Arcane Journey

Chapter 270 Village
This is an ancient forest with dilapidated trails and old trees, and various small animals can be seen everywhere, with the largest number of squirrels and hares, followed by various birds.

The light is getting dimmer.

Brian and Santilla gradually entered the depths of the forest. The sounds of various animals came from all around, and there was even a small elk. After finding the position of the person, he immediately ran outside vigilantly.

"This forest has existed for at least 200 years." Santilla brushed the hair that was wet by the mist and stuck to her cheeks, and expressed her judgment with her intuition as a ranger.

Brian nodded slightly. He also noticed this situation, but he didn't care.

After all, he has already learned from the mouth of the storm that this magic half-plane was created by the elf mage Slinxi, who is also a chosen one of the goddess of magic, so it is understandable why this half-plane is in the hands of the Harper Alliance.

The two continued to move forward. Halfway through the journey, they finally met the first person in the forest, a half-elf hunter wearing a dark green cloak and holding a hard bow.

"Outlander?"

The half-elf hunter put away the sharp arrow on the bowstring, showed a surprised expression, and then warmly greeted him, "You two foreigners who came from afar, welcome to Wisteria Valley as a guest. Excuse me, where are you from? Come here For what purpose?"

Brian and the drow girl beside him exchanged glances.

He found a strange thing, the villagers of the demiplane didn't show the slightest expression of rejection or panic about the identity of the Santilla dark elf.

If the normal plot develops, when seeing two strangers from outside the country, the other party will first show vigilance instead of welcoming them enthusiastically.

He knew that the magi of the Harpers had created a construct out of wooden mannequins to impersonate the villagers in order not to endanger any innocents.

Magic makes them look like flesh and blood, and the constructs themselves are convincingly real humanoids that live only in Wisteria Valley.

Detecting magical spells does not reveal their true nature, since each construct is protected by a spell that makes it appear to have no magical effects.

While these artificial villagers can physically interact with their surroundings and hold lengthy conversations, there are still clues to their true nature.

When the half-elf hunter approached Brian, he could clearly feel a faint ticking sound when the opponent's body touched a hard surface.

Obviously, this constructed human being made of wood is not as realistic as imagined.

Even so, Brian was amazed by the simplicity of the material.

As far as he knew, among the many voters of the Goddess of Magic, the elf wizard Slinxi was the one who was best at making constructs.

In the battle to repair the scars of the Weave, the elf master crafted a group of mechanical constructs driven by clockwork, and killed all the liches who were loyal to the old Laroch of Netheril.

From the exquisite expression on the face of the half-elf hunter in front of him, it can be seen that this is definitely not something that ordinary legendary mages can create, at least Brian himself does not have such superb skills.

"We are travelers from the Kingdom of Cormyr." Brian shook the half-elf hunter's hand and said with a smile:
"The purpose of coming here is mainly to find a friend we haven't seen for a long time, but we accidentally lost our way in the forest. Praise the forest goddess, let us meet you here."

When he touched the rough palm of the half-elf hunter, he felt a cold touch similar to steel, which made him secretly surprised at the exquisite construction craftsmanship.

"Kingdom of Cormyr?" The half-elf hunter looked confused, as if he was very unfamiliar with the name, and then he quickly changed into a hearty smile.

"It turned out to be two lost strangers who praised the forest goddess. Don't worry, I will guide you to a road to the Wisteria Valley. Excuse me, who are the friends you are looking for?"

Brian thought for a while, and chose to tell the truth, "My friend is Azara, a ranger from the Harper Alliance. The purpose of our coming here is to cure his corruption."

"Corruption?" The half-elf hunter showed the same puzzled expression again.

For some reason, seeing the hunter's confused expression, Brian had the feeling that when he looked up information on the computer, he couldn't find any relevant knowledge.

It can be seen from this that in order to make the demiplane as comfortable and familiar as possible for Azara, the Harper Alliance should have designed Wisteria Valley to be similar to his hometown, including buildings, villagers, and names.

And people who live in the magic demiplane feel that Wisteria Valley is normal, and don't question any problems on the demiplane. Although they know that there are other places outside Wisteria Valley, they have no interest in leaving their hometown.

"Mr. Azara never suffered from corruption," recalled the half-elf hunter. "He was a charismatic ranger, and he liked best to share his stories and songs with us at Blossom Rest, but..."

