The crimson gate was gone.
Only silence remained beneath the massive trees where the portal had existed moments earlier.
Traise stood motionless at the edge of the scorched clearing while his breathing slowly steadied itself again, but something about the forest no longer felt right.
The silence itself felt distorted somehow, as though reality had been violently torn open and then forced shut again before it fully settled.
The area still felt wrong.
Not dangerous exactly, but disturbed in a way Traise struggled to properly explain even to himself.
Faint crimson particles still drifted briefly through the air before they suddenly faded into nothingness, while the ground beneath the vanished portal remained lightly scorched black.
Several nearby trees carried long glowing cracks spread across their bark like wounds that refused to close properly, and even the moonlight filtering through the canopy above bent strangely near the center of the clearing before stabilizing again moments later.
Most unsettling of all, the air still felt warm.
Traise slowly approached the center of the clearing while his eyes carefully scanned the surrounding forest.
Old Traise would have immediately retreated after witnessing creatures like the Solhart and Duskwalker.
He would have grabbed Luna and fled as far away from this place as possible without looking back.
But now, curiosity pushed against that fear hard enough that he found himself investigating instead.
Not recklessly.
Carefully.
Cautiously.
The forest had already started changing him more than he realized.
Luna remained partially hidden within his shadow while faint unease drifted through their bond.
The feeling wasn’t clear enough to resemble thoughts or words, but Traise could still feel fragments of Luna’s instincts brushing against his own emotions the closer he moved toward the center of the clearing.
Unease.
Caution.
Something deeper beneath both of them that felt strangely unfamiliar.
The forest itself felt unsettled, almost as though it was still being affected by the gate opening.
That thought sent a faint chill across Traise’s spine.
He slowly crouched near the scorched ground before reaching toward the exact spot where the crimson gate had existed moments earlier.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
No system window appeared.
No crimson light returned.
The air remained warm against his hand, but otherwise the clearing stayed silent.
Traise frowned faintly before trying again.
Still nothing.
The Solhart had opened the gate so effortlessly earlier that part of Traise almost expected something to happen if he touched the same location.
But now, standing inside the empty clearing while the lingering heat slowly faded around him, reality settled heavily inside his chest once more.
The gate was gone.
And he was still trapped inside this forest.
That realization frustrated him more than he wanted to admit.
Luna suddenly emerged from his shadow.
Traise turned immediately as the small fox landed silently beside him before beginning to circle the clearing in uneasy movements.
Her ears remained lowered while faint wisps of shadow rippled unnaturally across portions of her black fur.
Every few seconds, her gaze snapped deeper into the forest as though she expected something to emerge from the darkness at any moment.
A low growl rumbled quietly from her throat.
Not aggression.
Uneasiness.
Traise felt it immediately.
Not through words or thoughts, but emotion itself.
The Companion Bond pulsed faintly between them while Luna’s instincts bled directly into his own mind in fragmented waves.
Unease.
Caution.
Curiosity.
Something deeper beneath all of it that felt strangely familiar in a way Traise couldn’t properly explain.
The sensation unsettled him more than the distorted clearing itself ever could.
Because those emotions no longer felt entirely separate from his own.
For brief moments, Traise honestly couldn’t tell where Luna’s instincts ended, and his began.
Luna continued pacing slowly around the clearing before eventually stopping near the exact spot where the Duskwalker had been kneeling earlier.
The shadows around her body intensified almost immediately afterward, spreading faintly across the ground beneath her paws while another uneasy growl escaped her throat.
Traise’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The reaction was stronger there.
Much stronger.
He slowly approached while Luna kept staring deeper into the forest beyond the clearing.
The closer he moved toward her, the more clearly he felt the emotions spreading through the bond now.
Not fear exactly.
Recognition.
Instinctive discomfort mixed with something else beneath it.
Interest.
Almost as though Luna wanted to follow whatever traces the Duskwalker left behind.
Duskwalkers.
The thought surfaced naturally inside Traise’s mind while he glanced toward the deeper forest again.
Luna’s reaction to the creature’s lingering presence felt too specific to be a coincidence.
The shadows surrounding her fur continued rippling unnaturally while the uneasy pressure inside Traise’s chest slowly intensified alongside her emotions.
Then Luna began trembling.
Very slightly.
But enough that Traise immediately noticed.
He moved forward, then quickly knelt beside her and gently placed a hand against the side of her neck.
Luna pressed closer almost immediately while another wave of unease crashed through the bond hard enough that Traise physically felt his chest tighten in response.
The fear didn’t feel entirely like his own anymore.
And somehow, that bothered him less than seeing Luna distressed.
Without consciously thinking about it, Traise activated Shadows.
Darkness spread silently beneath Luna before wrapping carefully around her small body and pulling her partially into his shadow.
The effect was almost immediate.
Luna’s trembling eased while the tension flowing through the bond weakened noticeably moments afterward.
But Traise immediately felt the difference himself, as if part of her senses were now his.
