The longer I walked through the woods the thicker the fog became. The only thing that was keeping me rooted to the right path was the set of golden eyes plodding along the forest floor in front of me. The further we got the more I was sure, this wasn’t the spirit of a person, it was the spirit of an animal.

I didn’t look behind me. I didn’t want to. Since falling into the forest about ten minutes ago I hadn’t heard anything besides the occasional snap of a twig from under my own feet. I was worried that the second that I took my eyes off of whatever it was that was walking along in front of me, those knights would pop out of the fog and that would be that.

This just felt so… unfair. If this was still just a game, then part of me would have loved to try my hand at fighting those bastards one way or another. Part of the joy of a game like this was trying and failing over and over and over again.

It was normal for harder raids to take over two hundred attempts before they were figured out and killed, but now? How were we supposed to fight bosses later in the game if one mistake cost us the lives of every single person in the raid team? One big mistake and the best players in the game could all be wiped out simultaneously, and on top of all that…

It wasn’t likely that we’d ever be rescued by someone on the outside. Every single person here had signed on to a two year beta test with Annex. We were in their facility, and we’d signed non-disclosure agreements stating we wouldn’t be able to make contact with the outside while testing…

It was the perfect trap. You’d think that all we’d have to do then was wait the two years and be done, but from the start Larson made it clear… we were here not for two years, but until the game was beaten. I took that to mean that if we put in effort, two years was the fastest we could hope to realistically finish the game.

And to that point, what would even happen when we woke up? She… her whole company were criminals… they were murderers… was there really a chance that we’d ever be allowed to leave alive having witnessed their crimes first hand? Or would they just kill us all at the end and claim that we’d all died in some sort of freak accident? What proof would anyone have that the truth was so dark?

The more I thought about it, the less this place really felt like a game… it felt more like a prison that happened to run on game logic. Part of me was starting to understand the few thousand players who, after the dream, refused to leave Origin and decided to just ride out the duration of the test in peace.

Originally that mentality had kind of pissed me off. If you have the power to fight, if you have the skill to push yourself, then it’s only natural that you work as hard as you can and be the best that you can be… right?

Each and every player trapped in this game is a top player of a difficult game… if the 20,000 of us that were here really gave it a hundred percent, then there was a chance… there was a chance that we’d make it out of here alive.

Or at least, that’s what I told myself…

Now, though, I was starting to think that I was the strange one. Why try so hard? Why push yourself and keep fighting, when the end result was the same either way? I guess I was just stubborn. I’d always been that way, after all. Always too stubb-

A twig snapped in the distance drawing me out of my thoughts. I snapped my head to the side and drew my blade from where it rested on my hip, but my escort never stopped slowly plodding forward along the forest floor. Not wanting to be left behind in the mist, I kept walking, but I couldn’t deny the goosebumps that had shot up my arms.

I scanned the fog like a hawk, all of my senses on the highest alert, but by this point the fog was so thick that I was lucky to even see the trees around us before I walked straight into them. If it weren’t for those glowing golden eyes in front of me I would have been lost from the start…

Another popping sound from the other side. And another from behind and to the sides. Were we… being surrounded?

Every once in a while the fog would thin just enough to where’ I’d see the shadows of a group of something moving through the forest. Whatever they were, I was sure of it. They had surrounded us on all sides… but they weren’t attacking…

After a few minutes, the creatures had closed in around me tight enough to where I could see their silhouettes in the fog. They walked on four legs and had silver fur from snout to tail. Their ears were pointed, and their tails were pin straight.

Their panting as they walked exposed rows of sharp teeth bookended by sharp fangs, giving them a distinct canine feel. Wolves. I was surrounded by wolves.

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Now that I took a better look, the spirit in front of me also walked with a similar gait, and its eyes were just as piercing… was this thing, the same..?

I thought back to the underground temple, to the totem pole that was set into the wall. Deer, Wolf, Bear, and goat. Then, could these wolves be related to one of the spirits on that totem, like the deer was?

I figured that was more than likely the case. And if that was true, were they taking us to their leader? Or was their leader already dead, hence the spirit that’s been guiding me… Either way, it seemed like they were taking me somewhere, and as long as they didn’t attack me I’d be dumb not to follow them.

