CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 49: SILENCE

Herag was now quite a distance from the Moonlight Forest entrance, roughly needing half an hour to walk back there.

"Relying on Shenlan’s detection, let’s go a bit further, but not too deep. If anything feels wrong, we retreat immediately." After some thought, Herag decided to cautiously venture a bit deeper.

The outskirts of the Sleeping Mushroom area were getting hard to find. He had to take a little risk and go in a bit deeper.

The main dangers deeper within the Moonlight Forest stemmed from two sources: the various fierce magical beasts and bizarre plants, and the potential encounter with the Wizards of Green Cottage.

In the forest depths, the ground was covered with thick foliage; Herag felt the leaves were several centimeters deep as he stepped on them.

With Shenlan’s detection functionality, he didn’t need to worry about pitfalls hidden beneath the leaves.

Herag didn’t dare to venture too far in, he just wandered around this area and managed to dig up eight Sleeping Mushrooms in about an hour.

"There are indeed more here compared to the outskirts, but... it’s just a bit too quiet."

Herag noticed that during his time here, there wasn’t a sound around, exceedingly quiet, eerily so.

Realizing the abnormality here, he immediately halted his steps.

Herag carefully observed his surroundings, the details he noticed made him furrow his brow.

Normally, there would be a slight breeze in the forest, causing leaves and vegetation to sway gently, but now everything—flowers, trees, grass—seemed like a frozen photograph.

Herag began to retreat, but after a few steps, he realized he couldn’t leave this place.

The nearest tree was ten meters behind him, and he kept walking toward it, but no matter how he proceeded, he couldn’t get any closer.

Herag stopped and tried to calm himself.

He squatted down, noticing a plant reaching his waist.

Herag gently touched it, and the entire plant quickly withered and collapsed into a pile of ash.

"Shenlan, during this time, did you detect any unusual magic power fluctuations?" Herag was puzzled that he hadn’t noticed anything peculiar, yet suddenly encountered this bizarre situation.

"No unusual magic power fluctuations detected," Shenlan replied.

"Shenlan, check if my mind is normal, see if I am in an illusion state."

Shenlan immediately replied, "Everything is normal."

Herag pondered that wandering around now wouldn’t solve anything; wandering aimlessly might lead him to an unknown space, akin to the Lost Mist.

"Wait... the Lost Mist..."

Herag thought of his Starry Sky Meditation Technique, which helped him orient himself and escape the Lost Mist previously.

He entered a meditative state, beginning to sense the positions of the stars overhead.

Moments later, Herag’s expression turned a bit grave.

Not only couldn’t he sense his four stars, but he also noticed that the positions and numbers of stars in the sky had changed, completely different from before.

"This constellation... it’s almost like appearing on a foreign planet."

Herag felt a tricky situation; normally, stars move regularly, it’s impossible for the whole sky to look different overnight unless you’re not on the original planet anymore.

Herag took a deep breath and began contemplating a solution.

At this time, he couldn’t rush around recklessly to avoid triggering unknown taboos, turning into dust like that plant.

Cough... Cough...

He heard faint, labored breathing, the sound very distant and small, but in this deathly silence, it seemed especially conspicuous.

Soon, three people entered Shenlan’s detection range—three men running desperately, looking quite distressed.

The leading man wore an exquisite gold-trimmed wizard robe, and the other two wore ordinary wizard apprentice robes.

Herag noticed all three robes bore the mark of a wooden house, representing them as Wizards of Green Cottage.

"Shenlan, assess their power."

After Herag gave the order, detailed data appeared above the heads of the three men, for him to examine.

"Power 6.2, Agility 6.8, Constitution 7.0, Spirit 18.9."

"Power 3.7, Agility 2.9, Constitution 4.1, Spirit 9.5."

"Power 3.5, Agility 2.5, Constitution 3.5, Spirit 8.3."

All three men’s attributes surpassed Herag’s, especially the leader, whose spiritual power was already at the standard of a Third Class Wizard Apprentice, with his other physical data also clearly at that standard.

Herag had nowhere to retreat and could only hide in a dense shrub, but hiding would be meaningless in front of these three.

The bushes’ plants, like that single plant, would shrivel instantly into ash upon contact.

"Lune, sir! We’ve already entered the Moonlight Forest area; it’s easy to encounter their people!" The man with the lowest spiritual power gasped while running, reminded.

Lune was the Third Class Wizard Apprentice, and with a look of terror at what was behind them, he angrily said to the person next to him, "What choice do we have! I’d rather die at the hands of the people in Moonlight Forest than at that monster behind us."

The other person said, "Sir Lune is Sir Malcolm’s own brother, they wouldn’t dare to easily kill him in Moonlight Forest. By luring Shivara here, we could instead trap them once."

"Idiot! There’s no guarantee we’ll escape! I had to use a precious demonized item just to buy us some time!" Lune sped up, quickly widening the gap with the two behind.

The two looked at each other, realizing the severity of the situation.

Lune’s speed was much faster, so the monster behind would surely catch the two of them first.

Realizing this problem, the two began sprinting, their faces flushed red, seemingly exerting all their strength.

"Malcolm’s own brother..." Hearing this name, Herag recalled the massacre of the Baron’s entire family in the castle by Malcolm.

He remembered Malcolm introducing himself then, saying he came from Green Cottage.

"What a coincidence? His own brother also has the power of a Third Class Wizard Apprentice." Herag felt somewhat overwhelmed.

Lune’s trio quickly ran towards Herag; Lune noticed Herag’s presence immediately, but without sparing him a glance, kept running forward.

They soon discovered the eerie aspect of this place, and Lune’s expression drastically changed: "What’s going on! Why can’t we get through?"

"Could it be the Moonlight Forest’s people have set some barrier here?" someone beside him speculated.

Lune glanced at Herag’s hiding place, extended his hand, rapidly forming a Fireball Technique, and sent it flying toward Herag’s location.

"Ice Shield!"

"Mana Shield!"

"Dark Energy Shield!"

Having kept an eye on their movements, Herag prepared to flee as Lune turned. He instantly deployed three shields and activated the Wind Elf’s ring to evade the fireball.

The fireball exploded where he stood, incinerating countless plants into ash and stirring up a cloud of dust.