey’s stopgap measure, he was able to add another fifteen days to that inevitability.

No matter what anyone said, Davey knew that it was only a matter of time before this forest turned into the forest of death.

“Ah, it would be good if they already took the bait by now. They’re still fooling around too much.”

Davey actually had two options here. He could choose to summon the spirit right away and clean up the forest or find a good place where he could summon the spirit and clean up the forest at a nice and comfortable pace. However, the fact that the first option would be quite troublesome… no, it was actually very troublesome and would drag his foot down was the only thing that was stopping him from doing it. Since Davey was a human being that could feel joy, anger and sorrow, it would be alright for him to wait a few more days and do everything at his own pace, right?

After two days of staying in the forest, the elves had now turned to neglecting him and his presence. It was not that strange since Davey was the human that destroyed their barrier. On top of that, after declaring that he would clean up the corruption and looking at its source, he suddenly installed a hammock in the outskirts of the village with a superb view of the forest and enjoyed a leisurely time. So, everyone thought that it was a hassle to pay attention to him and just went around neglecting his presence.

—Davey, there are children.

Candy…was a revolutionary and ambitious product that the Academy of Alchemy had created and sold through the Merchant Association all throughout the Heins Territory. It was quite different from the candy that Davey knew, but its sweet taste had made it a popular snack for ordinary children. Of course, it did not only cater to the ordinary. It was also the perfect snack for Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon to eat.

A candy or a snack was quite common by humans’ standard, but it seemed like such a snack was not quite common for the elves. From what it looked like, the elves’ children had become curious about the snack, because Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon were happily licking their candies while snuggling in Davey’s arms.

Davey could see the village children sticking their heads out and looking at him from afar. And their eyes were filled with curiosity, not vigilance and fear. It seemed like these elven children were still too young to receive any brainwashing, or what they called education. So, their reactions were still quite natural.

—Yes, that’s exactly right. They are focused on the candies that you gave out.

Davey smiled and nodded at Perserque as he took out more lollipops from his pocket plane. He thought that work was work and that nothing was wrong with manipulating public opinion through the children.

“Red Ribbon, Blue Ribbon. Is it delicious?”

“Yeah! Yeah! Very delicious!”

“Sweet!”

The two answered excitedly, as if the gazes of the children around them did not matter. Davey could even see some of the elven boys turning red from the bright smiles of the two girls in his arms.

—No matter the race or kind, a smile is very precious. Haa…

Perserque sat on the smiling Red Ribbon’s head and petted the girl’s hair gently. Well, Davey could not actually tell who was cuter. Perhaps he thought that way because Perserque was smaller than Red Ribbon. However, Davey tried to ignore her as he held a candy out and asked, “Do you want to eat more?”

“More! More! Eat more!”

Of course, children would definitely want to eat any kind of new and delicious food. Would they even have the capacity to say no? However, it was not just one candy that had been taken out.

“But if you eat more, won’t your teeth rot?”

“U, Ugh…”

Davey almost failed to endure when he saw the two girls turn teary from his words. Thankfully, he was able to persevere.

“Red… Red Ribbon will not eat…”

“Blue, Blue Ribbon too…”

“Is that so? That’s too bad. Then, who should I give this to?”

When Davey glanced up to look at the elven children, he saw that they were already sneaking up on him as if they had already forgotten that they should just be watching and hiding from him from afar. He asked them, “Do you guys want some?”

Davey knew that he almost got them after seeing the children look like they would nod at any given moment. However, everyone’s eyes widened in surprise before they screamed and scattered around. It seemed like they recalled the stories about Davey’s kind. He murmured to himself, “Hmm. They seem well-educated.”

That was right. Kids should not follow someone they did not know just because that someone gave them snacks.

“Red Ribbon, Blue Ribbon. What would you guys do if a stranger gives you a snack?”

“Hngh?” Red Ribbon, snuggling deep in Davey’s arms while licking her candy, looked up at him and tilted her head in confusion.

Meanwhile, Blue Ribbon, with her wide and cute eyes, immediately said, “Th… Thank you!”

“We… We will eat them too!” Red Ribbon also piped up.

“…”

However, their answers were completely wrong in the first place.

“You can’t say that in that situation,” Davey said as the two looked at him with sparkling eyes. “No. I don’t want one. Stop.”

“Nwoo. I… I… I dwon’t want one! Shhhhtop!”

Davey chuckled when Red Ribbon imitated him with her cute and slurry pronunciation. He stroked her head gently. Her pronunciation wasn’t quite there yet, since she was still little, but the speed at which she accepted things and adapted to the outside world was quite fast.

“How about you, Blue Ribbon? Do you understand?” Davey said, nodding at Blue Ribbon.

“Nwoo. I dwon’t want one! Shhtop!” Blue Ribbon replied with a bright smile.

A smile was unknowingly painted on Davey’s lips. Perhaps this was how fathers felt when they were raising cute daughters? Suddenly, the thought of two emperors who suffered from a severe obsession with their daughters crossed Davey’s mind. He laughed.

Then, just when Davey was about to hand over some more candies to the two girls as a prize, someone tapped him on the shoulder.