I Got A Title: Lord Of The Time!
Chapter 88: Forest

Chapter 88: Forest

Darkness was everywhere, like being inside a deep abyss. The trees towered dozens of meters high, like giant statues that blocked the moonlight from reaching the ground. And within this titanic madness, a lone figure lay, as if it were the only living being in this vast forest.

Black-haired, Lin slowly opened his beautiful violet eyes. He looked around and saw that he was in a completely dark forest, where only the howling of the passing wind could be heard.

Whoosh!

The wind scattered Lin’s hair and the tree leaves lying on the grass.

"This atmosphere... It’s too gloomy," he frowned and slowly stood up to better understand his situation.

Massive trees surrounded him and blocked any proper view of the sky with their sprawling branches, growing like spider webs.

Lin slowly brought his hand to the scabbard to draw his katana, but his hand grasped only air.

There was no scabbard.

Lin frowned deeper and looked down at his belt, not seeing any trace of the violet katana or its sheath.

"This is already dangerous."

Previously, the absence of a weapon wasn’t critical to him — he’d rather use his fists. But now it was different.

He had established Contact with the katana.

Since making Contact, his mastery had significantly improved, allowing him to feel and understand the weapon much better.

One could say confidently that with the katana in hand, he was far stronger than without it — and that was only talking about technique.

But there was also the cutting ability.

With the blade, he could now slice through hard surfaces. For him, stone, iron, concrete, and other materials posed no real threat. With the katana, he felt more confident and capable.

Of course, if he tried, he could still crack a rock with his bare hands or feet. But that would take considerable willpower and energy — just wishing and punching wouldn’t be enough to break stone.

That was the difference. So not having a weapon at hand was a serious problem if he were to face real danger.

Lin sighed and began walking forward through the dark forest.

Inside the forest, there were no sounds except for the occasional whistle of the wind. And even that happened rarely, making any person feel suffocated from the silence.

And he wasn’t an exception.

Though he was strong and fearless, the complete silence and dark forest weighed on his mind. Though not as severely as it would for ordinary people.

"If a person stays in complete silence for more than a few hours, they can go insane... But I can endure much longer."

With a cold expression, Lin continued moving through the dark forest. He frequently looked around, trying to spot anything strange, should it occur.

But the strangest thing was — when he looked around, Lin felt someone watching him.

As if someone far away was staring at him intensely.

Lin turned his head and looked to the right, where only large, dark trees stood — but saw nothing.

Still, he felt someone’s gaze on him.

"Someone’s watching me... Is it the one that threw me into this place? The last thing I remember is Royal trying to stop Aran from opening the blue door... And then something hit us from behind, and I woke up here..." Lin placed a hand on his chin and kept walking, thinking:

"Interesting... Surprisingly, I didn’t sense that presence appear behind us... It must be very strong."

Lin smiled slightly.

"Let’s wait... For now, I should try to find the blue door and get out of this place," he continued walking calmly, ignoring the ’hidden’ observer.

As Lin turned into a tiny dot on the horizon and disappeared behind the masses of towering trees, a strange, asymmetrical head peeked out from one of the trees, covered in black, viscous substance.

It grinned widely, splattering its dark goo everywhere. When the black substance hit the ground, it immediately began to spread and corrode it!

The black figure slowly began sinking into the ground.

When it fully vanished, the black substance on the ground disappeared as if it had never been there.

The area became calm once again.

...

Several hours later, Lin was still walking through the dark forest, hoping to find the blue door that would take him back to the castle. But unfortunately, the strange forest seemed endless, with the same scenes of darkness and trees repeating endlessly.

It made Lin wonder if he’d fallen into some kind of trap or dream. Or perhaps something else that could create such realistic sensations of a dark forest?

But he quickly dismissed that thought after attempting to inflict pain on himself and even opened his status window — he confirmed that his health percentage had actually decreased.

That indicated that he was not hallucinating and that he was indeed in the real world — not some dream realm.

"Still, I shouldn’t relax... In just a month inside the Magic World, so many strange events have happened that it’s hard to tell whether someone’s under influence or really standing in a dark forest right now..."

Lin sighed and looked ahead — he saw a small orange glow.

"Fire?" Lin focused his gaze and indeed saw a soft light radiating from a campfire, which looked like a new sun in the surrounding darkness.

He sharpened all his senses and prepared to strike anyone at any moment.

Lin slowly approached the location of the fire until he arrived and saw the fire itself.

But there was no one nearby.

The fire burned on its own — no living being was sitting nearby to warm themselves. Which made its burning seem even stranger in such an environment.

"The fire is burning quite brightly... That suggests it was recently fed with firewood... But where is the person or creature that did this? Did they step away somewhere?" Lin looked around and tried to find the person who had set up this small camp.

But there was no one.

As if no one had ever been there at all.

Lin was the only living being here.

"How strange this is..."