Chương 19: Chapter 16 - The Lure of the Castle

When they stepped through the door, silence greeted them. Corpses littered the clearing, most bearing the unmistakable wounds of dire wolves. The smell of dried blood lingered in the air. Beyond the forest, an ancient castle stood beneath a blanket of mist. Its shattered windows resembled empty eye sockets, watching every newcomer in silence. No one spoke for several breaths. Roc's gaze remained fixed on the castle. His instincts screamed at him to stay away, though he couldn't explain why.

They had encountered dangerous places before, but this felt different. The feeling passed, yet the unease remained. The castle seemed to draw their gaze without effort, as though something inside patiently waited for visitors. Seri was the first to break the silence.

"What do you think?" he asked, looking toward Roc.

"We could explore the castle together and split whatever we find." Roc studied the distant fortress before shaking his head.

"No. The forest has already been scouted once but the castle hasn't. We know nothing about what's inside. There's no reason to rush." He glanced toward the forest behind them.

"We've already confirmed that this place is rich in resources. We should gather what we can first. If the castle is worth exploring, it'll still be there tomorrow." Seri considered his words before nodding. Neither tribe was willing to rush blindly into the unknown. The spiritual realm had so many valuable resources that gathering those in nearby areas first was the most reasonable. The two tribes separated, each establishing a temporary camp before sending exploration parties into the surrounding forest....

Torou walked beside Jepo's squad, his eyes constantly sweeping the unfamiliar woods. Spiritual essence drifted through the air like an invisible mist, and the forest around them felt almost overflowing with life. Spirit trees stood everywhere, their branches heavy with fruit.

At first, they'd considered themselves fortunate to find so many in one place, then they found more, and more still, the trees growing denser the farther they traveled, as though the realm itself were trying to bury them beneath its own abundance. Yet scattered among them stood ancient dead trees, blackened trunks frozen where they'd fallen, as though life and death had simply agreed to coexist here. It was strangely beautiful, and just as strangely unsettling. Jepo's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Our orders remain the same. We're splitting into three groups: gather herbs, locate spiritual trees, and record anything unusual." Torou turned to look at Jepo.

"Captain."

"Yes?"

"Why are we gathering so much?" Jepo regarded him.

"Because we're here."

"What do you mean? We should exercise more caution."

"We are." Jepo pointed at their surroundings.

"We're not running towards the castle. We're not hunting down monsters. We're not going out of range of communications." He took an apple from the nearest tree and studied it.

"This is how being cautious works when you're getting everything for free." Torou scowled.

"Everything?" Jepo smirked.

"Nothing is free." He threw the fruit into the sack.

"We're paying with our time." Torou looked at the distant castle. Jepo did the same.

"And sooner or later, we're going to pay for it." The warriors acknowledged the command before continuing deeper into the forest.... Before long... A howl echoed between the trees. A pack of dire wolves burst from the undergrowth. The battle barely lasted minutes. Massive ape warriors crashed into the pack head-on while earth and wind attributes tore through anything that survived the first exchange. When the dust settled, wolf corpses covered the ground once again. Torou frowned.

Something had bothered him ever since entering this realm—these wolves behaved too differently. He'd entered Spiritual Realms before, though not many, and only once personally. Most expeditions his tribe had sent never returned; those that did often carried stories no one wanted to repeat. One realm had been swallowed by endless darkness—no sun, no moon, no stars, only a black so complete that even fire barely pushed it back.

Invisible traps hid beneath every step, and every few meters another scream had echoed into the void before disappearing for good. He still remembered believing that place would become his grave. Compared to that, this forest felt almost welcoming. Then another wolf corpse rolled across the ground, and Torou finally voiced the question that had been sitting with him.

"Captain," Jepo glanced over.

"Aren't monsters supposed to be individualistic? These wolves move like ordinary beasts. They hunt together. They even protect each other." Jepo smiled faintly.

"You've noticed." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. He kept walking as he spoke.

"Monsters born inside Spiritual Realms aren't always the same as the ones outside. It depends entirely on the area." He nodded toward the forest around them.

