Chapter 43: So This Is Not a Forest?

The final search result was just as we thought. Although we still insisted on searching the remaining houses, we were unable to find the whereabouts of Matsumasa and the others. Obviously Matsumasa and the others are not in this village, at least not in the house, so we are now faced with two choices.

Choice one is of course to continue looking for Matsumasa and the others. Although Song Zhenghe, Jin Coin and August Xun are all existences with strong survivability, in this ultra-difficult task, even I can't guarantee that I will survive safely, so Song Zhenghe Their current situation is actually not safe. It can only be said that their survivability is slightly stronger than that of ordinary players, but if you really want to say how much stronger... that's not sure.

If we don't go to Matsumasa and the others, then we have a second option. This option is to go to the soul well first and let us temporarily open our seal. According to the female ghost, the water in the soul well combined with the psychic crystals we collected can temporarily open our seal. Of course, the time when this seal will be opened and the extent to which it will be opened are not completely certain. The only thing that is certain is that the more psychic crystals, the better for us, and the other red crystal is the same thing, and can also open part of the seal. , but the direction is different from that of the psychic crystal. Generally speaking, these things are useful to us, but it is not clear how effective they can be.

In addition, there is another problem, that is, the soul well needs these crystals to generate energy before we can open our seal, but if we go there directly. There was only so much crystal in his hand. Therefore, we actually have a third option, which is to go to other villages to actively look for those ghosts and hunt them, and then we can hoard a large amount of crystals.

All three options have their own benefits. Looking for Matsumasa and the others first means a relatively safe conservative strategy, but the shortcomings are obvious. This plan will undoubtedly lengthen the entire mission, and there is no guarantee that we will not encounter any danger during the search process.

The second option seems to be the safest, but it is actually a middle-of-the-road approach with obvious benefits and obvious shortcomings. But overall, this plan is actually the most reasonable.

The third option can actually be intertwined with the first option. During the hunting process, you can search for traces of Matsumasa and the others, but there is a question of priority. If we are searching for traces of Matsumasa and the others, then we don't need to clean up monsters from house to house. On the contrary, we need to clean up room by room. So both seem to do the same thing. In fact, the content is different.

After these three plans were released, we also had a lot of debate.

True Red and Blazing Dragon Queen are more inclined to go to the third option. That is to say, first clean up some monsters and get multi-energy crystals. Ying Yu Shen Hina hopes to go to Matsumasa to congratulate them first, and wait for everyone to gather together before taking the next step. Christina and I prefer the second option because it doesn't seem to have any outstanding performance. But it is the most balanced. After all, we already have hundreds of crystals in our hands. If we take them to the soul well, we should at least be able to concentrate on unlocking some of a person's abilities first, so that our survival rate will be much higher in subsequent battles, no matter what we do. Everything will become more confident.

Since the only one who supported the first option was Ying Yu Shen Hina, the first option was passed directly. The remaining options were to either raid or go directly to the soul well. Both of these choices were two versus two, but because I was the president, in the end Zhenhong and Blazing Dragon Princess did not insist on their own opinions, and directly chose to listen to me after everyone expressed their opinions.

I was always leaning toward the second option. Now that neither Zhenhong nor Blazing Dragon Girl is forcing anything, I will naturally not be polite and directly decide that we all go to the Soul Well together.

"Okay, it's settled. Hey, who is that... By the way, I haven't asked you what your name is yet?" It was only then that I remembered that I had never asked the female ghost her name.

The other person was stunned for a moment when I asked, and then he lowered his head and thought for a long time before looking at me and saying, "What do you think my name is appropriate?"

"Ah? What are you talking about? Why do you want me to find out what your name is? Don't you have a name yourself?"

"I've been a ghost for so long that I don't even remember it anymore!"

"I'm dizzy!" Looking at this female ghost, I thought about it for a while and then simply said: "Since you don't even remember your name, is it okay if we just give you an easy-to-remember name?"

The other party obviously didn't have any special requirements for this, and just nodded and let us name it casually. After some discussion with Christina and the others, I decided to name this female ghost "Yuriko". The reason for using this name does not have any special meaning, it is just because it is convenient to call her, and the clothes on the female ghost changed from red to white after I defeated her, so this Lily suits her appearance very well. The extra sub-character was added taking into account Japanese naming habits.

"What about that, Yuriko. Now we have decided to go to the Soul Well first, and you can lead the way. But this place is too dangerous. If you are killed by something while walking outside, we will be in trouble. So you It’s better to walk in the middle of the line and just tell us how to go without having to stay in front.”

