Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 570 - Chapter 570 Chapter 569 Another Place in the Forest

Chapter 570: Chapter 569 Another Place in the Forest Chapter 570: Chapter 569 Another Place in the Forest Enveloped by the dusky sky light, Lucresia followed behind the elf woman wielding a strange elongated weapon, trudging deeper into the dense forest.

The other moved swiftly, her steps light as if on a wide, flat road, even amidst the forest’s uneven terrain and wild undergrowth, where no paths lay–a prowess that couldn’t help but evoke the “ancient skills” mentioned in old elf legends. In such tales, elves once lived across vast realms filled with forests, able to move between the trees like a gentle breeze, unlike modern elves, who had long forgotten many nature-harmonizing techniques amid their City-States of towering architecture.

Of course, Lucresia couldn’t keep pace with such strides–she knew without trying.

The witch lady was always against outdoor activities; even when she had to leave her abode, she would hasten her journey with various spells. Hence, after being left behind by the elf woman for the first time, she resolutely activated the Phantom Wind, occasionally transforming herself into scatters of paper to traverse the woods and keep up with the other–after all, her father wasn’t there.

Her only concern was how this peculiar elf appearing in this “Dreamscape” would react to witnessing such a scene. However, it turned out that the elf showed no reaction at all to her strange spells, just as at the beginning, the elf hadn’t realized the sudden “Outsider” was human and had invited her to a place called “Silence Wall,” as if welcoming a kinfolk.

Seeing this, Lucresia vaguely guessed at something and decided to conduct more obvious, striking tests to confirm her hypotheses–she intermittently stopped, creating large disturbances with magic, such as suddenly summoning giant flowering vines or causing explosions in the air.

Still, the elf showed no unusual reactions–she would merely pause when Lucresia deliberately delayed, patiently waiting for her to catch up.

Lucresia momentarily ceased her “testing” and proceeded to follow the elf hurriedly, while mentally controlling a “Puppet Medium” from a distance and describing her situation to Duncan:

“After my testing, this elf is indeed not the ‘dreamer’ of this Dreamscape; she must be a product or a component of it… Her cognition and behavior have clear limitations… It seems like a ‘normalizing filter,’ where the anomalies of the Outsiders are ‘normalized’ in her eyes, likely to maintain the Dreamscape’s stability.

“I haven’t conducted more intense ‘testing,’ so I don’t know the extent of this ‘normalization,’ but theoretically, if my behavior is too outrageous, it may cause the ‘elf’s’ cognition to reset, or prompt a more violent ‘rejection’ from the Dreamscape world… I need to continue the investigation now and cannot take that risk…

“Ah, you’ve already entered the district where the ‘Transition’ occurred? That’s great; then I hope you can find the ‘dreamer’ from the real-world side. If you pinpoint the source of the Dreamscape, you should be able to intervene directly here as usual…”

“By the way, what’s your name?”

A voice suddenly came from ahead, interrupting Lucresia’s distant communication. The witch lady immediately stopped and looked up.

The elf girl, holding a long-handled axe and with golden hair interwoven with fascinating blue threads, turned her head, curiously observing her.

“You can call me Lucresia,” she revealed openly, “Why the sudden interest in my name?”

“Knowing one’s name might lead to one more person remembering you,” the nearby elf spoke earnestly, “I’m Xilin; remember it.”

Lucresia noted the worry and tension in the elf’s eyes.

All the way there, she had more than once felt the elf emanating a sense of anxiety–the tense atmosphere perpetually pervaded the entire forest, as if it were the fundamental “undertone” of the Dreamscape itself.

After hesitating briefly, Lucresia spoke up, “What’s wrong?”

The elf named Xilin opened her mouth but said nothing, seemingly unsure where to start or feeling that certain things shouldn’t be revealed to “ordinary people.” Finally, she just gently shook her head, “Don’t worry, Silantis will protect us; everything will get better… Let’s hurry, beyond Silence Wall is no longer safe, Corrosion can occur at any time in areas outside the wall. It’s your luck to have encountered a Ranger like me.”

Corrosion–Lucresia immediately seized on this particular term, silently memorizing it, then once again promptly kept up with Xilin’s wind-like pace, trudging deeper into the seemingly endless dense forest.

…

“A-Dog, did you hear any noise?”

In the vast and dimly lit dense forest, Sherry suddenly furrowed her brows, then as she bent to hide behind a thicket, she kept a cautious watch on any movement around her while carefully asking A-Dog, who was hidden in the shadows.

