Davis tried, he tried really hard. He spent literal years gathering every bit of information about this accursed place. Be it a historical fact, a tavern story, or a simple village gossip. He knew it all…
And yet, what started and was supposed to be a well-organized and promising expedition easily ended up in a disaster.
Not that it was entirely his fault. The only thing he could blame himself for was his failure to take into consideration how cynical and greedy his ‘comrades’ would be. With all the riches popping out at every other step, he should’ve guessed that his every word of advice and warning would be treated like a joke or, more often, like gibberish spoken by a delusional fool.
This made Davis wonder why the hell they assigned him and his little team to serve as a guide if, after two days of venturing, they would be reduced to nothing more than bag carriers…
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything about this. He didn’t have the charisma or strength to make his stance clear, nor was there anything the rest of his four-member team could do against more than a hundred determined adventurers.
So, from the back of this grand expedition, he watched. Watched as every word he’d said proved right…
Everything started when they encountered the small ruin, which his ‘comrades’ decided to utterly pillage despite his excessive protest.
And then, the following events laid out just as he’d expected. The forest finally took notice of their presence, dragging hordes of ferocious beasts in its wake and mercilessly attacking them at every step.
True to his words, from this moment forward, what was once a peaceful stroll through the mystical nature turned into a living hell. There wasn’t a single minute of spare time to rest, nor were there any signs of victory against the bloodthirsty beasts that kept taking lives left and right.
Yet, despite this whole mess, Davis and his team’s survival was set in stone. In fact, it became apparent when the aggressive beasts started behaving differently towards them—some avoided them or went as far as providing direct help.
This ultimately forced Davis to make a drastic, or rather, smart choice. He took advantage of the heat of battle to escape. His train of thought at that time was simple. He wasn’t going to let him or his team face the wrath and suspicion of the rest. The chances of being labeled as some form of trickster or whatever could come to the mind of an angry adventurer were pretty high, and that would make things much more complicated.
Which, in the end, brought them here. It was already a couple of days since they left their previous toxic companions. As for their fate, Davis doubted their end was a peaceful one.
Heaving a sigh and putting all those unnecessary memories at the back of his mind, Davis was brought back to the reality of the current situation. He tugged the hilt of his sword, removing its blade stuck inside the skull of an overgrown Stitt Monkey—a huge and troublesome hairy creature with exceptional physical prowess. It was a tree climber at that, a troublesome opponent to face inside the dense forest.
Having already dealt with the beast by the previous sneak attack, Davis cut the mana flow channeled to his right arm and dispelled his enchantments.
Nonetheless, his guard was still up. It was an unforgivable blunder to lose yourself in your thoughts during the clash against the beasts. But this just proved that they were already deep in, and the beasts should be the least of their worries...
He quickly searched for one of his team members. Right behind him, the first one to fall into his field of view was a robust young man wearing thick brown leather armor.
“Hey, Olgled. Can you sense any threat?” asked Davis. He slowly walked backward. His eyes wandered amidst the ancient trees, trying to catch any sign of possible dangers.
“Nope, everything looks clear,” replied Olgled. His eyes shone white while his head rapidly moved in various directions, indicating the usage of his unique ocular spell.
Davis nodded and sheathed his sword, completely trusting his teammate’s ability. “Good. These two monkeys are probably gatherers. Let’s harvest their cores and leave before the rest notice us.”
Olgled stopped using his spell. Looked in the direction of their other member and rolled his eyes. “You certainly don’t have to tell her that.”
Obvious to what Olgled was pointing at. Davis, too, looked at their third member, Melinda. She was already elbow-deep inside the guts of the first monkey they killed, fishing for the beast’s core.
“Just let her be. You know how she works,” said Davis as he shook his head. He then took his magical clock from his inner pocket and checked it, and unfortunately, the readings on it still made no sense.
“Just twelve days…” he mumbled. The current anomaly was hard to comprehend. He put the clock back inside his pocket. Everything went downhill. He spent years, literal years, making sure that they would reach the other side without any mishaps, but…
“Come on, man. What’s with the gloomy look, you cannot take the blame. Those idiots refused to listen,” reassured Olgled while tapping him on the shoulder. This guy seems to understand his inner turmoil pretty well.
Davis sighed again. Olgled always knew when to offer encouraging words and was suspiciously precise about it. Davis even suspected that he was an empath, which would be very strange for such a big and rough guy. He even asked once just to confirm his suspicion about this fact, but Olgled firmly denied it, saying how he was trained to ‘read the mood’ by his family. Whatever that was supposed to mean…
“Don’t act like you believed me either. I know what I suggested was crazy,” Davis said, glancing at him judgingly.
