*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*
Within a room concealed by darkness water slowly leaked from the ceiling before setting in a puddle off to the side of the area, stillness was the only think that existed there for countless years, a place untouched by time left for the future, that is until-
*Zzzt* A buzz echoed throughout the room and patterns that had been concealed under a layer of dirt and muddy water shone anew with a brilliant silver light that pierced the veil of darkness, it shone brighter and brighter until the entire room was lit like the full moon before an intense flash took over and in the next moment it was gone, the room returned to darkness' embrace.
A figure had appeared within the centre of the pattern, at first standing it then tumbled to its knees and swayed for a moment before steadying itself.
"Fuck, I feel like I've been put through a blender" He swore out loud holding his head even though he had nothing inside that would cause him to be dizzy.
("You would, after all you're moving your physical body through spirit ley-lines, quite a feat but it would definitely put some strain on your body") A silver light left his body and checked him up and down while forming into a small silver animal that floats in the air.
This was Seth and Silva, it hadn't been many seconds since they left the castle in Ravine Abyss, this place was where they ended up on the other side of the teleportation array.
Seth managed to pull himself together as he felt his mind clearing quickly and stabilising, he stood up and quickly peered around the room he was in, unfortunately there wasn't much to see, although it was dark the mana vision Seth used for sight wasn't hindered by the lack of light so he could clearly see the room in its entirety, other than the array pattern on the floor it was just a fairly standard yet slightly decrepit rectangle room, at the other end from where Seth stood was a staircase.
"He said he'd put me on the outskirts of the capital right, or former capital whatever, so where's this?" There weren't really any clues indicating where they were, he gazed over to the map in his interface finally wanting to put it to use.
[Location – Mist-Sea Forest]
"Mist-Sea Forest? Never heard of it, like I thought this place has changed a lot since I died" While he could think of plenty of standard forests in the surrounding area of the capital, he couldn't see any fitting this title.
("A forest, you say. Hmm maybe this place is underground then? The staircase seems to go up and the water coming through the roof steadily may be from rain coming through the ground") Silva put forth his conjecture.
"Well, only way to find out, there's nothing else here of interest anyway" Seth shrugged and made his way towards the staircase at the back of the room.
It quickly became apparent that the room was definitely underground, the stairs seemed to spiral upwards for a couple storeys before they came across a stone door in the shape of a wheel.
"A pity it's been more than three days since I died, or this'd be similar to a certain figure, that and I wasn't crucified just chucked on a lab table" Seth joked, of course Silva completely missed the point since it wasn't something someone from this world would get.
He stepped towards the door and looked for a way to open it, he quickly found a slab of stone that jutted out from the wall, assuming it was the button to open it he pressed it; luckily, he was correct, and the stone wheel started rolling to the left revealing the exit.
Or at least it should have been the exit, but instead what was there was a wall of mud.
"Well, isn't that just fan-fucking-tastic" Seth couldn't help but curse seeing the exit blocked completely.
("Just dig through it, it seems soft enough from the water; It's better than being stuck here") Silva ignored his complaining ("Since we'll be leaving, I'll hide for now, normal people can't see me, but I don't want to be too careless when we don't know the status of the surface")
"Yeah, yeah, okay sure whatever, guess I just have to get my hands dirty, literally" He complained but he took off his gauntlets and used his bony hands which were perfect shovels to start making his way through the soft dirt blocking his way outside, it took half an hour of digging before he could see faint light peering through, after clearing the way a bit more he placed his gauntlets back on and squeezed himself through the hole he created and stepped outside for the first time since his death.
It was drizzling lightly, and light shone dimly on the ground and his fully equipped body, he looked around and saw many trees standing many tens of meters tall covered with fine dew and gently swaying in the weak wind, thin mist filled the air which created a mystifying atmosphere.
Feeling the fresh cold air pass over his bones and the sound of the light rain pattering against the ground and his armour he couldn't help but want to crack a smile.
'I've been dead for thousands of years, yet I wasn't awake during that time, but I still spend weeks in a grim dark place like that ravine, it feels great catching some fresh air for once' Although he didn't actually breathe, he felt like just being here uplifted his spirits like he'd finally been let out of a cage.
After taking in the surroundings for a good ten minutes he peered over to the map in his interface.
'This place is really aptly named, but I wonder if my map still records the areas around here…'
The map in his interface only records places he's physically been, and if the area has changed a lot since he last visited it will no longer be recorded, he didn't really get why but that's how it worked.
'Unfortunately…' His worries were confirmed instantly, the entire map was blank save for the single area he is standing in.
'I wonder whether it's because I died, or because the areas changed too much?' He couldn't confirm his thoughts, but he couldn't help but want to know.
The map function in the interface wasn't really that comprehensive, it was about as useful as a paper map, you could tell where you were when you are first exploring a place since it'd stand out as the only recorded area, but once the entire place was mapped, you'd have to use standard navigational skills to move around.
'Now, which direction to go is the question' He thought to himself, he had both [Mana Vision] and [Spirit Vision] active as the looked around the area, from his knowledge there wasn't anything that stood out in particular, so he picked a direction randomly and started to walk while looking out to see if there was anything of interest.
He casually strolled through the forest without much worry, unlike normal humans he didn't have to eat or drink so the idea of being stranded without supplied didn't apply to him thus he wasn't rushed, as he walked he found a few animals here and there, mostly small squirrel like things and some rabbits, basically tiny-class or small-class animals at most but nothing that seemed to be a threat, though he did notice they all seemed to be hiding away in their holes like they were scared or something.
He kept walking aimlessly for another hour or two, he wasn't entirely sure if he was going straight due to the erratic tree pattern in the forest, so he was about to decide to start creating markings on the bark before he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
Footprints, not human; They were at least thrice the size of a normal humans and left a deep indent in the mud, but that wasn't what caught Seth's attention, he used [Spirit Vision] to look into them more and confirmed what he first saw.
"Now, what are the chances of this?" Seth said to no-one in particular yet a spirit inside of him took it personally.
("No way, another one?!") He heard Silva almost yelling within his spirit causing fluctuations.
"This blackness is awfully familiar right?" The footprints had some exceptionally light traces of aura leaking from them, the aura was a pitch black.
Was it just a coincidence? He had to deal with a source of a similar aura not too long ago yet now they were seeing something that looked just like it the moment they returned to the surface.
("We need to find it") Silva said in a hurried tone.
Seth traced the tracks further in the forest, they seemed to get lighter before disappearing entirely but the black aura left traces he could follow further onwards.