Gate 13 was opening and the contingency plans were set.

Sigurd’s cloak, Tarnkappe, granted invisibility like few could. Dasha could do away with the natural darkness that his being exuded and hide in plain sight. At the opening of Gate 13, it was no different. The amateur players couldn’t detect him in between the hundreds that waited. He wondered who else was aware of the Silent Forest. He assumed Daughter kept quiet about it. In a normal Heavenly Game, the Whispers would have informed the larger guilds for a price. That wasn’t the case this time around.

[ Attention players! Gate 13 has opened! ]

Dasha went through the eastern gate and arrived in the Server Room alongside ten others. Quickly, everyone entered the portal. The world went white. A thick, earthy scent entered his nose. When Dasha opened his eyes, he saw a thick white mist and nothing else. The soil below him was wet and crunched under his weight. Dasha didn’t move. Not yet.

[ Gate 13 : Silent Forest

Main Objective: ?

Prize Pool: ?

SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: ?

SPECIAL PRIZE POOL: ? ]

He was here. He was alone. He was officially inside the gate that no one in history had been able to solve. First thing, scanning. His eyes, his ears, his taste…use everything to scan the surroundings.

‘It’s just like Xavier said. Qi Sensing is useless.’

To describe the sensation, it was like dipping a toe into pool water and instantly touching the floor. It was a disappointing block he could not get over. The colour and shade implied it was deeper and yet…

‘Useless. It's absolutely useless.’ He struck the mist. Even with Thor’s gauntlets, the mist stayed. There was nothing he could do to combat the mist. 'Open inventory.' Via his hand, he pulled out a black capsule. It was the size of a basketball and was carved in magical markings. He inserted a tinge of Qi inside and tossed it high up. As casual as it might have appeared, the toss in fact travelled a hundred feet up, disappearing into the mist.

BOOM!

The explosion was vaguely caught by his ears. Set off by a timer, the pure explosion of flames created the tiniest of openings in the mist. At the end of the day, it did nothing. 'Fog droplets should theoretically evaporate upon receiving sun rays. The class six magic bomb I bought should have dropped down both temperature and humidity level.'

The temperature had indeed dropped yet the fog lingered. It became clear that real-world science did not apply to this fog. Just in case, he tossed two more of the class six magic capsules. Both failed to even slightly thin out the fog. That was three hundred thousand points down the drain. Dasha was truly on his own.

Readjusting to his normal five senses wasn’t an issue. In the days leading up to Gate 13, he had been training to rely solely on his five senses. During the Golden Generation, a blind sorcerer by the name of Sandhya Chadha wrote a book on sensory magic and its adaptations. She identified the semi-common System skill called Magic Sensitivity and cited it as a skill that developed after the body adapts to a powerful dosage of magic. Not all bodies adapted but according to her own experiments one in ten players did. Due to the nature of the Heavenly Games, it became neither common nor rare. Following the Enlightenment Era and the establishment of the University of True Magic (currently known as the Tower of True Magic), Magic Sensitivity became common for Wizards and Sorcerers.

However, a select few no matter how hard they tried could not gain the skill. It was a matter of compatibility. In her studies, she judged that was both an issue of talent and specialization. Often, she found that those that could not learn Magic Sensitivity were warriors, swordsmen, lancers, and cultivators. Players that focused on close-range weaponry. Their sensing capabilities were significantly shorter and focused. Less of an emphasis was placed on the analysis of detect mana sources and more on their location and movement.

In another book, Sandhya Chadha went on to explain her experiences prior to becoming a full-fledged wizard capable of Magic Sensitivity. As a blind woman, her senses were naturally sharper than normal humans. However, in the Heavenly Games, that meant nothing. She didn't have superpowers. She couldn't detect everything around her like sonar. But without Magic Sensitivity, she was forced to adapt and naturally develop that sonar. It worked too. After nearly a year in the Heavenly Tower, her senses became greater than ever before. She suspected that her accomplishment was in part due to the System and the deftness stat. On Earth, this would have been impossible. Here, the System made the impossible possible.

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Sandhya Chadha was a genius. Her name was often cited in current research books regarding the body and its relationship with magic. Because of the sharpening of her senses, Sandhya Chadha's sensing capabilities became the greatest in the Heavenly Games. As of last year, her maximum range was a radius of twenty-six kilometers. A sonar of that scale was ludicrous. She was essentially able to scan an entire city in the blink of an eye.

