The Trial Game of Life

As Celtic ragingly approached the elf guards on his own volition and asked why his companion had disappeared, he actually felt a bit uneasy.

After all, as an upright and kind-hearted knight, he wasn’t good at deceiving people. But the moment he thought about how the elves were hiding something, he couldn’t care that much any more.

The elves’ reaction was what Tang Cuo had expected. There was definitely some astonishment, yet there also seemed to be something else in their solemn faces.

Celtic repeatedly asked them to find Lancelot and the elves agreed, but they still asked the two to return to the group as soon as possible to not delay their departure time. They also made a request that Tang Cuo and Celtic shouldn’t spread the news to avoid panic.

Celtic pretended to agree to their request. Turning back to Tang Cuo, he said: “There must be a problem, we have to be careful.”

In any case, the group started their trip as scheduled. It was led by a male elf whose age was difficult to tell, but it was said that he was an elder of a team of six elf guards.

Apart from the elves, the group consisted of the following — two from the Greenvines Alliance office in the Principality of Flange, three from the Pinwheel Harbour office and two from the Black Mountain office. There were also eight lone human adventurers, one dwarf and two druids.

One of the human adventurers was named Don, who had a very cheerful conversation with Jin Cheng yesterday. Spotting Lancelot’s absence, he immediately tried to ask. Celtic wasn’t sure how to answer, so Tang Cuo jumped in: “He has some matters to attend to so he won’t join us.”

Don scratched his head, then he smiled understandingly: “Lancelot is a bard, indeed this mission isn’t really something that suits him. I was looking forward to his masterpiece. Perhaps I’ll get to hear it once we come back.”

It seemed that he thought Jin Cheng didn’t join this trip because he wanted to spend the time composing music. To this, Tang Cuo simply nodded.

Hammo the dwarf, who stood beside him, mumbled under his breath. He didn’t have lots of musical cells, in fact, the most pleasing sound him was the sound of hammers hitting metal. As he mumbled, he patted the belt around his waist, where many flasks of wine were hanging. He couldn’t help smiling when he heard the shaking of the wine inside.

This was also a very nice sound, no?

The three from the Pinwheel Harbour office paid completely no attention to the surroundings. They flocked together, ignoring the others and even showing a little smugness. The Black Mountain office members remained quiet and stern. Catching Tang Cuo’s gaze, they simply nodded slightly.

Tang Cuo remembered the reactions of these men one by one, and as the group gradually walked toward the depths of the forest, his eyes turned to the palace in the distance.

Their route would bypass that place.

The deeper they went, the denser the mist became. Within a few hours, both the tree house and the spires of the palace in the distance disappeared behind the thick mist.

The entire forest was silent. It was obviously daytime now, but the surroundings were eerily dim. The mist seemed to block away the sunlight, making all the trees look ominously black.

An air of tension quietly sipped through the whole group.

“Gulp.” Hammo the dwarf picked up one of hs wine flasks and took a long sip, unbothered by everyone else.

A single-eyelid man from the Pinwheel Harbour caught the smell of wine from Hammo’s body and stepped away with a look of slight disgust on his face. Don the human adventurer couldn’t help but step forward to talk with the elves.

“Lord Elf, how long more will we reach the destination?” 

“You can call me Elder Evans.” This elder elf carried a gentle attitude: “We likely need one Nature’s hour to reach the edge of the Secret Lake zone. But when we get there, we can’t go in. You need to investigate by yourself.”

Don nodded. They all understood their mission well, and that they couldn’t head back now that they were already half-way there. But just to be on the safe side, Don asked again: “There’s no grave danger there, isn’t there?”

Evans nodded: “Yes, the Secret Lake is the origin of the Elf race. But since it was shrouded behind the mist, our people have gradually lost contact with it, and now we’re no longer allowed to enter. Outsiders like you don’t have this concern, and that’s why we broke the old rules to invite you all here.”

“Elder Evans, is it true that outsiders have been there before?” Unbeknownst to Don, Single-eyelid Man from the Pinwheel Harbour office walked over.

“Yes, but there’ve been only three of them in the past one thousand years.” Evans smiled: “If you can successfully find the root of the peculiarity surrounding the Secret Lake and solve this problem for our race, you’ll become the elves’s closest friends. The gate to our royal palace will also open for you.”

