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Dead River

When I opened my eyes, I woke up in a room that was familiar to me in a room that I often enter when I dream or when I die. In front of me was a nameless creature that was always shrouded in darkness, as if this creature had been waiting for my arrival.

"How many times have I died?" I asked.

"Nearly a hundred, how do you feel?" The creature asked me back.

“I just… don't know if my actions were the right or wrong choice.” I answered.

"There is no right or wrong choice, you are free to choose anything to find the truth you want to find." Said the Creature.

Suddenly now I woke up in the middle of a misty forest and when I lit my lantern I saw a wide and deep trap hole where at the bottom of the trap hole there were several monster corpses that had been stuck in very sharp stakes. It made me remember that I had been stuck in that stake with the monsters that were trying to pounce on me.

Not wanting to go through a road full of traps again, I finally decided to take a detour through the thick white fog. This fog seems to make me feel memories of the past that I can't recall. Did I really live in a foggy place? Before I could think any further I heard footsteps from behind me.

Scratch… Scratch…

The sound of footsteps seemed to pass through bushes or grass and immediately I turned off my lantern and hid behind a bush of trees. While waiting for the right time to ambush from behind, I began to calm my mind and heart as if I had merged with the darkness where I was hiding. The closer the sound of the footsteps got, the more I controlled my breath and made my heartbeat start to slow down.

Dub… Dub…

I could see five skeleton wolf monsters walking beside me, I hoped they didn't notice me when I was about to attack one of them. This is indeed difficult for me to do because the monsters can immediately attack me simultaneously. Seeing one of the monsters approaching my hiding place, I slowly raised my sword with great care.

Without realizing it, an arrow shot quickly from a distance and penetrated the monster's head until it broke until the monster's blood hit my face because of the strength of the arrow. Seeing that the monster died with a single shot, the other monsters were running around in fear. There, I was silent, shocked to see that, my heart began to beat irregularly until my hands began to tremble.

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Shortly thereafter a large monster appeared with a very strange shape, he had a half-human horse body on the back with a giant horn in front of him that was shaped like a bow and the monster could create sharp arcs with his magic spells. Luckily the monster didn't notice my hiding and immediately went to hunt the monsters that were running earlier.

When the atmosphere was safe, I finally moved from my hiding place to the river to wash away the monster's blood that hit my face. Arriving at the riverbank, I didn't expect to find a piece of paper embedded in an old tree. I was surprised if the scraps of paper I found were scraps from books I had read before.

"I am familiar with this writing." I said while looking at the piece of paper.

It says be careful with the dead river in front of you. The river does look calm but it is very dangerous if it suddenly moves or flows. If you see the river flowing, a ghost will appear like a floating corpse, and that's when you should move away from the river slowly and don't stare at the ghost for too long.

This paper contains a warning but I already know how to keep the ghosts away from me as taught by Gob. After saving the paper, I finally washed my face with the river water by lighting a lantern just in case. After cleaning from the monster's blood, I tried to check the map I brought and hoped that I didn't get lost.

"There should be a bridge on this river."

I didn't see any bridges around this river but I only saw pieces of wood floating in the river, it made me think that the bridge here was destroyed. Suddenly I heard a sound of crying like the voice of a female ghost who had killed me before. Because I still didn't want to meet her, without thinking twice, I immediately threw my body into the river.

The river was indeed not too deep, only up to the waist of an adult and slowly I began to move my feet to walk along the river. One step two steps I began to feel that something was stuck in my foot, after I checked it turned out that there was a bone stuck in my shoe. Out of curiosity, why could there be bones that could get stuck in my shoes, so I shone my lantern on the river water and I saw lots of bones in the bottom of this river.

Surprised to see that, I started to speed up my steps to cross this river but unfortunately I still haven't reached the middle of the river. The more I was in a hurry, the more difficult it was for me to move my feet and at that moment the river which was initially calm became moving and flowing. Reminded by a note that I just found, if this river moves to flow then there are ghosts that will pass through this river. With trembling hands carrying the lantern I tried to calm myself by closing my eyes and started walking slowly.

Now my vision is dark and only the light of the lantern will guide me to cross this river, I can only hear the sound of the water around me and I don't know how far I have stepped. Silence and silence, I no longer listen to any sound including the sound of the wind, I begin to doubt the notes I read earlier if there is a ghost that will pass through this river then I have been attacked from before.

Slowly I started to dare to open my eyes and did not realize that there were already many ghosts surrounding me in the middle of this river. Realizing I made a mistake, all the ghosts stared back at me with their mouths wide open.

“AAAAAA!”

With alacrity my hand immediately grabbed the fairy powder from my pocket but the ghosts pulled me from all directions to make me drop the fairy powder into the river. I haven't given up hope yet I try to bring out my elemental power but it's true what Gob said, the element won't come out if I'm filled with negative feelings. Dozens of ghost hands have restrained my movement, in fear I began to be slowly pulled into the river.

My body began to sink into the river which immediately looked like a deep and dark ocean, at least before my last breath I wanted to scream loudly but a ghost hand immediately covered my mouth and drowned me. I know that even though no one will help me if I scream, this repeated death makes me really sick and miserable.

Before the ghost's hand closed my eyes, a shadow appeared from above the river but I couldn't tell who it was because my vision suddenly became dark. I don't know how long I closed my eyes, now I suddenly woke up on the other side of the river which had become calm.

“W-Where am I? Why am I here? … Did the shadow I saw just now save me?”

My mind is now full of questions but for sure I have arrived at the Elf Graves that are in front of me.