"Ah... what a man must sacrifice for some noble titties?"
Ethan settled into the carriage provided by his father, his face contorting in boredom.
Technically, that noblewoman's enormous tits weren't to blame for his situation.
But it wasn't as if the system was going to take any responsibility, right?
It had been over ten hours since the journey began, yet he felt as if he had been traveling for weeks.
With his eyes fixed on the carriage ceiling, he muttered, "System, are you there?"
Talking to the system was a habit Ethan had developed to combat boredom in a world where he didn't have all the distractions of his previous life.
Most of the time, he got no response, and when he did, the words were usually incoherent, as if obscured by strange interference.
After a few seconds of silence, he insisted, "Do you have any plans to give me real rewards, or are you just going to keep giving me missions for nothing?"
[Integration with Gaia system incomplete, unable to access main systems...]
[Calculating rewards... unable to calculate rewards, integration with Gaia system incomplete.]
[Attempting forced integration...]
[Failure. Gaia system did not respond. World not yet integrated with Gaia system...]
[Calculating estimated integration time...]
[Gaia system integration will occur in approximately five days.]
"What?"
Ethan stood up abruptly, hitting his head on the carriage ceiling.
'Shit...' He massaged the sore spot, eyes fixed on the system messages.
"Gaia system? Not yet integrated with this world? What does that even mean?" He asked, but there was no answer.
"Ah... I don't even know if I'll be alive in five days, you bastard..." He sighed heavily, sinking back onto the uncomfortable seat.
He knew the Eternal Forest well enough to understand that his father had basically sentenced him to death.
But still, a little hope wouldn't kill anyone, right?
Shaking his head, Ethan closed his eyes.
The trip to the Eternal Forest took just over four days.
Normally, it would be a journey of weeks or even months, but luckily, they used a teleportation station to reach a town on the edge of the forest.
As he stepped out of the carriage, Ethan looked from side to side.
They were in the middle of nowhere. On the horizon, a dense wall of dark foliage stretched as far as the eye could see, the trees so tall and tightly packed they formed an almost impenetrable barrier of wood and leaves.
"Young Master Ethan."
The knight escorting him approached with a respectful, formal salute.
"The count only gave us permission to take you this far. You will have to make the rest of the journey alone."
The slight smile Ethan had been wearing as he stretched vanished instantly, and he stared at the knight in disbelief.
"This is... a joke, right?"
"These are your father's orders, young master. We are not allowed to enter the Eternal Forest."
"It can't be..."
He clenched his teeth, his gaze drifting to the dark interior of the forest.
Ignoring his expression, the knight handed him the reins of a horse and a small piece of yellowed metal.
"It's incense to ward off monsters. It's not entirely effective, but it will help," he said, pointing to the object.
Without waiting for a response, the knight returned to the carriage, and together with the guards, they rode off, leaving Ethan alone.
"Shit..."
He sighed heavily, glancing at the horse, his only remaining companion.
He was as good as dead, right?
He even considered running away, but he knew his father well enough to know the old man had hidden a tracking device on him somewhere.
The sun still hung low on the horizon. It was morning, and he needed to move quickly if he didn't want to spend the night inside the forest.
Luckily, he had packed light: a suitcase and two backpacks with some personal items and clothes, along with his sword.
The weapon had a long silver blade and a black hilt encrusted with gold and diamonds, and at first glance it looked more like an ornamental piece than a functional one. Its value probably exceeded a small fortune.
But despite its sumptuous appearance, it had been forged by one of the greatest blacksmiths in the kingdom.
Its blade, made of a magical alloy known as white steel, had an unmatched ability to withstand mana and aura. Not even the blow of a third-stage warrior would be enough to break it.
Ethan fastened the sword to his waist and stowed the bags on the horse's back before mounting up.
He tapped the reins lightly, and the animal began to trot toward the forest.
Although he was not a great warrior, only a first-stage aura user, it would still be enough to put up some fight.
***
The Eternal Forest was dark and uninviting.
Following a map he had received when leaving his family's castle, Ethan advanced through a long-abandoned trail. The count had not sent men to that region for some time, and undergrowth had already reclaimed most of the path, spilling over the edges in thick, tangled clusters.