I wasn’t sure if it was because of the fog or because they were special NPCs, but I couldn’t see their health bars, names, or levels. For all I knew these things were even stronger than the knights… With that in mind, I did my best to forget that they were around.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, I noticed the wolves that had surrounded us for the last twenty minutes of travel slowly faded back into the fog. I was alone once again with the spirit walking in front of me.

Then, in that case, were they… protecting us? It was impossible to tell.

As I continued forwards the fog began to thin. I was finally able to see the forest in front of me and just as soon as I was able to see trees in the distance they faded into a clearing.

The wolf spirit stepped past the trees and kept walking forwards, but as soon as I’d made it into the wide open space I froze.

A massive tree reached up so high that I couldn’t see all the way to the top. Its bark was silver, and its flesh was jet black. Gnarled roots shot out from the base of its trunk in every direction almost making it look like it was standing on a thousand spindly legs. The whole thing was so wide around that I’d bet you could carve a whole town into it with room to spare…

There were no branches for at least ten meters, and then it seemed like thousands of them shot out in every direction all at once. Silver leaves coated the branches of the tree and in the moonlight they shone like millions of stars, causing silver-blue moonlight to dance across the clearing as they swayed in the gentle wind.

I couldn’t help but stop and stare. Yet in front of me, the spirit hadn’t even stopped to look at the amazing sight. Instead, it just continued its gait out across the moonlit grass. I sighed and peeled my eyes away from the canopy and continued forwards after my guide. Hopefully I’d be able to come back and look at it again some day…

It didn’t take long to understand where I was being led. The ground slanted ever so slightly down and the grass turned to familiar packed dirt. What appeared to be a path at least long enough for a carriage to pass down opened up in the clearing and steadily descended down into the roots of the tree… It felt eerily similar to the entrance to the temple that Ascilla and I had just spent the greater part of a very stressful yesterday escaping.

The only thing that kept me moving forwards was the thought of getting lost in the fog if I turned back now. What if leaving this tree caused those wolves to get pissed off and tear me to shreds? No thank you. I’d much rather keep following whatever this spirit was and hoping that everything turned out alright… though feeling trapped into this one quest line really was getting annoying.

I was still level five, and since reaching the town of Oaktree hadn’t been able to really grind my level at all… Sure I got a better weapon and some nicer armor, but what I really needed to do right now was increase my level. I was sure that more than a few of the adventurers back in town had either caught up to me or had already passed me due to the now day and a half break that I’d involuntarily taken from progressing my character. If I was even a few levels higher, those knights wouldn’t be such a massive threat.

The slight slope continued down until the roots from the tree closed over the top of my head. I was expecting it to get dark, but instead the silver bark continued to glow, casting a dim silver light along the tunnel.

Just like the day before when I was being led into the temple the meandering pathway took about fifteen minutes to walk down. Though I will admit, replacing the experience of being blindfolded and led by people who wanted to kill me with a spirit that was leading me down a magical glowing tunnel made this experience a lot more bearable.

After a long while the tunnel ended in a massive set of stone double doors. The wolf spirit walked up to the door and without missing a beat walked straight through it and vanished to the other side. Well… I seriously doubted that I’d be able to pull off that trick…

I approached the door and looked over its surface. Carved into the door was a depiction of the tree that was now somewhere above my head. The stone itself looked ancient and like it hadn’t been disturbed in years. A chill went down my spine as I stood in front of the entrance to wherever this place was.

Sucking in a deep breath I pressed my hand against the flat of the door and pushed. To my shock, the door moved as easily as the door to my inn room had. It gently swung inwards and a gust of ice cold wind buffeted my face.

In front of me, a large stone staircase descended into total darkness. A pair of yellow eyes was staring back up at me from about half way down the staircase. I gathered all the courage I could muster and walked down into the dark.

It was hard to make sure that my feet were finding the uneven, hand carved, stone steps. Each step I was afraid that I’d fall forwards and tumble down the whole flight winding up flat on my face wherever the bottom was… Part of me wondered if that would kill me, or just be really embarrassing, but either way I really didn’t feel like giving it a try.

After a few minutes of careful shuffling I reached the bottom of the steps. Just like at the top, the bottom of the staircase had a large stone double door blocking my path. Pouring out from underneath it was a warm orange light. I didn’t hesitate this time and pushed the door open, revealing a well lit room that smelled faintly of cooking spices.

As soon as I stepped into the room something, or more accurately, someone, ran up and tackled me so hard that I fell to the ground.