"Oh, I zoned out. What were you saying?" Lucius replied.
"Forget everything I said towards the end. I don't really care about all of that stuff," Asclepius said, though the act wasn't fooling anyone.
"I'd recommend going in the early morning. That's when most of the creatures of the Dark Forest go to sleep. And whatever you do, avoid the 'furry-folk'," Asclepius warned.
"Right, you mentioned them. What exactly are they?"
"They are the 'owners' of the Dark Forest. From what most creatures understand, they were there at its creation. Do not try to fight them, you WILL die. Even the 'owners' of the green forest fall victim to them. And this is no legend. I have seen an owner lying dead in the Dark Forest with my own eyes,"
~So they're the higher tier beings of the Dark Forest, huh? Probably intelligent,~ Lucius thought to himself. He was definitely going to try his best to avoid them, though it would've been nice if he had been given hints as to what to look out for.
"Pagan, come here, I need to talk to you," Lucius said, stepping away from Asclepius for a moment.
"Yes, Lighted One,"
"I'm leaving for a solo mission tomorrow, and it might take me some time," Lucius explained.
"Am I coming alo-"
"No, I'm going alone. I need you to stay and protect the commune while I'm gone," Lucius interrupted.
"I understand Lighted One, I shall watch over the others," Pagan replied.
"The watch force will report to you if they find anything suspicious. The leaflings will probably be safe in the tree base, but you never know what might happen," Lucius whispered.
"And listen, I'm not fond of the idea of sacrificing anyone, but priority is on the pods, so you can't let anyone breach the cottage," he continued, before pausing for a moment.
"No, in fact, get the idea of sacrificing anyone out of your mind. If even a single leafling falls while I am away, I'll have your head, understood?" he said after.
"No beast of the forest will touch a single being under your protection. I can promise you that much, Lighted One," Pagan replied, calling out his crux.
"Good," Lucius smiled.
"Oh, and the green herbs you mentioned, the ones that have poison-purifying qualities. Do you think they would work on poison still in the air?" Lucius asked, turning to Asclepius just as he was about to leave.
"Like poison that's emitted?" Asclepius asked thoughtfully. "To some degree, but if anything, just by a small margin," it continued.
Lucius nodded his head and picked out a few of those herbs from the remaining pile, and gave the rest to Pagan, ordering him to take everything else inside the Alchemist's Cabin.
"Don't hesitate to kill him if you think he's doing anything suspicious," he whispered to Pagan, before leaving with the other leaflings.
Once they got back to the camp Lucius began his final preparations before the mission. For one, he had to make a small cottage to house Ghost's pod.
It was sort of inconvenient that the pods couldn't be moved from the spot they sprouted in. Perhaps he would have to start holding the photosynthesis sessions in some sort of building to prevent having to do this over and over again.
Once he was done with the small cottage, it was already dark. So he helped the leaflings get up into the tree base, and took those who couldn't fit there into his cottage.
However, he didn't go to sleep just yet as he still had a few things to do regarding his kit. He realized he would need a sort of gas mask, even if it only reduced his poison intake by a small amount, it could become the difference between winning or losing.
So he took the green herbs he had gotten earlier and stuffed them in a worm skin sac. He then used a needle to poke several small holes through which he could breathe from, and tied the sac around his face.
"Ugh," he grunted. The smell was horrible, nearly causing him to throw up. But he soldiered through, he would get accustomed to the smell eventually.
Next, he had to modify his long knives. It would be very uncomfortable for him to hold onto his blades throughout the entire journey, and even in fights, he couldn't hold on to them for more than a few moments without it feeling uncomfortable. So he tied vines around them, and then tied the other ends to his waist.
He would alternate between making them ranged swinging weapons, and close-range handheld weapons depending on his stance. He also decided to take a needle spear with him, who knows what tough-skinned creatures he might come across?
Once he was done he sort of looked like an adventurer… albeit one with very bad equipment. He tested out a few moves with his weapons to get a feel for them before retiring for the day. He would have to wake up very early if he wanted to reach the Dark Forest as the sun was rising.
***
Lucius woke up early the next day, in fact, he had only slept a few hours. After saying his goodbyes to the leaflings, and giving Alpha's right-hand woman her final orders, he left on his journey.
Throughout the journey he took a medium pace, making sure not to exert himself before he reached the Dark Forest. He wasn't sure how long he would stay in that maze. Whether it be a few hours or a few weeks, so he had to be prepared.
After a few hours, he passed the area where he had once hunted the arachnid in. It was sort of hard to believe that this wasn't even the Dark Forest, yet everything seemed so… odd.
The further in he went, the more ominous the environment became. The trees got bigger and bigger till eventually, their trunks were so large that they could fit small houses within them.
They were beginning to have a more flesh-like texture, like old, wrinkled skin. Odd shapes and patterns covered their trunks, at times making them look like they had faces, demons smiling at him with wide open maws.
The diversity of plant life dwindled, and eventually, all that was left were different-looking trees.
Oddly enough the ground was beginning to become more level. Eventually becoming like a man-made pathway. Though to Lucius, it felt like a pathway riddled with invisible writhing worms, making it uncomfortable to traverse.
Eventually, he got to a section where a curtain of purple fog hung over the air. It was like a clear-cut line, a border if you will, indicating that this was the start of the Dark Forest.
After that point, even the sky looked different. It looked like an amalgamation of shapeless black nightmares, but whenever Lucius tried to focus on any one of them, the image would distort and it would seem like a normal cloud.
"I'm here," he realized, before continuing his journey.