Hearing these words, Don became very excited, but he only quietly clenched his fists to press down the emotions that were surging from inside. It would be a great honour to become a friend of the elves and enter the royal palace. Even if he didn’t earn much money from this mission, after returning to the human world, definitely he would be treated like VIP by the nobles in his kingdom.

At that point, both glory and wealth would be at his fingertips.

If any noble was willing to teach him the arts of true knighthood, then his life, and even his future generations’, would completely change.

Although the others weren’t as excited as Don, more or less, they all expressed some desire. Only Hammo was still pouring wine into his mouth, for after all, he came here just so he could brag to other dwarves after going back.

What a simple desire!

The God of Blacksmithing will surely protect me!

Thinking so, Hammo couldn’t help but take another sip of wine.

After Tang Cuo heard the conversation between the two, his brain instantly imagined plenty of things, such as 101 ways they could meet their death after entering the Secret Lake zone. But what disturbed him the most was that his Mission panel hadn’t changed at all.

He remained silent and continued to move forward. 

After another hour, the group finally made a stop. Everyone looked at the dense mist in front of them, each unable to suppress their vigilance.

Evans turned around and faced everyone: “The Secret Lake zone is in front of you. After you enter, please continue to head North, and you should be able to reach the lake in about half a Nature’s hour. Please forgive us for not being able to join you, however, the God of Nature will surely bestow blessings on you in our stead.”

Hearing that, Single-eyelid Man strode past the whole group to come to the front, placed one hand on his chest and returned the courtesy in the manner of an aristocrat: “Thank you, Elder Evans.”

Evans nodded, then he stepped to one side and made a gesture of inviting them over: “Please enter one by one. I’ll now bless you with the Virtue of Nature.”

This was an elf’s blessing.

Tang Cuo couldn’t help stroking the sword on his waist, as though he thought of something. At this point, Single-eyelid Man took the lead in stepping forward, lowered his head and let Evans cast a holy light at the top of his head.

That was probably some sort of magic.

Tang Cuo could feel the magic elements around him converge at the hand Evans was raising, which  transformed into spots of light and scattered down, but he couldn’t determine the specific outcome of this spell.

Soon, it was Tang Cuo’s turn. He casually stepped forward and bowed his head respectfully. During this process, he noticed that the blessing seemed to pause for a moment, and when he looked up again, he didn’t notice anything odd on Evans’s face.

Celtic specially stopped in front to wait for him. In order to not raise any suspicion, Tang Cuo turned around and naturally took his leave. Just before entering the dense mist, he looked back at Evans.

Evans was also looking at him. As the four eyes started at each other, for a split second, Tang Cuo’s gaze was intense yet Evans’ was stiff. Between them was a deep abyss that very few would be able to see the end.

Both sides nodded, as if nothing happened between them.

At this moment, Tang Cuo suddenly thought that the name of this dungeon shouldn’t be called [Forest of The Elves]. Rather, it should be called [Birth of An Actor].

I might really have been poisoned by Jin Cheng.

Entering the dense mist, Tang Cuo glanced at the group walking before him and immediately grabbed Celtic. He and Celtic deliberately walked in after everyone else, which made it convenient for them to act together later.

“Celtic, I’ll cover for you. When no one pays attention, you turn back the same way and keep your eyes on Evans.” Tang Cuo said.

“But if I leave, aren’t you the only one left here? No, we’ve already lost Lancelot, I can’t let you go off alone too.” Celtic sternly refused.

“I’m not the only man here, I won’t go off alone. But Celtic, the only person I can truly trust is you.” Tang Cuo put on a stubborn facade.

Celtic still felt uneasy, but no matter what he said, Tang Cuo simply didn’t change his mind: “Well, Celtic, your mission isn’t easier than me. This temporary separation is for a better reunion.”

Celtic had no choice but to compromise: “Alright, Theodore, you must stay safe.”

Without further delay, in order to avoid the elves from going far, Tang Cuo immediately covered for Celtic to take his leave. Luckily, the dense mist around them lowered everyone’s vision to only 15 meters away, so Celtic’s departure didn’t catch anyone’s attention.

After three minutes, Tang Cuo quickly stepped forward and shouted: “Wait, Celtic is gone!”

He couldn’t act too alarmed, because it didn’t match his character settings.

Hearing what he said, the others turned around one after another with either surprise or solemnity on their faces, which didn’t seem to be fake. Don asked first: “What happened? Didn’t he come in with you?”

Tang Cuo said with a grim expression: “Yes, we were side by side, but after I walked a few steps faster, when I looked back, he wasn’t there anymore.”