Even so, the absence of dense trees along the trail provided enough direction to guide him forward.
Luck smiled on him, as no monsters crossed his path, though distant roars and the constant feeling of being watched kept him on alert.
And so he continued.
Minutes turned into hours, hours turned into days, and soon the system's deadline began to shrink.
In the middle of the afternoon on the penultimate day, Ethan decided to take a break beside a crystal-clear stream.
His horse was tired, and so was he.
With eyes alert to his surroundings, he stayed close to the animal as it drank, one hand always resting on the hilt of his sword.
After thirty minutes of rest, he prepared to resume the trail.
Something stopped him at the last moment.
His eyes swept across the treeline as the steel of his sword slid free from its leather sheath, the faint metallic whisper cutting through the silence.
The horse whinnied anxiously, retreating toward the edge of the stream, its hooves splashing against the wet stones.
Ethan released the reins, letting the animal flee, and turned to face whatever was lurking.
Suddenly, a creature burst from a nearby bush.
Small, with green skin and red eyes that locked onto him immediately, its disproportionate jaw stretched into a grotesque smile, rows of rotten, jagged teeth catching the dim light filtering through the canopy.
"A goblin!" Ethan hissed, the creature's nauseating miasma hitting him.
The goblin leaped toward him, its small rusty cleaver crashing against his blade. Ethan pressed forward, and the force of the block sent the creature flying backward into a tree with a heavy crash.
He barely had time to catch his breath when two more appeared, armed with makeshift wooden spears, and a third closed in from behind.
"More than I expected..." he muttered, spinning to dodge the rear attack and delivering a fatal blow to the goblin's neck with a clean, wet crack.
Before the goblin's decapitated head even hit the ground, Ethan took off, aura exploding through his legs as he launched forward.
He could feel at least a dozen surrounding him.
Although his father and the nobles of his age saw him as a talentless brat, since arriving in this world, Ethan had been trained by some of the most skilled swordsmen in the kingdom.
He knew how to deal with a rabble of goblins.
He pivoted sharply as another one charged, his feet sinking into the damp ground as his sword flowed in a downward arc, driving through the creature's shoulder blade and tearing through its rib cage before puncturinginto its lungs.
He barely had time to react when a second goblin appeared from behind, its blade carving a deep gash across his leg. Warm blood immediately soaked into the fabric of his trousers.
He spun around and drove his boot into the creature's side, snapping ribs with a dull crack and sending it crashing into a nearby tree.
The moment he put weight on his injured leg, a sharp jolt of pain lanced up through his thigh. He forced himself to ignore it and cut through a third goblin, then a fourth.
In a single second, five were already down.
But their numbers kept growing.
An arrow whistled through the air and buried itself between his ribs, missing his lungs by just a centimeter.
Ethan gritted his teeth and ran, his aura the only thing keeping him upright despite the compound damage.
Then a nearby bush shook, and another goblin lunged at him, rusty blade aimed straight at his throat.
"Shit, there's no time!" he exclaimed, trying to raise his sword, but the creature's blade was already inches from his neck.
Suddenly, intense heat flooded the air.
Ethan instinctively squeezed his eyes shut as a fireball came crashing down on the goblin, engulfing it in a burst of roaring flames. The creature collapsed, shrieking in agony as the fire consumed it.
He dropped to one knee, chest heaving, taking a few ragged seconds to compose himself and understand what had just happened.
"A mage!" he exclaimed as he pushed back to his feet, his gaze landing on a figure sitting not far away.
She was a woman of stunning beauty: blonde hair carefully tied up, clear blue eyes set within a delicate and harmonious face.
Her voluptuous body was draped in a long white dress, the neckline cut low enough to reveal a deep valley where her huge, soft, pale tits met.
The woman stood and ran toward him, and Ethan's eyes did not leave the sway of her breasts as she moved.
So big... so beautiful...
"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice as soft and melodious as the finest elven flute.
She crouched down in front of him, hesitated for a moment, then pulled him toward her.