Chương 40: The Vanishing Trail

Brog exited the dirt path which they had walked until now. It started to walk along the stream where the water came from the cascading hill. Arthur and the others couldn't see any hints of footsteps or other disturbances on the trail the Skeleton was currently checking. It often stood still without any actions. It had yet to write something in the notebook it took out earlier. Arthur closely followed every step of the Skeleton, and the others were also following Arthur without making any noise.

This continued for a while before Brog started to walk away from the stream, moving towards the dense vegetation. In here, the vines had grown colossal without any restrictions. Soon, it entered into them. However, as far as Arthur could see, there was not a disturbance in the vegetation of people entering or walking this way. However, he believed in Brog's abilities. Hence, he continued following. The deeper they went inside, the more they struggled to even move their feet. Brog itself struggled to walk properly.

Seeing the vines had to be cleared in order to walk fast, he quickly summoned Coburn. A skeleton arrived with an iron longsword in its hand.

"Coburn, clear out the vines where Brog needs to go," Arthur commanded, gesturing to Brog. He inwardly hoped the skeletons would have some kind of communication or understanding to work together. As expected, Coburn started to slash its sword continuously without pause. Brog walked easily now on the path that was cleared. Although the issue with the vines was solved, a question still lingered. Was Brog tracking the correct path? The current path was undisturbed by anyone.

When Arthur was struggling to walk on the cut-down vines on the ground, he suddenly noticed Brog stop its steps. It started to write something in the notebook. Arthur immediately craned his head to see what it was. The others also tried to see what the Skeleton was writing. The wooden pencil moved across the paper from left to right. However, there were no words left behind by the pencil; the paper remained empty. The Skeleton was simply writing in the notebook without words.

Does the wooden pencil possess invisible magic? Such a thought arose.

"What… What happened? Why can't I see anything that was written?" Nickolas asked.

"I, too, do not see anything that was written." One of the Sword Affinity guys scratched his head.

"Arthur, do you see anything?" Nickolas looked towards Arthur. However, Arthur was just as confused as the others.

"I do not see anything as well," Arthur said as he intently looked at the hand movements of the Skeleton. It was as if he could understand it, but all he could guess was that they were some kind of strange symbols based on the structure of the hand movements. While he was thinking about the symbols, Brog finished its notes, or whatever it was, and started to walk to the side. Meanwhile, Coburn quickly moved and cleared the path where Brog turned. Arthur and the others could do nothing but follow.

The deeper they walked, the more darkness started to descend. It was not just because the sun was setting, but the canopy of vegetation did not let any sunlight reach through. However, they persisted in their search without any issue, since the vines were cleared without any delay by Coburn. It was easy to walk without getting tired. It was a blessing that they had a Skeleton Worker like Coburn.

If it was a normal human clearing the vines, he would have already exhausted himself by now, falling to the ground drained of all stamina. The amount of distance they walked, and how much Coburn cleared without any issue, was truly a miracle. Fortunately, Skeletons did not know of stamina like humans, so it was easy for them to walk. The only impeding issue they currently held was the day coming to an end. They did not know how long they had to walk to even see some clue that the researchers had walked there.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. They walked behind Brog for another 20 minutes before it started to write something. Afterward, it turned to its side again and walked for another 20 minutes. It had been an hour since they exited the Literal Cascade dirt path. Arthur started to doubt Brog's capabilities. Could the beginner Skeleton's abilities be unreliable? Such a thought came to mind. Could he have used Coburn instead of Brog?

However, before he could doubt Brog's abilities any further, they suddenly exited the towering vines into what could be called a small clearing. It was a patch of land that was not covered in dense vines and vegetation. There, they could see footprints and disturbances on the ground where people had walked, damaging the vegetation on the ground. Everyone could see these with their naked eyes without someone pointing them out.

"I guess we finally found the researchers' location. Look, there is the path they came from." Susanne pointed to a place where the vines and vegetation were cleared.

"I do not think a rival battle happened. At the very least, not in this place," Nickolas speculated. Arthur could also see there was a lot of footprint damage on the ground. However, there was no battle or struggle between groups. This meant he could cancel out the possibility of a rival slaughter by at least 50%. Because the battle did not happen here, it could have happened somewhere else. He had yet to see it. Hence, the next prominent possibility was that they had lost their path in this dense valley.

Now, he had to find where they were and get out of here. Looking up at the sky above the clearing, the sun had fully set, and darkness was about to descend on the valley.

"But how can we know these people found something in this place? They could have accidentally come here, right? I couldn't see any activities of research, like digging or anything," Finola said as she looked around with anxiety.

"That makes sense." Arthur also couldn't see any activity that would prove they had done some research here. Maybe they accidentally ended up here and went back by the path they came. Since there was only one path that exist, if they were to go in a different direction, there should have been two paths.

"Brog, let's find where the people who came here went," Arthur commanded. In the next second, Brog started to walk towards the path that already existed. This proved the point that the people went back the same way they came in. As usual, Coburn took the lead to clear the vines. Even though the path was walkable, it was not like the path they had walked until now. Those people must have struggled to walk on these vines.

However, Arthur and his party did not want to struggle; they could use the Skeletons for an easy walk. They walked for another half an hour, finally entering into another clearing. However, there were footprints here as well, but there was no struggle. At the same time, there was no research activity either. Arthur was confused as to whether they had ever done any research.

"Brog, let's continue the search. Let's see where they went from here," Arthur commanded without delay. He thought they should at least reach the research location before the darkness fully engulfed them. Obeying his command, Brog started to walk again. This time, however, it did not walk towards the path where the people had walked in. Instead, Brog chose a different direction to walk. Arthur was confused by this action, as were the others.

"Did it malfunction after all the walking? It is walking in a different direction, where there is no evidence that people walked in that direction," Nickolas asked. Arthur did not know why Brog chose that direction, but he did not question it or stop. At first, it had chosen a random location from Literal Cascade, but it eventually reached the correct location. So, he did not disturb it and followed.

However, before they could doubt Brog anymore, they entered into another clearing which was completely different from the other two. This clearing was more disturbed, more like a battle had happened here. They could also see luggage and research tools.

"I guess we found the spot." Susanne walked towards the center of the clearing. However, when Arthur looked at the edge of the clearing, he could see no path of entrance or exit that the people had walked out of or run away from battle. It was as if they magically teleported into this place.

"Brog, find from where they entered and where they finally exited," Arthur commanded. Brog quickly walked to its left from where it stood. When Arthur was about to follow the Skeleton, it suddenly stopped at the edge and started writing something. Before Arthur could reach its location, it started to walk again to the direct opposite of where it stood. Arthur naturally took a step to follow its direction. However, once it reached the end of the clearing, it stopped again and started writing.

Arthur noticed this strange behavior of the Skeleton, but he could not understand why it was doing that. This action repeated time and time again. Arthur stopped following, his eyes blankly looking at the Skeletons. Why was Brog unable to find a path where the people had entered or exited from here? If a rival battle had happened between two groups, one group must have tried to exit the clearing. However, Brog was unable to pinpoint the exact location. It was as if the residual disturbance existed everywhere.

"Why is it doing that?" Susanne asked.

"I don't know," Arthur simply said.

"Coburn, find a path where people exited from the clearing," Arthur commanded Coburn to check if it could get a different result from it. However, Coburn's actions were similar to Brog's. It walked to the edge of the clearing but stopped.

"I think something is wrong with this clearing," Arthur said aloud. It was something that he or his Skeletons could not understand.