Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Having said goodbye to samuraisoul, Ye Kong made his way through the forest alone.
“From what I can remember from my past life, the Hengpai Swords Guild was a group of students.”
Based on what Ye Kong knew:
The Hengpai Swords Guild was a group of students from a certain college. The guild wasn’t created by a financial group, but was instead made up of university students. As such, there was no guild tag showing up on samuraisoul (the guild also hadn’t been opened yet), but he was already one of the “members” of the Hengpai Swords Guild.
At present, Ye Kong and samuraisoul had only just met, and the time wasn’t yet right to form a team with him. After all, samuraisoul had already joined the Hengpai Swords Guild, so if Ye Kong made a rash proposal and aroused his suspicions, the results would be undesirable.
Moreover, samuraisoul wasn’t the type of person who was easily swayed. If he was, Ye Kong wouldn’t be trying to poach him. The way to deal with people of his character was to influence them little by little. It couldn’t be rushed.
As such, Ye Kong was preparing ahead and laying the foundations for the future—
There was still a long road ahead of him, and he couldn’t afford to be hasty.
Very soon, Ye Kong had passed through a cloud of mist, and entered the central area of the Dark Mist Forest. At the same time, some stronger mobs, which were mainly Long-toothed Apes and Forest Trolls, began to appear in the woods nearby.
Long-toothed Apes and Forest Trolls were both level two mobs, and the fur materials they dropped could be sold at NPC shops for money. A player could also use Artisan Profession skills to turn the materials into basic White Equipment.
However, Ye Kong didn’t come here to hunt mobs—
“If my memory serves me well, there is only one location in the entire Dark Mist Forest where moonlight shines through…
“It’s the clearing in the center of the forest!”
Ye Kong continued to weave through the forest, easily avoiding the mobs. As a top-tier Swordsman player, he was very knowledgeable about the aggro ranges of different mobs. With this and his Dexterity, which had surpassed 20 points, it wouldn’t be difficult to accomplish such a feat.
A solo player making his away through the Dark Mist Forest (with mobs at an average level of two)…
If other players could see what he was doing, their jaws would drop in shock.
“Huh?”
As Ye Kong passed by a certain area, he couldn’t help but do a double-take—
“I remember that place. It’s the entrance to the ‘Bloodborne Castle.’ But the Bloodborne Castle shouldn’t open until the ‘Stygian Labyrinth’ event is over, so it’s not time yet.”
Ye Kong clearly recalled that on the dawn of the third day after the “Stygian Labyrinth” was cleared successfully, the Bloodborne Castle was suddenly opened as a new map. Moreover, as the Bloodborne Castle wasn’t included in the “Alpha Testing period,” nobody had ever explored it!
“We’re still a long way from the opening of the Bloodborne Castle. I don’t need to think about it right now.”
Ye Kong shook his head and continued sprinting ahead. Not long after, he arrived at his target destination—
In front of him, an empty and serene forest clearing was bathed in the light from the moon. The dew on the grass reflected the moonlight, and it was a tranquil, peaceful scene that was so picturesque it could be a painting.
The Dark Mist Forest was perpetually shrouded in a thick mist, and the moonlight couldn’t penetrate most areas of the forest. Only in the center of the forest, where the mist didn’t reach, could the moonlight shine through.
As such, when the Gray Fog Village Chief mentioned the hints “forest” and “moon,” Ye Kong immediately thought of this central grassy clearing in the Dark Mist Forest—The only place lit by the moon.
“This is the place.”
Ye Kong strolled out of the mist and entered the area bathed in moonlight.
If one were to think about it, they would find it strange that the central clearing was completely undisturbed, even though the Dark Mist Forest was filled with numerous mobs. There wasn’t a single mob to be seen, only the pure white moonlight and the abundant green grass.
It was like how the air was calm in the eye of a typhoon.
“According to the Demon Realm lore, during the ‘Age of Divine Rule’ (4505 BC – 1026 BC), the Dark Mist Forest was a human settlement by the name of Theus City.
“During the ‘Age of Divine Rule,’ there were only three intelligent races in Demon Realm: humans, primitive orcs, and ancient elves. Each race was few in number, and cities were extremely rare—Theus City was one of them.”
Ye Kong remembered the records. This was the history of the world of Demon Realm, and it wasn’t known to the average person. The Demon Realm official website also didn’t publish this information. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that the Demon Realm official website was extremely basic, including only a brief introduction to the basic Character Classes and the Sixteen Regions. It wasn’t like the official websites of other games, which were stuffed full of all kinds of information.
If players wanted to know more about the world’s ancient history, they would have to talk to a lot of NPCs and do many story event quests. Alternatively, they could also go to the libraries in the cities and read the history books there. These were the only ways players could get a rough understanding of the lore of the game.
To make matters worse, the information in the libraries was incomplete. The real ancient secrets were all hidden within story events!
Thus, large guilds also collected information on ancient history to try and enhance their knowledge of historical details—The more players knew about the game’s lore, the greater the benefits they could draw out from story events!
The strength of top-tier guilds wasn’t just reflected in the strength of their players, but more so, in the amount of background information they had about the game!
Still, no matter how much effort the top guilds put into gathering information, they could only gain some knowledge, as they only had one year of “alpha testing” (the total time taken for the four testing phases). In comparison, Ye Kong had six years of memories about the game!
That was six years in real-time, and 12 years of in-game Demon Realm time, spanning the course of nine different expansion packs!
The sheer amount of information Ye Kong had about Demon Realm’s history completely overshadowed that of the top-tier guilds. Even the Ethereal Mirage Guild’s database paled in comparison to Ye Kong’s memory banks!
This was one of Ye Kong’s greatest advantages!
At the moment, Ye Kong was heading toward the moonlight, and he shortly arrived at the center of the clearing—
“Next up, it’s time to use the ‘Quest Item.'”
Ye Kong took out the “Fog Ball,” placed it in his palm, and raised it up to the bright moonlight.
Bang!
Suddenly, the “Fog Ball” exploded into pieces, and the fog inside rolled out and enveloped Ye Kong. In the next moment, his vision blurred, and when the fog had dispersed, the scenery around him was completely different.
A desolate city gate appeared before Ye Kong’s eyes.
System Notification: You have arrived at ‘Theus City’ (Average Level: ???). Please search for the clues that will allow you to solve the mystery of this place.
“The ruins of Theus City?!”
Ye Kong was completely shocked, and instinctively scanned his surroundings. However, he found that aside from Theus City, which was in front of him, there was nothing else to see. His line of sight was blocked by gray fog, as though hazy weather had suddenly descended upon him.
“So it’s not a ruin, but an ‘Illusory Realm’?”
Ye Kong shook his head. “That makes sense. The Dark Mist Forest had always been the site of ‘Theus City,’ so if there were any existing ruins, someone would have found them already. How could I be the first to discover them?”
A so-called Illusory Realm was a small pocket of space projected from the crevices between the Void Realm and the material plane. This kind of space took the form of environments found in the material plane.
As such, an Illusory Realm could take the form of an ancient citadel, or a battlefield from recent history. They came in various forms, and the kind of scene a player stumbled upon would depend on their luck.
Generally speaking, each Illusory Realm could only be entered once. When the player left, the Illusory Realm would automatically be wiped out.
The “Theus City” in front of him was an Illusory Realm!
Now that Ye Kong had confirmed the situation, he couldn’t help but smile slightly. “Illusory Realms are categorized as special maps. This is even more special than that ‘Bloodborne Castle’…
“It seems like Lady Luck is on my side. I thought it was just an Elite Grade story event—
“I didn’t expect to land a big catch!”