"We will pass through the inner forest. Everyone be careful and just follow me. Otherwise, we might encounter some creatures of the wilds." Cyziel started to walk through the forest.

In contrast with the beauty of the outer forest, the inner forest was not pleasing to look at. Swamps covered by murky waters filled the place. Fallen dead trees frequently block the view. Due to the fog blocking the light from above, the inner forest was also permanently dim. In addition to the lack of light, some kind of dark aura was pervading the surroundings.

The group traveled slowly through the foggy forest. The fog was so thick that they needed to continuously blow it away. Cyziel cannot use a stronger wind magic to clear the fog because it might alert the other creatures in the forest. Instead, they extended their senses to probe for possible dangers.

Quite a few beast tried to attack the group but they were immediately taken care off. Luckily, most of the beast were smart enough to understand that the group were not simple food that they ran away.

As they proceeded through the forest, they found a large swamp. Contrary to the other swamps, this one was filled with clear water. Aquatic plants floated above and grew below it. Bubbles were also visible which were created by the fishes swimming around it. Some animals were drinking around the swamp. There was also one large beast. It was a welzak. It was some kind of a large wolf with thick hair like a lion and a teeth of a saber tooth tiger. Interestingly, it was not attacking the other creatures around it.

What was really alarming was a humanoid shape kid sitting beside swamp. Patches of green colored skin made of leaves covered its body. The parts of its body which were not covered were discernably black. It was mindlessly looking at the water but its hard to understand if it was sad or just thinking of something. Suddenly, it noticed the group and stared at them before it started hissing, scaring the other animals away.

"What is that? It seems that it saw us." Vera asked.

Cyziel looked away from the creature. "Do not look at it. It is the creature of the wilds that I know of. It usually uses patches of leaves, wood scrapings or dead animal skin to cover itself. That should still be a kid so it might not be that aggressive."

The group avoided making an eye to eye contact with the creature but it suddenly stood up and walked towards them.

"What should we do? It might attack us!" Ortix touched the two daggers in its scabbard, ready to pull it out.

"Calm down. Stay in front. If it attacks then we will of course fight back." Cyziel said.

The creature didn't attack. It only stood in front of Volus and was observing him. It then pulled on his clothes as if trying to tell him to follow. Volus reactively looked at the creature. It removed his hands on his clothes then made some kind of sign language that they didn't understand then pointed at a direction in their east. It then walked away, paused, and looked back at him

"Its telling me to follow isn't it? Why?" Volus asked. "Should we follow it?"

"This is the first time I actually see them communicate... But this might be dangerous so..." Cyziel was hesitant. He wanted to check it out but this might also be a trap which would endanger the other people with them.

"Let's go follow it!" Vera said, smiling at Cyziel. "This should be not much dangerous than the trial. Shouldn't it?"

"You really are smiling frequently these days Vera! I wonder why?" Jorak chuckled.

"Shut up! Let's go now. The creature is waiting for us." Vera snorted.

With the creature on the lead and Volus behind it, the rest of the followed through. Miraculously, the fog parted whenever the wildling kid got close to it which made it easier for them to travel through the forest. They arrived in front of some sort of violet wooden hut, presumably made from the dead trees. They could hear some sort of shrieking inside.

The wildling kid opened the door and what was inside was a tall pitch black humanoid figure with black tendrils coming out of it. As soon at it saw the group of humans, it shrieked again and started to attack. The kid hugged it and tried to stop it from attacking them. Dead leaves that are scattered around started to fly towards the two wildlings then it pressed on the tall wildling. The kid let go of the figure but the leaves still kept on piling against it. It was then sealed leaving only its pitch black mouth, which was screaming nonstop, visible. The kid wildling activated some sort of sealing magic.

"It is the same as the monster from before! There is an abyssal energy trying to take control of it!" Ortix shouted.

Cyziel turned to Volus. "It should have thought you are a similar creature with them due to the strength of your soul overwhelming the strength of your body. It probably wants you to help its parent."

"But I cannot remove the abyssal energy from it." Volus said.

"You can't but I can! That's my specialty right?" Cyziel confidently uttered. "I'll absorb it!"

"No! You must not!" Lucia shouted.

