I appeared in a forest. The trees around me were as thick as redwoods, glowing densely with mana.  I could sense small rabbit-sized creatures all around me, along with larger creatures the size of foxes.  But there was nothing that seemed particularly dangerous—no larger mammals that could pose a threat to me.


    The trees’ leaves around me were a blood red color, and many of them had already fallen to the ground, making it seem as though the whole forest were coated in a sea of blood.


    I opened up my notifications, and checked my minimap.


    Use the mini-map provided to predict the progression of General Viya Asar’s army. General Veya Asar must die before she reaches Hunter’s Point City.


    According to my mini-map, General Veya Asar’s army was about ten miles away from me, and I was standing directly in their path, between them and Hunter’s Point City.


    <Let’s explore a bit,> Samantha said. <We need to find where they will make camp.>


    I jogged through the blood-red forest, towards Hunter’s Point City, each step on the fallen leaves breaking the silence of the forest.


    Samantha had me stop at a grassy clearing just eight miles or so from Hunter’s Point. I could sense that the ambient mana was slightly denser here.


    <Ambient mana can gather at different densities,> Samantha explained.  <The Fey army will want to draw from the ambient mana as much as they can to power their defenses and wards.  They should stop here for the night.>


    Wouldn’t they have warships and Aviatons? If they are only 20 miles away, they should be able to close the distance in just a few minutes.


    <General Viya Asar’s army is just the vanguard,> Samantha explained. <They will make camp here, set up Teleportation Circles, and then bring in the Fey’s main forces to besiege the city.>


    <We need to hide in a tree,> Samantha said. <They will search the area carefully, and our D-rank Invisibility Cloak won’t be enough.  We need to find a tree that has the same mana density as we appear to have to C-rank Mana Sensing skills when we are under the Invisibility cloak.>


    Samantha, of course, had already selected the tree. It was just a few dozen yards away from the clearing that had the densest ambient mana.  The tree was certainly large—the trunk’s diameter was more than six feet—but it wasn’t the largest tree around.


    I took my C-rank sword and started digging near the roots of the tree.  It was insane, how easy it was to break up the dirt with a C-rank sword.


    First, I made a hole large enough for me to crouch in, underneath the trunk of the tree. Then, I dug up, into the tree’s trunk, hollowing out a section of the tree from below it.


    The hardest part was hiding the signs of my digging afterwards.  I shredded the wood from the trunk into small bark chips, and buried the bark chips by a nearby tree.


    From directly underneath the tree, I poured dirt out of my Interdimensional Pouch to block off the small tunnel I had dug. Then, I climbed up to the hollow area I had made inside the tree, and opened my Interdimensional Pouch again, filling up the hole below me until I could stand on the dirt that I had poured out of my Interdimensional Pouch.


    It was incredibly uncomfortable.  For some sadistic reason, Samantha had insisted that I not give myself enough space to stand up properly.  I was forced curl in a ball, inside this tree that gave me almost no space to move.  Worst of all, there was no air flow.


    How am I supposed to breath?


    I was completely sealed inside the tree now, and it was starting to feel incredibly claustrophobic.


    <Use an Air-Attuned Mana Shard to make a few small air holes in the trunk near your mouth,> Samantha said.


    Once I had my air holes, I settled in for a long wait. I barely had any room to move my arms from side to side, and I was stuck in a perpetual squat, with almost no room to adjust.


    <As it stands, our hiding place still isn’t good enough,> Samantha said.  <If you think about it, you should be able to identify the issue.  We are competing against C-rank Mana Sensing skills, and C-rank Mana Sensing allows people to see the colors of different types of mana.  If someone with C-rank Mana Sensing looked at us, they would see the color of your mana, standing out among the color of the tree’s mana.  So, to fix that, here’s what we need to do…>If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Following Samantha’s instructions, I took a Plant-attributed Mana Shard out of my Interdimensional Pouch, and then used the Mana Cannon to spread Plant-attributed Mana around my body and inside my body.


    The first time I tried it, it burned, just like the backlash of firing a Mana Crystal.


    It took some adjustments, figuring out how to send Plant-attributed Mana into my own body without harming myself. But eventually, I was able to.


    <Now, press the Invisibility Cloak all around the hole that you carved, so that there are as few hollow, mana-less spots as possible.>


    I did as Samantha suggested.


