On Sunday morning, while Dorothy was in a good mood preparing breakfast in the kitchen, Shad, who had tidied up, took out the key and stood at the door of the side bedroom.
This time, Mia didn't insist on following. The cat was now attracted by the smell of food in the kitchen and probably didn't notice that Xia De was getting ready to leave.
"See you in three seconds, Dorothy."
He said something to the blonde writer across the restaurant. After the aproned girl turned around and waved, Shade inserted the key in his hand into the lock of the door:
“The adventure is about to begin again. I wonder what the story will be like this time—May the World Tree protect me for the infinite time.”
Click!
The door was opened, and the misty door with white mist was so familiar and intimate to Shade. He checked the belongings he brought with him one last time, and then stepped in.
Stranger, you have stepped into the "Corridor of Time".
Message from the ancient god "Father of the Infinite Tree":
Autumn of the 4791th year of the Fifth Era, Southern Continent, Worm Cave.
Event: Butterfly Festival.
Duration: thirty minutes (1/3).
"Southern Continent? However, 4791... 1767 years have passed since I said goodbye to Miss Orlanod at the Gadis Library in the Dead Valley. It's still 386 years since I entered the Lost Lake and met the Witch Emperor. This is another era without any acquaintances. The Butterfly Festival... This doesn't sound like a festival for the evil god..."
Xia De was thinking in the white mist. So far, he had only encountered one evil god in the past, and that evil god had left a deep impression on him:
"Worm Cave... I'm not afraid of worms, but..."
You get additional information.
The figure of the Infinite Tree Father watches over you.
The ancient god of time has given you a test.
Help mortals complete the ritual of the old god, 'Thousand-Eyed Illusion Butterfly', so that one of them will gain the favor of the scroll.
The Father of the Infinite Tree will give you rewards: Thaumaturgy - Fiona's Household Servant, a True Message - Mermaid.
"Um?"
The information reward about the mermaid race did not surprise Shade, as he had already obtained racial knowledge about elves and blood-sucking species. What surprised him was the magic, which corresponded to the Sloth Spirit Rune. Although the specific effect was unknown, judging from the name of the magic, it did not seem to be a combat ability.
“This is really… wonderful!”
Although the maids helped clean the house every Saturday, Shade still had to wash dishes, wipe the table, or clean up the messy desk of Mia on weekdays. Fortunately, the cat hardly sheds hair, otherwise the daily cleaning work would be more troublesome.
If this magic was really as he thought, a lost life-related magic from the "Housekeeping" series of the Fifth Age, then it would be extremely useful to him.
The transition from the Fifth Era to the Sixth Era caused a lot of knowledge to disappear. In terms of magic, most combat magic was preserved, but most of the private magic created by the Witch Emperors to facilitate their lives was lost.
But for the ring sorcerers living in a relatively peaceful era, the magic of the witch emperors is actually very important.
"The Festival of the Butterfly God... I wonder what kind of story I will encounter this time."
He took a step forward in the white mist. As the thick white mist slowly spread out like a curtain, the foul air choked Xia De and almost suffocated him.
In fact, the stench of the slum alleys has been smelled by outsiders more than once in this world, but the stench at this time is ten times more disgusting than that smell.
The white mist completely dissipated, and the moist, warm air mixed with a foul smell filled every part of the air around him, clinging to Xia De's skin. This even made Xia De want to throw away all his clothes and jump into the water tank after returning home.
"Worm Cave..."
With a bad feeling in his heart, he lit up the silver moonlight on his fingertips. Because he was worried about disturbing the things sleeping in the darkness, his light was very weak, but it also allowed him to see that he was in a long and narrow corridor. The corridor seemed to be drilled by giant insects. The whole corridor was not straight at all, and the inside was also abnormally rough.
The surrounding area was a lime-colored rock wall covered with densely packed small holes. As the moonlight got closer, Shade could see tiny multi-legged worms wriggling in almost every small hole:
"oh!"
At this moment, goose bumps appeared all over his body. Even though Shade was not afraid of insects, he could not stand it. Compared with the short-term life threats he encountered every time he appeared in the past, this "mental threat" was more terrifying.
He was glad that he started this adventure at the beginning of the day when he was most energetic. If it was at night when he was a little tired, he couldn't guarantee what he would do at this time.