Everyone simultaneously looked at her which made her embarrassed.

"What do you mean?" Cyziel asked.

"I just feel that you should understand more about that energy before you continue to absorb them." Lucia meekly said.

"Then what shall we do?" Cyziel continued. "Can you try to purify them with divine energy?"

"Ah!" Lucia jerked, seemingly enlightened. "But I don't know any magic like that."

"I am not sure if this would work but here.." Cyziel suddenly placed his hand on her head then information flooded through her brains. "I have just read about it from before but since I can't use divine energy then I really didn't practice it."

"Alright. I'll try it." Lucia nodded.

"You can do it Lucia!" Ru smiled at her.

Cyziel and Volus gave way to Lucia as she stepped inside the wooden hut. The kid also walked out of the hut. She then tried to converge light essence into her hands while pulling divine energy from her body. She then raised her two hands towards the sealed creature.

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"Purify!" Lucia uttered.

The spell almost failed. The structure of the essences within the spell was not correctly in place but suddenly the light from her mark which was in the middle of her chest glowed. It was then that she could suddenly see the imperfections in her spell. She then corrected it and the spell was completed. It covered the whole creature and it stopped from shrieking.

"You were successful!" Draka laughed. "You would probably be asked to join the church of the divine in the capital!"

Lucia shook her head. "I was not able to purify it completely. There are still some remnants of evil left."

Cyziel appeared beside her. "Let me take care of the rest."

"No." Lucia protested, looking at Cyziel worriedly.

"Its fine. There are only a few left as you said. That should not be a problem." Cyziel extended his hand as he absorbed the remaining abyssal energy. His eyes momentarily turned black before becoming gold again. "See? Nothing wrong right?"

Lucia sighed. She wanted to get angry but kept it to herself.

The leaves sealing the creature of the wild fell off and it stood up. The kid wildling immediately ran in and hugged its parent and its parent hugged it back. The two wildlings then proceeded to look at Lucia and Cyziel and sat down in criss-cross position as they lowered their head. It was actually their way of giving their gratitude.

Lucia and Cyziel didn't know how to react but before they can even say something, loud hisses were heard by the whole group. More creatures of the wild appeared. One by one they surrounded the group and the wooden hut. They have felt the presence of foreign creatures and for them humans are no friend. Their arms started to extend forming countless of tendrils.

The two wildlings inside the hut immediately stood up and went out.

"tissssss...rsssss....fsssss!" The parent wildling started to hiss loudly.

It was communicating to the rest of its people. The largest wildling hissed back then the wildlings retracted their arms and started to observe the group. They then started to walk away. The parent wildling hissed at the group then followed the rest of its people. The kid wildling pulled at Lucia's and Cyziel's clothing wanting them to follow.

What they saw as they followed the wildlings was a large blue colored bonfire. There were large wooden cages containing captured beasts and a number of ponds containing different fishes. They were used as the source of food of the wildlings. They were actually inviting them to join them for lunch. What really surprised them was one of the ponds contain the aquatic animal that they are looking for. The plurtle which is the armadillo like animal with turtle feet.

"Can we have one of those?" Cyziel pointed at the pond with his right hand and creating a number one symbol with his left index finger.

The kid wildling somehow understood what he meant. It extended its hand and pulled one plurtle as he planned to cook it inside the bonfire. Cyziel immediately waved his hand in front of him as he pointed at the plurtle then to himself. The kid then gave it to him while he gave it to Ortix.

The group saw how they cooked the animals. The blue fire burned didn't burn the creatures' physical body but some kind of black smoke came out of them. The wildlings condensed those black smoke to small black pellets and ate it. They also gave the group those black pellets which they actually don't know if they could eat it. Volus tried it first and he told the rest that it was actually good for the soul although the effect was actually minimal.

The wildlings tried to communicate with them but they were not affected by the "harmony of speech" magic but luckily they have Volus with them. When Cyziel arrived in Daraksta, he actually was not able to understood the other people that he met there. It doesn't even help that most of them cannot be trusted. It was only until he met Volus that it became easier for him. Volus was able to communicate with just thoughts. At the same time, he was able to convey the intentions of people if they allowed him to read their thoughts.

