It's been three days since they arrived and stayed in the Arclight Tribe.

Coupled with the time it took to set off from the Edric Academy, there are almost more than ninety-six hours before the release time of the [Eternal Forest Sea Anomaly Investigation] mission, and the remaining time of the mission is less than seventy-two hours.

However, Xiwei still has no clue about the cause of crystallization in the forest area.

At present, the crystallized forest area of the Eternal Forest Sea accounts for about one-fifth of the total area, and many forest elf tribes have even been forced to move their tribes to the point where they have survived for hundreds of years.

"All in all, let's put together what we have now."

Sivi: They are now in a small tree house on the branch of the moon tree. This is also the current residence of the Great Elder of the Arclight Tribe.

Elves don't have the same class concept as humans, and even the Great Elder's home is no different from ordinary elves.

The house is guided by natural magic, and the beds, tables, and chairs grow directly from the floor. Except for some hand-woven handicrafts, there are hardly any furnishings in it, even the bed sheets are made of palm-sized leaves, and only the quilts are hand-woven blankets produced by humans.

Although the furnishings are very simple, after all, elves are the closest creatures to nature, and the small treehouses are full of natural aesthetics, so it is no wonder that many nobles take pride in displaying elf-made artworks in their homes - in fact, this is also the most traded thing between elves and humans who are unwilling to harm nature too much.

"Even though you say that, it's not like you haven't found any clues......

Frey sighed, after two days of fruitless searching, the chief knight from the pure white papacy even moved out the magic of the Church Inquisition to detect heresy on a large scale, but unfortunately still found nothing.

"All crystallized areas are completely free of the slightest evil fluctuation...... Not to mention abyssal demons or vampires, not even monsters that carry only a little dark magic. This time it's really impossible to start. ”

Not to mention Frey, even Winter was a little discouraged.

Because of the relationship of crystallization. The ecological circle that had been stable in the forest for countless years had been completely disrupted, and many of the lord-level demonic beasts that had crystallized their own territories had to fight each other to divide new territories. This kind of battle made the entire Eternal Forest Sea jump. Up to now, there have been nearly three unlucky elven tribes, and nearly a hundred people have been affected by the battle of those monsters, and have been injured by different sizes. Even the Moon Tree, which was enshrined as a sacred tree, was destroyed by two.

For this reason, the current elders of the forest elf clan can only come forward and run in the forest sea, doing their best to maintain the mood and safety of the elves. And Elder Winter is the spokesperson of the original elves. In addition, they have known Xiwei for the longest time, so they can stay here, and while being responsible for communicating with Xiwei and them, looking for the cause of the mutation, they also protect the safety of the Arclight tribe.

"Crystallization is still spreading, and new crystallization points are constantly emerging...... If this continues, it really can't be done. We elves have no choice but to leave here and move to other forests. ”

Compared with the first time I saw him, Winter now looks a lot haggard, his eye sockets are a little sunken, and the faint dark circles under his eyes also show his presence on his fair face. There was even a hint of silver white in his long smooth and shiny turquoise hair.

"No, there's still a clue. Although it may not be of much use. ”

Sivi took a piece of parchment, drew a quill from the inkwell beside the table, ran the tip of the pen over the mouth of the bottle—these were the only man-made objects in the room except for the blanket, and even the ink was said to have been replaced by the juice of a plant fruit—and drew a rough outline of the ancient sea of forests on the parchment.

"First of all, if you look down from above, it's clear that all the crystallization areas are happening around one point. Of course, we have already seen that point, and we have not found anything special. ”

He drew a non-standard circle in the upper left corner of the outline, and then wrote a dot note in the center of the circle. Judging from the map alone, the center of the circle is actually quite close to the Arclight Tribe.

"Then the crystallization effect only works on plants, and there are no crystallized images of any other animal in the crystallized area except for the forest elves. In addition, Miss Frey and I have been in the crystallized forest area for a long time, even exceeding the 'safe time' you gave earlier, but the crystallization effect has not occurred, so I think the crystallization should only affect the plants. ”

Sivi glanced at Winter and saw that he didn't show any unpleasantness, so he continued.

After all, the Forest Elves were originally born from the Moon Tree, and perhaps it was because of this that the crystallization effect would determine the Forest Elves to be plants......

"The third and last point. The crystallization itself is not formed in the forest area. ”

After Sivi finished speaking, Frey and Winter's eyes revealed curiosity. If the first two points were still able to be perceived by three days of observation, then the third point was completely confusing to them.

