Chapter 364 – Visions and Blurred Perceptions
Chapter 364 – Visions and Blurred Perceptions
“Mark, going forward, is it really the elves’ quarters?” Sol asked in a deep voice.
Mark hadn’t realized that something was wrong, he nodded somewhat anxiously, “Yes.”
The row of human figures behind him had not yet disappeared, and stood silently behind Mark.
Flanking him.
Saul didn’t rub his eyes or close them and open them again.
He lifted his hand and pointed to Mark’s side, “Algae.”
Black tentacles immediately flew out and swept along Mark’s circumference.
Like a stone thrown into the water, the air around Mark rippled, and those humanoids with their heads hung low gradually dissipated in the ripples.
Mark wanted to defend the moment he saw the small algae, but he saw Saul’s solemn expression and held back.
It was only when Komoro had flung two lashes through the air that Mark looked to his left and right, “Did you see anything?”
“There were a lot of silhouettes around you just now, but they were gone in one sweep.” Thorl paused for a moment, not quite sure, “Maybe it’s an illusion of this forest too, like a mirage.”
“A mirage?” Morton turned his head to Agu, who wasn’t very good at this.
Agu, however, failed to give an accurate answer, “Like. But my mental body is stable, and it’s not like I’m under the influence of a hallucination.”
An also followed up, “That’s right, I’m very sensitive to changes in my mental body, and I didn’t notice anything unusual when those figures appeared just now.”
While several people pondered what the sight they saw meant, Mark just sighed.
“Ever since we came to the Forest of Four Seasons, we’ve already encountered a lot of phenomena that can’t be explained with our current knowledge. Now that I’ve seen it all, as long as it doesn’t threaten my life, I don’t care about the human shadows and ghosts.”
Saul nodded and took a step to follow Mark.
“That’s right, the anomaly here is definitely not something we can unravel. Let’s find Kongsa first.”
Several people walked in the deep forest for two hours, during which they encountered several more strange phenomena.
However, there were no encounters with the elves that Mark said would come after them, so there was no more life-threatening run.
When Saul felt tired again, the scene in front of him was finally no longer just trees vines and grass.
The growth of the forest was as if someone had pressed the pause button, and Saul crossed over a row of sky-high ancient trees and was suddenly met with an open expanse of tender green grass.
The sunlight could finally splash on it with impunity, and the breeze didn’t have to worry about being blocked by the dense foliage anymore.
A simple white wooden house stood on the grass.
These houses were built randomly and distributed randomly. It was like coming over for a spring trip and setting up a random tent.
As Mark stepped onto the grass, Saul finally saw the third person within the valley.
And this person he had seen only a short while ago.
Monroe.
Monroe was standing sideways at the moment, and Saul could only see half of his face.
He was staring into the distance, his mouth slightly open, seemingly in a state of disorientation.
“Monroe!” Seeing this, Mark immediately shouted.
Monroe’s body trembled and turned his head violently.
Saul’s footsteps that were about to follow instantly stopped in place.
Monroe, he was missing an eye.
If Saul remembered correctly, it was the very one he had eaten in front of him.
Monroe’s only remaining eye lit up when he saw Saul, ignoring Mark, who walked past, and jogged all the way to Saul.
“You finally came over! Konza said you’d be able to help us escape if you came! I was afraid you wouldn’t need the Cryptocrystalline Plasm!” Monroe’s face was agitated, and his empty eye sockets twitched.
He reached out to grab Saul, but was physically blocked away by several Consciousnesses.
“What’s going on?” Monroe wondered, “What are they?”
“What happened to your eyes?” Saul asked him. Monroe raised his hand to his empty eye socket, poking his fingertip in a little and pulling it out quickly.
“It broke when I was attacked by an elf, and I happened to be eating at the time ……”
Seeing that Saul and Monroe hadn’t clashed, Mark was relieved to head deeper into the staggered houses, calling out a few names under his breath.
The one shouted the most was Konza.
Saul was still a little uneasy about Monroe, and in Mark’s absence at the moment, he just happened to re-ask the question he had asked Mark.
Monroe gave the same answer, and there wasn’t much difference in the details.
After listening to Monroe’s description, Saul also told Monroe about the knowledge detachment he had seen in the Sorcerer’s Tower.
“…… He suddenly ate his own eyes.”
Monroe wasn’t very surprised, “With my eyes gone, his are naturally useless.”
Then he also licked his lips, “It’s quite tasty, I haven’t eaten meat in a long time.”
He was more surprised by the other thing Sol mentioned, “Has it been six months out there?”
“You guys don’t feel it?” Saul felt that wizards should still be sensitive to time.
Monroe let out a bitter smile, “There is no pattern to the alternation of day and night in the Forest of Four Seasons, sometimes the sun doesn’t set for three or four days, sometimes the night doesn’t end for three or four days. Not only day and night, the seasons here are also different from outside.”
By this time, Mark had already turned back, he looked worried and mumbled, “Where did they run off to, how dangerous is this place, didn’t they say they can’t leave without authorization?”
Saul glanced at Mark in the afterglow, most of his attention still on Monroe.
“…… The seasons here are divided by region. The farthest from the center of the valley is spring, the dense forest you encountered on your way over is summer, and further on here is fall.”
Hearing this, An couldn’t help but pick up, “Then wouldn’t the very center of the Elven Valley be winter? Wouldn’t it still snow here all the time?”
Who would have expected Monroe to give Ann a strange look, “What winter? What snow? There are four seasons in a year, and the last season is of course the dead season!”
Ann stalled, wondering if the one-eyed apprentice in front of him was teasing himself.
Saul lifted his hand and sidled up to ask directly at Mark who had walked behind Monroe and stood frozen wondering what he was thinking.
“Mark, do you not know what winter is either?”
Mark, who was standing behind Monroe, drifted off for a moment, and seemed to realize that he was on the verge of bumping into Monroe’s back, and hastily took a step backward.
He rubbed his brow and muttered, “I know, snow season, winter, it’s called differently everywhere, it’s …… the time period when it’s very cold and rains a kind of white crystallization.”
It was fine if Mark didn’t explain, but once he did it instantly made Saul think that he was just as sick.
“Both of them are a little fuzzy in their awareness of winter?” Saul said in his heart, and then he made a gesture for the four consciousnesses to stop interjecting randomly.
He would have to see from future exchanges what other perceptions had been blurred for these people.
And the places that were blurred were probably the key to leaving the Elven Valley.
Though the purpose of Saul coming over wasn’t to save anyone, he needed to find that one thing in the Forest of Seasons that was so important to him and could save his life in the future.
Unfortunately, this time the diary didn’t have any hints.
Next everyone has to find a way out of the valley while searching for that important thing.
“So, Monroe, is the very center of the valley the Dead Season? What does that look like?”
Monroe didn’t regain his cognizance from what Mark had just explained, and he rightfully said, “Is something going on out there? You don’t even know that? The dead season is the season when there is nothing, as if time is detached, ah! And the dead season is also the season when it’s easiest to be attacked by elves.”
Mark lowered his hand as well, the bridge of his nose already red from his own pinching.
“The palace I was just talking about is right where the fall and dead seasons meet. The edge range of the seasons here will float a few hundred meters. When the fall season expands, there will be more food, but the corresponding danger will be greater.”
Monroe nodded repeatedly, “My eye was attacked while eating a mushroom. It was the mushroom that attacked me!”
He had an indignant look on his face, “And then I ate that mushroom by holding it down!”
(End of chapter)