Second World

Once arriving at the barrier, Jack did as before. He resonated his consciousness with the barrier's mana. He then felt his consciousness expand. He felt as if he was looking at multiple cells at the same time. They stacked on each other like a massive beehive.

There was no way he could remember everything with the wealth of information available here. He noticed that most of the nodes although winding through different cells, most of them ended up at the same place. He sensed the outline of a colony there. That must be the Village of Peace that was their destination. Seeing this setup, as long as one stumbled upon nodes continuously, one would most likely end up in this village.

However, he also saw that there were other destinations. More obscure. These destinations could only be reached by a certain combination of nodes, which meant it was less likely for one to get to these black zones if one just went through the nodes randomly by following the rats. Jack wondered what was there in that hidden destination. He couldn't sense anything from those places.

Jack decided to forget about those places. Although they tingled his adventurous sense, he also suspected those places were nothing safe. Maybe when he had gotten much stronger then he might try visiting those places.

Another thing he noticed, the nodes that he passed through before had now shifted positions. In other words, he couldn't map out the route he had taken before and gave it to his guild friends for a safe passage through this Lost Forest. He could inform them to follow the rats, but if they simply follow the critters, there was a chance that they would end up inside those black zones that Jack suspected to be unsafe.

He memorized the shortest path towards the destination with the colony outline. It's a good thing his intelligence stat was high, so he didn't find it hard to memorize the complex pathway.

He returned to his body. His teammates were fortunately not wandering around. They still stood guard beside him. Jack unsummoned his Therras and wolves. He then shared his theory about them having to stick together. Otherwise, the forest might try to separate them again.

Jack took them through many nodes. With how often they encountered the rats since those critters also went in the same direction, Grace had grown tired of feeling disgusted.

"The one who designed this forest is sure to have a rat fetish!" She complained.

"I will be sure to ask Wilted who that person is. We can go at him or her together," Jack said.

"Count me in!" Jet uttered. "Making such a creepy place that scares the shit out of an old man."

After a while, they arrived at where Jack memorized to be the last node. Beyond this node should be the Village of Peace. They stepped through the spot and found nothing change. Around them was still the same forest.

Jack stood there, puzzled. Grace, Jet, and Oswald were waiting for him to start moving again. They didn't know that they had passed the last node.

<br/>'Perhaps I remember wrong?' Jack thought.

"Something's the matter?" Jet asked.

"I thought that by now we have arrived at the Village of Peace," Jack replied.

"Did someone say Village of Peace?" A voice was heard.

The three players and one native looked around. It was not their voice. The voice sounded near but they saw no one else around them.

"Hey, you people! You are outworlders, right? I asked, do you want to go to the Village of Peace?" The voice was heard again.

This time they could pinpoint where the voice came from. They looked down. A white rat with a red suit was staring at them.

"Hello," the rat greeted, waving its forepaw.

Grace shrieked.

Jack reeled since Grace was closest to him. 'Ugh! Girl, I was shocked by the talking rat, but now I am more shocked by your scream.'

"What… What… What are you?!" Grace stepped backward while pointing at the rat.

"My name is Captain Whitebeard. Please to make your acquaintance, miss," the rat hopped over to Grace while offering its paw for a paw shake.

"Stay away!" Grace shouted while continuing to back away.

"Calm down, you are being rude to this little fellow," Jack said. He then squatted near the rat and asked, "Why are your name so like a pirate but you dress like a gentleman? And you don't even have a beard, you have whiskers."

"What kind of unimportant question is that?!" Jet chided and pushed Jack away. He then squatted in front of the rat replacing Jack. "Okay, Captain Squarebeard," he said.

"It's whitebeard," the rat corrected.

"Whatever. Listen, little rat. I'm sick of this creepy forest already. Do you know the way out of here?"

"I thought you want to go to the Village of Peace?"

"Anywhere as long as I'm not in this forest."

"Well, if you want to go to the Village of Peace, I can take you. I live there!" Whitebeard said.

'Live there?' Jack thought and turned to Peniel. 'Don't tell me this Village of Peace is a village populated by talking rats,' he asked Peniel silently.

