Way of the Knights

Chapter 120 - Illusion

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The team woke up the next day and as usual, Raven was the first to be up.After doing a set of warm up exercises, he took care of today's breakfast and waited until the rest was up.

It didn't took long before the rest was up and had already eaten breakfast. After taking care of business and discussing their agenda, they went out of the cave and once again went on their way to the investigation point.

As usual, Jackson had Hopper scouting in front while he looked at the shared vision between them, Raven was constantly pulsing his Spiritual Sense, making sure that there is no danger around. The adventurers also scouted using their own methods, this secured that no one will miss any sign of danger.

If there is a time for them to be even more careful, it would be now. As they moved along, they are fast approaching the true Red Zone of this vast wilderness. Only the 5 kilometers within the kingdom's radius is deemed 'safe'. This route that they are following was supposed to be the safest amongst them but due to the cases of adventurers and Lair Hunters not returning after taking this route, they were forced to investigate it and find out what's wrong.

The team walked for a while, they continued doing so until Jackson raised his hand and signalled for a quick huddle. He also recalled Hopper by his side while they discussed things.

"Alright, according to my calculations from this point onwards we are less than 50 meters away from the edge of the Yellow Zone, which means that what you see in front of you is our point of investigation." The team nodded in acknowledgement from his words.

"Now you." Jackson turned towards Jordan who was startled. "Prior to our expedition, do you have any plans for when you reached this point?"

Raven saw Jordan place an embarrassed face and said: "In all honesty, I don't have any concrete plans. The mission said to investigate, so I thought that scanning the perimeter and writing down everything that we see is good enough. After that, the plan is to retreat in order to reduce further exposure to danger.

"Raven rolled his eyes when he heard about his plan. Don't get him wrong, this plan would work, and no one will dare to say anything about them doing so. But the gist is that, going about the situation this way will endanger more people. While Jordan and his team might be able to come back safely, the result of the mission would be more or less a failure. The trip is wasted since Jordan only brought back the scenery within the place. Without doing a thorough investigation, the kingdom will send more people after this place. What if the next batch don't make it out alive? The kingdom will once again, send more people after this place. It would just be a cycle of repeated failures then.

And it's not like the next batch won't have any ideas like his. And if all the the next batch of people think like this, then it is highly possible that the danger of this place will eventually grow large to the point where it will become a serious threat.

"I like the first half of you plan." Jackson said, Jordan was astonished but he found out that Jackson wasn't finished speaking. "But the retreating immediately part, is outright stupid."

"We'll do it like this." Jackson brought out an hourglass and showed it to the team. "We will scan the perimeter of this place separately to cover more ground. Take note of everything that you see, make it more detailed as you could. One hour later, will regroup here in the same spot and compare the notes that we have. Remember, make sure you stay low and beware of any dangers. Once you found yourself in trouble, run away and don't clash. If you can't run, shoot the SOS signal but only as a last resort! Do you all understand?"

As Jackson explained his plan, he made sure to emphasize his last few words and even faced Alina to make sure she gets the message. Alina bit her lip and forcefully nodded like the rest of the team. Jackson then handed out direction where each member will investigate. Alina's task was to investigate the 10 meters around their rendezvous point, this is should be the safest spot for her.

George was to investigate West, Jordan goes South, Jackson goes North and Raven towards east. Everyone saw Jackson flipped the hourglass which was the go signal. Everyone then went their separate ways.

***

After Raven passed through Alina's investigation domain, he used his ocular technique and brought out a pen and a paper. Using his spiritual sense, he scanned his surroundings as well looking carefully at each thing that he could see.In order to not waste time, he also used a fraction of his spiritual energy to write his observations. This is just so that he could use his hands for something else, like parting bushes slowly to not raise any alarms, to feel the soil and so on. This also prevents him from constantly having to stop on his tracks only to write down something, this will save him more time and, as a result, will allow him to cover more ground.

So far, he had seen nothing worth of notice. It was the regular, like bushes or whatever's left of it due to the Diamond Dust Eclipse. Occasional sounds of beast growls, damaged trees or fallen ones, some mounds of dirt, and a terrible stench of wastes.

Nevertheless, all of this was written on his paper. It's better for him to document everything that he sees instead of missing out on a potential clue for the mission.

As he continued on scanning his area of responsibility, there were several times where he had to pause for a bit.

Sometimes, he would hear scuffles too close from his spot, like something moved. But he was sure that there is none since both of his ocular technique and his spiritual sense are active. Then he would blame this to the strong and chilling wind in this place. It was really giving him mixed signals.It was then that something within his senses scream irregularity to him which made him stop.He immediately crouched down and hid as best as he could. He kept his eyes peeled for what's in front of him but the scene he saw was just something else.

What he saw was a definite example of a Nature Wonder.

In front him lies a wonderful field of floral and fauna. There were tall trees and golden light shimmering in the distance. The flowers are unusually lively and one could see things that promotes inner calm. Insects sucking pollen from the flowers and then buzzing off somewhere, deers drinking water from the stream nearby and then hopping away towards the depth of the forest. Raven could even hear how the birds sand playfully and flew away. He saw how the trees bloomed with life, their trunks showed overflowing vigor, each branch has a plump and juicy fruit waiting for any lucky ones to claim them and savor their flavor.

The flowers carried a sweet scent that seemed to invite everyone in, and off to the depths of this forest, one could see a small hut seemingly empty, but a looked like a safe place to stay and wind up for some time.

Now, if Raven was dumb. He would be all over this place. He won't even think twice and run towards the hut, but that would mean that he might never come out alive.

"Good thing I'm the one who was sent here and not the girl. Or else, we would've lost a member already."

He's not so naive to fall for this. Besides, it was too obvious!

If he had seen this place before the Diamond Dust Eclipse then maybe he would think twice, but now? This place sticks out like a sore thumb.

Raven doesn't even need to gaze that far to see the devastation that the Diamond Dust Eclipse did to this place, even the bush that he's hiding from wasn't spared from that, and yet for some miracle the place just ahead of him was completely fine? So fine, that there wasn't even a trace of Diamond Dust lingering on any of it's surface? Add the fact, that with his ocular technique active, this place looked like an amalgamation of fuzzy lines and hollow interiors, the energy reading that he received from his spiritual sense also doesn't match the general aesthetic of the place.

From this clues alone, it was so obvious that this place is nothing but a mere illusion.

Still, that didn't help with Raven current position. In fact, he actually somewhat torn right now.

From his mental calculations, not even thirty minutes had passed yet when he arrived here. He might've covered a solid distance but since it's not yet time to return, should he go back and inform the team or scout for a little bit by himself?