"This place is relatively stable. The spiritual essence is dense, but it flows naturally, so monsters capable of living in groups end up developing pack instincts, especially among their own kind." Torou nodded slowly.

"So that's why there are so many dire wolves."

"Exactly. But don't misunderstand." Jepo's expression turned more serious.

"Not every place in a Spiritual Realm is like this. Some are chaotic—tracking's impossible, and creatures born there can be completely unpredictable. Others twist beasts into things that shouldn't exist. There are even places where the environment itself is deadlier than anything living in it." Torou thought back to the endless darkness, and believed every word. Spiritual Realms were unpredictable. Every newly opened door was a gamble. Sometimes it led to fortune. Sometimes it became a graveyard.

Jepo suddenly stopped walking. His sharp eyes narrowed toward the trees ahead.

"... We've found something." The entire squad instinctively lowered their voices. Beyond the brush, a towering tree shimmered with rainbow-colored leaves, its trunk radiating waves of pure spiritual essence unlike anything Torou had ever seen. When they finally climbed the tree and plucked its fruit, one of the warriors froze.

"Seeker Peak Stage..." The others immediately gathered around him. They had already considered the forest's resources astonishing. The best fruits they'd found before this were already valuable enough to make the journey worthwhile. But this was something else entirely. A few warriors exchanged excited looks before quickly beginning to harvest the fruit. Torou stared at the tree for another moment. If the forest could produce resources of this quality so casually, then what else was waiting deeper inside?

As they continued deeper, the discoveries became even more frequent. Those first few discoveries were done cautiously.

"Check the tree."

"Check the fruit."

"Make sure of your surroundings." Every new discovery went through the same process. But by the time they reached their tenth tree, someone decided not to wait for the order.

"Another one." A warrior marched forward proudly. Torou's jaw tightened.

"We should make sure about it?" The warrior turned back.

"It is another spirit tree."

"You don't know that."

"We have found twenty." He picked up the fruit.

"Twenty-one." Torou looked at him. None of them tried to stop him. That was what tormented Torou. Not the fruit. Not even lack of precaution. It was their confidence that this land was already explored. And the more they explored it, the more this confidence grew. Each precious tree made the next find not so unexpected. Each dead wolf made the next confrontation less frightening. Each safe return made them less hesitant to go further. This world seemed to be rewarding their confidence. Maybe too much.

Every time they pushed farther, another valuable tree appeared. Eventually, finding one was no longer surprising. Finding one worth taking was expected. And the more they found, the farther they were willing to go. After a few hours of walking, they'd put real distance behind them and still felt confident they could find their way back. Within their squad, there were specialists possessing the Mind and Space attribute, a combination considered indispensable for reconnaissance.

The Mind attribute users continuously memorized the unique patterns of spiritual essence along their route, while the Space attribute users recorded the relative positions of landmarks and the subtle structure of the surrounding space. Together, they left behind an invisible trail that only they could accurately retrace. As long as the spiritual essence remained stable, finding their way back was almost effortless. Jepo stopped briefly and looked behind them.

"How far?" One of the Mind attribute warriors closed his eyes.

"Still clear. I can follow the fluctuations we've passed through." A Space attribute warrior raised his hand, feeling the space around them.

"Our position matches. We haven't drifted." Jepo nodded.

"Then we keep going." The squad continued deeper into the forest. The Mind users simply followed the familiar fluctuations they had committed to memory, while the Space users confirmed that the surrounding terrain still matched their mental map. Only areas where multiple currents of spiritual essence overlapped posed a real threat. There, countless fluctuations collided and shifted without pattern, erasing every recognizable signature while subtly distorting the surrounding space.

The trail they had left behind dissolved into chaos, rendering even the most experienced trackers unable to distinguish one direction from another. In such places, they could rely only on ordinary senses and physical landmarks, making it dangerously easy to lose their way. Fortunately, those chaotic regions were uncommon. As long as they avoided them, their team could explore the Spiritual Realm with confidence, knowing they could always retrace their steps. That confidence slowly changed the way they explored.

