"Task: Guard the Moonlight Forest station for one month."
The task seemed simple; it was just about guarding the station.
Although the Moonlight Forest station bordered the Green Cottage, it was still within the Moonlight Forest.
Performing a task at this place wouldn’t be risky unless there was an enemy attack.
The Moonlight Forest station was relatively close to the Northern Forest Region, which was convenient.
"Herag, are you okay?"
As Herag got off the carriage, he looked up to see the chubby Wizard Fred.
The two of them were assigned the same task again. It seemed the Moonlight Forest was really short of people now.
"I’ve fully recovered," Herag nodded and said.
Fred leaned in and smiled, "That’s good. This task is much better; there’s no danger. Including you and me, there are four Third Class Wizard Apprentices and one Official Wizard stationed."
He continued, "Actually, with the barrier, we don’t even need to guard it. Breaking the barrier would require a power we can’t defend against." The source of thɪs content is 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝕟𝕖𝕥
Herag looked into the distance and saw the barrier covering half of the Moonlight Forest.
The Moonlight Forest station was much smaller than the Western Mountains and lacked tall walls. It was just an ordinary three-story building.
The Official Wizard stationed here wasn’t present, leaving an eye on the rooftop. He would come only if there was a problem, as the town was nearby. Such was the privilege of an Official Wizard.
Herag and the others’ task was to stay at the station. If they wished to leave, they had to inform the Official Wizard and could temporarily leave only with permission.
The second and third floors of the three-story building were for accommodation, and they could distribute the rooms freely among themselves.
Herag found a room on the second floor and moved in. Fred was next door.
After a brief tidy-up, Herag went to the entrance of the Moonlight Forest and felt quite sentimental looking at the familiar surroundings.
Following the entrance, he walked in and through Shenlan saw the sleeping mushrooms buried underground. He no longer needed to dig them up.
Herag wandered inside the Moonlight Forest and even saw some traces left by his previous battles.
He didn’t go deep, only looked around the entrance area.
A bit further was the place where Lune and the other two had been killed by Shivara.
Recently, Herag had been researching this matter. Normally, demons from the Abyss Plane, like Shivara, shouldn’t appear here.
The only explanation was that Lune and the others summoned Shivara themselves, which is why they were chased down.
"But there’s another question, why were we in that strange space at that time..."
Herag still couldn’t figure out how he and Lune ended up in that strange space.
Late at night, Herag lay in bed meditating.
The sound of Fred snoring next door was particularly loud, but fortunately, Herag didn’t need sleep; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.
Herag suddenly felt a disturbance in his space ring and saw that the wooden disk was emitting a faint yellow glow, floating up.
He remembered that the last time he encountered Shivara, it was this wooden disk that glowed, shattering the space and leaving that place.
"Why is it glowing again?" Herag’s expression became serious. If he faced Shivara again, it would be troublesome, as even an Official Wizard had difficulty handling it.
If it weren’t for the mysterious toad last time, he would have died there.
Herag suddenly felt something was wrong, then realized, "The snoring stopped."
Fred snored all night when he slept, but suddenly it was gone now.
He glanced at the room and noticed something was off.
The entire room, including the bed, was covered in a thick layer of dust, as if it hadn’t been lived in for years.
"Evil spirit perception."
After releasing his evil spirit perception, Herag detected no traces of evil spirits.
He then took out the soul-devouring crystal. Everything seemed normal, indicating that at least for now, no evil spirits were present.
Herag got out of bed, moving lightly, but still stirred up a large amount of dust.
He quickly equipped a shield to block the dust.
The furnishings in the room were the same as before; nothing had been moved.
He approached the desk and discovered that the quill had completely decayed.
Herag touched it, and it crumbled. It was unclear how many years it had been here to rot .
Looking out the window, he noticed it was actually daytime outside, though the sky was somewhat dim.
"It was clearly midnight just a moment ago."
Herag thought for a moment and used the Starry Sky Meditation Technique to find the position of the stars.
As expected, the stars above were different.
"Shenlan, compare it with the starry sky we saw when we encountered Shivara," Herag instructed.
Shenlan quickly provided an answer, "Compared to that time, the stars’ positions have shifted slightly but are generally consistent."
"It seems we’re in that space again," Herag sighed, uncertain how to leave this time.
He walked across the floor to leave the room. The floor let out a piercing creak, as if it couldn’t bear the weight and might collapse at any moment.
Once outside, Herag looked up to see a massive blood moon hanging in the sky.
The surroundings were desolate, the ground a gray-white.
The wooden disk in Herag’s hand grew increasingly bright, transforming into a ball of light before disappearing.
"Hmm? Where did it go?"
Herag glanced around but couldn’t find a trace of the wooden disk; it had simply vanished.
"Unknown imprint detected entering the body!" Shenlan suddenly warned.
Following Shenlan’s instruction, Herag raised his left hand and found a faint imprint in his palm. The pattern was identical to the Sixth Ring Tower carved on the wooden disk.
He touched it and felt nothing, then asked, "Shenlan, check what this is, its function, and if it’s harmful."
"Lack of relevant data, specific information unknown."
Not having any clues from his palm, Herag decided to leave it for the moment.
What mattered most now was finding a way out of this place.
Knowing nothing about this place, he couldn’t predict what might happen.
Herag took a few steps forward, intending to search for any valuable clues, as he couldn’t just stay idle.
"Damn it! You stepped on me!" came a cursing voice from beneath his feet.
Looking down, Herag saw a stone with a mouth and eyes glaring at him angrily, continuing to curse.
"Sorry, I didn’t notice. Can you tell me where this is?" Herag asked, finding it rare to encounter a talking creature—even if it was a stone—it might provide some information.
"Damn it! You stepped on me!"
"Damn it! You stepped on me!"
"Damn it! You stepped on me!"
To his dismay, the stone only kept repeating that phrase, making Herag feel uneasy.