Seeing the hesitant hunter, Brian asked, "Just what? Has your village encountered any strange phenomena?"

"That's right." The half-elf hunter frowned.

"One night three days ago, I saw a huge floating sphere appear in the manor where Mr. Azara lived. This monster had a big eye and sharp teeth in the middle, and many smaller ones on the side stem Eyes. Oh damn! I was terrified by the monster, so I told Mr. Azara about it the next day, but Mr. Azara was not surprised and assured me that he would get it under control The situation, and tell everyone in the village that anyone who sees this monster must treat it as a VIP."

After hearing the unexpected news, Brian nodded thoughtfully, and then under the guidance of the half-elf hunter, he and Santilla continued to walk towards Wisteria Valley.

As dusk approached, a village full of wisterias appeared in front of them.

They stopped on the hillside and looked out over the green and fragrant fields.

On the west side of the village, there are also several farms dotted with various crops and livestock, ranging from pigs and sheep to medicinal plants.

Before the simple fence of the village came into view, Brian heard the sounds from the village: the creaking of the wheels of the wagon, the hum of the crowd, the sound of the bard's flute and the body of the lyre.

"It's so strange." Santilla said curiously, "This demiplane obviously only has a small village, why is there a caravan and where will they go?"

Accompanied by the crisp birdsong, the footsteps of the two startled a group of brown birds hiding in the wisteria bushes.

Brian followed the eyes of the drow girl.

Not only did the caravan sell food, cloth, and wares, but it also brought with it many of the usual entourage: armed guards, sitting in the shadow of the wagon drinking with a few companions, craftsmen busy with their crafts, such as tinsmiths and fortune tellers, and bards of all kinds, from rumor mongers to jugglers, and musicians.

The commoners of the village also relaxed, dressed in their best clothes, and praised the caravan's fabrics and crafts.

"It should be to further enhance the illusion that Wisteria Valley is a real village." Brian explained to her:

"There is no doubt that this caravan is composed of civilians. They should visit regularly, and they will not stay for more than one day at a time, or only appear once every few weeks, so as to break the monotonous daily life of the village, and we Just hit it today."

Then, they walked towards the only tavern in the village, 'Blossom Rest', trying to find out the available news here.

The tavern logo was painted purple in the village, and although the emblem of the wisteria flower added some color to the signboard, the bright silver paint on it had peeled and faded.

Insects sang low in the summer evenings, chirping and grinding in the air, and thousands of tiny mosquitoes fluttered around the shining lanterns that dotted the village lanes.

Soft songs with rich human voices and random playing of rough instruments escaped from the door, and Brian and Santilla pushed open the door and stepped into the tavern.

It was a smoky, low, cramped room with heavy black wooden beams and bulletin boards of the same material.

As they approached, most of the seated humans eyed them and broke off conversation uneasily.

In the misty and warm and humid evening, the whole tavern was steaming, and the bearded faces were sweating like rain, and the clothes were soaked.

One of them, a tall, thin man with long hands, was standing behind a badly weathered bar.

Obviously, he is the boss here.

The tavern owner was cleaning a roughly handmade bowl, and summoned them in the lingua franca, "Two strangers, what can I offer you?"

"I am a friend of Mr. Azara from afar, and I want to know something about him."

After detecting that there were no problems with these constructed civilians, Brian said straightforwardly: "I heard that a group of terrifying monsters appeared in my friend's manor. Does any of you know what happened there?"

The tavernkeeper frowned and moved his feet.

Bryan could see that it should be his own words, which surprised him as a construct, so he couldn't react for a while, and could only stand there in a daze.

After a while, the tavern owner came back to his senses, wiped his hands back and forth on his apron and said:
"Mr. Azara was a charismatic ranger, and he would come here every evening to share his stories and songs with us. But until now, he hadn't been here for two weeks, which is very unusual. I presume that he His absence is due to the arrival of the multi-eyed creature, and while we trust Mr Azara, we remain concerned for his safety."

"And, just this morning." The tavern owner continued: "Mr. Azara's servant suddenly notified everyone in the village, telling us that tomorrow night, he will hold a party in his manor, and everyone is invited join."

"Oh?"

Brian raised his eyebrows unexpectedly. He glanced at the drow girl standing beside him and looked around curiously. He smiled and said to the tavern owner, "If possible, my friend and I would also like to join the invited party." What do you think about ranks?"