Sivi didn't have a bad habit of whetting people's appetites, and he gave Winter an apologetic expression: "I'm sorry Winter, I secretly did an experiment on the forest when you weren't looking. ”

"What experiment?" Winter frowned, and did not directly say whether to forgive or not, but asked directly, it seemed that there was no intention of hypocrisy and wrongdoing, if the experiment done by Sivi was bad for the forest, maybe he would turn his face directly.

The uprightness of the elves is vividly reflected in this point.

"I dug up a crystallized forest area with the crystals with the ground."

Since he had already said it, Xiwei didn't intend to hide it, and said generously: "A big pit with a diameter of about twenty meters and a maximum depth of nearly ten meters has been dug. ”

The expression on Winter's face softened slightly, if it was only to this extent, after filling in the pit, the ecological balance of that forest area could be adjusted back with natural magic.

"But that doesn't work, does it? Before, the elder had instructed people to try to destroy the layer of crystals on it, but then the crystals grew back at an even faster speed, and even caused damage to the elves who went to destroy the crystals for a while. ”

He explained to Sivi.

Sivi continued as he wrote and drew on the parchment, "I have confirmed with Silph what you said. But do you know what happened after I dug a hole? ”

Winter and Frey glanced at each other, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.

So they shook their heads together.

"The crystallization plugged the pit. However, it is not to fill in the whole pit, but to cover the pit like a pot lid. ”

Sivi explained indifferently.

He stopped his pen and rubbed his chin with his left hand. As if thinking about something, he continued: "If crystallization is the result of a deliberate effort, then it seems that his motive was not to destroy the forest - otherwise he wouldn't have bothered with the area I had hollowed out. Just go and cover other forest areas. This brings me to the third point, 'crystallization itself is not directed at forest formation'. ”

“…… In this way, I always find it even more strange. If there really is a mastermind behind what you say, Mr. Edric, then what is his purpose? ”

The wrinkles on Winter's forehead increased slightly. It made him look a little older.

"If you use crystals as casting materials, cover all the places where you have to carve line runes with crystals...... Could it be a magic array? ”

Unlike the forest elves, who only worship their own spells, they are members of the church. Frey, who had been educated in all kinds of magic and had seen many of the cultists' evil rituals, immediately thought of something else.

"That's what I thought at first......"

Sivi smiled wryly and picked up the masterpiece he had been painting for a long time to let Frey and Winter see.

On the parchment, the circle that Sivi had transformed was densely packed with dots. It's like firing more than a dozen shots with a shotgun at the bull's-eye, although you can barely see that the main body is a circle, but because the craters are dense, and they are all randomly distributed. I can't see even the slightest pattern at all.

"I can't find anything in these points that could be considered a magic pattern or a rune...... Whether it's the Rune of Luna, the Ancient French of Homradu, the Prophet of Erich, or the Dragon's Spell that humans have not yet fully deciphered, I can't find the right number that can be regarded as a spellcasting condition seal. ”

Sivi shrugged and explained to Frey.

So the Holy Silver Sword Ji of the Pure White Church could only sigh and fall back on the chair.

This time. An elf knocked on the door.

In fact, the door was not closed, and the other party did it only because he was afraid of disturbing the Xiwei who was negotiating inside-from the point of view of understanding human etiquette, that should also be an elf endorsement.

"Excuse me." Winter stood up, owed to Sivi and the others, and walked towards the door.

Then they heard a murmur coming from the door, and it seemed that the other party didn't want Xiwei and them to know the content of their conversation.

Because the elves don't lie, they often suffer in the first communication with humans. It wasn't until the rise of the elf endorsement position that they regained a little initiative. At the same time, from that time on, ordinary elves no longer communicated with humans or even other creatures, and all external communication was taken care of by elven spokesmen who had learned foreign languages.

Today, hundreds of years later, no race other than elves speaks elven language.

Even the elves of the forest, the steppe elves, and the drow have a very different language - see Mandarin and Cantonese for details......

There was just one thing they didn't expect.

Because of the system, Sivi, who has LV5 linguistics, is actually able to understand elven language, but he has never shown it, and he doesn't intend to show it, and if he really wants to say it, he can even speak more smoothly than many young elves......

It is precisely because of this that those elves who have become accustomed to others not understanding their words will talk about various things in front of them without taboos, so that Xiwei can inquire about a lot of gossip about the elves.

"Elder, that kid you brought back from the Mutant Zone isn't from our tribe."

Under the power of the system uncle, Xiwei eavesdropped on the conversation at the door very tastelessly.

"We suspect he's a naturalist fundamentalist."

The child who came from the mutation zone was brought back from the mutation zone, and he also knew the way. It all started three days ago, when they first went to the crystallization forest area.

-- Three days ago --

"Is this the area affected by the mutation......

