Chapter 5: 4. The Blackwood Forest

Chaos Year 3, Day 109, 6:17 pm.

The rustling sounds resonated across the Blackwood Forest, as our every step crunched the withered orange leaves. The smell of animals and monsters hung in the still air. No flowers seemed to help the uneasy odor. In the dim light of twilight, shadows darted about, leaving us with a creepy sensation as if everything was watching us. This strange feeling combined with the long foreboding cries of various creatures trembled our hearts from time to time.

"Ugh, where does it end? Feels like I've been walking forever." Shinji complained, eyes glancing around to find anything other than tree trunks and damp mossy soil. "And why were we teleported into…"

"Shut up! Stop whining. It's been only an hour." Lynx scowled. 

He and Pika had been on the move for a much longer time. Watching Lynx snap, Shinji gulped down his next words immediately.

"Isn't the void gate nearest to our city, though?" I continued the conversation, figuring chatting would be much better than walking silently in this creepy neighborhood. "I mean, the teleportation device couldn't even cover half the distance. It's even supposed to be the best device available."

"That's how far apart the cities are, Ryoki-kun. We don't usually feel that way, since we teleport through the celestial teleportation gates in the city halls." Hikari spoke as we walked side by side. Her long silky silver hair waved alongside her, covering half her side face, giving off a mysterious aura in the soft light. "Also, Blackwood Forest is quite large. So it's not like the forest is closer to Cephia City. Rather, the void gate is the closest to the city. Technically though, it'd have been much easier to reach the place through..."

"Hikari, you are doing it again," Boss sighed. 

Someone had to save us from Hikari's bullet info-dumping habit.

"Ah!" Hikari came back to her senses. "I am sorry."

"U-umm guys, I feel like something's watching us." Pinkpika's voice quivered, as her eyes nervously darted around. 

"Ya, I felt that ever since I entered the forest. women." Shinji shrugged, smirking.

"Not like that. Something really is tailing us, something big," Pika clarified.

Being a beastkin, her 5 senses were much sharper than other races in Chaos.

Then she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her large purple eyes fixated on a single direction, as her frail index pointed at our left, "L-look!"

 A pair of bloodshot eyes, three times larger than a human's, approached us from the shadow behind the thicket. As it got out of the shadow, moonlight glimmered on the creature, revealing its massive golden brown body. 

Auoooo~

Under the bright full moon, it let out a spine chilling howl

"Oh! that's Lykos the Wolf King, right?" I recognized the majestic beast right away. "How deep in the forest are we?"

"You know that thing?" Pinkpika gaped at the savage four-legged monster.

"Yeah, We fought it once before," Boss growled. He moved forward, bringing out his large golden shield. "Get ready guys! This guy ain't alone. They move with the whole bunch."

"Eh, can't we just skip this? It'll just be pointless killings anyway." I tried to convince the others to just run, because we wouldn't get that many EXP points for killing these monsters, since they were much lower level than us. "And you know, I don't wanna murder Pika's relatives."

"For the last time, every animal you see isn't my relative, Senpai." Pinkpika pouted. "And how do you even mix wolves with a catgirl? Look how fluffy I am."

She waved her furry tail up and down while jiggling her ears.

What the heck? That's cute. 

"Someone's getting cold feet." Shinji chimed in to mock me, bringing an end to Pinkpika's cute display. "Heh, who's useless now?"

"No, it's just that…ugh…my new playstyle isn't that great against a horde of enemies." After spending all the squad money to buy necessary items and practicing a whole month, coming out as weaker than before wouldn't really look good for me. "I don't want this to be my first show-off. Because you know, like, I want to surprise everyone."

"Chill comrade, let this big bro handle it for ya, hehe." Boasting like an alpha male, Shinji joined Boss at the front line.

Soon hundreds of regular brown wolves gathered responding to Lykos' howl. Under the leadership of their king, the wolves slowly closed in. They trapped us in a small circle, rendering us immobile, unable to escape or use our full abilities. Beneath the moonlight, their bloodthirsty eyes and teeth glistened, as they howled together creating a blood-curdling cry of agony.

As the wolves stepped forward, we gradually retreated backward until our backs touched. We couldn't look away from those bloody eyes. They would jump at us any moment now. 

Pinkpika, beside me, shivered, as she mumbled under her heavy breath, "We are gonna die just like that, not even reaching the gate?"

"What are you talking about?" Boss asked Pika from her other side with a grin. Then he shouted, "Guys, let's start the party."

Hikari aimed her bow upwards towards the sky and softly enunciated, "Infuse Light element. Moonlit Fireworks." 

After an immense amount of light gathered around her arrow, she shot it directly above our head. 

Free from Hikari's grasp, the arrow soared high into the sky, shining brighter than the full moon. Soon after, true to the name, it exploded into hundreds of pieces of white light and showered down on the ground.

"What the fuck? it's coming down on us." Shinji yelled out, ready to jump into the horde of wolves, rather than take Hikari's skill head-on.

