Stranger, you have stepped into the "Corridor of Time".
Message from the ancient god "Father of the Infinite Tree":
Spring of the 923rd year of the Fifth Era, Central Continent, Lost Forest.
Event: Travelers' storytelling session.
Duration: thirty minutes (2/3).
You get additional information.
The figure of the Infinite Tree Father continues to watch over you.
The tests given to you by the Ancient God of Time will continue.
Assist travelers to conclude their story with the "God of Journey".
The Father of the Infinite Tree will give you rewards: Thaumaturgy-Strong Spatial Perception, a True Message-Dragon.
Without stopping, he continued to take a step forward in the thick white fog. As the white fog slowly opened to both sides like a curtain, the dense woodland in the dark night with thin mist appeared in front of Xia De.
The temperature was very different from the warm and comfortable home, and the rancid smell made Xia De, who had just finished breakfast, very uncomfortable. This time he did not pay attention to the green glowing patterns on the trees, nor did he look at the bodies nailed to the trees, but ran forward immediately.
Note that the fog in this forest is similar in composition to the fog on the central island of Green Lake.
The last time I talked about "her", I didn't have such a reminder, probably because when Shade went to the island for the second time, he had a deeper contact with the thick fog on the island.
Of course, now was not the time to think about such things. The malice of the Lost Forest was chasing him closely from behind. In the endless darkness where he could not look back, the regrets of the souls who were lost on the road and the malice of this land towards travelers were trying to keep him forever in this endless forest.
In the eerie forest, there were endless whispers tempting Shad to stop and rest, and the hoarse voice murmuring despair tried to convince Shad that the end of the journey must be hopeless death.
The body temperature was dropping rapidly, and the physical strength was draining away at an abnormal rate. After just half a minute of running in the forest, Xia De was already out of breath, but at this moment, a faint warm yellow campfire light appeared in the gap between the trees in front of him.
At this moment, all the abnormalities in the forest disappeared. Shade subconsciously slowed down his pace and continued forward, eventually arriving at a campsite in the forest occupied by a bonfire and a small tent.
It didn't seem like a long time had passed since Shad left. The witch Aleila Andriana, the maid Clara, the old knight Zafir Yellen of the Kingdom of Nabus, and the bard Tika Enriques who called himself a baron, sat around the campfire, just like they did when Shad first came.
But this time their spirits were not numb.
The old knight was taking good care of the campfire, with dry firewood picked up from somewhere piled around him; the bard was writing something in his notebook with a serious expression on his face; the witch was checking her remaining spell materials and other items prepared to complete the journey, including a very conspicuous card; and the maid in the black dress was leaning against her master with her eyes closed to rest, and was then awakened by the sound of Shad's footsteps.
His footsteps attracted everyone's attention. The young brown-haired witch stood up first with a relieved smile on her face:
"You're finally back? We've been waiting for you for a long time."
"Long time no see, ma'am. Sorry to have kept you waiting. Did anything happen while I was gone?"
Shade asked, walking towards the bonfire. The witch nodded:
"Some lost souls have arrived at this camp before. But they are all souls, not living people like us. Even though I tried to keep them to inquire about the situation, they still left one by one."
"This forest can devour souls."
The bard's voice trembled with fear and excitement and said:
"If we hadn't completed the story of the gods' seven-day journey, I think we would have been lost here too."
"Calm down."
The old knight patted the depressed bard on the shoulder with his broad palm. He still looked so reliable:
"God has given us a chance, and we are doing pretty well so far. Don't give up hope."
He smiled politely at Xia De who was walking towards him, and Xia De nodded in response.
When Shad came to the campfire, he lowered his eyes and looked at the card with a familiar card back among the items placed at the witch's feet;
"This is... our ID cards. Didn't they disappear when the gods allowed us to rest?"
Xia De pointed at the card curiously and said:
"Ms. Andriana, is this the 'Game of Life' cards you carry with you?"
The witch was stunned, then shook her head:
"No, I don't play card games. These are my divination cards, and they led me here to find Clara's sister."
After the witch agreed, the maid Clara bent down to pick up the card and handed it to Shade to check. Shade turned the card over and saw the front of the card.
