The dark forest greeted each member of the group with a quiet rustling of leaves and swaying trees. Asan walked at the front of the group, acting as a scout along with Crane, so that in case they spotted any danger, they could quickly warn the rest of the group.
This forest looked much livelier than the others they had encountered before; the leaves on the trees were not dried out and brown but blooming with life, looking healthy. The bark of the tall trees was slightly cracked, creating millions of paths along which tiny insects scurried. The air in the forest was pleasant and refreshing, something that each member of the Geographer's group lacked.
All sounds faded away, leaving only the light footsteps of the group and the whispers of people discussing how unrealistically this forest appeared compared to its surroundings. It was true. Due to the tall trees and the abundance of leaves on them, the blood-red sky could not properly penetrate through the tree canopies, making the surrounding environment darker but also more peaceful.
The red color was a strong irritant for each member of the team. Asan could swear that the red color would become the most hated in the life of everyone on earth after the System descended.
Strolling languidly through the surprisingly vibrant grass, Asan couldn't help but enjoy this feeling of calm. It was truly remarkable, since he had experienced such a sensation very rarely since leaving Janschwalde. It felt like he was in an environment familiar to him. He had the same pleasant feeling when he was alone in the hangar at the warehouses, detached from reality in the depths of his dreaming consciousness, disturbed only by Bridgite, who occasionally came to treat his wounds.
But the intoxicating feeling quickly vanished, replaced by surprise and fear at the unexpected appearance of a system window.
The window that appeared for each member of the Geographer's group.
[WARNING! You have entered an area of increased danger!]
[A new mission has appeared! Go to the Missions section to learn more details.]
For several seconds, everyone from the camp stood rooted to the spot, reading the text that had appeared before their faces. What does an area of increased danger mean? There had been nothing like this before, so Asan immediately turned his gaze to Crane, who was frowning at the sign in front of him.
"Do you also get a notification about the area of increased danger?" Asan asked, slightly tensing up.
Crane nodded silently and looked back, seeing panic and fear appearing on the faces of ordinary people. Geographer immediately noticed the looks on each person's face and raised his hand, giving a non-verbal command to stop.
The next ten minutes were spent organizing something like a way station, but the main necessity was to discuss what had actually happened. Ten people, including the strike team, Geographer, Nelson, and two of his surviving soldiers in steel armor, formed a circle and began discussing what exactly the ominous message from the system meant.
"Maybe this is some kind of trick to keep us from going further?" Laszlo said, leaning on his flamberge, which he never parted with even during sleep after the fort.
"It's unlikely, System hasn't done anything like this before, not even during the bloody rain or that swarm of drones in the fort. This is something completely new and very dangerous" Crane said, wiping his axe with leaves he had picked up in Janschwalde.
He alone did not like the halberds or something else, so he decided to stick with what he already had.
"Anyway, this is a warning. We have already entered this area... Of increased danger, although it doesn't sound very good, since if we've been fighting hordes of monsters all along without such a notification, does that literally mean we're now stepping onto a path straight to hell?"
Said Paul, squirming on the spot as if he had a splinter in his butt.
"Suppose so, but how are we supposed to calm people down? If we can somehow defend ourselves in this zone, what will happen to them?"
Brigitta nervously spoke, constantly looking at the group of people whose faces showed they were experiencing fear and terror.
"But there's still the mission, right?"
"Maybe we should read it first before making any arguments?" Nelson decided to say, standing next to his knight in steel armor.
Everyone nodded silently and immediately opened the quest tab. The first quest that appeared was the well-known one about reaching level twenty. Previously, it had been the only quest in this tab, but now there was a completely new one right below it, which everyone immediately opened.
[Zone Hazard Quest!]
[Objective - Kill as many 'Shadows' as possible.]
[Description: They are like a blight on every planet, like a pack of monsters that feeds off corpses or remnants of civilizations. This evil emerged by mistake in ancient times due to a few individuals, and now many have to pay the price for it.]
Shadows are the enemy of all living things, the enemy of the very concept of existence, beings that carry only malice and anger, wanting to turn all worlds into their habitat. The Forest of Shadows is but a drop in the ocean of what is happening throughout the entire universe, but you must show that you are capable of dealing with them and escaping the forest.