The appearance of Shade, a human, also made the other creatures living in the narrow cave corridor restless. When colorful insects of all sizes crawled out from everywhere, including above his head, Shade had already rushed forward quickly.
He even felt that he had not run so fast even when he faced the "terror" behind him in the Dreadfort. But fortunately, the Treefather did not throw him too far away from the place where the incident happened. He ran in the winding and narrow corridor for less than 20 seconds before the end appeared in front of him.
“Fortunately there is no fork in the road!”
The ground vibrated as he ran fast, causing insects to fall from his head like rain. Of course, Xia De would not let himself be bathed in "insect rain". He gritted his teeth and transformed into a group of red butterflies and flew forward. At the end of the corridor, only a faint light could be seen. He did not care what was there at this time. The group of red butterflies flapped their wings and rushed out like a stream of red light.
It was the first time he knew that if he concentrated his attention highly, he could make the butterfly fly so fast.
However, the end of the corridor was not a flat ground at all. After the swarm of red butterflies flew out, Xia De realized that there was no solid ground under his feet, and outside the entrance was a huge cave leading downwards.
Then, under the gaze of the three people who had already arrived at the bottom of the cave, a group of red butterflies flashing scarlet light flew out from one of the countless cave openings around. As the red butterflies slowly fell to the ground, Xia De, who felt itchy all over his body, also walked out of the red butterflies.
The air here was much fresher than the cave tunnel he had just been in. Looking up, he saw that the cave entrance he had just flown out of was two stories high away from the open space at the bottom where he was currently standing.
The insects did not follow out from the end of the corridor, as if the insect swarm just now was all Shade's imagination. The current location seemed to be the deepest part of the underground cave. The rough gray stone cliffs surrounding it were dotted with holes of various sizes. The large ones could allow a carriage to pass through, while the small ones were only as thick as a little finger.
Looking up, the light from the sky descended downwards, but it could not illuminate the surrounding rock walls. Endless darkness blocked the view, and the surrounding rock walls continued to extend upwards, and those large and small holes also extended upwards. It was impossible to see clearly where the highest point was, but it was certain that there were probably more insects living here than the living people of this era.
The open space at the bottom was as big as a square, but unusually empty. The ground was fairly flat, and in the middle of the open space was a huge round wooden table that could almost be used as a stage.
The wooden table was not painted, so the wood grain on the surface was very obvious. But Xia De could not see any traces of joints, which meant that the entire table came from a single tree. Xia De could not imagine how huge the tree was originally.
The faint light at the end of the corridor he saw in the "Insect Rain" corridor just now was the light that came down from the sky and illuminated the round table in the middle of the empty space. In addition, there were some faint candles on the table. Each candle was made of a crooked white long insect corpse and was placed on a wooden candlestick.
The candlelight was not bright, but the edge of the skylight was enough to illuminate the three people sitting on the log stools by the table and Shad who had walked out of the red butterflies.
It is worth mentioning that because the table is too big, the three people at the table did not choose to sit evenly, but moved their stools and sat on the same side of the table.
As the three of them watched in amazement as the last red butterfly landed on Shade's shoulder and then disappeared into red light, Shade was also observing them.
These are two ladies and a gentleman, but only one of them is a witch.
She was a woman who looked to be in her forties, with long brown hair. She had straightened her hair into a simple bun, layered it up, and used a few short hairpins in the shape of pink petals as decoration to cover up the traces of the hairpins.
Of course, although she looks to be in her forties, thanks to the long lifespan of witches, her age is probably close to a hundred.
The other lady looked to be in her thirties, with an unrefined face but an inexplicable sense of compassion. Although she was not a witch, the jewelry she wore and the short dagger on the table all had elemental reactions, and these were all alchemical items. She had long light brown hair and a wreath on her head. Her long hair was gathered together, wrapped around the back of her neck and resting on her left shoulder, and the ends of her hair were tied up with green twigs.
She was not wearing a skirt, but a robe, and judging by the style, it was a typical clergy robe.
As for the last gentleman, he was also about 30 years old, with very bright brown eyes. His facial features were very three-dimensional, and his eyebrows were slightly thicker. Even without a beard, one could tell that he was a very mature gentleman. There was a small pink flower pinned to the breast pocket of his black shirt.
He was dressed in formal attire, with a thick musket on the table in front of him. The black iron shell was branded with glowing runes, which was also an alchemical item. He probably relied on this to finally come here.