"Brando, where are we going?"

The metal parts of the two horses rattled through the forest one after the other, and the female knight on horseback held the reins in one hand and turned her head to look at the surrounding scenery with some concern. The still forest is like an oil painting, oozing refreshing greenery from the depths of the background, and the sunlight shines through the canopy of the trees, scattering bunches of dead leaves like light curtains.

The forest was silent, except for the rustle of horses' hooves on dead leaves, and the sound of metal clashing.

Freya's face was a little pale, although she had only suffered a minor injury to Laurenna's hand, and after Merial's treatment, it was fine. But the long journey on horseback after losing blood still made her a little unbearable.

"Tired?" Brando looked back at her and asked with concern.

"No, but...... But it was getting dark, and if you went any further, you would not be able to return to Shavlund. Freya said in a worried tone, wondering why Brando had suddenly summoned her to Shavrund and deep into the mountains of Grahar.

-- A little further on, the Black Forest.

"It's okay," Brando smiled on horseback, looking unconcerned, "it's getting dark, and we can camp in the wilderness." Are you still worried about me here? ”

But Freya's face turned red: "But, but, but we only have one tent. ”

Brando liked the future Valkyrie like this, so he was not in a hurry to answer, and only when the latter glared at her viciously did he laugh: "Actually, I lied to you, and I will be here soon." ”

Freya breathed a sigh of relief, only to realize that she had been teased. She took a deep breath, barely resisting the urge to slam her fist into the smirkling face—but seeing that the latter had tightened her grip on the reins, she let out a soft sigh as her seated horse stopped. Brando scrutinized his surroundings as if to confirm something. Then he rolled over and dismounted, and dragged his cloak with the hilt of his sword with one hand.

See Brando like this. Freya also had to put away her originally angry look, a little curious. She saw him rustle through the dead leaves to a tree—she didn't recognize the scientific names of the trees on the labels of the scholars' thick literature, but she knew that these giant trees with dark trunks were commonly known as ghost trees among the Eruin mountain people. "Brando, you...... What are you looking at? ”

Brando looked up at the ebony tree, which he knew very well, as if he had seen it again after many years of absence, and there was a faint sense of intimacy. He silently thought about something. Some of the past qiē can no longer be remembered, but the memories are still like glittering fragments, occasionally flashing in his thoughts, like a sea of sand picking up shellfish.

Then he looked away and found the gray-white boulder not far away in the place of his memory. The boulder resembles a giant egg stuck diagonally into the ground. His gaze looked up along the rocky potholes, stopping every time he went up. After the third time, he saw the rift in the shape of a bifurcated star.

Then he replied, "It's nothing, here we are, Freya." ”

"Arrived?" Freya couldn't help but look around, and halfway through the afternoon, the light in the mountain forest became more and more gray, and she saw only a dark green canopy. Twisted tree branches, intertwined roots and open spaces – the forest looks more like a semi-enclosed cavern from this point of view, with staggered tunnels leading in all directions.

Unlike elsewhere in Toniguel, the black coniferous forests of the Goran-Elsen and Gendenel areas are less common in the Haragher Mountains, but are covered with large areas of evergreen broad-leaved forests, as if there is a mysterious magic that nourishes this ancient forest underneath the ground.

"What is this place?"

"This should be the border of the Black Forest in this direction," Brando said as he took a few steps forward, pushing aside a large area of bushes. He found that it was almost the top of the mountain, and he looked east from here. The black ridge in the clouds runs from south to north. Like the backs of several looming dragons. He stretched out his hand and put his five fingers together and pointed in that direction, and said, "To the east." It's the Eversong Forest, you've heard of it, right? ”

"The mountains of Chablis?" Freya asked curiously. The mountains of Chablis are a well-known landmark in the south of Eruin, and the beautiful forests of Yongge have long been a longing destination for travelers, so she has heard of them even in Buchi.

"Well," Brando nodded, "but it should be the border between Tosankade Forest and Yongge Forest to be exact, and the Fangs Fortress is located in that direction, which is the southern border of Eruin. ”

After saying that, he stared in that direction and was silent. The Black Forest, a vast mountain landscape surrounded by mist, is one of the most rare sights for the explorer - any player will be as ambitious as a sailor conquers the sea.

"But why are we here? …… Cloth, Brando, what are you going to do? The knight girl felt a little inexplicable, she didn't understand why Brando had brought her alone to this sparsely populated place, but she couldn't help but be startled when she saw Brando suddenly take off her cloak and coat and walk back to her, and her armored hand subconsciously clicked on the hilt of her sword, staring nervously at the other party.