As Don’s eyebrows deeply furrowed, the other adventurers also seemed a little nervous. The two people from the Black Mountain office who had remained silent all this time finally spoke: “Is there any other thing that seems strange?”

Both of them had black hair and black eyes, which were rare in this Western Fantasy setting; not to mention, they were actually twins.

Tang Cuo: “Actually, my other companion, Lancelot, disappeared early this morning. We reported the matter to the elf guards, hoping that they would help find him. I never expected the same thing to happen as soon as we entered this place.”

The moment his words came out, everyone’s expression turned unsightly.

Single-eyelid Man immediately frowned: “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

Tang Cuo said nonchalantly: “Because you didn’t ask.”

“You!” The man was choked at his throat. At this moment, Hammo the dwarf made a loud burp, making Single-eyed Man almost explode from embarrassment. His teammate promptly grabbed and said in a low voice: “We’re all members of the Greenvines Alliance. If something like this happens, you should tell us first.”

Tang Cuo raised his eyes to glance at him indifferently, then he said: “Lancelot isn’t a member of the alliance, he’s just my friend.” 

Single-eyelid Man was choked again, his eyes growing even more furious as he glared at Tang Cuo. As the two sides came to a stalemate, the two men from the Black Mountain office jumped in: “It’s meaningless to argue at such a time”

“We should find a solution first.”

The two brothers spoke one after another, carrying almost the same tone and expression.

Single-eyelid Man frowned and looked over: “Heimen, Hayes, we aren’t arguing. Don’t you see that someone is deliberately hiding this information?”

Heimen & Hayes: “No.”

Single-eyelid Man & his teammates: “……”

Tang Cuo noticed that the people from the Pinwheel Harbour office were really not welcome here. He thought for a moment and said: “It was my mistake to not tell you beforehand. I can apologise to everyone, but as these two have said, the most important thing for us now is to find a solution.”

Heimen and Hayes looked at each other, then turned to look at the druids simultaneously. One of them asked: “Druids have been friends with elves since ancient times. Do you want to say something?”

Both druids shook their heads: “Just like you, we’re simply here to help. We don’t know anything else. In fact, although druids and elves are good friends, we live in different forests. Today is the first time we’ve been here.”

Hearing so, the lone adventurers expressed obvious concerns. After discussing it, everyone decided to search for Celtic around here first, then they would head to the Secret Lake.

Of course, the result of the search was disappointing and the atmosphere gradually became heavy. But they had already arrived at this place, so after a moment of hesitation, they decided to move on.

The more they walked forward, the denser the mist, and their vision gradually shrank from 15 meters to 10 meters. In order to prevent anyone else from disappearing, everyone consciously moved nearer to each other. Twenty minutes later, no one disappeared, but they still couldn’t see any trace of the Secret Lake.

“The elder elf said that after coming in here, we should be able to reach the Secret Lake in about half a Nature’s hour. It’s now almost half a Nature’s hour since we left.” Don said with a serious tone.

“Keep going ahead.” Tang Cuo said.

The group set off again, and after another ten minutes, they still didn’t see even a shadow of the lake.

Single-eyelid Man: “Did we go the wrong way?” 

The druid shook his head: “No, it’s impossible for druids to get lost in a forest. The direction we’re walking is indeed to the north.”

Hearing this, a scary guess rose in everyone’s heart. Did the elves give them wrong information? But why would they do this?

Just as everyone was wondering, the sound of running footsteps suddenly came from behind. 

“Who’s there?!” Don drew his sword at once.

“It’s me!” The slightly familiar voice made Tang Cuo frown and he stared at that direction. In the thick mist, the figure that was approaching them quickly became clear. It was Celtic, the man who strayed from the group earlier.

Running out of breath, Celtic wiped off his sweat and explained: “Sorry, I accidentally walked away just now. I went in the opposite direction and finally caught up.”

Although everyone still had some doubts, they heaved a sigh of relief the moment they saw him. Tang Cuo kept frowning, waiting for Celtic to get his breath back.

Standing next to Celtic, he lowered his voice: “What happened?”

Celtic: “The elves were gone by the time I came out. No matter how I searched, I couldn’t find anyone. I had no choice other than to come back to you.”

Tang Cuo looked at him and didn’t say another word.

He opened the Mission panel again.

[Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]

Third round: Forest of The Elves

Main mission: Pay a visit to the Secret Lake.

Everything remains the same.