When he stepped onto the crystalline ground, Sivi's first thought was, 'This thing might be able to sell for a good price among the nobles if it is made into a craft and brought home.' ’

Unlike when viewed from the sky, this crystallized forest looks surprisingly good when viewed from a close distance.

Whether tall trees or low shrubs, all vegetation becomes translucent crystals. The sunlight is scattered and refracted countless times by the canopy crystals, and it is not only very bright, unlike those shady forest areas. And because of the prism effect, you can even see rainbow-shaped spots of light in many places.

If it weren't for the fact that it would threaten the natural ecology, this place would definitely be a superb view!

Theo seemed to like the way it looked. As soon as she came, she ran around, except for being a little softer when she got along with Xiwei, the unchanged expression on her little face also looked much soothed, and the red fluttering cheeks gave the girl a sense of liveliness unique to her age.

"It doesn't matter if it's a bird or an insect. There's not even a single creature left here. ”

Winter looked around the silent, terrifying crystallized forest, and his face didn't look good.

"It looks like there's no way to take these crystals with you." Xiwei casually broke off a crystalline leaf, only to see that the translucent leaf quickly melted away in his hand like an ice cube: "It's a pity. ”

"After the monsters crystallize here. There should have been a mass migration. ”

Frey gestured to the ground: "There are a lot of traces of large creatures moving here. ”

"There's no way a critter can leave a mark on something so hard."

Sivi shrugged his shoulders in disbelief, and then shouted at Theo, who had only a small back left, "Theo, don't go too far, this is also a dangerous area!" ”

"Sivi!" As soon as Sivi finished speaking, Theo's somewhat panicked voice rang out: "This way! ”

Sylvie immediately left Frey and Winter behind, and without thinking about it, hurried towards where Theo was.

"Theo!"

Strangely, though, Theo stood there in a dignified manner.

The girl was half-crouched on the ground, holding in her arms a fainted child about her age.

Even though the child looked like a little girl. But judging by his pointed ears and long turquoise hair tied into a ponytail with thin vines, he should be an elf.

"It's a young elf, I don't know which tribe ran out of the little guy."

Winter, who arrived later, looked at the child in Tio's arms and said.

"What's wrong with him? Could it be that staying here for too long is causing the symptoms? ”

Frey, who arrived at about the same time as Winter, also looked curiously at the young elf.

"Anyway, it's better to take him out of here first."

Sivi reached out to Theo and took the unconscious elf.

And their first exploration of the Mutant Zone ended hastily.

The elves after being watched over by the Arclight Tribe. It took less than a day to wake up. It's just that I don't know if it's because of the mutation, he doesn't seem to have any memories of before. And where he fainted, according to Winter after asking the elves in his care, was only because he was too hungry......

Anyway, the elf was healed quickly, and he didn't know what he was doing, and he seemed to enjoy spending time with Theo.

Although the two little ones don't understand the language, they still play together very well, which is difficult to see in Theo.

Sivi reminded himself several times in his heart that elves have no gender, and only then did he suppress the loneliness of the stupid father who 'watched his baby daughter have a boyfriend and didn't stick to herself'......

In addition, Sivi also secretly observed the elf for a long time, and after confirming that the other party was not a suspicious guy, he was relieved to let Theo play with him. After all, judging from the observation results, although the other party's magic power is a little strange, the young elf named Ike is at most a senior beginner magician-level magic level, and it seems that he has no combat experience, so if he really fights, he will definitely not be Tio's opponent.

"No wonder I always think his magic is very strange, is it a natural fundamentalist......

It wasn't until today that he heard the conversation between Winter and the strange elf that Sivi solved a question in his heart.

Just as humans are divided into mage associations and pure white churches, elves are not monolithic. Even if we put aside the steppe elves who judged the forest with the moon tree species and the drow who directly turned their backs on the quiet moon, in addition to the true believers of the quiet moon, there are also religious organizations like fanatics 'Luna's Retreat', devout churches 'natural fundamentalism', and some loose and unorganized pan-believers......

Among them, the original religion of nature not only believes in the moon of tranquility, but also regards the whole of nature as one, and worships it as a deity that exists on the same level as the moon of tranquility.

Unlike ordinary forest spirits, they spend their lives protecting nature and doing everything they can to keep it from being harmed in the slightest. They don't use anything that humans have made, and everything on them is made directly from things in the natural world. On the other hand, they hate humans who take too much of nature, and they are responsible for at least eight out of every ten forest elves that harm humans.

As the power obtained by believing in nature, they can communicate with animals and plants in nature better than ordinary elves, and even transform into animals with various characteristics after obtaining some unknown permission......

That's right, among humans, these crazy guys have another name.

Druid. (To be continued.) )