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Info #44: Despite the fact that the Elgoreombdon forest’s boundaries are shown on the world map. Many of its parts are still unexplored.

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Info #45: Terrain scanning consists of two types: full and local. To perform a full scan, the area should be unobstructed by any big obstacles and clear of any monsters that could interfere with the scanning devices; local scans are performed in small spaces, and the AI will supplement the gaps between the scanned areas independently using its own algorithms (at the moment the function is in beta testing).

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Info #46: The terrain of Thalack may change due to severe weather anomalies. In this case, you can re-scan the area and get a reward for it again.

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The nightmares wouldn't leave Blake. That night, he dreamed that he was in a tavern. There, in the semi-darkness, he met a dozen small children sitting in the shade against the far wall. All dirty, in torn clothes, pale skin, and colorless gray eyes. They looked at him, but did not say anything, huddled, clinging to each other, shivering from the cold. Visitors, who can be counted on the fingers of one hand, did not notice them, as if they were not children, but ghosts. When Blake sat down at a table, a menu was brought to him, but there was no food, drinks, or alcohol on it. It was a list, the left column had the names, and the right one had the prices and descriptions of what kind of work they could do. Blake felt a presence behind him. It turned out to be a dragon with huge red wings, a human body, and a face twisted with irreconcilable anger. He asked in a heavy voice, pronouncing each word with a confident and slow tone:

"Who will our guest choose for himself?"

"No one," Blake replied, and before he knew what had happened, he lost an eye and fainted. The next moment he was in the body of one of these little lost souls in the corner. He was looking at himself from the outside, but he did not see Blake, he saw Ronnie.

***

Ronnie got back into the game before the others. Above his head, the star-studded sky revealed the red lights of nebulae, some, shapeless and chaotic, spread a variety of colors across the infinite expanse of space; others reminded him of the human eye: a blue circle like a pupil in the center, and around it yellow waves taking the form of a protein. In the northwest of this universal canvas, a semicircle of an unearthly satellite pierced thin-layered clouds with its rays. The ghostly light seemed to be trying to lift the veil of secrets of the forest darkness and calm the mind.

Ronnie sat down in a bedouin pose and looked around. A flock of Dyeiis sat on the branches of Linrava and stared at him with light blue eyes. Miniature moths fluttered and circled at the foot of the trees. To the north of the clearing, a black figure of a creature with an oval head, burning long arms swept by. Instead of legs, it had a void. It was a ghost. Their graphite translucent bodies glowed faintly, circling in the dark like leaves in a strong wind, and a few seconds later faded into a deep thicket. In addition, somewhere far away behind the trees, there was a monster with a staff, red eyes, and a creepy elongated skull without skin, it watched him for a couple of minutes and disappeared. It was like an incessant hallucinogenic dream.

The night, cold and endless, swept into the distance across the starry sky, like a decorated long-playing record in a gramophone. In half an hour, it took on a dozen contradictory guises, at first it was creepy and frightening, then quiet and calm. One picture followed another.

Ronnie gathered some twigs, plucked the grass, and built a campfire without looking around. He wrapped himself in a blanket, hugged the Barrett, and just sat on the edge of the barely noticeable shadow, looking at his feet. Every creature, bug, or monster passing by, stared at him without any hesitation, tried to catch his scent. Nevertheless, even those things that looked the most dangerous did not dare to make contact or approach closer than twenty yards from him. They came and went back into the darkness. When the noise of the forest inhabitants subsided, the bowed chirping of Labaolo grasshoppers to the baritone of the wind came to the fore of the natural ensemble. Then the tambourine rustle of leaves was connected to the long melody under the drumming of Tambaro woodpeckers.

An hour later, Barahu came up to Ronnie and growled, his four red eyes ran around. Then it bowed its head and sat down next to him.

"Wanna hunt, don’t you?" Ronnie asked. "Yeah. Me too. But it's too dangerous here."

At the appointed time, everyone returned to the game as one. Faolandan bent down and hit his knees three times with both hands and called Tina to him. The wolfhound limped lazily towards him, licking its sleepy face with a long, rough tongue. Ona came to the edge of the glade, raised her head, and watched as the early sunlight rose from behind the invisible horizon, as bright yellow rays exposed the green and red foliage of the trees. She could see the early morning fog clearing two or three miles away.

Latludious wrote Ronnie a PM and asked if he had seen anything to worry about and received a negative response.

"Well," said the magician, "time is running out. Let's move out. In about five hours we'll reach the checkpoint, rest, and set off the next morning."

Sitting Bull began to feel much better and was able to walk without the help of his teammates. He adjusted his bow and quiver, checked that everything was in order with the machine gun, and led the column. From the very beginning of the journey, he paid extra attention to whether there were any footprints on the road. Ronnie, like the last times, went last and twitched and turned back at every sound of rustling or cracking, still not recovering from the night's events. The wild places of Elgoreombdon abounded with red, blue, yellow flowers, ringing streams. Birds sang here and there. The mood of the group has risen. Ona told stories, Faolandan baited tales.

Sometime later, the conversation went wrong again: the players continued to wonder who Ona worked for in real life and raise the stakes. She didn't like it, though the serene atmosphere and silly conversations made her smile, not angry. But the further they went, the less the warmth of a cloudless morning warmed their bodies. The stories ended and there was silence. Engwanorno - fluffy trees of the Raegdantawar thicket, whose bark was strewn with yellow and painful spots, surrounded the travelers, and the hard ground under their feet was replaced by a swamp. Coniferous branches with a dense studded carpet did not leave a gap in the forest canopy.

"I've read a story on the forum," said Ona, "about a group of pioneers who came to these places. Their leader Lamo wrote that he had never seen anything more beautiful than this place. He wanted to establish a small village in these parts. Then something happened here, the trees seemed to get sick, and the light stopped reaching the ground at all. And whoever came here, they went crazy, died, and turned into ghosts."

"Okay, I'll be honest," said Faolandan, "you're a master at telling horror stories."

"Don't be afraid, your little Tina will definitely save you from evil spirits."

Barahu barked. The thicket ahead turned the color of the dark ocean depths, and they, like a flock of fish, swam wherever their eyes looked, frightened, looking around. Ronnie could not find his place at all. An hour later it became completely dark, you cannot see a thing, not even an eye out. Sitting Bull shone a flashlight into Latludious, and he, in turn, cast a spell. In the hands of the magician, a white beam of light shone in the form of a white sphere, somewhat resembling a polar star. It rose above their heads and illuminated the space within a radius of three yards, but no more; the darkness hiding in these places had an inexplicable witchcraft power.