Danny walked out of the forest again with the item in hand a smile on his face.
“Something for me?” Emmy asked. “What do you mean?”
“Here, take a look.” He threw her the item and got on his horse. Emmy grabbed it and inspected it and almost immediately, her eyes widened. “This…”
“It’s great, isn’t it? That will make your casting speed considerably faster.” He said.
“I-Is it really fine for me to get this? I mean, you guys might need it too.” She quickly snapped out of her daze as she looked at her friends.
“An item that increases casting speed sounds like something that would fit you perfectly. I believe you should be the one to use it.” Herculia replied.
“She relies on casting spells, right? Then she would be the one to benefit from it the most.” Arthur shrugged.
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“Keep it, Emmy,” Isla said.
“… Guys.” The girl blinked a few times. She was touched by their kindness and she could only smile a little. After all, nobody here opposed the idea at all, and that made her feel warmth in her heart. “Ok, I will make good use of it.”
With that, she put the necklace around her neck. But, she didn’t feel anything different after that. ‘I guess I can only confirm that it’s working when I use it.’
“Ok, with that done, we should continue,” Isla said as she moved her horse. The others followed suit.
They cut through the seemingly endless path, heading straight toward their next destination, the memory gate.
***
A few hours passed swiftly after that. On their way, the group found two other chests not that far away from their path. One of them had a small dagger with a weak poison effect that was given to Danny. The other item was a scarf that increased defense by a small percentage and it was handed to Isla since her defense was still lacking compared to her other extremely high stats.
Isla’s extremely offense-oriented battle style made her naturally more open to attacks since she wasn’t really defending much. So, any items that can help that are very useful to her more than anyone else. That helped her not worry about suffering immense damage while dealing immense damage of her own.
Other than that, the group came across several monsters as normal. They weren’t that stronger than the ones they came across the day before. However, the difficulty was surely rising and they could feel it very well. They knew that it won’t be as easy very soon and they had to be very prepared for it.
The sun moved across the sky as if it was traveling with them. As it neared the horizon the sky was turning darker, and the group finally reached their destination.
“We made it on time,” Isla muttered as she looked at her map. Their marks indicated that they were only a few dozen meters away from the memory gate. Since it was hidden in the forest, they couldn’t see it from where they were standing.
The atmosphere was a little tense as they neared the spot. Everybody had a serious look on their faces. They had the entire day to get mentally ready for whatever was awaiting for them inside the gate and now that preparation was showing its results.
“We should tie the horses here. Nobody should find them if we’re lucky.” Arthur said as he jumped down from his mount. The others followed suit and they swiftly tied the horses to the trees around them.
“Stay calm, ok? We will be back quickly.” Arthur rubbed his horse’s head gently to ease its fear. The creature accepted the head pats willingly. “Good boy.” Arthur smiled.
With that, he turned around and looked at the others. Everyone was seemingly ready to move.
“I guess I will take the lead since none of you is familiar with these gates.” He sighed as he stepped forward. “Follow me.”
The group then dived deeper into the forest again, passing through the thick trees. Slowly, they made their way to the gate. The anticipation mixed with fear made the trip seem far longer than it really was.
Eventually, they found themselves in an open area in the forest. In the heart of it, a stone door stood menacingly. The runes written on it gave it a profound aura that can’t be described with mere words.
The four stopped as they took the sight in.
“Is that?”
“Mhm, that’s the memory gate,” Arthur replied as he continued walking toward it. “Don’t worry, there aren’t any traps around it or anything like that.”
The others took a moment to calm down before they started walking too, while looking around them.
“What a weird opening. It looks like the forest is trying to stay as far away from that gate as possible.” Isla commented.
“It does. I also noticed that. It’s very weird.” Arthur said as he stood in front of the gate. “It probably has something to do with the nature of the gate itself. Something about it is pushing all living organisms.”
Everyone went silent as they looked at the gate. The nervousness was clear in their eyes. Eventually, Arthur sighed as he turned around. “Ok, I’m going to activate it now. Be careful, when I do, a bright light will appear. Upon touching it, you will be transported to wherever this gate leads.
As I said before, I don’t know whether this gate will lead us to the same exact place or not. If it does then that’s the best option. However, if it doesn’t, then each one of you is on their own. You have one single goal in mind and that is to survive. Got it?”
Arthur knew how gravely dangerous whatever awaiting them inside was. Even more so for these players since they’re weaker than him. So, surviving was their very first priority no matter what.
“We know,” Danny replied.
“Whatever it is, we will do our best to survive,” Emmy added.
“… Good. I’m opening it then.” Arthur nodded and turned around before he put his hand on the gate. Almost immediately, the runes activated as they shone with a bright light. Then, the gate started moving on its own, opening slowly for them.
The bright light eventually turned into the gate itself. Covering the entire frame of the gate, it stood there, silently shining as it awaited for them to enter.
Arthur looked at it and took a deep breath. “Ok…” He said. “Here goes nothing.”
Then, he touched the light and it immediately consumed him wholly. His eyes lost vision for a second as the overwhelming light took him in.
‘So bright…’
By the time he could open his eyes again, the scenery around Arthur shifted completely. He was still standing but the location was completely unknown.
He blinked a few times as he looked around him. The first thing he noticed was that he was inside some kind of room. The walls looked wooden and old, perhaps rotten after long years of being abandoned. Apart from that, there was an old window covered with a curtain on the other side of the room and a closed wooden door.
“Now, where the hell am I?” He muttered as he was about to walk forward. That is when he noticed a few presences appear behind him. Looking over his shoulder.
“… Ouch! I almost fell!”
“That was too bright,” Herculia grumbled as he shook his head to get rid of the effect.
“We didn’t get separated,” Isla muttered.
“This is great news!” Danny smiled.
“Don’t get distracted,” Arthur said. “I don’t know where the gate brought us. It looks like some kind of wooden chamber.”
Other than the fact that the room was made out of wood, there was nothing inside of it. It was completely empty.
Arthur walked forward as he inspected the room with his eyes. The others also started moving around, discovering their environment.
The first thing Arthur approached was naturally the window as it could give him an idea as to where they were.
“There is really nothing in this room. I wonder where this door would lead.” Danny rubbed the back of his head as he put his hand on the door handle and opened it.
At that moment, Arthur suddenly yelled. “STOP!!!!”
Then, at the same time, he rushed toward Danny as fast as he could. The boy didn’t react immediately and tried to stop outside. But, Arthur quickly grabbed him from the neck and pulled him back at the last split second.
“Huh?” Danny was completely distraught as he looked behind him. “What did you…”
“Look ahead of you, dumbass!!”
“Huh?” Slowly, Danny turned to look ahead of him, and what he saw made his soul freeze. The door that he assumed led somewhere, simply opened toward nothing. All he could see was emptiness.
However, not that far away, Danny noticed fluffy white stuff floating in the air.
“… Clouds?”