"Okay." Yuriko nodded and agreed to my arrangement. This female ghost became extremely obedient after I used her soul space to pick her up. She felt like she was submissive. It is probably because the soul space removed her evil spirit, so that her personality returned to what she was before she was alive. However, women in ancient Japan respected men, which was even stricter than in China, so the other party was very submissive and almost did whatever they asked her to do without any hesitation. Of course, we don’t have any excessive demands.

With Yuriko guiding us, our progress has become much simpler. Since we don’t have to worry about going the wrong way, we don’t have to pay attention to the terrain or anything like that. Directly follow the route pointed out by Yuriko and head towards the mountain.

The so-called soul well is said to be in the woods on the mountain, and it is actually not far from us. In addition, this map does not seem to be very big. It is said that it is a circle of villages surrounding a mountain. In fact, the mountain in front of you is not very high. The distance from the top to the bottom of the mountain is only about 200 meters. However, this mountain is due to the slope of the mountain. It's relatively slow, so it's quite large.

After we entered the forest on the mountain, we began to feel grateful that we had a guide. This place is absolutely the best in the array, because it is a dynamic maze.

The most annoying of all maze-type maps is this dynamic maze, because its route is not fixed. It can be said that it is changing all the time. It turned out that the place you walked through was a dead end. Maybe it became the correct passage as soon as you left, but when you went around to the previous correct passage, it was blocked again. Therefore, if this kind of maze is controlled by a being with certain intelligence. Then you can't even hope to make it through. Because no matter how you go. The other party has a way of blocking you back. Of course, if you have something to do and don't care about the walls or anything, and encounter walls, pass through walls, and smash doors, then of course it is another matter.

This woodland where we are now is one such place. It's not that there are many monsters in the woods here. Of course, it can also be said that there are many monsters, but they are not the kind of monsters everyone thinks.

We didn't realize it when we first entered the forest. It wasn't until Yuriko suddenly asked me to stab one of the big trees when we walked to a place that we suddenly realized that there was no tree in the forest at all. .

Yes, you read that right. There is not a single tree at the base of this mountain. The entire forest is made up of a kind of spirit called wood spirit. When these things are not moving, they look exactly like big trees. There is no detection spell that can distinguish them from real big trees. Come on. However, no matter how good the disguise is, these guys are not trees after all, and as an aborigine here, Yuriko certainly knows this. Therefore, of course, you will not be confused when you know that these are not big trees.

Although this tree spirit looks no different from a big tree when it is not moving, and their appearance is also a mess, some look like maple trees, some look like cherry blossom trees, and there are various other tree species with different shapes. Different, but they are all dryads.

Speaking of which, our guild has raised a lot of these things ourselves, and we have planted them around the cities where the guild belongs to serve as secret sentries. These tree spirits are no different from big trees, and unless they are in danger or the environment here is unsuitable for survival, the tree spirits are actually no different from ordinary big tree roots. They don't run around at all. **, as long as they are rooted somewhere, they will not move again if nothing threatens their survival.

This characteristic determines that once these tree spirits take root, they can stay in one place for a long time, and because of their characteristics, they can completely integrate with the surrounding forest. To find a dryad in a forest is basically like finding a needle in a haystack. Since there is no magic to detect it, you can only use physical methods to experiment one by one.

Because of the super camouflage ability of these guys, after being equipped with communication crystals, these guys can completely become fixed sentries. When the enemy thinks that they are quietly lurking outside the city, they will not know where they are hiding. The big tree may well be one of our sentinels. This ability is absolutely incredible. Of course, due to the limitations of the system, any existence with some kind of heaven-defying ability must have a heaven-defying flaw, and the god-defying flaw of the tree spirits is that they have almost no sense of combat.

Although the roots of these guys can be pulled out from the ground to move around like fish, and the movement speed is very fast, the roots of these guys are too lazy to move unless their lives are endangered, or someone with high plant affinity communicates with them. , and then reach an agreement, just like the sentry agreement signed by our guild and them. Without these external influences, dryads may never move on their own in their entire lives. Moreover, their branches can be waved at will. When beating or entangling the enemy, even a thousand-level player can't break free in a short time. Even a two-thousand-level advanced player like me can't escape without eternity. If you are entangled, you will never be able to get out within three to five seconds. This shows that the attack power and binding ability of these things are actually very strong.