To this, Ogled scratched his cheek and suddenly found the nearby tree overly fascinating. Deciding not to comment since Davis’s words hit the mark.
Truthfully, Davis couldn’t really fault him. Even he himself was skeptical about all the ridiculous stories surrounding this place. But when the same story was repeated numerous times by renowned and famous adventurers, it had to hold some weight.
As a matter of fact, all those stories form a straightforward set of rules on how one should behave while traversing this place, which could be simplified to a simple concept such as equivalent exchange.
Take how much you need, and give what you can. Respect the Forest of the Forgotten as a whole, its inhabitants, and most importantly its equilibrium. Those were the words that the most renowned adventurers who traversed this place multiple times said.
For example. Many have also told him to plant any type of tree inside the forest, and his path would be peaceful. Or if he encountered a dangerous beast he must kill, he could, only if afterward he fed his mana to the closest tree or a plant. A ridiculous superstition that raised numerous doubts, which made it easy to understand why someone would treat him as an idiot—especially a group of young and unruly adventurers.
Yet, here he was. His hand was firmly placed on the tree trunk while his mana was consumed rapidly. Next to him, Olgled followed the same example.
During the process, he turned toward Melinda and asked. “Hey, Melinda. Check the level of miasma for me.”
Having already found the first core, Melinda was on her way to the second monkey, but hearing Davis’s request, she stopped and picked a compass-like device hanging off her belt. “Ugh, it shows around thirty-five.”
Davis frowned. “I guess I was right... This is physically impossible.”
“What’s going on?” Olgled asked in concern, clearly noticing Davis’s uncertainty.
“Journey from the edge of the forest to the deepest parts should take a minimum of two months,” replied Davis. “But it took us twelve days. No matter how abnormal the Forest of the Forgotten proved to be. This is just impossible.”
“Well…” said Olgled. He then gestured with his chin at the last member of their group. “Probably something to do with the weirdo…”
Davis followed his gesture and looked at the girl whom he could only call the black sheep of this team. She just stood listlessly next to Melinda and followed her around. She was a special case, easily noticed by her glaring features, which was the thick metal collar on her neck, followed by her eyes that lacked any sign of intelligence.
She was what people brand as Mana Abusers. But truthfully, that was just a fancy word for slaves. Davis never felt comfortable with slavery, which was illegal in the first place. But individuals like this girl were exceptions. Having—as their name suggested—abused mana, they all end up with a few screws loose and tend to go berserk causing serious disasters. For that reason, those with deeper pockets decided to keep them as servants instead of killing them, which proved very efficient since it was hard to find someone with a useful ability who would just mindlessly follow orders. After all, not everyone was fortunate enough to wield mana.
So, when Melinda brought this girl during their planning period, Davis was strongly against allowing her along, mainly due to ethical reasons. However, now he didn’t know what to think. She saved their lives too many times.
Her Seer-like ability to always point in the right direction not only worked but also proved to be extremely useful, and despite Davis’s vast knowledge of this forest, without her to miraculously nudge them in the right direction, he doubts their travels would be this easy…
Let’s not even talk about her survival skills. She was most likely unmatched, always knowing how to avoid danger. There was much more strangeness surrounding her that Davis couldn’t wrap his head around…
“You two zoning out again?” Melinda chimed in. She cleaned her hands, having already finished the dirty work she never shied away from.
“Pocketed everything you could?” Asked Davis with a smirk. Her urge to hoard everything truly baffled him. There wasn’t a time when she didn’t pocket any type of slightly expensive item that reached her hands.
Melinda crossed her arms, taking his smirk as an insult. “You lack enlightenment. Once you grasp it, you will see the importance of gaining wealth. And most importantly, who knows, when we reach the other side, we might need it.”
“Well, looks like our previous companions were very much enlightened, just as you are,” Olgled commented with a snort. Totally ignoring the last part she said.
Melinda’s face contorted in disgust. “What do you know, you big oaf? I take what I should, not what I can. Don’t compare me with those morons.”
“I see no differ-”
Just as Olgled was about to reply and start the usual banter between the two, Davis decided to interrupt them. “Don’t start now. We must stay vigilant at all times. The deepest parts of the forest are the most dangerous. You know about hallucinations, right?”
“Yes, yes, I got it,” Melinda said before touching the nearest tree and pouring her mana into it. Still, her other hand was pointed at Olgled, “But I’m teaching his idiot a lesson when we leave this place!”
