The person who suddenly appeared in the thick fog was none other than Shaun. He said in Italian to the humanoid black figure in the thick fog, "As far as I know, you have been in communication with some monasteries in the mountains since the eleventh century, so you are able to hear and speak human speech. Now tell me, why have you appeared here?"
As Shaun's sudden appearance startled the fog people, the black smoke-like form suddenly shrunk by half and became thinner.
"The winds of the north, bring, ominous messages that something bad, is about to happen. We, are afraid. We, are going south." A fog man, as visible as he could be in the fog, vibrated the air and spoke strangely accented Italian.
Shaun listened without speaking, thinking for a moment before saying, "Thank you for the information, I will make sure that I don't let what you fear happen. You and your people return to the mountains, it is dangerous for you to enter areas populated by humans, even if you draw only a small portion of essence that won't harm the humans, it is inevitable that you will meet some shallow de-spiritist who will use you to achieve fame."
The fog people drifted in and out of the fog, and after a while the fog person who had spoken earlier asked, "Why do we, why do we, trust you?"
Shaun shook his head and held out his hand opening his palm only to see an oval shaped stone in his palm, the size of an adult's fist, with a symbol of unknown significance painted in red on the stone. After Shaun opened his palm, the stone gave off a soft glow, illuminating the way the fog shuffled in the space around him.
"Spirit world, agent?" The fog man who had spoken said.
"I should say agent of the Spirit World. You guys sure know, you've learnt a lot from the monks." Shaun closed his palms and the soft glow disappeared, "I will find a way to solve the trouble in the north."
There was a murmur, if any, from the fog, as if someone was unconsciously murmuring in a dream. It was the fog people consulting with each other.
After half a minute, the fog people who spoke before said, "We, trust you. We, go back." After saying that, the dark shadows in the fog gradually dissipated and the fog faded away.
Shaun watched as the scenery around him gradually cleared up, and he stretched again, muttering, "Gotta, this troupe won't be able to carry it all again."
The next day, Shaun pulled an excuse that he couldn't continue to lead the group, and arranged for another local guide in Milan to continue to lead the tour. After saying a tearful goodbye to his tour mates, Shaun pulled his suitcase and headed alone to Piazza di Santa Maria delle Grazie in downtown Milan. His destination was the Abbey of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where the famous Leonardo da Vinci fresco "The Last Supper" is located.
At the entrance to the convent, as usual, there were a number of booked guests waiting to see the Last Supper, and a few stragglers who hadn't booked tickets in advance, trying their luck to see if there were any seats available for those who had booked tickets but hadn't turned up.
Shaun walked through the entrance to the abbey amongst the tourists, but instead of stopping at the information area like the tourists, he walked straight into the courtyard of the abbey.
Shaun had been to many monasteries of various churches in Europe, both well known and not so well known. In his opinion, the courtyards of these monasteries were comparable to the courtyards of China and Japan, a microcosm of their respective local history and culture.
Compared to those grand and magnificent large-scale palace garden buildings in Europe, the monastery was built much earlier, and even many were built in the Gothic style appeared that is, before the twelfth century, so the abbey courtyard is mostly Romanesque cloisters, no pompous Baroque style decorations, but also less eerie Gothic style, but has a medieval austere and stoic beauty, together with the courtyard in the cutting fine plants, so that the courtyard looks quiet and solemn, people look at it and stand in awe.
Shaun walked along the corridor to the other side of the courtyard in front of a small door, the small door looks unusually old, does not seem to be regularly used, but Shaun reached out and pushed the hand should open.
Inside the door was a stairway down. Shaun walked down the rotating stone steps, below was a small hall with three stone walls that were well lit, and on one of the stone walls there was a black gate, it was impossible to tell what material it was made of, it looked ancient and heavy, the door plate was carved with patterns and symbols with strange patterns, exuding a mysterious aura, and it gave people a feeling that it wouldn't be destroyed no matter what.
There was a stone table next to the gate, behind which sat a white-haired monk in a hooded robe, his deep, dark blue eyes were looking at Shaun with a calm gaze, but he didn't speak or make any movements.
"Hello, Friar Rossi, it's been a long time!" Shaun greeted in Latin.
The white haired monk nodded still not speaking.
"I need to make a trip inside, this travelling case is here for now, please keep it for me until I come out." Shaun placed his suitcase next to the stone table. The white-haired monk still nodded without speaking.
Shaun smiled at him and walked over to the black door, pulling out an oval stone from the backpack he had with him, the same one he had shown the fog people last night.
The stone and the black door emitted a soft light at the same time, the light from the black door emanated from those patterns and symbols of the lines, the light from the stone emanated from the red symbols, the light from the door and the stone intermingled and gradually merged, and the black door gradually transformed from a door with substance to a portal made up of fluctuations of energy.