Additionally, these guys have pretty good defense. Although they look like ordinary big trees, their bodies are actually surprisingly hard. Except for the outer layer of bark, which is the same as a real big tree and only has the base hardness of wood, the inner trunk is almost like a solid piece of iron. Common weapons Chopping with all your strength will only leave a shallow mark at most. As for magic attacks... Don't even think about that. If they can fight, these guys are simply mage killers, because they have a super rogue ability-spell devouring. To put it simply, as long as there is magic within a certain range around them, it can be absorbed. Unless it is strategic magic that they will be killed if they cannot absorb it in time, ordinary magic roots will not be able to hurt them, but will make them These guys absorb a lot of energy and become stronger.

but. Although the above data looks like dryads and invincible creatures. But in fact, these things are really useless other than serving as sentries. It's not because they are incompetent in combat, nor because their survival ability is low, but because... they are too lazy to move.

Yes, these guys are really lazy beyond your comprehension. Not only will it not move without external stimulation. Even when attacked. Their first reaction is also determined based on the injury situation. If the damage is minor enough to be ignored. They will continue to remain still and continue to pretend to be a big tree with you. However, if the damage is a little more noticeable but nowhere near fatal. Then they will pull their roots out of the ground and move some distance in the opposite direction from where they were attacked. In other words, even if they are hurt by being hit, they will never fight back, but will just stay away from you.

Of course, if you continue to increase the damage and directly make attacks that can endanger their lives, these guys will start to fight back. However, the purpose of their counterattack is to better escape and will not really fight you. At most, they will teach you a lesson to let you know that they are not easy to mess with, then turn around and run away. Of course, this time they will run very far away until you can't find them, and then they will take root and disguise themselves again.

What do you mean, even if such a weird thing has the ability to destroy heaven and earth? Even if a rabbit grows sharp teeth, it is still a rabbit. It is impossible to turn into a tiger. The tree spirits are naturally lazy and do not like to move at all. Moreover, they mainly rely on photosynthesis and absorbing free magic energy to survive, so they can't even hunt. **nothing. Even if the attributes of such a being reach heaven's level, it's nothing more than that.

However, we have now discovered a surprising result, that is, this mountain is actually full of tree spirits, and these tree spirits are slightly different from the tree spirits in the general area. The dryads here are not as lazy as their relatives outside. Of course, compared to the dryads outside, they are actually very lazy.

However, according to Yuriko, although the tree spirits here are usually very lazy, they seem to change places by themselves every once in a while, just like turning over when sleeping. The frequency is not too high. But because the entire forest is constantly moving in this way, there is no such thing as a "road". Not to mention that there are no animals in this place, even if a large number of people and animals pass by and step on a path, when one of the tree spirits stops on the road, the road will be cut off directly. If people want to walk, they have to go around this tree, that is, around the place where the road was. In this way, a new road will be created, and the original road will slowly be covered with vegetation again, and then the route will change. .

Based on this situation, there is actually no road in this mountain, and the entire mountain is a huge deformation maze that is constantly making fine adjustments. Although this adjustment is random and not targeted. But if you don't know this situation, it's really not an easy thing to come out. Thanks to the fact that the forest is not particularly big, otherwise this place would definitely be a maze of natural chasm level.

Yuriko knew that the big trees here were actually all tree spirits, so she didn't twist the roots when she walked, because if she walked around like that, she wouldn't know where she would be. After she discovered that the route in front was blocked, she asked me to stab the dryad with a sword. Then the other party felt pain, but there was no fatal threat. Yushu followed the basic habits of the dryad and changed his position. . This way our way will be clear.

Seeing the big tree in front of us move to a different position, we were all stunned, thinking that it was thanks to a guide, otherwise we would have just waited a whole day and night in the woods!

After driving away the tree spirits in front of us, we continued to move forward, and the road after that was the same. Along the way, we marched in a straight line and never took any detours. Whenever we saw tree spirits blocking the road, we would prick them. If they felt any pain, they would give way.

Moving in this way is very fast, because there is no need to take a detour, and the distance traveled in a straight line is naturally much shorter. This is only the early days, though, and that begins to change as we get closer to that soul well. Not that the dryads here won't give way. On the contrary, there are almost no tree spirits in this place. There is a large open space in front of it. Tree spirits are very rare. However, here you can see a large number of demons and monsters gathering together and moving unconsciously, and they will explode from time to time. There are fights, and the result of the fight is often that one of the monsters devours the other.

"Holy shit, how are we going to get through this?" Zhenhong couldn't help but ask after looking at the situation in front of her. In fact, this is what we wanted to ask. (To be continued...)