The man, whose face cannot be seen clearly, stands with his back to the outside of the card, holding a book in one hand and pointing inside the card with the other. The background of the card is a series of bizarre glowing bubbles in the infinite black starry sky.
"Everything is impermanent..."
He was startled for a moment, but blinked and returned the card to the witch.
Miss Aleila Andriana asked with some doubt:
"From your expression, do you recognize this card?"
"Yes, according to legend, this card belongs to a pack of thirteen cards that is the origin of all 'Game of Life' cards. This... is very valuable."
He pursed his lips as he spoke, but ultimately did not suggest that the witch leave the cards to a specific person or place the cards in a specific place after this adventure.
After going through so many things and coming into contact with so many Vientiane cards, Shade had long understood that these cards could only be owned by those who were destined to own them. Instead of deliberately creating an event to allow his future self to obtain this card, it would be better to let the card itself travel through thousands of years of history, spanning the years of the Fifth Era, and appear in his hands in a reasonable way... ...if he was really destined to own it.
Everything is impermanent, and everything is impermanent. This cannot be achieved by deliberate pursuit. Besides, Xia De has long learned the lesson of manipulating time and fate at will.
Now that Shade had returned, the seven-day story that had been going on for the second day could naturally continue. The four people around the campfire and Shade came to the narrow open space between the campfire and the tent, and sat down in a circle like last time. Shade took out the method of using the unicorn power that he had obtained from the elf girl and handed the notebook to the witch.
This high-level witch obviously had the ability to read quickly. While she was turning the pages of the book, Shade also changed the toy cat in his pocket back into the appearance of Mia.
"Meow~"
Although she was a little uncomfortable with the surrounding environment, Mia still cried happily and squirmed in Shade's arms. The other people were also attracted by the cat's cry, but no one asked why Shade brought a cat.
At this time, a voice also came from the shabby little tent. The traveler with his bag on his back walked out of the tent again:
"The traveler under the moon has returned. The short break is over. Let's continue the story of this boring night."
The god said kindly, then looked at the cat that Shade was holding, and after being slightly surprised, he said nothing.
She still sat on the ground opposite to Shade, with her back to the campfire. The stack of cards in her bag flew out automatically and landed on the open space between the crowd, and everyone's identity card also flew in front of them.
Xia De’s identity card, “Moonlight Traveler”, was clearly blank last time, but this time there was some content on the card.
It was a grassland with a dark blue night sky as the background, and the silver moon that occupied nearly half of the area above the card was shining on the small figure walking from left to right on the grassland. The figure on the card was really small, and compared to the huge moon, it was like an ant. If Shade was not very familiar with himself, he would not even recognize that the figure was himself.
"Meow~"
Mia immediately stretched out her claws to touch the card, but after sniffing it, she found that it was not edible, so she lost interest.
"Where did the last story go?"
The god asked with a smile, looking at the bard who lowered his head and dared not look around. The bard felt the "weight" of his gaze, so he said:
"The travelers met a black-robed boatman by the river. After defeating the Cyclops and obtaining the gold coins, the boatman refused to let the moonlit travelers board the boat."
"Yes, the story of the travelers will continue here. Since you don't want to abandon your companions, is there any other way? The story must continue. If you delay making a decision, something terrible may happen."
The god looked at Shade again, and Shade nodded:
"Since the traveler under the moon cannot board the ship because he is different from other travelers, he tries to make himself the same as other travelers."
He took out the bottle of brown potion, first touched Mia's little head warningly, and after the cat whimpered, he pulled out the cork and drank two big gulps under the gaze of everyone - to prevent other accidents from occurring due to insufficient transformation time.
The familiar burning sensation appeared, and then the whole body felt like it was melting. When it was over, Xia De opened his eyes and saw that everyone seemed to have grown taller, and Mia was looking at him cautiously, as if she wanted to get closer but didn't dare to.
"I'm not proficient in Transfiguration, so I can only rely on potions."
The sound of a man coming out of a cat's mouth was very strange, but the witch nodded anyway. Shade then looked at Mia, an orange and white cat about one year old, smaller than Shade's cat.
It walked over hesitantly, then lay down in front of Shade's front paws, and made a very gentle "meow" sound. Shade did not understand cat language because he turned into a cat, but at least he knew that the "warning" he gave Mia before the transformation was still very useful.