Shadow Covenant

When the Spirit of Nature came back again, he still kept the appearance of Cohen, but everyone, including Woody, felt that his temperament had changed significantly. He was no longer gloomy, but full of a unique vitality. The continuous forest is more characteristic, as if he has returned to his original appearance, a creature born under the gaze of nature.

"Sorry for the wait."

"Let's go now. It's only half the distance to the place where Cohen entered. Let's hurry up and get there before the sun goes down."

The Spirit of Nature didn't explain too much what he experienced on this trip. He seemed to be in a good mood. He didn't know if the trip had a result, or he saw that Woody and the others didn't follow because of suspicion. I felt happy because of my trust, and I was extremely active anyway. After I finished speaking, I couldn't wait to take Woody and others to the place where they should arrive this time.

Woody glanced at the sky, and the orange color of the setting sun has slowly emerged in the sky. The sun is setting directly over the high mountain at this time, and there should be an hour before it goes down the mountain.

This news is exciting and good news for everyone in the team who rushed from River Valley City to Jingsong Forest early in the morning, and then waited outside the forest until three o'clock in the afternoon, and trekked for several hours.

Donnie shouted anxiously in Woody and Cecil's heart.

"You can go!"

The helplessness of staying in the same place and not being able to go anywhere made the giant dragon feel a sense of restraint that he had not seen for a long time, just like when he was trapped under the reef when he was chasing sharks as a child, waiting for his parents to come to rescue him.

But Cecil was not so anxious, but asked the spirit of nature seriously.

"The magic tide in this forest will reach its peak at night. Shall we rest here for a day and set off at noon tomorrow?"

The caution of the caster made her not have a strong desire to reach the destination earlier. On the contrary, the more she entered the forest, the more she felt a deep sense of insecurity, which was not given by any forest in the past. Her feelings, if she hadn't practiced astrology and other prophecy spells, she might have given herself a divination.

Seeing the seriousness on Cecil's face, Woody on the side couldn't help but wonder in his heart: "Could it be that she found something? Otherwise, I remember that she was more anxious to leave the Golden River Valley than myself, but now she doesn't hesitate to delay it for a long time .”

Woody is not a roundworm in Cecil's heart, so she doesn't know what she is thinking, but since she seems to have noticed something strange, the breath of the Feathered Serpent must have lingered in the entire forest, and the high-level mage is obviously more powerful than him. Or the perception is more acute, especially the feeling of magic power, which has penetrated deep into the bone marrow during meditation.

The Spirit of Nature also shook his head after hearing this.

"No, the monsters in this forest have already noticed us. As long as we leave as soon as possible, the malice will not continue to accumulate. On the contrary, if we stay in this forest all the time, it will make them reject outsiders even more. If we stay If it was the previous day, even at three o'clock in the afternoon, they would attack."

"The forest guards and spirits here are not easy to mess with. As the legacy left by the wood elves, each of them can easily defeat a team of well-trained knights."

Hearing this explanation, Cecil nodded thoughtfully, and at this moment, Kaverman couldn't help but speak.

"If that's the case, let's go quickly. Now it is indeed as he said, I feel that this forest has begun to drive us away. Look at the plants under your feet."

When he said the second half of the sentence, everyone followed his words and looked down at their feet, feeling a chill down their backs.

I saw that the weeds and roots that were swaying in the wind were like some kind of reptiles at some point, some of them were winding and hovering on their legs, and some even burrowed into the gaps in the shoes. If you look carefully, you will find that the leaves of some weeds have turned into jagged blades without knowing when, which is extremely terrifying.

"The gust of wind was a sign of unwelcome. Let's go down the mountain quickly. It will be better if we go down the mountain. This place is on the inner edge of the forest."

Woody opened the mouth and said that he came here when the copy of the Lost Temple was flattened and became a copy of the daily illusion. Although the creatures in the forest had already left at that time, the forest's rejection of outsiders It still exists, and he clearly knows that it comes from the "breath of nature" exhaled by the Feathered Serpent God. Only those who are contaminated with its breath can gain the approval of this forest. In other words, this is actually his land. Going to the kingdom of God, but because of the silence of his divine power, he did not appear.