    <Try to not move for 10 minutes. If you can’t do it, then I suggest you let me take over.>


    <Your finger twitched. Try again.>


    <Don’t shift your weight.>


    This was literal torture.  I was in a tiny, cramped space without enough to stand up properly. On top of that, I couldn’t even move to distract myself from the random pains and itches I was feeling.


    Samantha kept nit-picking, until I finally handed control over to her.


    <Alright,> Samantha said, once she had control of my body. She made a few slight adjustments, and then froze in position. <You’re probably wondering what’s the big deal about General Viya Asar.>


    I hadn’t been wondering that—I had been wondering how long we would have to wait, buried in a tree-like coffin.


    <General Viya Asar,> Samantha continued, <Is a C-rank Time Magician, around level 170.  To recap, a magician has a greater focus in Mana Regeneration, allowing them to continually perform weaker magic, while, a mage specializes in more powerful magic that requires more mana.  Sorcerers require even more massive mana pools to start a chant, but once it starts, they don’t need to worry about replenishing their mana—as long as the chant continues, the magic is powered by the ambient mana.>


    <General Viya Asar tends to fight using Time Dilation Wards, allowing her to feel as though the world around her is moving in slow motion, while she moves at a normal pace.  To you, it would look like her Agility is incredibly high.  She is also capable of granting the same effect to her allies, which increases their reaction times and creates a powerful boost in combat ability.>


    <That, by itself, is enough to make her a fearsome opponent. But that’s not all.  As a C-rank Time Magician, General Viya Asar has one truly enviable skill.  At any moment, she can choose to send her consciousness one minute backwards in time.  There is likely a cooldown, or some penalty for repeated use, but I’m not sure.  She tried to keep this a secret for as long as she could, but this is why no one has been able to kill her yet.  She would know, a minute after you try to assassinate her, that she is about to be killed.>


    I tried to wrap my head around that. So, whenever I attack her, then she will already be anticipating my attack?


    <Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that,> Samantha said.  <There is a reason she has tried to keep this skill hidden.  There is actually a pretty simple work-around for us.  Imagine our soul follows next to General Viya Asar for five minutes.  After five minutes, we plan to explode, unless she reacts to show that she is ready for us. The moment she reacts to us, we explode.>


    So, that doesn’t sound too hard.


    <That’s in a vacuum,> Samantha said. But there have already been several attacks on her life, remember. She will be heavily guarded, and under so many watchful eyes, it will not be easy for our soul to reach the General.  For all we know, she may never leave the bridge of her warship, which would be under two different sets of Mana Shields.>


    <Now, let’s watch carefully. Here they come.>


    In the sky above us, I could sense two warships, each about a block in area, traveling towards us.  Surrounding the warships were dozens of Aviatons, flying close to the trees, presumably searching for any humans or dangerous life forms. Or, as Samantha had mentioned previously, they were looking for sufficient ambient mana to set up a Teleportation Circle.


    Just as Samantha had predicted, they settled down in the large clearing near where I hid.


    The leaves flew up in the air as the massive warships landed, granting a dramatic, Star Wars-esque entrance to the first of the Fey soldiers that disembarked from the warships.


    With only Mana Sensing to observe them, though, I could only imagine the full visual effect of hundreds of soldiers flying out of the massive warship.


    For an enemy that was capable of endangering the Human Empire, my first impression of the Fey soldiers was that they were small.  It made sense, since Mrinda, the only Fey I had seen so far, was also four feet tall.  None of the Fey were over five feet tall, and they all had small, lithe bodies and pixie-like translucent wings.


    The Fey flew out of the warship with practiced ease, fast enough that I could barely track them with my Mana Sensing skill.


    After the first Fey scouts flew out, even more Feys came out, this time at a slower pace, exploring the landing area in a grid-like formation. I could even feel waves of mana pulse from several of the Fey, as they searched for signs of anything suspicious.


    Soon enough, I was able to watch as the Fey began to quickly construct several buildings around the warship.  Several dozen Earth Mages and Magicians worked quickly to create a massive wall around the two warships, leaving plenty of space for what I could only imagine would be the army that would soon appear through the Teleportation Circle, which was also being constructed just yards from where I was.


    It should go without saying, knowing Samantha, that I was well within the base’s defensive perimeter.