This seems like a pretty cringe attempt at being edgy so far, his actions are way over the top and excessive. Even if you want to assume that the heart-fruit-tree thing was a spirit his action still don't make any sense. For example, he clearly has more than enough power himself to kill them all with ease, so why did he bother with the summoning? If he actually cared about protecting the forest, why did he wait until the adventurers had already hunted a lot before doing anything? If he wanted to prevent people coming in or protect the forest, why did he even offer to let them leave?
His actions only make sense if he fully intended to kill them all with extreme malice from the very start. However if he actually gave a damn about protecting the forest or the things in it, blind murder of anyone that enters will do nothing considering the already established insanely high value of the things in it to the human world and the fact that it's clearly easy for people to hunt small amounts and leave without him ever noticing.
In addition the extreme level of violence he used against them vs the attacks/actions of the humans, it also clearly paints him as being far more of a monster than the adventurers which further pushes the reader away from viewing him as being "good" in any way.
They're going to need a LOT of later chapters in order to re-interpret the first chapter into justified actions somehow.