"Relax, I got this. You guys just keep the wolves at bay." Assuring Shinji, Boss held his shield up over his head and roared, "Shield of Dawn, awaken. Golden Ray of Hope."

 Golden light enveloped the shield and gradually it reshaped into a large light barrier covering all the seven of us.

Shortly, Hikari's skill hit the ground with a huge Area of Effect. The light particles showered like rain, creating an enormous bloodbath. 

Wolves screeched left and right, trying to escape. In an instant, the whole horde vanished, leaving only Lykos the wolf lord writhing in pain. 

Standing alone in the blood pool of its subjects, it intently gazed at the moon and howled. Maybe this time, it truly was the cry of agony.

Boss then turned back to Pinkpika, and beamed, "We ain't half bad, eh?" 

Pika couldn't utter a single word. Her eyes gleamed, as she watched Shinji and Lynx rushing towards Lykos. 

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It only took them a few more blows to subdue the already wounded wolf lord.

After a while, we returned to our old route and moved forward. The night grew darker as we stepped deeper into the forest. Gradually, the surroundings quieted down and the air around became heavier. Soon we found ourselves shrouded in thick fog.

Hikari wrapped her hands around her arms, attempting to protect herself from the chilly wind. 

why doesn't just use her light element for warmth? Should I tell her? Or maybe I should just offer her my long jacket?

"Everyone, stay close to each other. It'll be warmer that way, and no one will get lost in the fog." Boss blurted out, before I could approach Hikari. "Hold on a bit more. We're almost there."

Well, I guess that also works.

I strode past Annette-san and caught up to Hikari. She glanced at me, as I got closer. 

"Hey. It suddenly got a bit chilly, eh? How are you holding up?" I asked.

"I'm fine." She replied, straightening up quickly. "Anyway, why do you think it suddenly got so cold? It shouldn't be winter around this part yet."

"Hmm…Maybe we are close to the void gate and on the other side, it's winter?"

"Oh! That might actually be true. I didn't know you were so perceptive, Ryoki-kun."

"Are you making fun of me?" I frowned.

"No, I'm serious." 

I honestly couldn't tell if she was serious or not. So I tried to catch her impression. 

Noticing my stare she asked, "What is it? Is there something on my face?"

"Ya, a pimple, on your nose."

"Right. My in-game character has a pimple on the nose." She scoffed at me but touched her nose anyway, which nearly made me chuckle. 

Watching me trying to hold back my laugh, she glowered at me, "Ryoki-kun, don't make me punch you."

"Sorry, I'm sorry." I held up my arms, surrendering immediately.

"We have reached the place." Lynx suddenly turned back at us from the front and added, "The void gate should be somewhere around here."

"Eh, we don't know the exact location? How are we supposed to find the gate in this thick fog?" Pinkpika asked Lynx.

Boss replied instead, "We don't have any choice." Getting detailed information about unannounced in-game contents was very unlikely. He continued, "Everyone, look for any kind of abnormalities inside the ten-meter radius. And don't lose sight of the others."

The search continued for quite a while. We literally didn't leave any stone unturned, yet failed to find the void gate. 

Succumbing to frustration, I finally asked, "Hey Lynx, how sure are we about this info?"

"The guy is a cheeky bastard but he wouldn't dare lie to me. And you know, I can't give you the name." He answered.

"Geez, alright then, let's continue." 

About 10 minutes later, Hikari suddenly called us, "Guys, Come over here." 

As we gathered around her, she took her stance to shoot with her longbow and said, "Keep your eyes on the arrow." 

The light-infused arrow traveled through the heavy fog and suddenly vanished in mid-air. 

"The arrow must have gone to the other side. So I think this is it." She concluded.

"Sweet! No more tree climbing, finally!" Shinji exclaimed. "How did you find it though?"

"Well, earlier Ryoki-kun and I were talking." Hikari glanced at me for a second before explaining, "He said that it got so cold because we might be close to the void gate and the cold weather spread here from the other side. So I was shooting wherever I thought the fog was thicker than usual and found it eventually."

"Good job, you two." Boss praised both of us, even though I contributed very little. He then added, "Guys, my gut says we are gonna be stuck in the void for a very long time. So everyone, log out and stuff yourselves with food before that. You have 30 minutes."

"By the way, Pika." Just when I was about to call Riri to log me out, Shinji called out to Pinkpika. "If you didn't know already, we can't log out from the inside once we enter the voids and dungeons."

"I at least know that, Arataki Senpai." Pika rolled her eyes. "I'm not a newbie. I'm over 200 levels already."

"Well, you didn't know how to mute system messages." I tagged in.

Annoying cute little cats was kind of my thing.

"Remember the time when you started complaining about the pop-up system messages in mid-battle and died? That was quite the scene."

"Not you too, Senpai." Pika's eyes teared up, with her ears and tail drooping down.

Somehow controlling the overwhelming urge to pet her, I logged out.

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