Chapter 13: Formless Spying

Gray fog drifted throughout the entire forest.

The pastor stared at the forest, stunned. Had that crazed hagbird he witnessed been nothing but an illusion?

He was shuddering—both at the sudden appearance of that unbelievable existence, and at what Wang Yu and Avia would have to face.

Even so, he knew there was nothing he could do. When the fog rose, his connection with his god would be severed.

The pastor had once tested casting spells at the fog from the outside, but that proved useless too.

The fog seemed to be able to absorb much of the potency of his spells, rendering them useless.

All he could do was pray to the god of light in hopes that he would direct them.

The pastor lowered his head and clasped his hands together as he prayed under his breath.

He didn't realize that none of the villagers around him seemed to see the fog.

Under ordinary circumstances, the villagers would have been shocked by the premature fog and would at least have commented on it, rather than go about their day as if nothing had happened.

The misshapen woman the pastor had seen had caused him so much stress that his judgment was clearly impeded.

Even the otherwise dependable pastor could make a misstep.

Wang Yu had chosen to enter the Forest of Fog at noon partially because it would be convenient to travel during the day when visibility was at its maximum, and partially because he had felt a tremendous sense of danger from the mysterious existence in the pastor's tale.

This world was a dangerous one, and there were all sorts of strange, sinister beings that would appear from time to time.

Many were monstrous mutants, and frequently appeared in rural areas with limited population density.

And although they didn't usually appear in highly populated cities or the like, their appearance tended to signify disaster.

Wang Yu didn't have any defenses against such beings. All he could do was to take what precautions he could. He would enter the forest safely and head quickly toward his target destination.

The midday sunlight filtered through the lush vegetation and struck the forest ground in speckles.

If he hadn't heard the pastor's frightening tale, he would have been astounded by the forest's beauty.

He could hear birds and insects chirping, and the air was fresh with the natural scents of grass, bark, and sap.

Wang Yu walked at the front of the party, while Avia was sandwiched between Wang Yu and Torrent. Their footsteps seemed loud in the otherwise quiet forest.

About half an hour into the forest, the foliage grew ever denser. With more lush leaves blocking the sunlight, the heart of the forest was darker than its outskirts.

"Avia, is it natural that there's so little sunlight around? The trees almost seem to be clumping together."

Wang Yu didn't understand why this sort of phenomenon would be observed. Shouldn't the density of trees within the forest approach uniformity instead?

"It's to be expected. According to the capital's Heart of the Dryad periodical, treants can grow in forests that have existed for long enough. These trees all have some rudimentary intelligence and will give off a weak aura that enhances the growth of nearby flora," Avia replied.

"In that case, the academy in the Forest of Fog should be close by, shouldn't it?"

Wang Yu scratched his head. They didn't have any means of tracking down the academy on their own, but all else being equal, he suspected it was likely located near a nexus of power. The heart of the forest was the obvious choice.

"Let's head deeper within, then." Avia nodded in agreement as the party forged forward.

The forest was as quiet as ever, with the intermittent chirp of a bird or insect punctuating the monotonous clip-clop of hoofbeats and footsteps.

Suddenly, Avia tugged on Wang Yu's hem. Wang Yu turned. "What's the matter?"

Avia frowned. "We haven't seen any animals ever since entering the Forest of Fog, have we? And even though it's the middle of the day, the hagbirds in the forest should still be active. We haven't seen any swamp slimes or putrid gnomes around either."

"That's true..." Wang Yu looked around uneasily.

One of the reasons the Forest of Fog was so famous was because of those annoying lifeforms that they had somehow yet to witness.

The Forest of Fog was famous for hagbirds; Wang Yu and Avia should have seen plenty of them after such a long walk through the forest.

As they whirled around, something seemed to sense their agitation. The forest grew even quieter. The birdsong and chirping of insects vanished, replaced by an eerie silence.

"This is..." Wang Yu was astonished by the changes that had befallen the forest.

"What should we do, Wang Yu?" Avia bit her lip as she glanced at the squire. The sudden transformation of the forest had clearly spooked her.

"Let's keep going. Think about it this way: if whatever's around has to rely on fear, that means it doesn't have the strength for a direct confrontation." Wang Yu seemed perfectly unfazed.

In some sense, this was an obvious conclusion.

If there were an existence in the forest that meant them ill but only attacked them indirectly, the existence was likely not very skilled at direct combat.

Of course, there was another possibility, one that Wang Yu didn't mention for fear that it would affect Avia's mentality further: the existence enjoyed playing with its prey.

Considering her intelligence, however, she might very well come to this conclusion on her own.

As long as they could find the academy within the forest, all would be well. At the very least, the academy would be well-equipped for self-defense, having survived in the forest for so long.

Wang Yu and Avia continued to forge forward. The atmosphere in the forest grew sinister and tense. All sound seemed to be dampened, even their footsteps, as if everything were draped in a layer of illusion and fog...

No, it wasn't an illusion at all. Fog had encroached upon the unsuspecting party and filled the forest.

The fog wasn't thick, but the fact that it had appeared at all not an hour into their midday journey was very unusual.

"Something's wrong," Wang Yu warned Avia. "We'll have to be careful."

They wouldn't be able to ignore the strangeness of their circumstances any longer. Doing so would only result in more problems; they had to remain alert and attentive.

Rather than stop, they continued onward at the same pace as before. Wang Yu's footsteps led the party forward at a measured pace as they headed deeper into the heart of the forest.

The trees grew lusher and thicker. Shrouded by fog and leaves, their surroundings continued to dim.