But what Dasha focused on was that second book and the training regiment she took on. Dasha could never replicate it completely due to time restraints. But like Sandhya Chadha, he was a genius. Grasping the general concepts was simple after forty hours of uninterrupted training. The most vital step was to match one's breath with their heartbeat. Listen close. Listen well. Listen calmly.

The Silent Forest could be as loud as an intense autumn wind or as quiet as nothingness itself. He stood there for minutes. He didn’t move.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Dasha's gaze remained steadfast. Finally, he took his first step. The crunchiness of the soil, the taste of the air and the slight acidity. Fog was supposed to be pure and tasteless. This was not. This was magical in nature and seemed to absorb everything but sound waves.

With each step, he matched his heartbeat and listened to his surroundings. The difficulty couldn't be overstated. The slightest delay in rhythm could ruin his concentration. His range grew further and further, detecting trees and tiny rocks in the ground. He approached a specific tree. Coming closer, at three metres away, he was able to see it.

“California Redwoods,” he muttered. “They grow in places with high precipitation like mountains. Could this be a real place? Or an aberration like the Shadow Hall?”

He needed a hint. He needed something. He read up on the legends of the monsters that roamed the Silent Forest and conjured up several theories. Theories, however, did not matter if he did not get to encounter monsters or players. His mutterings garnered deeper insight into his surroundings. He continued walking.

He visited the Redwood National and State Parks to help a professor once. As the distance between trees became apparent, so did the inaccuracies. The spacing of redwood trees, generally speaking, wasn't this vast. His journey through the mist of white was intensely dull. Nothing but trees lay in his wake.

A whole hour passed until his ears caught another crunch. Ten metres ahead, someone was there. ‘No, not one. Three? Four?’ The footsteps had momentarily stopped. Dasha stopped with them. Seven metres lay between them. Vaguely, he could make out an outline of them.

He heard barks, deep and harrowing. Its bass was like the Doberman Pinschers except twice as loud. Dasha's ear drums rattled as the barks kept going.

“Get your hellhound in control!”

“I-I just got him so…”

“I know! And I don't care!”

“S-sorry.”

Two voices, one confident and the other meek.

“Now, now,” a new voice tutted, “we should save our energy for the enemies. The hellhound is just leading us to where we need to.”

Ha. What a coincidence. To think they would reunite here of all places. The group ahead consisted of eight players total and were led by a certain proud woman. Long blonde hair, big blue eyes, and a personality that flickered between generosity and ambition. She paired her purple underbust corset with a black blouse wide on her neck and her knee-length black skirt with four inch heels. She was accompanied by five players and took charge as guild leader.

‘Samantha,’ Dasha thought. As Samantha and her group walked, so did he. He came closer and closer until he saw her and everyone else. He activated his cloak's invisibility. They didn't notice a thing. He hovered over their shoulders and checked out the barking creature. Large and ferocious, the supersized dog snarled and jerked away from the chain connected to its collar. The young dark-skinned male responsible was meek and weak: Level 17 in a white gambeson with the Animal Tamer Class. His name was Caleb.

‘Right, the Animal Tamer Class. The ability to tame monsters and animals and place them into a slot. It’s like playing Pokémon: you find a creature of your choosing and attempt to tame it any way you can until you can keep it in your slot. A potential avenue if one wanted to solve the great mystery of the Silent Forest—or so an amateur would think.’ The issue, as they would find out soon, was that it was impossible to keep a tamed animal here. The dog kept barking louder and louder. Its eyes were beady red and its black fur would suddenly be enveloped in flames.

‘A hellhound from European legend…I hear the Asuras sell them.’

The hellhound didn’t notice him, growling at nothing and everything. He was practically dragging his owner off.

“Dude, I said to get him under control!” said Liam, one of two mages with a staff. The other was a woman that was just as tall and just as angry looking as Liam. Her name was Wilma and she was clearly his twin sibling. Both wore brown robes and had brown hair of slightly altered length. Wilma was shoulder-length while Liam had a manbun.

“He's not listening!” Caleb replied. “I don't know!”

Lesser minded creatures become disobedient. Just one of the many features to this fog. Suddenly, the hellhound stopped and howled. The group of six froze up.

“A warning,” Caleb said. “An enemy is here!”

‘Oh? Does it possess a supernatural sense?'

Dasha waited patiently. The hellhound either knew he was here or was detecting something else. There was no point acting rash. His speed and equilibrium was honed to the point that he could slip in and out without notice. The group of six found each other and had their backs to each other. A giant yellow light broke the mist apart. The air became wet and cold. Golden and bright, a shriek echoed through the air and Dasha’s ears were rattled again. The first of the Will-o'-wisp had arrived.