The Howling Woods were an eerie sight to behold at night.
During the day, it was a beautiful and scenic area that many couples and tourists alike would have visited more often if not for how the woods behaved during the night.
To enter the Howling woods, one must stray off the path of the main road and walk quite a bit as nobody dared to pave a road to or through the Howling Woods.
The Howling Woods was situated about 10km away from the Royal Capital. It was also one of the few places discovered in the realms where the climate was constant regardless of the passage of time and seasons.
During the day the lush leaves of the Maligna trees attracted a variety of birds to sing upon its branches. The sage green leaves with steel blue veins as it's vascular tissue where an amazing sight to behold.
Many have tried to pluck a leaf or two and even break a branch in hopes of replanting it. But as soon as the leaf or branch left the main body, it instantly withers into a pile of ashy-grey powder.
The Maligna trees are also a very territorial plant such that, no other artificially introduced tree was able to survive the first night. Only small plants like some fruit bearing shrubs could ever hope to thrive in the Howling Woods…
But at night is when the real reason why no one ever goes there anymore reveals itself.
At exactly sundown, every single tree in the woods sheds every single leaf on it body. These leaves immediately turn blood-red and sucks the life out of any plant intruder present.
The weeds, the foreign trees, and even the pollen grains and seeds brought in by the various birds and animals during daylight, all wither away as soon as a single leaf fell upon them.
Nobody could ever understand what was going on as no samples could be taken. Tests done onto the tree itself or leaves on the tree all proved fruitless.
A righteous nobleman had once proclaimed the Howling Woods as a cursed land and immediately hired a group of mercenaries to help in "cleansing" the land.
And of course, cleansing usually meant burning when used in a religious context.
And so that's exactly what he and his bandwagon of fools did. They lit the woods on fire from each of its 4 sides. The Howling woods, interestingly enough was shaped like a square so it burnt itself to the ground nice and evenly.
But the nobleman and his cronies had celebrated too soon.
Morning came, and just like the day prior and like the days to come, the beautiful trees stood standing, proudly.
Ever since, it had been labelled as cursed and a forbidden ground.
But the reason the woods remained standing was mainly because those who were magically more aware recognised the value of the grey ash compound.
Though all of this was irrelevant, as Cage with all his ignorant swagger, strode into the Howling Woods like he owned the place.
***
The sound of snow crunching under his boots was all Cage could hear as he carelessly strode forward.
"Oh…the sun's going down…"
Cage stopped walking and continued to stare up at the sky. He could see the familiar yet unfamiliar ball of plasma slowly begin to descend from the sky.
"Weird…why is it coloured white-blue? Haa, otherworldly BS I guess…"
Shaking his head, Cage snapped out of his reverie and continued to trudge forward. The bread he had snagged earlier had already begun to digest and Cage couldn't find any sign of anything edible so far.
An apple, a pair of scissors, some silver and a couple of gold coins was all that he had on his person.
He soon noticed that he had arrived at weird uniform gap in the woods. The trees on his side were absolutely normal and the woods felt like…well, woods.
But the woods on the other side of the gap has weird leafless black trees with a carpet of blood-red leaves covering the ground.
The snow that had been covering the ground ever since he left the palace was absent in this particular section of the forest, as if to highlight its eerie nature and isolation from the world.
"Meh, nothing ominous to see here."
Cage shrugged to himself as he continued forward. Even though slightly ominous, Cage felt that the best place to hide would be the place that everybody would obviously avoid.
Same as how nobody thought to check the Himalayas when searching for one of the Heart families safe houses. Most of the kids, that is those below the age of 13, were able to escape.
Courage didn't equate stupidity…but it wasn't far off. Most of the little kids thanks to their family teaching were all raring to fight. They were absolutely disappointed and reluctant to flee unlike Cage.
But deep inside he knew the reason he continued onward, towards the obviously ominous section of the forest was because he could feel his body guiding him here. It wasn't forcing him but Cage knew it was better to figure out what was going on before trying to settle down in this new world.
Ever since he absorbed the family heirloom Cage could feel something stirring within him.
Answers.
That's what he needed.
So onward he marched.
***
The leaves beneath his boots muffled the sound of his footsteps. Curious, Cage picked a leaf up from the ground only for it to immediately dissolve into fine powder.
Tempting as it may be, Cage resisted the urge to taste the powder.