More so, the wildlings felt that Volus was similar to them so it allowed him to enter their mind. He first tested it with the kid wildlings before trying it with the rest. Cyziel did the same since he also already learned how to do it from Volus back then.

"They said that they are thankful for what we did. They are also requesting if we could help the other tribes with the same problem." Volus relayed to the others.

Cyziel nodded. "I already told them that its okay for me but not today. What about you Lucia?"

"Uhmm.. alright." Lucia nodded. She really didn't want for Cyziel to keep on absorbing the abyssal energy but she was too shy to tell him not to so she just planned to go with him.

Cyziel didn't actually thought that he would be able to befriend the creatures of the wild. It was not something that his people were able to succeed. His people thought that they are just the same as beasts who only acts on their instincts but it was all really just a big misunderstanding. They are just like humans. They have their own way of living but it is also just for their own survival.

After talking with the wildlings, the wildlings actually guided them towards the outer forest. Their journey was really much smoother than before. It was actually the wildlings that created the fog in the inner forest. It was a way for defending themselves. The wildlings said their goodbyes and told them that they are welcome to come back and they would tell the other tribes of them.

As they reached the outer forest, they were now able to travel much faster. They first went to the cave where they entered and got trapped but there were no people in there. The caved in entrance was already cleared. The boulders that blocked it were already removed. Instead, there was a sign that warns people not to enter it. This meant that the other people with them might have already been saved and they have already left. The group then proceeded to go to the military camps just outside the forest.

One of the soldiers from the camp saw the group and immediately waylaid them. "Hey! Did you just come from the forest? Did you not see the yellow retreat smoke two days ago?"

"What smoke?" Jorak asked.

"Are you blind or what? Bandits from the Vile Brigands were found circling around the forest. You are lucky that you were not able to encounter them or you would have been dead. Go back fast to the village. Entering the forest is prohibited for now until we make sure that no bandits are left."

"What of the students from the institute?" Vera asked.

"They already left 2 days ago. If you are from the institute then sadly to say I saw my comrades carrying 3 dead people and some are also badly wounded. But I got to say that students this year are really good. They were able to kill 1 bandit and caught another." The soldier was impressed knowing that the bandits might actually be as strong or stronger than him.

The group then went to the camp where they left the caravan that they used before but this time they used only one caravan for the 8 of them. The other soldiers in the camp interrogated them again but the group kept their ignorant image to prevent further questionings. They went on to continue to the village which again took quite a few hours.

"What should we tell the instructors?" Draka inquired, looking at everyone.

Cyziel, who was now seated inside the caravan instead of being the driver, scanned everyone. "Promise me that you won't tell anyone about the Labyrinth or the land past the barrier."

"What about the twisted creatures?" Ru said, looking at Cyziel.

"We cannot hide everything. We just need to say that there were dangerous creatures inside the cave."

"If they asked about how we killed the bandits?" Jorak added.

"It's not impossible for a group of people to kill someone stronger than them. We can just use that as an excuse." Vera turned to Cyziel. "Cy?"

Cyziel nodded. "That's perfect. We will just say that we overwhelmed the bandits with numbers. Even if the living bandit was interrogated, it really won't matter if he tells the truth. I don't have plans to pretend to be someone weak to bully others but if there are still stupid people that would try to bring trouble to us then we will make them learn their mistakes." Cyziel then turned towards Ortix. "Anyway, what do you plan to do?"

"Oh! You mean my classmate? I have almost forgotten about that!" Ortix smirked, malice filled his smile. "I guess I will watch first how he would react seeing that I am still alive. It would also be a good way to find out about the group that he was with."

"You plan on taking on the brigand something?" Cyziel asked.

"Oh yes! Hearing bandits then they should have some treasures or money with them. We are currently poor so who are better targets than them."

"I thought you stopped stealing?" Volus interjected.

Ortix coughed. "This is different! This is good stealing!"

"If you guys actually need some money then we could lend some for you. It is also a way for us to thank you." Vera said while the rest nodded, signifying that they agreed with her.

"Thanks! We'll take note of that." Cyziel smiled. "But that guy just really wants money and trouble!"

"Hey that's not true!" Ortix shouted, feeling wronged.

Everyone started laughing. The banters continued until they finally reached the village.