"Every time I enter this door it feels like I'll be travelling to Orgrimmar." Shaun grunted and took a step into the portal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ split line ~~~~~~~~~~~~
After passing through the portal, Shaun came to a boundless pure white space with moderate lightness, he would not feel blinding but lost his sense of direction for a while, although there was a feeling of stepping on the ground underneath his feet, and the feeling of gravity didn't change, but due to the complete lack of reference in his vision, Shaun experienced a brief sense of weightlessness and vertigo.
"Agent 22, what is your business entering the Spirit World?" Some points of light appeared out of nowhere in the pure white space, slowly converging into a shimmering ball of light, which inquired Shaun in standard male Mandarin.
"I was informed of some news from the Alpine Mist People, so I would like to check out the commissioned quests that have appeared in the area north of Italy within ten days." Given the speed at which news was passed between nature spirits, Shaun adjusted the time to ten days.
"There is an added mission that meets your requirements, a commission was issued in the Cologne region of Germany seven days ago:A Vatican investigator was killed in Cologne, and the local church asked for help from the spirit world." The ball of light answered immediately with little thought.
Shaun frowned and asked:``Sounds more troublesome, can my level take this mission?"
The sphere of light replied: "Because the danger level is level 3, the Spirit world has assigned agent 17 to handle this mission, but this is a composite mission, depending on the danger level, your level can carry out peripheral investigations and report the information to the Spirit world or directly to agent 17. The bounty will be distributed according to your contribution afterwards."
Shaun was a bit frustrated: "I'm not going to get ahead of myself. Third level ah, looks like I can only investigate on the periphery."
Some points of light separated from the ball of light and dipped into the stone in Shaun's hand and disappeared.
"Already registered your information under this mission. Do you still need to stay in the Imperium?" The gatekeeper asked.
"Yes. I would also like to visit Leonardo . Leonardo da Vinci and Napoleon . Bonaparte. Visit Da Vinci first." Shaun said.
The gatekeeper said: "Please wait while I pass your message to Leonardo. Da Vinci."
After ten seconds, the gatekeeper said, "Leonardo da Vinci agrees with you. Da Vinci agreed to see you, you can stay inside his boundary for fifteen minutes."
"Fifteen minutes, this guy ..." Shaun hadn't finished whining, the scenery in front of him changed, and he was already on a bridge, both sides of the bridge were covered with Renaissance style houses and shops, and only the centre of the bridge had three arched windows on each side, so that he could see the emerald green river flowing underneath the bridge.
This is the Old Bridge of Florence.
A bearded middle-aged man in a comfortable robe was gazing into the distance in front of one of the arched windows in the centre of the bridge.
"What? Leonardo, missing Florence?" Shaun walked towards the middle-aged man and greeted him in Italian.
The middle-aged man looked back, his long beard hid his thin cheeks but couldn't hide his wise gaze: "No, I hate this place, there are too many traces of Michelangelo here, he's the darling of Florence."
Saying this, he patted the bridge railing: "The view of the Arno from this old bridge is the only thing I miss." Turning his head he asked : "Well Shaun, any good news?"
Shaun bristled and said somewhat sheepishly, "Nothing worth mentioning, the world is still the same and I'm still a elementary agent."
The middle-aged Da Vinci revealed an anxious expression: "You guy, in the first place, you said that if I told you the secret method of modulating the 'Last Supper' pigment, you would help me find a way to return to my planet, why did I believe you in the first place!"
Shaun said sheepishly, "It was the first time I met you, heard what happened to you, and genuinely wanted to help you, as well as help the people out there restore the mural. At the time I didn't know it was so difficult to find other secret stones."
Da Vinci had a hateful look on his face: "It's been over five hundred years... over five hundred years since I came to this planet...Your Earth's technology can't even carry a man out of the solar system! In the beginning, I wanted to use my power to stealthily advance Earth's science, but you humans are too stupid, too stupid! It was a waste of my design drawings that were full of clarity!"
Shaun said with some aggravation, "At least there is this spirit world on Earth that can protect your soul well, and there will be hope to return to your homeland eventually."
Da Vinci scratched his hair with both hands and said impatiently, "And you agents, you can't find those two stones that can help me after all this time! Get out of here and come back to me next time you have good news!"
Shaun knew that the time was almost up, hurriedly said: "Next time I'll take pictures of the mural for you to see, let me know where there are problems, after all, you yourself ..."
Before the words were finished, the scene in front of Shaun and Da Vinci disappeared together, and returned to a pure white space.
~~~~~~
European Gods and Monsters:
Nature Spirits:Spirits that are transformed from the elements of nature and the souls of plants and animals.