'I don't know. I never see the village before,' Peniel answered.

But then Jack remembered Guila said that she came from the village, so there should be humans there. It would be weird if the divine faction, Harmony Keepers, consisted of members of only rats.

Captain Whitebeard was gesturing for Jack and the others to follow. Grace was reluctant but she had no choice but to follow the others. She was probably imagining a village filled with rats. Whitebeard talked a lot along the way. It mostly asked about the outside world, Jack entertained the rat with answers as best he could. Whitebeard told them that it used to sneak outside with a friend, but after an incident, it never did so anymore. It also said that it had known about their comings because of its scouts inside the forest. Jack was reminded again of the white rat that was staring at him when he passed through the node.

After walking a short distance, they saw the trees became sparser and they could see the sky again. It was already nighttime. They had spent the entire day lost within the Lost Forest. They then saw lights and buildings some distance ahead.

They came upon a wooden plank sign hung from the thick branch of a very large tree. Village of Peace was carved on the sign. An owl was perching on that branch, It was watching the newcomers. Jack was worried whether the owl would swoop down and snatch Captain Whitebeard for supper. The owl then spoke.

"Whitebeard, who are these strangers you brought here?"

"They are guests coming from the forest, and they are also outworlders. They said they want to visit the village," Whitebeard replied.

"Mm, they should see chief Meratis then," the owl said. "But she is already asleep. You lots are rather rude to come at this hour."

"Sir owl, it's not like that's our intention," Jack felt like crying. "We are lost in the forest. We only manage to arrive here with much difficulty."

"The name is Oldeye," the owl said. "Fine then, Whitebeard will take you to the guest house. You can stay there. Chief Meratis will meet you tomorrow."

"Follow me then," Whitebeard said.

Jack and the others followed. They were just glad that they didn't need to spend a night in the Lost Forest. They didn't think they could sleep at all if that was the case.

When they stepped past the wooden plank sign hanging above, they heard a notification that their quest, Escape the Lost Forest had been completed. They received exp points and gold as rewards. The notification said additional rewards would be given for arriving in the Village of Peace, but the rewards would be given by the Village's inhabitants. They were too mentally tired already for going through the Lost Forest, so they were not so excited about the possible rewards.

Another thing that Jack noticed after passing through the wooden plank, the mana density had greatly surged. It was similar to the condition at Daminos Square Garden. This place would be the best place to learn mana sense and mana manipulation.

They followed Captain Whitebeard to a small hut by the edge of the village. There was a river running nearby. Jack also caught a glimpse of a lake some distance away.

"Please stay in the hut. Chief Meratis hasn't cleared you as guests, so do not wander around. Otherwise, you might get into trouble," Whitebeard warned.

"Do we have to stay inside the hut? Or it's okay for us to stay outside here?" Jack asked.

"Outside here is ok, but do not go to other places. I would hate to lose new guests as soon as they arrive. We don't get many guests here, so I'm rather excited about your arrival. In fact, this is only the second time we met outworlders."

"Second? Another outworlder has arrived here before?"

"Yeah. She was here almost eight months ago."

"What?! That was just about one month after we came to this world," Jack uttered. "How can a young outworlder journey here? Wait… Did you say she? Is she by any chance named Wilted Tree?"

Captain Whitebeard appeared to be thinking. It then said, "I believe that's her name."

"Well, if it's her, I guess it is more believable. Do you know what she is doing here?"

"I don't. She mostly spoke with the chief. I tried talking with her, but her reaction to me was very much like that one," Whitebeard pointed to Grace.

"I guess we can conclude now that this Lost Forest idea was not hers," Jack said. "Okay, we will take our rest. Thank you for your hospitality."

"It's my pleasure," Whitebeard said. It then went to the side of the hut. Jack realized only now that there was a small hole there. Whitebeard sneaked inside.

"This is your home?" Jack asked.

Whitebeard's head stuck out of the hole. "Every house in this village is my home. I chose to stay in this one so you can just call me if you need anything."

Jack looked at the other houses. There was indeed a mouse-hole in each house.

"Um, thank you again for having us," Jack said.

"My pleasure. Good night!" Whitebeard disappeared into its hole again.