"You've found traces of spirits."

[Yeah. I found a message they left behind. If I trace it, we might be able to find living spirits.]

As soon as he returned to his place, Lee Shin-Woo was ambushed by Sinea with a hug—no matter how he thought about it, the spirits really were way too touchy. He took a good look at her. While she seemed happy, there was an unreadable edge to her expression.

[To be honest, I don't expect there to be any living spirits. We'll probably only find where they once lived...]

"Why is that?"

[Mm. Once I became an Elder Dryad Princess, I was able to very faintly see through our entire species' memories... There’s a blurry snippet of when the spirits were driven from the surface.]

...Why was she telling him this now? Lee Shin-Woo stared at her as Sinea continued to explain with a prickly expression.

[It hasn't been very long since I became level 7, Paul Zero. Plus, I didn't think there was any reason to tell you since the memories were fragmented, and there hadn't been a way of getting to the surface before.]

"Hoo... It's fine. Keep going."

[Okay. According to my ancestors' memories,...