At this point, everyone no longer stayed at the same place. Under the leadership of the spirit of nature, they continued down the mountain along a winding forest path. This time the journey down the mountain was much more difficult than the one up the mountain. When the sun sets, the light rises like a shadow. Kaverman has already taken out the curved sword at this time, ready to cut off the vines that dare to stretch towards him at any time. It's better, but I also feel that my behavior is not as relaxed as before. The Spirit of Nature and Cecil are the two most comfortable among them. After one casts a spell on himself, except for a few cases that are affected by Woody and others Next, basically the forest ignored her and Donnie the tabby cat on her shoulder, and the other one seemed to return to the water without any abnormality, just the same as at the beginning.

When the steepness of the ground gradually becomes as flat as the valley bottom, although the leaves above the head are still luxuriant, you can already feel that the vegetation and shrubs here are sparser than those encountered on the way down the mountain. Ferns and some lichens are abnormal here. Lush.

"Follow this dry river, go all the way to the end, and turn over a hill, and we will arrive."

The Spirit of Nature looked up at the time and said with a smile.

"The speed of going down the mountain is faster than I thought, and this time I will definitely arrive before the sun goes down."

"Woody?"

At this time, a word came from the back of the team, everyone looked around and found that it was Cecil who spoke. She was looking at Woody who had broken the reason. He was standing on a boulder covered with green moss, his chin slightly He raised his head and gazed intently into the distance.

"what happened to you?"

Facing Cecil's question, he took a deep breath, and the cold air in November entered his lungs, and he regained his energy. Trying to calm his heart, he smiled.

"It's okay, let's go!"

Just now, through the gaps in the leaves, he saw the scene that made it difficult for him to calm down. At this moment, the mountain ridge that should be bathed in the color of the sunset has been completely shrouded in darkness. The pitch-black mountain ridge is matched with the howling cold wind. Under the orange-gold sunset in front of him, it looked extremely cold.

This is not a good sign.

Ten minutes later, a group of people had already left the foot of the mountain, and the ridge was also hidden among the overlapping leaves, and only a slight outline could be seen vaguely. However, everyone except Woody did not pay attention to the situation behind them, and they were more focused on in front of you.

I don't know if it's because of the magic or the specific climate.

At this time, there is still a little afterglow of the setting sun in Jingsong Forest, and the golden sun fragments are scattered among the spacious woods full of fallen leaves, like a thick golden carpet, which is beautiful.

And walking in the gradually widening forest, looking at the beautiful scenery in front of them, everyone's mood improved a lot.

Kafferman even put down his hunting knife and put away his vigilance. The surrounding environment is quiet and peaceful. It's hard not to make people want to drink a jug of wine and fall asleep with the sunset.

And the most excited one is the Spirit of Nature. At this time, he is already trotting. He doesn't care about closing the fog that surrounds the entire Golden River Valley. He just fulfills his duties and helps the group of people who have helped him. He had already thought about leaving this place, and when he returned, he would hand over the lord of the entire Golden River Valley to his other identity, Gillette Green Valley, according to Cohen's order.

Anyway, under the closure of the Kamutla family for these years, and under the brutal rule that Cohen maintained himself, there are only young and underage heirs left, and the military power of River Valley City is also in the hands of his trusted people. The man who obeyed Cohen had already died under the thunderstorm on the barren beach, and his order would not be hindered in any way.

But thinking about it, when he came to the huge arch made of magnificent granite, which was covered with vines and covered with vines in the forest where he remembered, everything in front of him still made him stop in his tracks, because there should be bright lights on the granite. At this moment, the dark blue magic runes that had been formed all emitted a dazzling red light, dyeing the golden broken sunset into scarlet.

"how is this possible?"