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“Speaking of leaving this place,” said Olgled, he faced Davis, completely ignoring Melinda’s words. “What do you think? How long will it take to reach the other side?”
Reaching the other side of the forest… The dream everyone living on Osvalen’s peninsula shared.
“Well… logically, we are halfway there. But who knows how long it will take us…” Replied Davis.
Olgled shrugged. “So far, so good, if everything we encounter is as stupid as these monkeys. We can take it eas-” Olgled didn’t even finish his sentence when the loud screech made everyone flinch.
A cry for help, and a loud one at that…
“You had to say it!” There was nothing else to add. Davis picked his bag up and started running. Followed by Olgled and the two.
Angry echoes coming from dozens of monkeys disturbed the quietness of the forest. Davis knew there was no way to fight a horde of these buggers. Getting surrounded and stoned to death would be a horrible way to go. So, they were left with the only valid option: running.
“Show us the way to escape!” Olgled ordered. It was apparent he was addressing the girl with the collar.
Without missing a beat, she just pointed her index finger in a direction. Not even questioning her, everyone in the group abruptly changed their destination, fully trusting the course she’d set.
It took nearly ten minutes of navigating through the rough forest terrain until Davis noticed something abnormal that the forest previously lacked. “Slow down! There is sunlight ahead of us!”
Everyone stopped in their tracks. They took a second to gather their breath before cautiously approaching what they could describe as a small clearing ahead of them.
Olgled spent some mana to enchant his senses, finding nothing noticeable. “Weird, it’s just a big open patch of grass, nothing else.”
Davis was honestly surprised. They hadn’t seen the sunlight in days. Forest trees were so tall and old that their canopies ensured not a single line of meaningful sunlight could pour through. But getting hyped about this discovery would lead them nowhere. They already learned the hard way that this place was full of surprises.
“Just go,” urged Davis. “Monkeys are already behind our backs. If we fight them, our best bet is to face them in the open.”
It was a solid idea. Without hesitation, they rushed to the clearing. Crossing the line of trees, all four got momentarily blinded. The sensation of getting adjusted to the light was to be expected. Still, that didn’t hinder their movement at all.
“Melinda, drop the caltrops,” yelled Olgled, keeping his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun.
Heeding his words, Melinda grabbed the pouch on the side of her belt and poured a good chunk of mana into it. Without looking, she unbuckled it and threw it above her head. The mana did its trick by activating small mechanisms engraved inside the pouch, opening it, and spreading hundreds of caltrops widely. At first, they might look tiny and harmless, but the poison they were laced with was anything but.
Having his eyesight adjusted, Davis judged they were far enough from trees, so he stopped and looked back. “This should be far enough, right?” he then narrowed his eyes and added, “What are they doing?”
Melinda stopped next to him and followed his line of sight. “Hmm… they stopped?” Her eyes shone purple. Signaling the use of her ocular spell. It was not advanced like Olgled’s, but it served a purpose.
“They look hesitant to advance?” said Melinda, struggling to describe the strange behavior the monkeys showed. She proceeded to scan their surroundings further. After a good period of silence, it dawned on all of them that this clearing was extremely unnatural.
Around them was a perfect patch of grass, a perfect circle that couldn’t be a natural occurrence.
“This place looks weird… very weird. Hey, oaf, you found something?” Melinda asked.
“Probably…” Olgled said and pointed in a certain direction. “I think there is a small protrusion right in the middle of this field. Maybe a cave opening? I’m not sure.”
“Let’s just go for it,” said Davis, not waiting for the two to agree.
“If it’s a cave. I can guarantee you its nest of a powerful beast.” Despite saying this, Melinda tagged along. For some unexplainable reason, she lowered her guard and started grumbling about wasting her caltrops and about their price.
Olgled followed her example. He first shook his head at Melinda’s antics and ordered the slave girl to follow him. He even sheathed his sword, all his alertness vanishing despite the dozen monkeys looking at their back menacingly.
Davis—who took the lead—missed their behavior. Or rather, he didn’t notice he was behaving the same. His mind was preoccupied with something else. Sudden clearing appearing amidst the Rudar trees? Looking unnatural, or more accurately man-made? There could be only one explanation, and if his speculation was correct, they stumbled upon something capable of changing their lives and helping them with the rest of their journey.
Reaching what indeed appeared to be a small cave opening. Davis went inside, showing no hesitation at all. The entrance wasn’t that big, broad enough for around three men to enter without issue, with the ceiling just the right height.
