In a trance, he found himself strolling through a forest he had never seen before, and he could vaguely feel some kind of force driving him on. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The sky was dark, completely covered by the tabernacle of the night, and only a few dim stars could barely be seen through the leaves that had fallen through the treetops. He didn't know why he was here, he just blindly followed the arrangement of the wonderful power and walked in the darkness.

Fortunately, the road ahead was not very long, and it was not long before he made his way through the woods shrouded in night, and found the entrance to a cave at the end of the darkness. It was a snow-covered clearing, with a deep tunnel leading to the ground hidden beside a dead old tree.

The night was so deep that the cave in front of me was naturally pitch black, and with the weak eyes of humans, it was impossible to see the structure inside the cave. For some reason, he inexplicably had a wonderful association, as if this cave that appeared in the dark was a gate to the abyss of ambush.

There's probably nothing more stupid than entering a cave in the middle of the night that leads to no other place, because even the most concise idiot can see how dangerous it is. He wanted to stop there, but his instinct seemed to say that something was calling to him from the depths of the cavern.

The "hunch" was silly - he couldn't help but shake his head - but it was undeniable that the cave itself seemed to invite him in. In fact, he had already reacted that what was in front of him might not be real, so in the face of this "invitation", he had to make up his mind and set foot in the dark world.

Passing through the entrance to the surface, the dark, damp surroundings immediately reminded him of the small cavern outside of Lemonglas, but the interior of the cave was clearly much more spacious and lacked any signs of artificiality. He made his way down a narrow tunnel that barely allowed people to bend through, and after going down a steep ramp for a while, he finally saw an open space.

The air was unusually humid, and even the surrounding walls were stained with water, which was almost impossible to see in the northern winter. Warm, moist air enveloped his body, and the walls were completely soaked in moisture and covered with moss and fungi growing wildly.

The open space he was in at this time was nothing more than a hall connecting the entrance to the depths, with a passage in front of him that continued inward. And almost of course, the cave was quite dim, and if it weren't for some glowing moss growing on the stone walls, he would have crashed headfirst into the walls.

After a pause, he gently slung one hand onto the nearby rock wall and walked deeper into the cavern along the wide passage that stretched north-south direction. The passage was gentle, with little effort to move forward, and he could feel the water seeping out of the walls from time to time onto his fingertips.

As you move forward, you can sometimes hear the sound of flapping wings not far away, presumably the bats that inhabit the depths of the cave are panicking because of the arrival of this uninvited guest. Luckily, they weren't aggressive, otherwise it would have taken a lot of effort for him to chase the bats away.

In order to see the nearby scenery more clearly, he subconsciously took out a silver lantern from his side. He had no memory of when or where he got the lantern, but he acted naturally, as if it had been with him in the first place, and all he had to do was light it.

If you use a lantern to illuminate the surroundings, you can see that the cave is very wide, and the cave house with ancient ruins can only be called a "fighting room" compared to it. The ground is littered with dead remains and decay of various creatures, presumably as a result of natural development over many years.

In contrast to the steep slope of the previous section, which was full of potholes, after passing through the original hall, the road became much smoother, as if it had been specially modified for human walking. After passing through the entrance to the south, you can see a number of caves with stalagmites growing together.

I don't know if it's because it's deep underground, but the nearby space has a surprisingly high ceiling, and there are a few holes in the top that lead to nowhere, which is simply a naturally formed underground labyrinth. But I don't know why, the grottoes with overly smooth walls of these caves are very empty, and there is almost nothing except a few residues and mushrooms, as if someone had carefully cleaned the place.

No, no, it's not empty.

He soon discovered that there was something within the cavern—that under the shadow of the corner, something resembling a figure seemed to lurk. It wasn't a figure that was caught with the naked eye, huddled in a corner, and while it looked weird, it seemed harmless.

