The peaceful, joyous night ended as the first rays of dawn spilled through the window. Alex woke, and after freshening up, he went to join the girls ok the first floor as they took their breakfast before leaving for the Forest of Monsters.
''Please be careful.'' Mathias, who was seeing them out of the city, warned.
''Don't worry, we will. How are the patients doing well?'' Alex asked as he waved his hand to indicate that they would watch out.
''Most of them are fine, as for the complicated cases due to lack of mana, we will take care of it. Would you mind focusing on finding the cause of all of this? We don't want a relapse. If the cause of the magic fever isn't eradicated, there will be no end to it.'' Mathias said with a heavy sigh.
Alex could understand how the man felt; he just couldn't tell him it was because a dungeon was being born; there's something unusual about the situation; he needs to investigate first; it was probably why Celesta hadn't said anything to his friends.
The group walked until they were outside the city. Mathias had left, mounting war horses, Alex and the girls left for the Forest of Monsters.
Twenty minutes later, there arrived at the outskirt of the forest; after securing the horses, they continued on foot; the fog covering the forest was so thick that the trees weren't visible anymore.
Taking the lead, Alex entered the thick fog; immediately, his senses were assaulted. Fortunately, he got a strong mentality, special eyes; no normal illusion could work on him. The girls were attacked as well, but Lilith had it better while Sakuya struggled for a while before succeeding, breaking out of the weak illusion.
''Where is it. Wear it. It will help you fight against high illusion.'' Lilith said as she handed over to Sakuya a shinning red bracelet.
After putting on her left wrist, Sakuya thanked Lilith for the gift.
''Thank you, Lilly.''
''Let's proceed,'' Lilith said with a smile.
Alex looked at the two and shook his head; he turned forward and scanned the forest; after getting attacked by a weak illusion, the outline of the forest became visible, tress became visible, strangely, no birds chirping nor insects buzzing could be heard. The forest in front of them was eerily quiet.
Suddenly, someone stepped on a dead branch making it made a cracking sound.
Crack!
Fwoosh!
''Guh!" Thud!
Without even looking in the direction the sound was coming from, Alex threw a knife. The sound was coming; the knife cut through the air and perfectly found its target, a walking zombie; the head had been cleanly lopped off.
''Ugh! Zombie? Seriously, I hate undead monsters.'' Sakuya said as she executed Iaï Giri (Iaï Slash), eliminating the other zombies that popped out after the first one was killed.
Lilith, on the other hand, didn't unsheath her sword, she pointed her finger at the slow zombies, and from her fingers, black lightning was shot, burning the zombie's head.
Rapidly, the twenty-two zombies that appeared were deal with.
''Sigh! The zombies we have just called looks like former adventurers and locals. We will encounter scenes more than this. Let's keep going.'' Alex said as he was done searching for the fallen zombies for any identification that could be used to bury the guys as their current remains couldn't be used.
The group proceeded forward; they didn't encounter any other type of monsters, only endless trees, almost as if there was no end to them.
Half of an hour later, the group encountered their second monster; it was slime this time, different colors of slime.
The group quickly took care of them. It was easy to kill them, but the problem was what happened just after their death; they would transform into a purple fog that would try by all mine enter the trio body. Unfortunately, it failed as none of them had normal mana.
The group spent another three wandering in the Forest without end; it was like a labyrinth.
''I'm getting sick of only seeing trees,'' Sakuya complained; she wasn't the only one getting tired of the same scenery. Alex and Lilith were also feeling annoyed seeing endless trees.
To respond and kill their boredoms, a large orc appeared,
''Go-"
The monster hadn't even finished whatever he ever planned to say before Sakuya had flashed next to it and unleashed a torrent of attacks, firstly it was Iaï Giri followed by Raizen Kiri, crisscross slashes. The poor orc, before he even knew what was going, had been turned into an orc daruma. With a sweet smile on her face, perfect for the S Queen, Sakuya sends the orc to the afterlife.
Alex couldn't only sigh, suddenly the forest shined.
''Attention!!!" Alex shouted as his six senses flared up and rang like a broken alarm; however, it was already too late by the time the girls could move.
A blinding purple light swept the forest covering them; after the purple light disappeared, Alex's group was no more. They have disappeared.
•••••
Alex reappeared on a floating island; water was falling from this island to an unknown purple hell fog; surrounding this island were bunches of a floating island. Up to close, all these floating islands look like broken pieces of a world trying to stick back together but inadvertently fail.
Alex would have loved to enjoy the scenery, but he got no time for that. Although he was curious about how a dungeon could have this type of scenery, he remembered that when it comes to dungeons, you should never lose your calm no matter what you see.
''Hiyahhhh!"
Boom!
From afar, a cry was heard, followed by an explosion. Alex immediately shot in the direction the sound came from.
Completely unaware that the disguise he had put on had lost its effect, Alex ran forward at extreme speed, trees passed him in high motion.. And soon Alex arrived at his destination, he stopped just before he could reach where the sound originated from, it was to assess the situation before making a move, then he saw it.