For the next hour, they climbed to the top of the mountain, insignificant and tiny in the face of the monumental landscape of nature. No one said a word. The harmony of the forest froze in immobility. There was a serene calmness in the area, in which the elusive sound of falling leaves could barely be heard. The path, surrounded by impenetrable wilds, ended before the entrance to a cave. The group stopped.

"Will it be a big tunnel or a hidden dungeon with monsters?" Ona asked.

Sitting bull sat down on a small rock, took out a pipe, and lit it. Ronnie leaned against a tree. He looked askance at the black hole in the mountain and felt how its darkness was consuming him, and there in the womb of this ominous murk, one of his unpleasant memories was revived. He was standing in front of a similar place on Mars as a part of the Interplanetary tactical anti-pirate squad (ITIPS). Mountains, ruby sand, brownish-red rocks, pale yellow mountains, and rough, rocky peaks encircled them from all sides. Tyriel released portable drones with thermal cameras forward and a minute later they went off-line one by one. That was the first time Blake saw what a cornered man was capable of...

"The last thing we need is a battle," Faolandan said.

Latludious looked at him and asked:

"So between the impenetrable wilds at the top of the mountain, where you can die from any landslide, rockfall, or poisonous plant and predictable monsters, you choose the former?"

Faolandan did not respond.

"Then it's decided," the magician summed up. "Let's go."

Sitting Bull was the last to enter, he looked at Ronnie, who was still standing by the tree, but his consciousness was somewhere far away from them. He walked up to him, slapped him lightly on the cheek. The sniper's eyes darted. He shook his head and looked at Sitting Bull:

"Come on."

The tunnel, surrounded by boulders of impressive size sticking to each other, decreased with every meter passed. Ten minutes later, the players continued to move, like a group of faceless miners. Turns followed one after another. On the way, there were small Tuiakhalizi plants with a green stem twisted into three parishes and a yellow spiked flower. Darkness enveloped the wanderers from all sides. The sounds of the forest remained behind. There was only the rustling of stones underfoot.

The unknown road stretched endlessly. If it wasn't for the in-game interface, they would have lost track of time long ago. Everyone was tense, ready to fight back in case of an ambush. However, they did not meet any resistance. At the next turn, they found themselves in a deep grotto, dark, as if under the lid of a closed coffin. The sphere illuminated the empty space. No pictures, no books, nothing. The grave had been dug out, and instead of a body, mountain water was now flowing in the clay pit. Barahu ran there to quench its thirst, but Faolandan stopped it in time, and gave it a drink from his flask, saying:

"Don't, the water may be poisoned."

Terrible humidity and dampness stood inside the room. Green moss covered everything. Latludious noticed a small recess inside one of the walls. He went there and noticed a small wax candle and a burgundy silk ribbon with strange and partially erased symbols under a stone. The magician left everything in its place and said:

"Let's not linger here."

All five of them went on, into another narrow passage with the hope that this claustrophobic nightmare would end soon. No one agreed to stop for a break. They walked like clockwork robots. Sitting Bull felt the worst of all. Gravity magic dragged his body along the ground like a broken transport without wheels on a towrope. Ona took pity on him and injected a new dose of restorative medicine, followed by painkillers.

When the next stage of the journey was over (When they finally came out on the other side of the mountain), one by one they went to the nearby clearing and set up camp. Sitting Bull went offline, leaving his character for an hour-long meditation. Ronnie laid out his things by the tree, leaned on the trunk, and looked, without blinking, at the endless green hills stretching to the horizon. The sun's rays no longer penetrated through the thickness of cumulonimbus clouds. Grayness and gloom covered the horizon.

Ronnie looked at the inaccessible top of a bare stone mountain in the east, from which waterfalls flowed and rustled in thin streams. There, the bones and a skull of a snake-like dragon protruded, plastered with stone, like plasticine. Upon closer examination, it turned out that the creature had no wings. The size was stunning. By eye, the dragon was one and a half times the length of the one they had to fight in the air. Then he raised the binoculars to examine the ridge of the mountain. There, among the protruding spears of stone peaks, a statue of a man in a black and purple hoodie and a scythe in his hand caught his eye. Ronnie increased the magnification of the binoculars to the maximum and, upon closer examination, noticed a player wearing a red scarf around his neck, a helmet with a single dragon skull, with the addition of twisted horns like a mountain goat, on which in turn hung wooden signs similar to amulets. Gray armor with purple veins protected most of the torso and legs, and white rags fluttered in the wind on top of them. He was sitting, leaning on the Snaith, stretching his legs forward.

Ronnie approached Latludious and told him what he saw. The magician examined both the statue and the bones but did not find the mysterious player.

"Hell. What kind of place is this..." he said. "Are you sure you saw the player? It doesn't look like it's that easy to get to the top."

"My eyes have not failed me yet."

"Do you think someone is watching us?"

"No. He just rested."

"Rested and disappeared a minute later? Don't you find that strange?"

"I find it super fucking strange."

Latludious examined those places for another minute through the eyepiece of the binoculars, peering at each suspicious black dot or mountain flaw, but found nothing similar to a player. When the magician gave up trying to see anything there, he looked at Ronnie and asked in a low voice:

"Could he have infected the forest keeper? Judging by the description of his armor, he fits."

"I don't know."

"If it's really a player, then you should have seen his nickname and level."

"I didn't see it."

"Then I'll bet it's a humanoid monster."

Ronnie understood exactly who he meant and answered:

"Like the Doppelganger?"

"Yeah. Looks like there are a lot of them on Thalack."

Ronnie turned back and looked at the tents belonging to his teammates.

"We can't handle such creatures."

"Let's hope that you saw him for the first and last time." Latludious paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and continued, "it's better for no one to know about this."

Sitting Bull returned to the game twenty minutes later than scheduled. They set off, exhausted and hungry. An hour later, little Glinwilenths - gentle forest animals with moth wings, a lion's body, and blue bulging eyes - followed them. Every now and then, they jumped on someone's shoulder, rubbed their faces against their neck, and jumped off. Players other than Ona did not pay attention to them. Therefore, the animals switched to Barahu and started jumping on it like on a trampoline. The wolfhound bared its teeth, barked, and tried to drive the troublemakers away, but they easily coped with him.

"According to the map of the area, the road will take another seven or eight hours. The next halt is the last. Then rest until dawn and hit the road again."

They came out on a new path trodden by someone or something. From time to time the group climbed up and then descended the steep slopes down. Sometimes it was necessary to overcome deep ravines with the help of magic. When dusk descended on the Elgoreombdon forest, Faolandan noticed how huge Dormels gave way to ordinary Linrava with white low trunks, small black spots, and thin twigs.

Latludious said it was time to look for a safe place to set up camp. Everyone agreed, but they did not want to split up for the sake of searching. In one day, dirt and sweat had become a familiar smell that did not cause hostility. Ronnie saw the fading yellow sunlight seeping through the trees. Together with the moon rising in the darkness, a whitish mist blanketed the ground. Faolandan stopped and said he saw a glade and asked the others to follow him. When all five made their way through the thick branches of the Tossgamp bushes stuck together, they saw an open space covered with low green grass. At three o’clock, there was a low stone from the center of which spring water flowed down, painting it a copper color. Latludious looked at Ronnie with worry on his face, who shrugged in response.

"Nice place," Ona said and patted Faolandan on the back.

While the players were setting up camp, Ronnie went to the stone and used a filter, and filled a canteen. The others did the same a minute later. Then Latludious told everyone to go to bed and return to the game with the onset of the first rays of the sun.