On the edge of the southern swamp of Miracle Valley, a group of embarrassed-looking knights are roasting clothes around a campfire.

Because of the death of many people, the mood of the knights seemed a little low. The blonde knight captain holds the map, his face full of gloom.

"I said, Momo, this map can't be fake, right?" The captain of the knight waved the map in his hand and said to the girl who was standing aside and nibbling on bread normally.

The cat-eared girl swallowed the bread in her mouth and weakly explained, "This is the latest map, and it was only updated five years ago. ”

"The distribution of monsters is completely messed up!" The knight captain sighed, "This is a problem. ”

"It's not completely messed up. At least it's safe here. The cat-eared girl said weakly.

The knight captain turned his head and looked at the elven mage standing not far away.

It was a lazy elven female mage. A slender figure, long emerald green hair slouched listlessly, and a white scholar's robe shone like a ripple of silver under the night sky.

At this time, the elven female mage was looking up at the starry sky with an expression like a dead fish's eyes.

"Lord Refia." The knight spoke softly.

The elven mage withdrew her gaze from the sky and looked at the knight with green pupils with a slight silver glow: "Knight Lankwo, is there something wrong?" ”

"Lord Refia, things have changed, and we are going to break through in the direction of the kingdom next, I hope you can cooperate with us and stop acting on your own." The knight captain stared solemnly at the elven mage.

Elven Mage: "The starry sky here is beautiful. ”

“？？？” The knight captain frowned slightly and looked at the sky, "Ah, it's really beautiful. ”

Elven Mage: "Let's go to the lair." ”

"Huh!?" The Knight Captain thought he had misheard, "Lord Refia, what did you just say?" ”

"Rest for the night, tomorrow we'll go to the lair."

"Hmm......" the Knight Captain rubbed his forehead, "I'm sorry, Lord Refia, I don't quite understand what you mean. ”

The elven mage looked at the knight, "Tomorrow, we're going to check on the nearby monster lair." There are some things I want to be sure. ”

The knight captain looked at the female elf in front of him blankly: "Lord Refia, this joke is not funny at all!" ”

The elven mage stared at the knight captain.

Looking at the expression of the female elf, the expression of the knight captain became more and more stiff: "Mother Earth...... Are you serious? ”

"Very seriously."

"Lord Refia, I want to know why." The Knight Captain was very serious.

"The starry sky here is beautiful."

The knight captain almost vomited out a mouthful of old blood! Are you me!?

"The ......," the cat-eared girl said weakly, "Lord Refia, is there any connection between the beauty of the starry sky and the monster's lair?" ”

The elven female mage thought for a moment: "The monster lair will distort space and magic, and where there is a monster lair, the starry sky is blurred. ”

Hearing the words of the elven female mage, everyone raised their heads and looked at the bright starry sky.

The cat-eared girl first understood the elven mage's words: "You mean...... The monster lair here doesn't need to be sealed? ”

"I don't know." The elven mage paused, "We will be sure after checking." ”

The knight captain frowned, "Lord Refia, we don't have much food, and it will be very troublesome if we waste too much time." ”

"I can give birth to bread trees." The elven mage pulled out a few seeds from her pocket, "Don't worry about food. ”

“…… I see, but only for a day at most. Once the investigation is over, we must return immediately! ”

"Got it."

The elven mage ignored the others, pulled up her hood, tightened her robe, found a place to sit, and closed her eyes.

The knight captain looked at the sky, then at the elven mage with her eyes closed, and sighed.

"O Mother Earth! ~These elves from the forest are too troublesome! Looking at the wayward female elf, the knight captain couldn't help but sigh, turned to the other knights and yelled, "Bunnies, there's no time to make you feel down!" Have a good rest tonight, and have a tough fight tomorrow! ”

"Yes...... Captain. ”

The sound of the knights in his ears was weak, and the elven female mage couldn't help frowning.

The night was peaceful. Since this location happened to be outside the range of the monster's lair, the crowd was not harassed at night.

The next day, after breakfast, the captain of the knights mobilized the players.

"Our goal is to escort Lady Refia close to a horned rabbit's nest in front of us to get a close-up look at the nest. Although the enemy is just a bunch of rabbits, they are monsters, and I don't want you to be hurt by carelessness! Got it!? ”

"Yes! Captain! "After a night's rest, the morale of the knights has been restored.

The team quickly set off and followed the markings on the map to the Horned Rabbit's nest.

The horned rabbit is a very weak creature and is the target of many creatures. For a group of elite knights, the horned rabbit is naturally no threat. But to the surprise of the knights, when the knights arrived at the lair, they did not encounter any horned rabbits!

A lone whirlpool, towering in the middle of the forest, with not a single rabbit around, only the occasional sound of insects and birds chirping in the forest.

"It's so strange, why aren't there any monsters here?" The knights looked around nervously. This kind of situation without enemies is more difficult to feel at ease than when you encounter them.

The elven mage stood in front of the whirlpool, staring at the whirlpool in front of her, her green pupils shining with a silver glow.

"Identification!"

The elven mage stared intently at the whirlpool, trying to extract more information and intel from it.

After almost ten minutes, the elven female mage finally stopped focusing, and the silver light in her eyes slowly dissipated.

"Mistress Refia, do you see something?" The knight captain couldn't help but ask.

"It's a very powerful energy node." The elven female mage couldn't help but sigh.

"Energy nodes? Isn't this a monster lair? The Knight Captain wondered.

"The Monster's Lair is a distorted space-time node where time and space are distorted, and energy from the timeline leaks out of it, causing instability in space-time. And monsters are just by-products of those energy leaking out. The elven mage looked at the whirlpool in front of her with glowing eyes, and seemed a little excited, "But this node in front of you is different!" This node is very stable, obviously has strong energy, but there is no energy leakage, it is as if it has been sealed by the flame of order...... No, even the monster lair sealed by the Order Flame is not so stable. I could feel the power of this vortex, but it didn't leak in the slightest, and it didn't affect the surrounding environment! ”

The Knight Captain had a look on his face, "I don't understand it, but I feel it."

The elven mage thought about it and took the initiative to inject magic into the lair.

"What are you doing, Lord Refia!?" The knight captain couldn't help but exclaim.

"Do a test." The elven mage seemed excited, "I want to see if injecting magic into this node will cause a change." ”

The elven mage poured her magic into the vortex.

"Hmm...... The magic is absorbed, but it doesn't react? The elven mage couldn't help frowning.

"Lord Refia, it's almost time to leave." The captain of the knights couldn't help but remind.

"I'm camping here today."

The corners of the knight captain's mouth twitched: "Lord Refia, this is a monster lair, right?" ”

"It's not. It's similar, but it's not the same as a monster lair. The elven mage's eyes lit up, "Investigating this should allow us to figure out why the sky here is back to normal." ”

Facing the elf in front of him who didn't care about others at all, the knight captain sighed deeply: "Lord Refia, even if the investigation is not completed, we will have to leave here early tomorrow morning and go directly to the city." No problem, right? ”

"No, you guys go first. I'm probably going to be here for a while. ”

"Huh!?"