[REWARD - depends on the completed objective].
Asan read the text carefully, his eyebrows lowering further and further as he went on. Once again, System had presented a strange riddle, this time not just about abilities but also in the tasks. Are shadows an ancient evil? If so, how did they end up on their planet, or are they present on every planet?
"What do you say?" Asan asked after everyone had finished reading.
"I can say for certain that the enemy we face is no simple foe."
Most likely, these Shadows can imitate abilities or movements, well... At least that's how it was in the games" said Alice, looking at Asan. Suddenly, a light chuckle came from under Nelson's steel helmet. Alice immediately bared her teeth and glared at him angrily.
"What did I say that was funny, or what?" the girl growled, looking at the knight.
"Oh... Sorry, little girl, we're in the real world, not your... Games, your shit probably won't help here" the knight said in a squeaky and disgusting voice, leaning on his long halberd.
Asan saw a vein pop out on the girl's face, and her face turned red with anger. The guy already guessed what might happen, but unexpectedly, it was none other than Nelson himself who settled their argument.
"Goblin, shut your mouth and think about the mission."
'I apologize for his behavior, Goblin still holds old views and doesn't take young people's interests very seriously,' said Nelson, gesturing with his hand as if trying to calm down the girl.
Alice looked at the Geographer, who nodded at her, after which she could only click her tongue and cross her arms over her chest. Soon, the discussion about the mission continued. There were many different assumptions about what they needed to do and what their next plan should be, but the first one to actually propose an interesting idea was... Geographer.
"Why don't we try to get out of this forest?" he said coldly, drawing everyone's attention.
No answers followed; instead, everyone silently nodded and started working. After 30 minutes, they all stood near the place where they had entered the forest.
First, decided to try to exit Crane, but, like by genre law, the guy stopped right in front of the exit.
"I... I can't do this" said Crane, whose voice trembled slightly.
"Why? Is something stopping you?" asked him Geographer, standing nearby, examining everything ahead of Crane, perhaps trying to find some clue.
"M-my body, it won't let me go further, as if I'm hitting a wall!" Crane said fearfully, beginning to step back.
It was quite normal for him to be afraid of this. What if your body suddenly refused to move forward for an unknown reason?
But all this meant that they wouldn't be able to easily leave the forest now, and this greatly troubled them. Which left only one option for further action – to move deeper into the forest.
So everyone followed suit. Geographer gave the command for everyone to follow him, delving deeper into the forest. At first, everything was just as calm as at the beginning, with no system notifications so far, which was reassuring, but every person in the camp was on edge, waiting for something. Asan was no exception. He felt his nerves were stretched to the limit, and his eyes constantly scanned around, looking for some enemy. Though if their enemy were shadows, what could they really do to them?
These questions increasingly unnerved Asan, so he decided to think about something else, such as the people surrounding him. They were all completely unknown to him, unlike those who had been there before. Asan had grown so accustomed to society that he could now calmly respond or talk to anyone who asked him a question without stumbling, which had previously been quite difficult.
You could say that earlier he was more of a boy from the forest, completely unadapted to society, but now the guy was clearly more skilled at communicating with people. However, even so, this didn't change the fact that he still kept himself closed off from others.
No matter how good the camp community seemed to him, he still wasn't ready to trust his life to anyone, even though they had saved him multiple times. For the most part, he was saved by Bridgite, who treated him every time he got injured, but for some reason he couldn't... get attached to her for such things. He thought everything was fair – he protected people and the camp, so he deserved treatment. But if he hadn't protected people, hadn't fought, and was just an ordinary weakling, then maybe Bridgite would have become something like a saint mother or whatever religious people call it...
Something very unexpected interrupted the guy's thoughts. Pain.
A wave of unpleasant burning suddenly rose on his left palm, similar to the sensations from his dark flame, causing the boy to immediately notice it.
On his open left palm appeared a strange symbol in the shape of a moon, a circle next to its center, and two triangles resembling glass shards emanating from the circle. The boy barely had time to wonder what this was when he heard painful screams from everyone in the camp.
The mark appeared not only on him but also on everyone in the camp.