The Trial Game of Life

The two druids had never faced such a difficult situation. All the skeptical gazes were stacked on their heads, leaving them with absolutely no room to argue: “We really don’t know, and we don’t even know him! Although the Druid race isn’t big, it’s impossible for us to know everyone!” 

But no matter how they explained, the seeds of doubt had been planted. The three adventurers headed by Don seriously drew a line, keeping themselves at an absolute distance. This wasn’t a matter they could joke about.

Heimen walked to Tang Cuo and asked: “Did you find anything?”

Tang Cuo checked very carefully. After the druids returned to his original form, he was clad in an armour. Tang Cuo didn’t hesitate to remove the armour, and after searching several times, he finally found an inconspicuous symbol on one of his shoulder blades.

It was an inverted pentagram with a rose at its center.

“What kind of random symbol is this?” Hammo came closer with curiosity and tilted his head. He had no idea what that was.

As a member of the Greenvines Alliance, Heimen wouldn’t fail to recognise it. As soon as he had a glimpse of the symbol, his expression quickly changed and he immediately turned around to stare at the two druids, wanting to ask them to take off their armour for inspection.

He moved fast, but the druids moved even faster. Seeing the sign of them being exposed soon, they immediately grabbed the nearest adventurer and snapped: “Don’t move, or I’ll kill him!”

This turn of events had everyone caught off guard.

“Don’t hurt him!” Don drew his sword but he didn’t dare to step forward, his heart jumping to his throat.

“Calm down!” Another adventurer’s face also reddened with apprehension. How could they have expected that the druids would suddenly turn against them like this?! What was going on with that symbol?

The members of the Greenvines Alliance remained calm, for the druids’ reaction clearly proved one thing — they also had the symbol of the Rose Sect on their bodies, and since they couldn’t escape, they’d better gain the upper hand first.

The people hidden behind all these strange happenings at the Secret Lake were undoubtedly the Rose Sect.

Where was Celtic?

Tang Cuo looked at Celtic again to find a trace of reminiscence on his face while his mouth muttered the word ‘rose’, as if he was caught in some thoughts. Over there, Heimen had already initiated a negotiation with the druids: “Let go of him, and we’ll let you go.” 

The druids looked at him suspiciously, then cast a deep gaze at Tang Cuo and said: “You step back first.”

Heimen and Don exchanged glances and both sides began to back away together, while the druids also retreated with their hostage. After they reached a certain distance and were about to let go, they suddenly heard Tang Cuo ask —

“Aesop The Rebel, is he here?” 

The druids were stunned. One of them wanted to say something but was stopped by the other. The two stared at Tang Cuo, and the hand that was pinching the adventurer’s neck became tighter, to the point that blood almost oozed out.

The next second, they forcefully pushed the person over, turned around and fled.

“Cough, cough…” The adventurer knelt on the ground and clutched his neck, feeling dazed all over with his back completely drenched in cold sweat.    

Don hurriedly stepped forward to help, while the dwarf Hammo wielded his hammer and angrily chased a few steps after the druids. As he looked back and saw that no one was giving chase, he returned grumpily.

Heimen thought about what Tang Cuo said earlier and couldn’t help asking: “Why did you ask them that?”

Tang Cuo: “This is the origin of the elves. It’s a place of great significance, so it’s impossible for the Rose Sect to send a random pawn here to carry out their plan.”

Of course, the real reason was that Tang Cuo only knew Aesop who wore tassel earrings. As for Bazz and Priest Peter, he was afraid that these druids’ status wasn’t high enough to even know them.

Heimen nodded and said solemnly: “The matter seems to be more serious than we thought. The Rose Sect not only infiltrated the druids, but also sneaked into the Forest of The Elves. Something must be going on. We have to report the matter to Luo Island as soon as possible.”

Tang Cuo asked back: “How do we report it?”

Heimen was lost for words. After a short pause, he spoke again: “The illusion has been broken and there’s no new Secret Lake. If we return to the original path, can we get back?”

Tang Cuo didn’t answer, instead, he looked up at the towering trees surrounding them and the mist that never seemed to die down. A long moment later, he finally said: “Have we really broken the illusion?”

Don frowned: “What do you mean?”