“What’s wrong with you?” Melinda asked, peering in from the outside, lacking the courage to enter. “Just the heads up. If, by any chance, I hear a growl from the depths. I’m blowing this entrance up with you inside.”
“Cruel but expected from you, I guess,” Davis replied, knowing inwardly she wasn’t joking. He wouldn’t carelessly advance—mainly due to a lack of light. But he could see the slope going down, tunneling deeper into the darkness, meaning Melinda’s speculation was probably right.
His attention shifted to the side, where he saw a metal vein coloring a dull gray rock surface. He neared it and traced the unknown purplish metal with his fingers.
“You know what this place is?” Olgled—already positioned behind Davis—was curious about what could be so interesting with the piece of metal stuck inside the rock. In his intention to see more, he circled his mana, wanting to cast the simple light spell.
“No, stop!” Davis yelled. Swiftly nudging Olgled out of the way and making him stop the casting process.
“Sorry, but please refrain from using any mana right now.” After saying this in all seriousness, Davis took the torch from his backpack. It looked like a bunch of yellow pebbles wrapped in cloth further attached to a metal stick. He twisted the bottom. It sizzled before the fabric began to burn, lightening the surroundings.
“No worries. Just let us know what’s going on,” replied Olgled, not minding the push.
“I’m not entirely sure. Melinda, tell me the level of miasma.” Davis asked. He was the most important detail.
Melinda grabbed the device hanging on her belt. She always made sure to have easy access to it. Checking the number once, she gasped and then rechecked it to ensure.
“O-Over the limit,” she stated in disbelief. Then her terror-colored face looked at Davis, “Are we dead?”
Davis, contrary to her expression, displayed a small smile. “Well, we are either stuck in a very powerful illusion or we found something very interesting…”
“Found what?” Olgled urged for an explanation.
“Considering that those monkeys refused to follow us here means that this is highly unlikely an illusion. All the other facts point out that we found another ruin. But this one is on another level. It could be something similar to Kristos’s or Ainna’s legend. No, it could be better,” said Davis. He focused on the darkness, and with the torch in his hand, he started descending the slope carefully so that he didn’t slip.
Those words were enough to encourage the two to follow him. After all, there wasn’t a soul in Osvalen who hadn’t heard tales of Kristos and his exploits. Just mentioning something close to what he found was enough for both Olgled and Melinda to throw all the caution out of the window.
Davis held the torch high as they descended. Illuminating the cavern walls that kept growing wider. He occasionally glanced at the metal veins becoming more visible as they used his torch to spread their metallic hue. He enjoyed the beautiful sight. But his focus was mainly on his steps. The slope was rocky and uneven—a small slip could very well cause him a serious injury.
He kept his pace. All he could hear were their steps echoing. It was disturbing, but nobody said a word. Somehow, the atmosphere demanded them to be quiet. But then, something caught his attention.
He looked above, faintly seeing the edge of a crystal jutting out of the ceiling. He narrowed his eyes and raised his torch slightly. What greeted him was a copious amount of beautiful glass-like bluish crystals, all attached to each other, covering the whole ceiling. He wanted to see more, so he raised his torch higher, which seemed to serve as a trigger.
The crystals magically lit up in a beautiful blue color, showcasing the sheer size of the cavern they were in. And more importantly, they illuminated an enormous stone gate standing proudly in front of them.
The gate was tall… very tall. Tall enough to make them look like a band of ants. But its sheer size and how it perfectly merged with the cavern walls wasn’t their main attraction.
What the group found fascinating was something else. It was the gate’s incised drawings. As if alive, lines would crawl on the stone surface of the gate, creating images that would next moment chaotically mix and separate, not allowing onlookers to fully grasp their whole meaning.
“That looks creepy,” commented Olgled. His eyes followed one specific line traveling on the surface of the gate, then watched as it mixed with another, conjuring what they could quickly recognize as a small image of a butterfly. It then split apart, revealing four more lines all going their separate way.
“It’s like the gate is trying to tell a story. But you are right. It does look creepy…” Melinda added. She strove toward the gate to take a closer look.
Davis, on the other hand, stood in shock ever since he laid his eyes on this gate. These two might not see anything, but he could, and it chilled him to the bone. Plastered on the middle of the gate stood a tree, not the one representing greenery, life, or the beauty of nature, but the dead leafless tree portraying itself as the last survivor, the last one before the inevitable end.
Davis gulped. The unbearable urge to turn around and run swelled in his heart. For some inexplicit reason, his head turned and met the black eyes of the slave girl. They still lacked the spark of intelligence, but Davis could tell she was peering into the depths of his soul.