Just as he had not seen their presence, the shadows did not notice him, and even if they came to his side with a lantern to take a closer look, they were unmoved. Although a faint mournful howl can occasionally be heard when approaching, it quickly dissipates into nothingness.

What were these shadows? He was so curious that he couldn't help but get closer, so that the light of the lantern could illuminate the shadows. They apparently live in a different world than he does, and obviously have a hard time interfering with each other, but one thing is for sure, they hate the light.

After he lit the corner with the lantern, the figure that had been huddled in the corner suddenly made a strange sound, and then crawled away from the range illuminated by the lantern. Through the moment when it fled, he finally saw the true appearance of those shadows.

Nothing was done to solve the problem, but it only made his doubts even bigger - he had not seen them in any records.

They are certainly not human, and although they resemble dwarf humanoid silhouettes, they are vastly different from real-life humans. No facial features resembling any of these features can be seen on the shadow-covered face, and the twisted, thin limbs have a completely different structure from those of humans.

So he walked forward as he observed the wonderful shadows, and in the connected cavities he could see many strangely shaped rocks crisscrossing each other. And under the shadows of these hollow corners, he could always find these strange shadows curled up in a ball, hidden between the dark cracks of the stone.

It was clear that the effect of the light on them was fatal, and as he took the opportunity to observe the distant figure, it fell to the ground as if it had been violently poisoned, convulsing continuously. The shadow faded at a speed visible to the naked eye, and within a moment it disintegrated into ashes and melted into the earth.

These shadows huddled in dark corners may not really be harmless to humans and animals, but it is also true that he let one of them end unhappily for the sake of his curiosity. Having learned his lesson, he stopped getting so close to the shadows, just kept his distance and looked for more figures lurking in the dark corners.

As he continued to walk, he suddenly tripped over something, and turned his head to see a human corpse lying in the shadow of the rock, and around him, there were strange figures gathered far more than anywhere else. He must have been dead for a long time, because the corpse was left with only a few bones, and it was a leg skeleton that tripped over him just now, and now I don't know where he was kicked.

Despite his suspicions, he didn't believe that the man had been killed by the shadows, as there were still many marks of sharp blades on his tattered clothes. Other than that, however, there was no luggage left, and I don't know if it was taken by the murderer or if he didn't have anything with him.

Perhaps there was some untold story about the dry bone, but he was not interested in it, so he reluctantly wrapped the bones he could find with the tattered clothes on it, and then placed it in a small side hole nearby, and then picked up a stone slab to seal the side hole.

He was a non-believer, and he didn't know if this dry bone had some kind of special faith, and since he had become such a miserable appearance, he could only store it in this "tomb". When he had done that, he continued along the path of the cave.

However, it didn't take long for the road to come to an end.

In front of him was an underground waterway, and the rushing water lapped against the banks, and if he waded rashly, he would surely be swept away in the middle of nowhere. However, this waterway must also be a hidden tributary of the White River, because the magical water does not freeze even in the cold winter days.

The water flowing in the underground waterway was cold and piercing, and the black surface of the water was full of undercurrents, and it was obvious that with his physical strength, there was no way to cross the river. At that moment he seemed to hear a sound coming from the other side, and looked up to see that there were many small horizontal holes in the stone walls on the other side, which were joined together and stretched into the distance—it was in the distance, almost pitch black, that human voices seemed to be heard.

At some point, he suddenly noticed that the lantern in his hand had disappeared, and now all that illuminated him was the moss growing on the rocks and the occasional glimmering mushroom that sprouted from his head. After losing the light of the lantern, the cave returned to darkness, and only the voices of people from the other side became clearer and clearer.

He looked in the direction from which the voice had come from, and it seemed that someone was being chased by a group of people, the voices he had heard earlier. Torches and lanterns in their hands shouted menacingly, while those they pursued could only languish in the intricate caverns.

No, it needs to be corrected that there is not "somebody" being chased by a group of people - because he soon discovers that the person being chased is himself.