Tang Cuo couldn’t explain. He hadn’t gotten the key evidence yet, while the clues on hand couldn’t be accurately linked together, for most of them were just his intuition. After thinking for a few seconds, he said: “Let’s head back first.”

There was no other way.

Hiding behind the bushes, Hawk and his teammates remained silent. The druid’s scheme was shocking enough, but Tang Cuo’s fierce counter-kill was even more petrifying. And now, it even involved the Rose Sect.

After a long time, Hawk eventually broke the silence: “Since when did the Principality of Flange produce such a ruthless man? And he even knows Aesop The Rebel?” 

The teammates shook their heads. How would they know?!

“I think we should join them, shouldn’t we? At least he seems very strong.”

“But if we come out now, will they believe that we’re still the original us? That Theodore, won’t he also kill us with a single strike?”

Listening to his teammates’ discussion, Hawk felt very disturbed: “What should we do then? We just came to find something. We never expected such a thing to happen!” 

After the three discussed, they decided to — follow closely behind to watch if anything happened.

Ahead of them, Tang Cuo and the other seven returned to the original path. After walking for about fifteen minutes, they had to stop because a brand new Secret Lake appeared before their eyes.

To make matters worse, the adventurer who was taken hostage by the druids just now started to feel drowsy.

If someone was sleepy, it wouldn’t mean anything good.

“How can this be?” Don was seriously puzzled. They set off early in the morning and now the sun still hadn’t set, so how could someone feel sleepy in such a tense atmosphere?

Heimen: “Is it because of the mist?”

At this moment, Hayes narrowed his eyes and hesitated for a moment before saying: “I seem to feel a bit drowsy, too.”

One after another, their eyelids were growing heavy. Something was definitely not right.

Tang Cuo began to think about what they had come into contact with and what might’ve affected them. If it was the mist, then given that everyone was inside this mist, the effect should be the same. Yet why was someone feeling sleepy after another?

Different physique?

Tang Cuo suddenly thought of something and asked: “Have you eaten anything?”

Hayes and the adventurer thought about it carefully and shook their heads. Hayes said: “My brother and I ate the same thing. Our breakfast was provided by the elves, and our lunch was grilled meat by the bonfire. My brother and I each ate two sticks and a piece of bread. The water we drank was also brought from the Forest of The Elves.”

If everyone ate and drank the same thing, what could be the problem?

Wait.

Tang Cuo carefully pondered the words ‘provided by the elves’, then a flash of light suddenly flickered in his mind: “Did any elf knock on your door last night and give you fruit wine?” 

Everyone was stunned, then they nodded at once.

Tang Cuo asked again: “Did you all drink it?” 

When he asked this, Hammo nicely wanted to show Tang Cuo the bottle of wine he had hidden. He opened the cork and couldn’t help taking a sip as soon as the smell of wine entered his nostrils. 

“Gulp.” After drinking the wine, he looked up at Tang Cuo: “Are you asking me?”

Tang Cuo couldn’t be bothered to.

“There are extra ingredients in the wine. The order in which everyone feels sleepy is related to the amount of wine they drank.” Tang Cuo said, then he added: “Celtic and I didn’t drink it.”

As soon as his voice fell, the drowsy adventurer slumped to the ground with a loud thud, sleeping all soundly. The sound of his head knocking on the ground felt painful to everyone who had to hear it.

This reminded Tang Cuo of the night in the cave inside the dungeon [On A Snowy Night, He Returns]. Forcing everyone to sleep was truly a permanent routine that the system enjoyed. 

But if the number of people falling asleep was more than one, what kind of illusion would appear this time?

Tang Cuo suddenly felt curious.

A moment later, Don carried his sleeping teammate on his back, and all eight of them arrived at the lake. The Secret Lake this time had changed a lot from the previous two.

Groups of animals were drinking water here, many of which Tang Cuo had never seen before. Occupying every corner of the lake, these creatures probably came only from myths and legends.

No one dared to get too close, so they all stood and watched from behind the bushes.

“There’s someone at the lake!” Hayes endured the sleepiness and opened his eyes wide, his volume subconsciously raised.

“Don’t be so loud —” Heimen’s words stopped abruptly, because he also saw the person by the lake. It was a noble-looking, beautiful woman whose appearance wasn’t quite simple to describe. She walked along the lake on her bare feet that were incredibly fair, clad in a golden silk dress and with a flower tiara on her head. All the animals, even the unicorn and the White Stag, were all bowing their heads to her.