At first, they had only searched the areas close to their route. Now they were willing to venture farther. There was little reason not to. The deeper they went, the more valuable the realm seemed to become.... Miles away, Dendron watched the sacks fill past counting and felt something with no clean name. Call it hunger, if hunger could sit still.

Every fruit vanishing into someone else's bag was fruit he'd never taste growing on a branch he'd never see, in a forest that existed only because he'd been strong enough to make a door appear he'd never get to walk through. He told himself it was just resource math. It wasn't. The lie was just easier to hold than the truth.... After twenty-four hours, the mood surrounding the realm had changed. They had entered cautiously, expecting every step to carry some hidden danger.

Instead, the forest had rewarded them at every turn. They had lost warriors before, but compared to the resources they had gathered, the danger now seemed manageable. Perhaps too manageable. After twenty-four hours, the elders of the two tribes began to gather at the center for discussion. Roc then offered, "Since you guys are here, let's discuss business shall we?" They all sat down.

"So, what do you say? Are you ready to explore that castle now?" Seri's smile widened as he glanced toward the distant fortress.

"We've already gathered more resources than we expected. This place is far more abundant than we imagined, and the danger has been manageable." His eyes lingered on the castle.

"If the forest alone has this much..." He didn't finish the thought. He didn't need to.

"Yes. Since this place is so abundant in resources, Geldo and I decided to accept your proposal to explore the castle," Roc said confidently. Seri crossed his arms.

"And then there is one last thing to talk about. The distribution of spoils." Roc took a moment to think.

"How about Fifty-fifty. It was for fairness." Seri then looked at Saro, who had been listening quietly, waiting for his response. Saro simply nodded in agreement.

"We are strong enough to take a bigger share you know." Seri said to Saro. Geldo overheard it and respond, "You are, but we have the numbers." Saro finally talked.

"And you had first rights to everything." Roc looked at him.

"Your warriors discovered the door first," continued Saro.

"Your people made the camp, and your reconnaissance unit went through the door while we were still in the process of arriving." He glanced briefly at the castle.

"And you lost your warriors doing it."

"So you agree to fifty percent?" asked Roc, his tone softer.

"Yes," said Saro. Seri looked at him.

"Even though we would be able to argue and make them give us a bigger share?" The look on Saro's face did not change.

"We could," he said, looking at the Orcs standing close by.

"But power cannot be an excuse for taking everything you want." Roc smiled slightly.

"That's actually quite a reasonable thing to say."

"Don't misunderstand." Saro's smile vanished.

"If you tried to deceive us, we would take our share by force." Roc smiled.

"Here it is." Geldo shook his head.

"I wondered how long it would take for the Black Ape to show its teeth." Saro laughed.

"It's much simpler to reach an understanding peacefully," he said, looking towards the castle.

"But it is an equal agreement nonetheless." Roc nodded.

"Fifty-fifty, then."

"Fifty-fifty." Beyond them, the ancient castle remained buried beneath the mist. It had been waiting there since they first arrived. None of them knew what waited inside. But after seeing what the forest could offer, curiosity was no longer the only thing drawing them toward it.

"It's decided then. Let's prepare for the exploration. May the heavens watch over us," Seri said. They then stood up and began preparing. It was time for the warriors to collect their weapons. There was no celebration. There were no jokes. The atmosphere had shifted. The forest was kind. The castle was not. A young orc looked toward the castle and gulped.

"Do you think there's anything valuable inside?" An older warrior adjusted his strap.

"Sure."

"How do you know?" The older warrior looked at the castle.

"Because something like that couldn't guard anything worthless." The young orc laughed nervously.

"That didn't make me feel any better."

"It wasn't supposed to." Meanwhile, Roc checked his weapon one last time. There was Geldo standing next to him.

"Still want to do it?" Roc looked at the castle.

"No." Geldo raised his eyebrow.

"Then why are you going?" Roc smiled slightly.

"Because I won't let something that scares me dictate where I can go." Geldo sighed.

"You really are an idiot."

"And you are still following me."

"Unfortunately." Roc laughed. Then both of them turned to the castle.