His breathing slowed slightly while a faint sense of weight settled across his shoulders, almost as though he had instinctively taken part of Luna’s burden onto himself the moment he hid her within his shadow.
Traise frowned faintly at the sensation before lowering his gaze to Luna.
“It’ll be fine,” he muttered quietly.
The words weren’t entirely for her.
Luna slowly relaxed further as she sank completely into his shadow afterward, while the bond between them pulsed faintly between them once more.
Warmth.
Trust.
Relief.
The emotions drifted through Traise clearly enough that he felt his own tension ease slightly in response.
The bond between them no longer felt like simple companionship anymore.
It felt deeper than that.
Something instinctive.
Pack-like.
And as the distorted clearing slowly fell silent around them once more, Traise finally lifted his gaze toward the deeper regions of the forest, where broken undergrowth and scattered bloodstains disappeared between the trees.
The Duskwalker’s trail.
Traise remained silent for several more seconds before finally stepping toward it.
The farther he moved beyond the clearing, the easier it became to notice additional signs left behind during the creatures’ retreat.
Broken branches.
Deep claw marks across sections of bark.
Dark blood splattered faintly across roots and stone.
Then he noticed the larger tracks.
Not the Duskwalker’s.
Something else.
Large footprints stretched across portions of the forest floor nearby, each one deep enough to leave visible impressions through roots and stone alike.
They weren’t shaped like beast tracks or clawed monsters.
They were footsteps.
Very large ones.
Traise slowly approached the nearest one while unease tightened faintly inside his chest.
Even the Solhart would have looked small compared to whatever created tracks this size.
The thought alone made his instincts recoil slightly at the image forming inside his mind.
A giant.
Or something close enough that the difference no longer mattered.
The Duskwalker’s blood trail cut between the larger footsteps before disappearing farther inward between the trees.
Traise’s gaze slowly shifted deeper into the forest afterward while tension settled heavily inside his chest.
The Solhart and Duskwalker came from deeper inside the forest.
Both creatures had been ranked Impossible to him by the system, beings so overwhelmingly powerful that Observation barely functioned against them at all.
And yet compared to whatever left these footprints behind…
They suddenly didn’t feel nearly as untouchable anymore.
Still, Traise followed the trail.
Carefully.
The farther inward he traveled, the stranger the forest gradually became.
The already massive trees surrounding him grew even larger while twisted roots spread across the ground like walls of blackened stone.
Moonlight barely reached portions of the deeper forest now, forcing the Cloak of Infinite Night to carry most of his vision through the darkness ahead.
At this point, he had already released Shadows without consciously thinking about it.
Luna never emerged.
The small fox remained hidden comfortably within his shadow despite the skill fading from active use, curled silently within the darkness near his feet while faint traces of relief continued drifting through the Companion Bond.
Traise could still feel her unease lingering beneath the surface, but now it mixed together with something calmer whenever she stayed close to him.
Comfort.
Trust.
The realization warmed something faintly inside his chest despite the oppressive atmosphere surrounding them.
The forest itself also grew quieter, yet more ominous the deeper he traveled.
No distant growls echoed through the trees anymore, and even the sound of wind moving through the trees above felt strangely muted now.
The silence no longer resembled an ordinary forest at night.
It felt oppressive.
Eventually, the terrain began to slope upward until Traise reached the edge of a high overlook, partially hidden between the enormous roots of another ancient tree.
He slowly stepped forward before finally looking out across the deeper forest beyond.
And froze.
Far in the distance, partially hidden beneath layers of drifting fog and darkness, stood an enormous structure unlike anything Traise had ever seen before.
At first, he almost mistook it for part of the landscape itself.
Broken black towers stretched upward through the distant fog while massive ruined structures jutted from the earth at unnatural angles around the surrounding terrain.
Portions of the structure appeared partially buried beneath the forest itself, as though the land had slowly swallowed parts of it over countless years.
Even from this distance, the scale felt impossible.
And somehow…wrong.
Faint crimson light pulsed occasionally somewhere deep within the ruins before vanishing again moments later.
Then the pressure hit him.
The same overwhelming sensation he felt standing near the Solhart returned immediately, except this felt bigger somehow.
Heavier.
The pressure didn’t radiate from a creature.
It radiated from the structure itself.
Traise felt his breathing slow instinctively while tension tightened within his chest.
Even Luna reacted sharply beneath his shadow while another wave of instinctive warning flooded through the bond hard enough that Traise physically felt his pulse shiver in response.
And still…
He couldn’t stop staring.
Traise didn’t realize how long he stood there watching the distant ruins.
At some point, the forest around him began feeling subtly wrong in ways he struggled to properly explain.
His breathing gradually grew heavier while the steady rhythm of his heartbeat started sounding strangely distant inside his ears.
Even the wind moving through the canopy above seemed muted now, as though the sounds reached him from farther away than they should have.
The longer he looked toward the structure, the harder it became to focus on anything else.
Faint crimson light pulsed deep within the ruins every so often, and each time it happened, Traise felt his attention drawn back toward it almost instinctively.