Just looking at her slightly too long had Heimen feel sincerely ashamed — he shouldn’t directly stare at her face like this.

“This, this is…”

“God, can someone tell me what I just saw?”

“Could she be…”

No one cared about the volume of their voice anymore, for their mind was all captivated by the woman. They all held a vague guess in their heart, but when the words came to their lips, no one had the guts to say it out loud.

That would be profanity.

Only Tang Cuo the warrior spoke: “Goddess of The Elves? Or Goddess of Nature?”

Celtic solemnly responded to him: “Goddess of Nature, Lady Cynthia.”

The others remained utterly quiet. Even a crude one like Hammo the dwarf was afraid to look directly at the face of a Goddess. Daring to call the name of a Goddess — how could these two humans be so bold?

“If she’s the one, are we going to… Even if she’s fake, we can’t do that.” Heimen seemed to want to say something, but he didn’t. Regarding the words he couldn’t say, Tang Cuo understood at once — ‘to kill a god’.

To Tang Cuo, an atheist, ‘to kill a god’ was just a phrase, but to Heimen and others, such a thing was simply impossible.

What should they do?

Tang Cuo turned around and looked at Celtic: “You seem to know her very well. Did you know her beforehand?”

Celtic: “……”

Tang Cuo: “?”

Celtic: “I only saw her portrait. “

Tang Cuo: “Where?”

Facing Tang Cuo’s questioning, Celtic was silent for a moment, then he said: “In someone’s painting collection. He used to stay next to the Secret Lake occasionally, and he lived in a small cabin by the lake.”

It must be the lakeside cabin in [Secrets of The Lake].

Tang Cuo felt that the truth would likely surface soon. This clue he accidentally obtained in the first round of the mission has realised its value here. Perhaps this was the meaning of a serial mission.

“What’s his name?”

“Louis.”

Louis — L.

Tang Cuo suddenly thought of another name — the Undead Rose, Louis XIV.

“How long ago was that?” He asked again.

“I can’t remember.” Celtic looked at the lake through the thick mist, as if gazing at the distant past: “Anyway, it was a long, long time ago. Probably even before your great, great, great, great grandfather was born.”

Tang Cuo internally dissed Celtic on this crappy estimation based on generations of grandfathers, then he said sternly: “So, do you have a way to break this illusion? In other words, do you have a way to show us the real Secret Lake? “

Celtic thought and thought, then with a very serious expression, he told Tang Cuo: “My mind seems not very clear.”

At this moment, not far away from them, a strange noise suddenly came.

Tang Cuo immediately paid no more attention to the issue of whether Celtic was clear-headed and quickly went to check, at which point he found two sleeping men and one awake man in the bushes. It was Hawk, who was wearing an extremely unsightly expression.

Two more people had fallen asleep. This wasn’t good.

On the other side, Jin Cheng took McCaw to talk with the real Celtic.

Across the bars, Celtic looked at a completely fine Jin Cheng, feeling both happy and frustrated. He couldn’t help but grab the cell door and said: “Lancelot, where have you been? I was still thinking about looking for you, but it turned out that you came looking for me in this prison.”

Really, life could be full of sudden ups and downs.

“Oh, I jumped off a cliff. “

“What did you just say?”

“Cough.” Jin Cheng finally held back his urge: “It’s nothing. How come you’re locked up here? Where’s Theodore?”

Celtic then recounted everything that had happened. After he was separated from Tang Cuo, since they hadn’t yet walked deep into the area of the Secret Lake, Celtic still smoothly got out and caught up with Evans. But he didn’t manage to tail behind for long before Evans detected his presence.

“I was very cautious. I don’t know how he found out about me from such a long distance.” Celtic complained.

“Perhaps he put some mark on you while he was giving you the blessing.” As Jin Cheng said so, he bent down and looked at the keyhole carefully, then he turned around and saw McCaw’s tiny expression.

“Key?” Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows, pulled out the keys that McCaw had obtained from the young elf earlier and inserted one of them into the keyhole — With a “click”, the door opened.

Celtic almost burst into tears with joy.