Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1120 - 233: Trapped

Chapter 1120: Chapter 233: Trapped

"Let’s wait here for a while, and don’t move forward for the time being," Pannis said with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. "The situation is a bit strange. It’s supposed to be the Burial Grounds, no, not necessarily the entire Burial Grounds. Maybe just the nearby area is experiencing some anomalies."

"I think it’s better to return to our starting point," Catherine pondered and said. "Heading back isn’t completely ineffective; it’s just slower. I worry that as time goes on, the effectiveness of heading back diminishes and eventually, we could be completely trapped in this grassland. Moreover, we haven’t taken Master Fila’s potion. What if a Twisted Soul approaches us by accident? We may not even be able to escape."

"The problem lies with the Twisted Souls; that’s why I dare not move recklessly," Pannis shook his head and said. "We still don’t know the cause of this issue. However, we can’t rule out the possibility of a spatial anomaly. If it really is a spatial anomaly, then our sense of distance can no longer be trusted. We may think that the Twisted Souls are far enough from us, but in reality, they could be right beside us. This is not impossible. So, since at this very spot we haven’t disturbed any Twisted Souls within view, let’s stay here for now. I certainly don’t want to step out and find myself face-to-face with a group of Twisted Souls."

"Uh... this..." Lina, who was being dragged around in circles by Vivian, stiffened and forcibly stopped Vivian, chuckling awkwardly, "Isn’t it very dangerous for us to be turning in circles like this?"

"It’s not that exaggerated," Pannis said with a mix of laughter and tears. "From what we’ve seen just now, even if there is spatial distortion, it’s not completely chaotic. Turning in circles on the spot like you two should be fine."

"So you’re the fool. I told you to cut down on those boring novels and spend more time with me at the library, but you never listen," Vivian rolled her eyes at the priestess, continuing to lie on the ground, constantly making marks, evidently calculating something.

"Pat, pat, pat," Lina playfully smacked Vivian’s soft hat a few times as a light punishment, but her attention was not focused on her and instead asked Pannis, "Not ruling out the possibility of spatial anomalies means you’ve considered several different causes already?"

"It’s possible that there’s spatial confusion, but I think it’s more likely that we’ve been influenced," Pannis said, looking down at Vivian, who was busy on the ground, and nodded thoughtfully before continuing, "For instance, our sense of time or space could have been affected. We might feel we’ve walked back for five minutes, but in reality, it was only one minute. We might feel we’ve walked forward for five minutes, but actually, it was fifteen minutes. That’s time perception being distorted. If our sense of space was affected, mainly the sense of distance, we might think we are a few kilometers away from our starting point, but the actual distance might be less than one hundred meters. If these two perceptions were affected and became confused, it’s a bit better than actual spatial distortion, but it’s still troublesome."

"If it’s just the sense of distance in space that’s affected, that’s easier to solve. We just need to keep setting close-range targets," Catherine picked up a clump of soil, threw it forcefully into the distance, and silently estimated, "But if our sense of time is affected, honestly, I struggle to understand how that significantly affects us. If it’s just that our feel for time is influenced, we should keep going as we planned, it would just seem longer. What’s the difference?"

"The impact of a distorted sense of distance isn’t as simple as you think. If the disorientation were uniform, it would be manageable, as you said, by continually verifying the target’s position to keep our course correct. But what if the effects vary? What if, for example, the distance between Vivian and me is two hundred meters and one hundred fifty meters from Ava, but due to somesort of disorientation, I feel like Vivian is only one hundred meters away while Ava seems three hundred meters away? Under those circumstances, it’s impossible to determine when to change direction. So dealing with it is much more troublesome than you might imagine," Pannis sighed and explained earnestly, "As for the influence on our sense of time, theoretically it’s even more troublesome than distance. You might not fully understand—I didn’t at first—but once that lion explained a theory to me, I found it made a lot of sense."

"Oh, that time," said Dillie, sprawling lazily on the ground, appearing utterly calm in the face of any bizarre phenomenon. It was hard to know how he had developed such a habit. He only reluctantly raised his head to explain when Pannis mentioned him, "Human perception and consciousness can inversely affect the body’s reactions. There was an experiment back in my homeland where a death row criminal was blindfolded and tied in a sealed room. They made a cut on his wrist, told him they’d severed an artery and let him listen to the sound of his own blood dripping. Of course, it was all a deception. The cut didn’t even break the skin, and no blood was shed; the sound he heard was just a bottle of water dripping nearby. However, not long after, the criminal died. His symptoms at time of death perfectly matched those of excessive blood loss. So, if your sense of time gets disrupted and your senses make you feel like you’ve been running for three hours straight, even if you keep telling yourself that it’s just an illusion, that you’ve only run for ten minutes, your subconscious will still believe you’ve run for three hours, and you will feel increasingly exhausted."

The girls were taken aback by Dillie’s words, struck by a theory none had ever suggested before. The two scholar mages stared at the scorpion-tailed lion, muttering incomprehensible words, prompting doubts whether they had completely lost their minds.

"Was that experiment from your homeland?" Catherine asked with a peculiar expression, "It’s just too cruel. Even for a criminal, this kind of torture shouldn’t be allowed."

"Hey, big sis," Lina rolled her eyes at Catherine and said, "This method of trying to lighten the mood with nonsense is Pannis’s specialty. He’s already a big headache. Could you not pick up the habit as well?"

"Eh, is it really my specialty? That can’t be right," Pannis blinked, surprised, and said, "And when have I ever spouted nonsense? I’m always very serious, uh-huh, consistently serious."

"Enough already, you. It’s really shameful to act like this," Dillie said with disdain, "Living for over a hundred years and still able to... oh, you wouldn’t understand the word anyway."

Although Pannis protested seriously, it had to be admitted that Catherine’s Pannis-like way of disrupting the mood indeed helped the girls, temporarily trapped, to relax quite a bit.