Brando stopped, and he looked at the future Valkyrie a little inexplicably: "What are you thinking?" ”

"Y-you-why are you undressing?"

"Of course you're going to climb down from here, where do you want to go," replied Brando, angrily, "I'm so untrustworthy, come and get my clothes for me, and wait for me here, stupid." ”

Freya's face turned as red as blood as a brush, and she lowered her head as if trying to find a crack in the ground. However, upon hearing Brando's request, our Valkyrie struggled for a long time to unbuckle from her horse and climb down, and if she dismounted at this speed in the Academy, it was estimated that she would be given a negative score in the riding exam. Then he took the coat from Brando's hand with a somewhat trembling hand.

“…… Where are you, where are you going? She asked cautiously, holding her clothes in a daze, like a clumsy maid.

"You'll find out later."

Brando replied. Then she looked up to see him step aside, dragging the rope from his horse's bag and tying it to the 'ghost tree' from before. She watched him let go of the rope little by little, slowly walked to the edge of the mountain wall, then glanced down and threw the second half of the rope down.

"Brando, what's down there?" The Valkyrie was slightly stunned, and finally realized what Brando was going to do.

Brando glanced up at her in that direction. He put his finger to his lips and shook his head at the girl from the countryside of Buchi, and then he grabbed the rope with one hand and jumped down.

"Be careful!"

Freya couldn't help but let out a low shout.

But the shout seemed to be dragged farther and farther in Brando's ears, and the cold wind above the cliff made him squint his eyes, and when he finally made out the scene in front of him, he felt the clouds and mist below the cliff suddenly approaching him, like the illusion of approaching the surface of the water when diving.

Then with a snort, he felt himself fall into the clouds. Brando hurriedly grabbed some rope with his gold-level strength. Naturally, he didn't have to climb down the rope little by little, but the last time he came to this place was at least ten years ago, and he had nearly a hundred years in the game, and he was afraid that he would remember the wrong location, so he brought the rope for insurance.

After all, he can't soar in the sky until he is truly civilized.

Brando stared at the mountain wall. In a matter of seconds, a platform protruding from the bushes swept past him. He reacted very quickly, and as soon as his palms tightened, the rope in his hand immediately 'banged' - the powerful reaction force caused him to swing in mid-air, and the rope had a scorching smell on it, but Brando's hand did not feel the slightest strangeness.

The gold-level body element zhì has long been beyond the scope that normal people can imagine.

He raised his head and looked up, and the position of the platform was not much different from what he remembered, a height difference of more than ten meters away from him. But this distance is almost equal to no existence for him. Brando gently swung the rope close to the mountain wall, then grabbed the rocks with intertwined teeth and climbed up as easily as a monkey.

The thicket platform was almost exactly what he remembered, and Brando looked around, the rock jutting out from the mountainside about half the size of a basketball court. But it was much wider, except that the dense trees and vines obscured most of the view, and he cautiously followed his memory in one direction, then ripped open the thick and tangled vines.

With a thud, accompanied by the rustling of dirt, Brando didn't need much force to tear the dead branches and leaves apart. Sure enough, a cone-shaped stone slab was revealed underneath. The slab was about the same height as him. It is two people wide, and it resembles a stone statue of wisdom that is common in forests everywhere (1). However, instead of the image of Misokai the Weaver of Magic and Storm, it is depicted with a black moon.

The Moon of Silence, the seventh moon of Eruin. This lightless moon can never be observed in the heavens, but it has really existed in history.

Without saying a word, Brando cleared the vines from the platform in turn, revealing eleven other similar steles below. On each stele is a moon, which in turn represents the flowing fate and source of magic in the sky of Eruin.

This place is the temple of destiny.

Or what players call it a job change.

Brando had checked the information that these stele arrays were built by people older than the Miner people in the past, and they seemed to be built to stabilize the original Martha's Tiamat law, and in the entire Vaynd continent, such stele arrays exist in many places, but they are all built in extremely secret places.

For example, this one in Tonigel was built on the border of the Black Forest in the Grahal Mountains, and it has been buried for many years. However, when Brando went to these places in the middle of the game, the stone henges had already been cleaned up by the players in front of him, so he wouldn't have wasted so much time on them as he did today.

He carefully examined the thin veins on the ground in the center of the stone tablet array, then raised his head, his gaze following them towards the center of the platform. These metallic rune lines and veins were familiar to him, very similar to the energy transmission circles he had seen beneath Valhalla, almost like they were from the hand of a civilization.

This doubt flashed through Brando's mind. Then he gathered his mind and walked towards the center of the platform, where the stone formations held secrets, but they only served one purpose in the game.

That is to allow players to receive their own elemental civilization tasks.