Click…
“Shit…” Melinda's quiet curse reached him.
Davis’s attention shifted back to Melinda, watching as she backed away after hearing the sound from behind the gate. And he noticed as the line appeared in the middle of this gate, followed by a loud grinding of the stone.
Melinda raised her hands in the air for the rest to see. She turned around, faced the group, and added, “I touched nothing. I promise!”
The scolding she usually received never came. Nobody even looked at her. Her back faced the opening as the new light washed over her, dominating the previous bluish hue. And the color of this light told them all they needed to know.
She turned around and saw what everyone else did.
Gold. Mountains of it!
“No way!” She dashed forward, stepping beyond the gate’s boundary with impeccable speed and going straight to the nearest pile. Her fingers grabbed the first coin. She then placed it carefully in her palm, intending to weigh it.
“Real gold! Hahaha, we struck gold!” she yelled.
Davis watched in wonder the sight up front. For some reason, his previous interaction with the slave girl slipped out of his mind. Even the experiences with his previous ‘comrades’ hadn’t warned him about the current situation.
Still, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Was this gate actually hiding the vault? From the stories he had heard, only two similar cases were found, albeit never on this scope. The sheer amount of riches beyond the gate couldn't be measured on the first look.
His train of thought was broken as he saw Melinda and Olgled already deep inside the vault, throwing coins at each other and laughing. They acted as if they hadn’t escaped a possible deadly encounter with the monkey horde just a few minutes ago…
Davis shook his head and walked forward, followed by the slave girl. As usual, her presence was completely ignored.
Crossing the gate’s threshold, Davis felt a strange shift in the air. It was akin to crossing an invisible barrier, giving the sense that something incomprehensible had happened like a part of him was left behind. Despite the dangers of miasma, he tried to circle his mana—intending to scan his body— but the result left him aghast.
All his mana was gone. Not even a smidge left inside his core… which should be impossible. If there was no mana inside his body, it would mean he should already be in a deep coma…
He first looked at the slave girl next to him, then at the two stuffing their bags with various artifacts.
“Fascinating, isn’t it? Just look at them.” A new voice reverberated on his left, the weight of it freezing him in place.
“All that pointless greed. They just want to grab more, not having the real reason as to why.” The voice continued, followed by soft steps and chains scraping against the stone. “There is no thought about how to use it nor if they can carry the weight of all that gold. What's important to them... is to take it.” The voice paused for a moment, and then suddenly, the weight behind was lost. “Funny, isn’t it?”
The person speaking just stood in front of David. Making him involuntarily gasp.
He was a very tall man, two heads taller than him for sure. His muscular build was visible despite the black silver-embedded scholarly robes he wore. His hands rested behind his back, almost touching his long, black hair. His silver eyes, with the edge of their iris surrounded with strange sapphire circles, held a unique blend of mischief and wisdom as they bore down on him.
“I know I’m a good-looking. I’m also well aware it’s not on a level where one is rendered speechless.” The man addressed Davis’s lack of response. His voice was strangely casual. The smile never left his face, displaying a certain level of friendliness.
“N-No…” That was the only thing Davis could utter. The silver eyes, blue circles. The stories he heard from a random drunkard suddenly flashed through his mind.
“No?” The man raised his eyebrow in amusement.
“You cannot be real!” Davis exclaimed, taking a step back.
The man looked down at himself and replied. “I look pretty real to myself.”
“Don’t you agree with me?” Then, the man shifted his attention to the slave girl, noticing that her gaze never left him, even for a second.
The man scanned her closely, even going as far as circling around her, the chain attached to his ankle releasing a disturbing sound as he walked. “Uh, poor girl. Your mind is a step away from being completely gone… I guess that’s what happens when mortals use something they aren’t supposed to.”
He then backed away from her. Acting as if he just remembered something, he added, “Oh, yes, where are my manners.”
Gently clapping his hands. The gold scattered around vanished like a mirage. The vault they were in slowly disintegrated, revealing a beautiful night sky. At the same time, the ground was gradually replaced with endless grass reaching as far into the horizon as the eye could see.
As for Melinda and Olgled, they stood next to Davis, dumbfounded and empty-handed.
“I welcome you to my humble abode-” The man stopped and rubbed his chin. “Hmm, no. That doesn’t sound right.”
Coughing lightly. He started again. “Welcome to my prison, humans! My name is Veles. And I commend you on the courage and commitment you displayed. You struggled enough, so hold your heads high, knowing you are the rare ones to be able to bask in my grand presence.”
Veles nodded in satisfaction, looking pretty satisfied with his own introduction.