"Is this... your house?" Astonished, Zephyr looked at the small castle that appeared in the forest. Although it bore many marks of time, it seemed the little girl beside him was essentially a wealthy heiress?

  "It's where I used to live. It should still be usable," she said, glancing at the hidden castle in the forest and confirming there were no signs of human activity.

  "How long has it been since you last returned?"

  "Forgot." Loris opened the castle door. Contrary to Zephyr's expectation of dust everywhere, the inside was exceptionally clean and tidy, as if regularly cleaned.

  Uh!? What's that!?

  Seeing two semi-transparent figures emerging from underground, Zephyr, who had just squeezed his body into the castle, twitched his mouth. They looked like ghosts!

  After the two semi-transparent figures bowed slightly to Loris, they disappeared again.

  "What are those?"

  "Phantom maids. You can sleep in the hall; there's no suitable bedroom for you here."

  "Uh." Alright, he nodded. Sleeping in the hall wasn't too bad, at least better than sleeping outdoors. However, Zephyr slept restlessly that night, constantly feeling an inexplicable sense of being watched every time he closed his eyes.

  As soon as he opened his eyes, the feeling vanished. Annoyed, he scratched his nose and looked around before silently opening the castle door and running out.

  He didn't notice a white figure following him out of the castle.

  During the day, he hadn't felt anything special about the place except for its slightly eerie atmosphere. But at night, the ordinary-looking Illusionary Demon Forest revealed its extraordinary characteristics.

  The surrounding trees seemed to transform into those with grotesque faces from horror fairy tales, and countless malicious gazes seemed to watch him...

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  Snap!

  Lifting a claw and breaking off a branch, Zephyr squinted at it. The brown color turned black at night, emitting a faint abnormal fluctuation.

  He thought the illusion-inducing power of this forest might be something like a forest miasma. A small flame lit on his fingernail quickly expanded to the size of a basin, but instead of throwing it, he gently tossed the fireball up and caught it with his claw.

  With force, the basin-sized fireball was compressed to basketball size. This method was inspired by his previous encounter with a mage.

  This compressed fireball produced stronger power, similar to enhanced spell casting. Without this method, the initial fireball would have been his limit. Not that the volume couldn't increase further, but he couldn't compress the fireball's power any more. Larger spells weren't necessarily more powerful; making them bigger was easy by continuously injecting magic into the array patterns. Such spells were only good for dealing with weaker enemies.

  Was there much difference between being hit by a palm-sized cotton ball versus a car-sized one? The main difference was weight, with minimal change in lethality.

  Without sufficient control over magic, increasing volume wouldn't lead to qualitative changes, and the most likely outcome was losing control. Moreover, maintaining such magic consumed significant mana, which continued to deplete even if the spell wasn't cast.

  Even though the subsequent mana consumption was low, it was still a drain.

  By directly grabbing the spell with his hand like this, Zephyr not only boosted its power but also avoided continuous mana consumption.

  Clutching his claws, he could tighten them further, but for testing purposes, there was no need to exaggerate. He threw the fireball in his hand at a tree whose branch he had just broken.

  Upon contact, the compressed fireball instantly exploded, completely enveloping the tree in flames. The smell of burning wood immediately spread, and after taking a whiff, Zephyr quickly retreated.

  Just one breath made him feel the environment become even more terrifying. This smell definitely had hallucinogenic effects! Moreover, the flames on the tree didn't last long and soon dissipated.

  Apart from the leaves being burned off and the tree turning slightly darker, it seemed largely unaffected!

  Quite bizarre. Crushing the branch in his hand into powder, despite its hardness being similar to ordinary branches, its resistance to magic was surprisingly high. As Zephyr prepared to leave, he caught sight of a white figure out of the corner of his eye. Upon closer inspection, it was the phantom maid he had seen during the day.

  Her form was more solid at night. While called a maid, Zephyr found her attire far from appropriate... he'd discuss with Loris about getting proper maid outfits.

  "Anything wrong?" Seeing her approach, Zephyr asked tentatively.

  "... " The phantom maid pointed at the smoking tree and then at Zephyr, indicating he should move away quickly.

  "Huh? Seems fine," Zephyr glanced at the tree. Apart from initially inhaling some smoke which made the surroundings seem more frightening, there were no other effects. He had already adapted to the environment.

  Fear was non-existent now. For example, before meeting Loris, while attempting to fly, he once overshot a glide and fell from a high place. Terrified at first, discovering it didn't hurt much reduced his fear of heights...

  Standing on a half-meter platform caused no pressure, allowing him to run and jump freely. Try thirty meters! Fear of heights stemmed from knowing falling from a height could be fatal. If one knew falling from three hundred meters felt like falling from a stool, would they fear normal heights?

  That was how Zephyr felt now. Before crossing over, a gun pointed at him would make his legs go weak. Now, his body could ignore regular firearms. Even if pointed at, he remained indifferent, knowing it couldn't harm him!

  The phantom maid shook her head and gestured with her hands. After watching for a while, Zephyr finally understood.

  "Uh, are you saying my actions affected... someone?"

  With a look of understanding, the phantom maid nodded urgently, pointing in a direction, indicating Zephyr should go check it out.

  "... Who comes to such a place at night to risk their life?"