*GROWL*
"WHO!…oh wait, that's just me…"
Cage quietly chuckled to himself as he made quick work of his only apple. The satisfying crunch of each bite echoed throughout the woods. But even still, his hunger wasn't fully sated.
A meal a day was all he received in prison, and a loaf of bread and an apple wasn't going to solve that.
"GRrrRrrRrrr…"
Startled, Cage realised that a wolf that looked as though it was dropped into a vat of ink had crept up on him.
His (supposedly) high perception was what he had been banking to walk so carelessly into an obviously haunted forest.
"Mr dog, you wouldn't happen to be vegan, would you?"
All he got as an answer was paw strike striking him him from behind. Cage barely dodged the blow by rolling foward when he realised he was now right in-front of the wolf! Right before the wolf could pounce on him, Cage's eyes seemed to glow for a split second before he side rolled out of the way.
-
[Mutated Shadow Wolf] |LVL|: 12
Relation|: Hostile
-
"…"
'Where's the quit button on life when you need it?!'
Cage couldn't help but curse his horrendous luck. Well, to be fair, it WAS kind of his own fault but he had no time to wallow in self-reproach.
Eyes glowing furiously, Cage charged at the wolf. When a paw appeared from his indistinct shadow cast by the ever present moon, he was ready for it.
Without breaking his momentum, he rolled forward while simultaneously picking up a decently sized rock that he had noted beforehand.
The wolf, enraged by the prospect that it's prey would DARE to dodge its attack, suddenly paused and raised its head up high.
"AWWOOOOOOO"
Cage who was just a few meters away from the wolf realised too late that close combat with a magical wolf is drastically different than fighting a human.
Cage watched on in shock as he witnessed his shadow jump up from the ground and into his eyes!
"OH SHHHIYETT! GET OFF!"
Feeling something was off, Cage's instincts kicked in as he stopped struggling with the weird shadow cloth covering his eyes and immediately executed a perfect back handspring that would've made his trainer proud.
Even Cage himself had no idea where his instincts and battle sense came from. It felt all too familiar but so foreign.
The sudden gust of wind that brushed past him was all the evidence he needed to know that he had narrowly dodged a certain death.
The rock, now somehow in Cage's mouth, was the only form of a weapon he had and it did little to boost his confidence.
He and the wolf continued to tussle, though one did so completely blind.
Cage had forced his trainer to train him to fight blind cause every time he looked into someone's eyes he would lose the will to fight instantly.
Weird?
Yes.
But Cage though cowardly, was always weirdly obsessed with being strong.
'That cursed heirloom is luckily gone or else I'd never be able to look into someone's eyes for the rest of my life!'
Cage was slowly adapting himself to the rhythm of the wolf. Everybody had one that could either be easily exploited in the case of a novice or nearly impossible to do so in the case of a trained expert.
The sound of Cage's muffled humming and the occasional growl and huff of the wolf echoed through the woods.
"My woman is mean as she could be~"
These sound of music was always so calming to him.Well not always. Ever since he met Jinx, Cage fell in love with music.
Unfortunately, the wolf suddenly slipped on a particular wet patch of red leaves. Cage never once stopped humming/singing, even when he noticed the opening.
"Till the day I die I'll be loving my woman~"
But that small mistake was what Cage had been waiting for. In one fluid move, his right arm pulled back at angle slightly larger than 180°. He then hurled the stone as hard as he could at the wolf with who had just recovered. He could feel his body and soul seemed to have harmonise at that very moment as his muscles bulged.
What followed was the sickening scene of a stone smashing a wolf's brain through his eye.
"awww-wooo…"
The wolf sadly cried out one last time before his remaining eye too lost its lustre.
Cage quietly closed his remaining eye. He looked down at the wolf feeling a hint of sadness creep into his heart. It was his first time taking a life, and he knew it wouldn't be his last.
"I'm sorry…"
Cage plopped down beside the fresh corpse of the wolf and started to meditate aa taught to him by his beloved wife.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Cage silently ignored the changes in his status as tiny wisps of soul energy of the dead wolf entered his body. He felt no remorse for his actions. Yet neither did he feel any happiness from his victory.
*sigh*
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Name|: Courage
LVL|: 5 (100/1,600)
Class|: (Class selection available!)
Skills|: [Spiritual Duet](new!)
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