The Monster King's Legacy - Chapter 118

Chapter 118: Into the Unknown
It took Lance some seconds before he touched the floor of the forest, as the canopy was just too thick and the trees taller than any he had ever seen. Barely ten minutes into the forest, the path Lance was following abruptly disappeared, replaced by a swirling mist that blanketed the ground.

Lance frowned, turning in circles. “This wasn’t here before.” He said, looking around and attempting to make sense of where he was exactly, so he doesn’t get lost.

“This is… disorienting,” Lance muttered, pressing a hand to his temple.

He came upon a tree, taking out one of his daggers to mark it so he has an idea where he ad been already. As soon as he marked the tree with a big and clear X sign, two other trees appeared behind the one he had just marked, both bearing the X mark on them. Lance was confused, so he approached for closer inspection, but he soon realized that those trees had not appeared out of thin air, but were already there. In fact, not just those trees, but every tree he could find now had the same X carved onto their barks.

“Great,” Lance said dryly as he looked all around.

Great,” Lance said dryly as he looked all around. Every single tree he could see bore the same X mark he had just carved. He let out a slow breath, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his dagger. Sure, this had to be a haunted forest.

He took a careful step forward, watching for any sudden changes in his surroundings. The mist continued to swirl at his feet, and the air felt thick, charged with an eerie energy that made his skin prickle. His instincts screamed at him that something was very wrong, but no matter how or where he looked, he couldn’t find anything out of place.

“Aelyndra won’t place me in the most dangerous part, so I can assume this is the welcoming area of the forest, there shouldn’t be any life threatening danger around.” He said to himself.

With cautious steps, Lance picked a direction and began walking, making sure to stay aware of the shifting environment. Every few steps, he glanced back, hoping to see some sign of progress. But no matter how far he moved, the trees around him remained unchanged. The same gnarled bark, the same twisting roots, and the same unnatural silence…. ‘why is it so quiet.’ He wondered.

The silence itself was almost deafening. There were no birds, no insects, not even the rustling of leaves despite the mist drifting like a slow-moving tide. He could have sworn that there were sounds of insects when he first entered the forest, but everything had disappeared now. It was either that, or his mind was playing tricks on him, having been living in a forest for some time now.

After what felt like an hour of aimless wandering, he stopped.

“Alright, let’s try something different,” he said to himself. He closed his eyes and focused, stretching his senses outward. This was something he tried training, but couldn’t get much out of it. For what it was worth, he could sense some things around him within a few centimetres.

Well, even though his extra sense wasn’t impressive in any way, Lance could at all nothing.

His eyes came open slowly as he sighed. He was half expecting it, but now that it turned out ot be so, it was even more frustrating. It was as though the forest itself was actively working against him.

A sound broke the silence—a whisper, so faint it could have been mistaken for the wind, if only there was any wind to begin with. Lance turned sharply, his dagger ready.

He wanted to call out, “Who’s there?”… but he had seen and heard of too many horror stories to know that it was a bad idea.

Shortly after, he heard another whisper, this time from the opposite direction. Lance didn’t hesitate. He spun and threw his dagger, aiming precisely where the sound had come from. The blade sank into a tree trunk with a dull *thunk.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the tree itself let out a low, groaning noise as if it were alive. The bark twisted, and Lance watched as his dagger was ejected from the trunk, landing at his feet as he had moved close to retract his weapon. The X mark he had carved earlier began to glow faintly before fading completely.

“Okay,” Lance muttered. “That’s new… and creepy. Aelyndra? You’re sure there are no flesh eating monsters in this forest that the eyes can see, right?” He questioned aloud, though, he got no response. Now more than ever, he truly hoped that Aelyndra was watching him every second, this was the kind of place evil masters would abandon their disciples and simply wait at the exit for seven days, of which they would leave on the last day if their disciple didn’t emerge alive.0

He retrieved his dagger, gripping it tightly. If marking the trees was useless, then he needed another way to navigate. Looking up, he considered climbing one of the massive trees to get a better vantage point, but something in his gut told him that wouldn’t work either, after all, everything had looked almost identical when he saw it from Aelyndra’s back.

Then, the whispers returned. This time, they were everywhere, coming from all directions at once. Lance turned, scanning the mist for any movement. His muscles tensed as the whispers became words.

Turn back.

You do not belong.

Lost… lost… lost…

Lance clenched his jaw. He wasn’t the type to be easily intimidated by tricks, but the horror feel of the place was very much convincing.

“Yeah, well, neither do you,” he shot back at the voices.

Slowly, as nothing seemed to be happening, he began to walk again, following an endless route that never seemed to produce any obstructions or divert in any other direction much. He couldn’t help but think of the many scenarios in movies and fiction where people would be trapped in some type of spell or formation that kept them moving in circles without them realizing it. His guess was that he was in the same kind of situation, the problem was that he just didn’t know how to break it.

After an hour or two, Lance felt a deep exhaustion take over his body. It had been slowly building, but now he could no longer ignore it. He soon found a tree to rest beside, his eyes closing every so slightly.

Then, before he could close his eyes completely, the ground beneath him shifted.

He barely had time to react before the forest floor swallowed him whole.