His thoughts also seemed slower somehow.
Then the shadows shifted strangely.
Only for a moment, darkness beneath several distant trees moved in ways that didn’t properly match the moonlight filtering through the canopy above.
The sensation vanished almost immediately afterward, leaving enough uncertainty behind that Traise couldn’t tell whether he imagined it or not.
The longer he stared toward the ruins, the more distorted the overlook around him gradually felt.
Depth perception became subtly unreliable while the structure itself occasionally appeared slightly closer than before whenever his focus drifted for too long.
Not physically moving.
Just… wrong somehow.
A low growl suddenly echoed beneath his shadow.
The sound immediately snapped part of Traise’s focus apart while another violent wave of emotion crashed directly through the bond hard enough to wake him from his dazed state.
Fear.
Real fear.
Not caution or unease, but pure instinctive terror so intense that for one brief moment, Traise physically recoiled before realizing the emotion didn’t belong to him at all.
It belonged to Luna.
The small fox pressed deeper into his shadow beneath him as panic flooded the bond, completely unfiltered.
Because Luna remained hidden within his shadow, Traise immediately felt the pressure surrounding them grow even heavier than before, almost as though he had unconsciously taken part of the burden himself the moment he sheltered her there.
That realization cut through the strange haze clouding his thoughts hard enough that Traise finally tore his gaze away from the distant structure.
The oppressive sensation eased slightly afterward.
Not enough to fully disappear, but enough that he immediately understood something was deeply wrong with this place.
Then the system appeared.
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[Warning]
Current Zone exceeds survival threshold.
Mental instability will occur if you remain for too long.
Immediate retreat is advised.
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Traise’s blood ran cold as his eyes slowly shifted back toward the distant ruins beyond the forest.
Even now, the structure continued to pulse faintly with crimson light somewhere deep within the darkness ahead, while the heavy pressure surrounding the overlook refused to fully fade.
And somehow, that warning terrified him more than any creature he had encountered since arriving in this world.
Because monsters could be fought.
Avoided.
Killed.
But this place itself felt hostile in ways Traise still couldn’t begin to understand.
Traise forced himself to look away from the distant ruins.
Even after lowering his gaze, the oppressive pressure surrounding the overlook still lingered faintly against his mind like something trying to drag his attention back toward the structure again.
Luna remained hidden safely beneath his shadow while traces of fear and unease continued drifting, almost radiating from their bond, though the panic from earlier had finally begun easing little by little.
Traise exhaled slowly before stepping back from the overlook.
The pressure weakened slightly almost immediately, and that alone told him enough.
Old Traise would have fled blindly after receiving a warning like that.
He would have grabbed Luna and run through the forest until exhaustion forced him to stop.
But now, standing beneath the enormous trees while the distant ruins pulsed faintly beyond the fog, he understood something important.
Retreating didn’t always mean fear.
Sometimes it meant understanding your limits before crossing them.
That realization settled heavily on him as he slowly turned away from the overlook entirely.
Even now, the memory of that pressure still lingered faintly inside his mind.
The structure hadn’t attacked him.
Nothing had chased him.
And yet merely standing near it for too long had already started affecting his thoughts without him noticing immediately.
Approaching that place now would be suicide.
The thought frustrated him more than it scared him because, for the first time since arriving in this world, Traise realized he no longer wanted strength simply to survive another day.
Survival still mattered, but now something else existed beyond it.
Questions.
What was that structure?
What exactly were the Solhart and Duskwalkers?
What was the academy they mentioned?
And why did the deeper forest feel less like wilderness and more like something people intentionally entered despite the danger?
The world suddenly felt far larger than Traise had originally imagined.
Civilizations existed here.
Powerful beings existed here.
Entire societies hidden somewhere beyond the forest.
And compared to them…
He was still insignificant.
That realization should have discouraged him.
Instead, it ignited something within him, strengthening his determination.
Traise’s hand slowly tightened around the handle of his dagger while he continued retreating toward safer territory beneath the massive trees.
If he wanted answers, then he needed strength.
More levels.
Better equipment.
Greater mastery over his skills.
More Dragon Coins to prepare himself properly for whatever waited deeper inside the forest.
Because someday…
He wanted to stand before those ruins without fear.
The Companion Bond pulsed faintly again while Luna shifted comfortably beneath his shadow, her earlier panic continuing to fade little by little the farther they moved away from the overlook.
Relief drifted steadily through the bond, now alongside trust and comfort, easing some of the lingering tension in Traise’s chest in return.
For now, retreating was the correct choice.
But someday, he would come back strong enough that the deeper forest wouldn’t crush him merely for standing inside it.
Before fully disappearing beneath the dense canopy again, Traise glanced back one final time toward the distant ruins hidden beyond the fog-covered forest.
Far away in the darkness, crimson light pulsed faintly from somewhere deep within the structure.
The exact same crimson light as the gate.
Then the system appeared.
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[New Quest Available]