Originally, he was still thinking about what kind of reason he should find to go to the manor where Azara lived. This gathering of the whole village was undoubtedly the best opportunity for him.

"Of course no problem, sir." The tavern owner agreed without hesitation, and Brian, who was about to take out the gold coins from his pocket, couldn't help but startled.

However, thinking of the identities of their constructed creatures, he immediately felt relieved.

Afterwards, he and Santilla had a simple dinner, and temporarily settled down in the village, waiting to attend a party held by the ranger Azala, who was transformed from a beholder, tomorrow.

Thick curtains hung in the simple guest room, and the only light came from two candlesticks on the desk. The candles burned quietly, casting two interlaced shadows on the furnishings in the room.

Brian sat at the desk, flipping through the scroll in his hand, the hair hanging on his forehead glowed with golden luster against the candlelight.

At this moment, looking at the content on the scroll, his brows were involuntarily locked together.

The magic knowledge recorded in this scroll is the ten-ring spell "Protic's Mountain Movement" that he got from Lady Polaris.

Thinking of leaving the demiplane, he would be able to step into the legendary realm. In order to master the ten-ring spell faster, he took advantage of his stay in the demiplane where time passed slowly to learn the detailed knowledge about this spell in advance.

In this way, when he has the ability to release the ten-ring spell, he can master the spell faster and start preparing for the floating city.

Brian was silent in the esoteric knowledge of magic. After an unknown period of time, when his door was pushed open and closed again, he realized that someone had entered his room.

In this regard, he was not surprised.

After all, no matter where he is, he has the habit of being cautious, so whenever he is going to rest or research something, he will set up multiple warning circles in his room.

The reason why he didn't sense anyone entering his room was not because he was so obsessed with magic knowledge that he didn't notice someone touching his alarm, but because he gave the password of the magic circle to another person.

There is no doubt that the one who entered his room at this moment was the drow girl Santilla who followed him to this demiplane.

Brian put away the scroll and looked up.

Outside the window, the setting sun has long been replaced by a bright crescent moon, and the bright moonlight shines through the large floor-to-ceiling windows into the room full of pink breath, and shines on Santilla's body.

The drow girl had obviously groomed herself before entering his room.

She was wearing a thin black gauze dress, her steps were brisk and elegant while walking, and a pair of beautiful black silk legs were looming under the skirt.

That slender waist makes people even want to hold her in their arms, and the beautiful face is a perfect fusion of girlish softness and mature coquettishness, with a mixed sweetness like poison Charm.

Under the moonlight, the drow girl's thick white hair shone slightly, like a clean gem on an endless black curtain, illuminating the entire dark night, like a rare work of art, exuding elegant charm.

In a trance, Brian's impression of the dark girl who had long since disappeared gradually overlapped with her.

In his opinion, this is not a dark elf.

This is an anemone flower that was born in the dark area and still blooms with light. This is a beautiful woman who yearns for passion and love.

He really didn't expect that Santilla, who always liked to wear simple clothes, turned out to be so charming after careful dressing.

"Brian..." Santilla's delicate and beautiful voice interrupted his moment of absence.

"What's the matter?" Brian recovered and asked subconsciously.

"Tomorrow... you have to wake me up..." She blinked her bright sapphire eyes at him, and the corners of her mouth raised slightly, revealing a playful smile.

"Why?...Are you expecting what will happen tomorrow?" Brian walked up to her and asked curiously.

Santilla came up to him in the blink of an eye.

They were nose to nose, Brian staring again at her sapphire eyes with their long lashes.

There were sparkles in her blue eyes, and her breath was blowing on her face, giving her a feeling of nourishment.

Through the thin clothing, Brian could even feel the other person's soft body and pounding heartbeat.

"No. I'm looking forward to the morning when I can see you when you open the door... because finally no one can disturb us this time..." She said in a soft tone.

Brian smiled and stroked her smooth hair, gently smelling the fragrance remaining in the hair, feeling the soft hair slipping through his fingers, he unconsciously embraced Santilla in his arms.

Santilla embraced his neck, and pressed her gentle mouth up.

The seductive fragrance emitted from the girl's body and the charming look on her face seemed to imply that this time it might not be just a simple kiss.

……… 2 words are omitted here
(End of this chapter)