The voice of the dog went straight into her mind, “The sound of the wind, the rustle of trees, the unidentified calls of birds — on the surface, all regular sounds — but the atmosphere has become increasingly strange since a while ago. I don’t know how to describe it; it’s as if… the environment itself is undergoing a transition, the surrounding trees are no longer just trees, but rather something that’s gradually manifesting malice…”

Sherry immediately got goosebumps. Her eyes filled with tension, she looked around at the towering unknown trees, as her arm slowly started to transform, taking on the characteristics of a Profound Demon, “A-Dog, this sounds kind of scary, this place is TMD full of trees…”

“You’re the one who asked me to talk, so I’m just conveying my ‘feelings’,” A-Dog replied in a muffled voice, “I’d advise you to take this seriously, as the Abyssal Hound’s senses are always sharp — This forest is gradually becoming not right.”

“Any fool can TM tell this place is not right…”

Muttering under her breath, Sherry cautiously left the bush she’d been hiding in — although she didn’t know what changes were occurring here, her intuition told her it would be best not to stay in one spot for too long.

Wherever she looked, there were plants; the lush and eerie jungle was a scene beyond the imagination of a girl who had grown up in the cramped, crowded slums. She’d only recently heard of such places from the captain and the others’ conversations, yet she hadn’t expected that with just a nap, she too would be brought here — If she wasn’t mistaken, this was probably “The Dream of the Nameless” that both the captain and Lucricia had mentioned.

Feeling the creepy atmosphere around her, a regretful expression suddenly appeared on Sherry’s face, “I shouldn’t have dozed off while doing homework…”

“I think your arrival in this strange ‘otherworld’ has nothing to do with whether you dozed off during your homework,” A-Dog’s silhouette started to emerge from the shadows, materializing amidst the swirling dust. While staying alert and guarding Sherry’s side it muttered, “Although you’re right about one thing — you shouldn’t have dozed off while doing homework.”

“It’s just that my head hurts whenever I do math,” Sherry grumbled, as if trying to distract herself from the tension the gloomy atmosphere was causing, “And besides, I already know quite a few basic words, why do I still need to learn math…”

A-Dog silently listened on the side, seemingly wanting to maintain quiet, but after a few seconds of silence, it began to ramble as usual, “You still need to learn some math, even if it’s just for yourself…”

Sherry pursed her lips, unable to help but mumble, “Why are you so keen on me learning this stuff, A-Dog… You seem even more motivated than the captain…”

A-Dog didn’t speak for a while, and just when Sherry was about to forget the topic, it suddenly blurted out, “Do you still remember those seventy-two pisos?”

Sherry paused, and after a moment, her eyes slightly widened as if she had finally recalled something from her faded childhood memories.

With a complicated expression on her face, she quietly said in embarrassment, “You… remember that, huh… It was so long ago…”

“I’ll always remember. Some scumbag swindled a child’s earnings from several days of toiling in a factory, cleaning chimneys — all with a few carelessly scribbled pieces of paper. If I could read back then, you wouldn’t have had to go hungry for those days; if you could read, you wouldn’t have had to crawl into those dark and dangerous chimneys — at least being an apprentice in the pump room taking down numbers would have been better than that.”

Sherry fell silent.

After a while, she spoke softly, “But now you can read, A-Dog, you don’t just know words, you’re even keeping up with Nina’s learning progress…”

“What if I can’t always be with you?” A-Dog murmured.

Sherry froze for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words, then instinctively said, “Then the captain…”

“The captain might not always protect you either — he’s good, he’s taking care of you now, but Subspace is ultimately unpredictable,” A-Dog shook its head, “Sherry, you have to rely on yourself.”

Sherry bowed her head. Several seconds passed before she gently shook the chain connected to her arm, “A-Dog, what do you mean by saying you can’t always be with me?”

“…Don’t overthink it, I’m just making a point,” A-Dog let out a sigh, “I haven’t thought about abandoning you, but I also can’t be sure about the future, after all… I have a ‘heart’, and there’s never been a Profound Demon with a heart before this; no one knows what other changes might occur in me. Perhaps ‘humanity’ will give me life limitations like yours, perhaps my reason will decline with age, or maybe one day, my ‘heart’ will disappear again…”

“A-Dog,” Sherry suddenly interrupted, her eyes wide as she tugged forcefully on the chain in her hand, “you… stop it.”

“Alright, I’ll stop.”