As Avia tugged on the hem of his shirt once again, Wang Yu turned to see panic filling her features. "Wang Yu, I can feel something staring at me!"

"What?" Wang Yu frowned. He was familiar with Avia's personality; under these circumstances, she would never make such a claim if she weren't certain.

However, he hadn't noticed a thing despite having been alert. How could that be?

"Don't worry. As long as the other party doesn't appear directly, just remain calm and don't panic," Wang Yu told her. He wasn't certain whether Avia was suffering from a stress-induced hallucination or if her talent as a magician allowed her to sense what Wang Yu couldn't.

Avia felt a malicious gaze eyeing her from within the fog—no, not just one gaze. Many of them, eyeing her covetously from every angle.

She couldn't help but be reminded of the monster that had existed in the pastor's recollection.

Fear sprouted in her heart, but she desperately tried to remain calm. She knew that giving voice to her panic would only worry Wang Yu, who was still leading them onward at a steady pace, without any benefit whatsoever.

As the party delved deeper into the forest, her feeling of being spied on only grew stronger and stronger.

A sixth sense truly did exist in this world, and those who were particularly sensitive could detect such behavior.

They could sense those existences who lay hidden beneath the superficial layer of reality—and were more easily sensed themselves.

Avia's sixth sense was clearly very strong, and the pressure of the gaze only kept increasing.

Gradually, she was able to see a figure from within the fog: a misshapen woman. Her ears began to buzz. She thought that she could hear the hagbirds' cries.

The woman's figure caused Avia to freeze. She hurriedly pointed Wang Yu in a certain direction. "Wang Yu, do you see that figure in the fog?!"

Wang Yu blinked. There could only be one figure that Avia was referring to, but all he could see was fog and the shadows cast by the trees in the vanishing sunlight, nothing else.

"I can't see anything," Wang Yu said. He squinted. Could it be an illusion? He was all but immune to illusions, but as for Avia...

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Avia, I'm going to clamp my hands around your ears. Close your eyes and see if you can still sense those gazes. They take effect through your senses, don't they? If I cover your ears and you shut your eyes, the illusions should vanish..."

Wang Yu walked up to Avia and tightly cupped her ears.

Simultaneously, Avia closed her eyes. She could see and hear nothing. The world she could perceive suddenly changed.

She couldn't hear the hagbirds' cries anymore, but the sense of being observed, of being coveted—that grew even stronger.

The naked malice and greed she could sense caused an unnatural fear to blossom in her mind.

"This fear is unnatural," Avia murmured. She said it louder as if to confirm her observation.

Whoever was observing her seemed to innately radiate an aura of fear.

The pastor's experience had been much like hers. His fear had grown and grown uncontrollably until all he could think about was fleeing. Wang Yu, on the other hand, was unaffected...

"I have to calm down," Avia murmured. She took a deep breath as she focused.

The fear didn't vanish. She was still affected—but it somehow seemed familiar to her. Had she felt its like before? Something that roused her fear and a strange feeling of being observed...

Avia frowned. She was certain that she was on the cusp of identifying her observer.

"The sensation is still there," Avia whispered to Wang Yu.

"Really? Then it's not an illusion. Whoever it is must exist, but why can't I see it?"

Wang Yu grimaced. If his physical senses couldn't identify anything, he could try his mental senses. He wasn't familiar with them, but perhaps...

He invoked his Ripple ability, shut his eyes, and sent void energy emanating from his body conveying "sight."

The void ripples spread out through the air, granting him limited perception of what lay around him, like radar.

This was a derived ability Wang Yu had developed from his latent ability—an inner eye.

Although it broadened his field of vision, he had to give up his physical sense of sight to do so.

Wang Yu hummed thoughtfully. It really might be possible for him to detect this simultaneously real and illusory being with his real and illusory void energy!

Wang Yu's inner eye suddenly sensed something.

What was that?

A strange figure appeared in his mental vision, revealed by his inner eye: a misshapen woman formed from a number of crazed, madly cackling hagbirds.

Void energy seemed to surround the figure.

As Wang Yu saw the figure hidden to his sight, so too did it notice him.

The figure seemed to sneer in disgust upon realizing that someone other than Avia could see it.

It glared at Wang Yu with malice and madness, but Wang Yu seemed to be immune to its abilities.

The figure, having come to the same conclusion, began to ignore Wang Yu entirely and turned toward Avia even more covetously instead.

The next moment, it vanished in Wang Yu's mental sight.

"Where are you?!" Wang Yu focused intently on his inner eye.

The next moment, it suddenly appeared beside Avia without any trace or hint of its movement. One moment, it was gone; the next, it was there.

Distorted with madness, it eyed Avia greedily. With its misshapen body composed of hagbirds, it reached out for her head.

Wang Yu reacted instantly, drawing his sword and thrusting it at the figure in a silvery-white arc.

The sword whistled as it cut through the air—and passed right through the figure.

Wang Yu's sword had had no effect whatsoever.

Avia could see the sinister figure before her, too. Her fear multiplied as she began to panic.

She attempted to block the sinister figure's hand, but to no avail. Her left hand passed straight through as if it were merely an illusion.

The figure's claw continued to reach toward Avia's head, its success imminent...

...only for the claw to suddenly be knocked aside.

Avia's right hand, the one that had been virtualized by the void, managed to strike the figure's grasping claw.

The figure teleported away before reappearing by a tree a few meters away. It cocked its head, its neck twisting almost 180 degrees to face Avia.

This was the signature expression of a hagbird, but it looked all the more frightening when done by a humanoid figure.

The figure seemed a little perplexed by what had happened, then stared at Avia with increasing greed and ardor.