This is the first emotional gaffe of the Spirit of Nature, and everyone except Woody was surprised by it, Cecil and Kafferman asked in unison.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

They also saw the red light on the arch, and an ominous omen came to their hearts. As expected, when the Spirit of Nature said the next sentence, the expression on his face was also very ugly, and his tone was stiff.

"Something happened!"

The Spirit of Nature looked gloomy, apparently in trouble, which made their hearts sink. After hearing the Spirit of Nature's words, Cecil's face changed even more.

"The channel... is closed!"

"Closed? How could it be closed?"

Cecil wanted to clarify.

"In the end what happened?"

Not to mention Cecil, even Kaverman, an old guy who is almost a century old, has disbelief written all over his face, and his tone is a little bit bad, even a little suspicious.

After all, anyone who is excited and painstakingly arrives at the destination, and finally gets the answer that the road is not going to work, will complain in his heart.

"I don't know either, logically speaking, this kind of situation is extremely rare."

The spirit of nature tried hard to think about the possibility, but in the end there was only one possibility left, that is, they came to Jingsong Forest when they were looking for the source of the curse, and at that time, the arches here were exuding the same color. At that time, Dale City was plagued by a curse.

And the reason why there is a curse is naturally only one possibility.

That is the number of people in the Golden River Valley, which has reached the limit of the curse, that is to say, the curse that has been suppressed has once again descended on this land.

"Only...it only happened when the curse spread last time, but now the population of the Golden River Valley has been controlled at an extremely stable number, it is impossible to happen, even if there are outsiders like you, the number will increase by ten times. ...."

Before the Spirit of Nature could finish explaining, he was interrupted by a voice.

"It could happen!"

It was Woody. At this time, he was also looking at the arch on the granite, thoughtful, but his tone was unprecedentedly solemn.

"It may happen, don't forget, besides us outsiders, there are also a group of people who are also surrounded by fog."

"You mean?" Cecil immediately thought of something, and when she realized it, her pupils were like earthquakes.

"Yes! Temporary camp!"

In the confusion of the other two, Woody said directly.

"Besides us, for the elf market in the Gorgon Mountains, a large number of merchants gathered in the river valley and were preparing to go, and today is the day when they are preparing to leave, and they must have realized that... they were trapped in the valley It's in the middle."

"As for their number, I have roughly estimated that there are seventy or eighty caravans with hired mercenaries, no less than a thousand people."

……

The Spirit of Nature was silent for a while, as if he was estimating the population currently controlled by River Valley City, and finally lowered his head helplessly, he admitted.

"It is indeed beyond the range that the Golden River Valley can bear at present."

"Now we can only wait for the curse to spread, but don't worry, as long as the number drops to a certain number, we can enter here and close the fog! It will be fine, you guys."

There was some comfort in his words, but only he knew how true they were.

But at this time, Cecil didn't show much despair. Instead of looking at the spirit of nature, she looked at Woody and asked.

"Woody, you have other ways to get in, don't you?"

Obviously, she deduced from the previous clues that Woody seems to have a way that the locals don't know. After all, from asking about the strangeness of the Kern Jingsong Forest in advance, there is obviously another one in his heart that does not ask for help. The plans of the locals.

After Woody heard the question, he didn't hide it, and nodded directly.

"I do have a way of getting into that position."

His expression didn't look good either. What happened to the ridge just now reminded him of the discussion in the player forum under which circumstances is the fastest way to clear the Lost Temple. Among them, the most difficult Nightmare level has a sign , that is, the mountains merge into the darkness, and even a little sunlight cannot enter, which is the same as what he noticed just now
Nightmare level, at least five challenge levels higher.

That is to say, the adventure team with an average level of more than 15 can pay a certain price and clear the dungeon, while those who are lower than this, if they are not careful, their lives will be in danger.

Therefore, he said directly.

"But entering this time, the risk will be very high! Are you sure you want to go in?"

I don't know how long the difficulty of the nightmare level will last, and Woody doesn't have much confidence in his heart, but before entering the dungeon, some reminders are necessary.

It was his duty to bring them here.