Lyden broke of a thin yet sturdy branch from a tree. Then he stabbed the branch into the soil creating a shallow hole in the ground.

Next, he dragged the branch as he walked backward leaving a streak on the soil. This way, if he sees anything happening, he would know.

He walked backward for about 15 minutes until he decided that it was enough.

Lyden did not see anything particular happening. So, he followed the streak back to where he first dug into the soil.

However, when he reached the end of the streak, he noticed that it was not where he first stabbed the branch into the soil. It was just a thin line he made while walking. Thus, It made it seems that the original origin point never existed in the first place.

"It took me about 7 minutes of walking back until all traces disappear. So about 600 meters. This is a big hint on how to solve the mystery of the purple forest." Lyden solved a piece of the mystery, but he could not see the whole picture, yet.

Lyden continued to probe the forest using other methods.

However, he did not find anything else, but it reinforced his previous test. Whenever someone walked 600 meters away from their original steps. Their traces at the beginning begin to disappear like it never existed in the first place.

In fact, because of this reason was why someone would get easily lost in this forest. At first, they were confident they can head back by seeing where they step before, but if the traces were to suddenly disappear, they would begin to doubt themselves. Slowly they would get more and more lost until they were in the middle of the forest.

Eventually, they would die from exhaustion or lack of food.

Lyden and his teammates were lucky that Jai had the ability to see smell or else they could not found their way back, and died from lack of water and food inside the forest.

"This forest is extremely dangerous." Upon realization, Lyden almost had a panic attack. More so, then if he were to face a monster. With hardly any food and water, he would die with nothing to show it.

He forced himself to calmed down, to think about anything, but the fear of his upcoming death.

'No they have to be another clue. Something I am not seeing… That is it. Jai could see smell! If Jai could see it then that means that not all traces disappear. If I were to mark where I have been with a strong smell, then I can find my way through this forest.'

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However, Lyden could not have anything would allow him to create a strong smell. The forest was mostly trees and grasses. There were flowers, but nothing strong enough that he could easily smell.

He searched for more than five hours until he got blisters on his feet.

He found a small hope to get out of the purple forest and did not want to give up on that hope. He continued until sweats covered his entire body. He had to keep moving because there was no one else to help him here.

Under the summer hear, the situation was desperate as he drank his last water.

'I got to keep going. I got to keep going.' He thought to himself repeatedly.

He looked around for anything he could make a and luckily he found something peculiar. It was a small pastel blue flower with a similar shape of a corpse flower.

'This is my only hope.' Lyden felt he would be mentally crushed if this flower could not help him out.

When he squeezed it, a strong smell similar to a skunk piss came out of it.

"Finally... I could use this, however one is not enough." There was only one of the flower present around his vicinity. And it took a while to find a flower like this, so it might not be possible to find another one like this.

In spite of that, Lyden was still looking hopeful. He plucked the flower and tuck it safely inside his pocket.

Next, he broke a branch of a tree and begin to walked as he dragged it across the ground.

When he reached about 600 meters, he stopped walking further and followed the streak he made back to where the flower was.

Unsurprisingly to Lyden, the flower was there like it never was plucked.

"This is truly something. How can a forest do something like this?" Although Lyden was tired and covered with sweats, his eyes glowed with excitement. He felt a second wind rushing throughout his body. He was glad that he made it this far.

Although he could fight monsters, he found solving mysteries to be just as adventurous.

"I am one step closer to my dream, but I should not get ahead of myself. This is the first step of thousands of steps."

Lyden grabbed a dozen that took almost 2 hours of going back and forth.

"I hope this is enough."

Over the past several hours, he would occasionally squeeze the flower in his hand and whenever he caught a whiff of it that means he had already been there before and Lyden would walk the opposite direction.

The wind was quiet and did not blow the scent away.

"Just one flower can produce a large quantity. I probably did not need all of those flowers." It had been 3 hours, and he never had to replace the flower in his hand. "I guess I did not need all those extra flowers."

The smell lingers in the air for an unknown time. It could be hours or days, but the smell never left.

Lyden could not accurately tell time, but if he had to guess, it would be around 12 hours after his team exited.

'I need to start looking for food and water.' Lyden sighed at the thought. He did not come across anything edible yet.

Lyden looked up at the skies as he sat down to take a break. He stuffs some dried grass up his nose so he does not get used to the smell of the pale blue flower, thus, making him unable to smell the flower.

Lyden was starving and thirsty, but he was content about his choices. He did not regret it because he realized this moment that life was worth living only if there was something to strive for.