Helfas was lost in the jungle again.
He had a map open in his hand, but he couldn't see the sky and it was hard to tell the direction. There were trees everywhere as far as he could see, as if all places were the same.
"The next place is a river."
He marked it along the way and turned around several times in the stupidest way before finding the right direction.
The sound of the rushing river appeared in his ears, and he quickened his pace.
Following the cracks between the giant trees, the long shadows of the trees passed by him, and he finally saw a white light appearing in the cracks between the trees.
While running, he took one step forward.
I saw dense spots of light surging on the clear river water.
After washing his face, he checked the map again: "This is it."
Next he drew a dot on it: "I am roughly at this position now."
According to the map, this place is already very deep into the Full Moon Forest.
However, the next problem arises. The river is very fast. How can we get across it?
He walked down the river looking for possible relatively gentle stretches to see if there was any chance of crossing.
"Clatter!"
No other sounds were heard along the way, only the river was surging. But the river was very wide, and Helfas searched for a long time but could not find a place to cross the river.
The sky slowly darkened. At this time, it was the movement in the woods in the distance that attracted him.
"bright?"
Helfas became more cautious. He looked around for a long time before slowly approaching the light source.
But as we got closer, the weak firefly went out.
"It's out?"
Helfas immediately prepared to retreat, but at this moment he heard the voice coming from the jungle again.
"Hmph...hum hum..."
It was obviously a human voice, humming some kind of melody.
Melodious and sweet, accompanied by the tranquility of the night forest.
Helfas followed the sound and approached, and then saw a figure under a tree.
He is very strange.
This is already the deepest part of the jungle in the Land of the Full Moon, and weird things appear frequently. Ordinary dragon people will not come to such a dangerous place, nor can they come here.
It was a young man who sounded and looked about the same age as Helfas.
He put his hands behind his head and sat leisurely on the tree with his eyes closed, biting a branch and leaf in his mouth, and humming a rhythmic tune through his nose.
It seemed as if we were not in a full-moon forest full of strange beasts, but in the shade of a tree beside a field in the afternoon.
Helfas, who was wearing a sealed object mask, wished he could keep his eyes open when sleeping in such a ghost place. Any slightest movement would wake him up. He didn't understand where the other party's confidence came from.
As if feeling Helfas' approach, the person under the tree opened his eyes.
Under the moon.
In the jungle by the river, two strangers looked at each other, one standing and the other sitting.
The other party spoke first: "So it's a human!"
He was biting something in his mouth and his speech was a little slurred. He seemed a little disappointed when he saw that it was Helfas.
Helfas asked him: "Who are you?"
He calmly took off the branch from his mouth and said to Helfas: "I am a person who wants to worship the gods. There is a temple in the Full Moon Forest. You should have heard of it!"
Helfas looked at the clothes on the other person's body. The pattern and texture seemed familiar to him.
"Are you from the Zhi tribe?"
The other party nodded without retorting.
After confirming that the other party was not something strange, Helfas got closer. However, the other party should have set off at least one month earlier than him. Why did he end up here now?
He didn't ask, but asked a key question.
"How are you going to cross the river? By the way, I also want to go to that temple, so I should go with you."
The other person pointed to the river and said, "I have a wooden raft."
Helfas was pleasantly surprised: "In this case, there will be no problem in crossing the river. Can I borrow your raft by the way?"
The other party said it didn't matter: "If you are willing to sit down, come up tomorrow morning!"
Helfas thanked him for his generosity and had to say that the other party had solved a big problem for him.
Helfas found a place to sit down next to the young man, preparing to eat something and take a rest.
At this time, the young man was playing with a stick stuck in the ground. He seemed to reach out and pat something, and finally turned his eyes to Helfas.
"Hello!"
"The mask on your face is a weird one. Is there a way for it to contain its um...smell?"
"You can understand the taste, right?"
He gestured.
Helfas understood what the other person was talking about. To be precise, it should be called breath.
He looked at the young man, and the other man actually knew that weird people would emit a special aura, and they could feel each other if they were too close.
Helfas immediately restrained the aura emanating from the mask. He usually let the aura of the mask cover his own aura, disguising himself as weird.
And as Helfas moved, the stick in front of the young man lit up.
Only then did he see what it was, and he also understood where the light he had seen before came from.
It was a long wooden pole with the skin peeled off. There was a cloth bag hanging from one end of the wooden pole, and something was shining inside the bag.
If you look closely, it looks like a glowing bug.
Helfas immediately said: "Weird?"
The young man did not deny it and even introduced it to Helfas.
"I call him a coward."
"When there is no danger, it will emit bright light. At this time, it is safe and can also be used as a lantern."
"And once there is something dangerous and weird around, it will immediately weaken its own light. As the other party gets closer, it will even actively extinguish its own light, for fear that the other party will discover it."
He moved closer to the light source, letting the light illuminate his face, while looking at Helfas.
Only then did Helfas get a clear look at the other person's face. He looked very thin and his face looked very young. He didn't know if his face was sunken because he had been hungry for a long time.
However, he seemed to be in good spirits as he spoke, and had a sense of leisure and contentment.
He said to Helfas.
"You haven't seen it before!"
"There are actually such guys who are greedy for life and afraid of death among the weird ones. It feels like we are afraid of those scary, powerful and unknown guys."
Helfas nodded.
It is indeed a very weak monster, but this ability is extremely powerful for humans. This is something that can save lives in the weird world.
Helfas could also feel some weird auras through the mask, but that was only close to face to face, and this kind of weirdness was obviously a large-scale induction.
He finally understood what it was like to be able to reach such a deep place in the Full Moon Forest.
But since it is weird, it must have a dangerous side.
Helfas asked: "Isn't it dangerous?"
The other party said: "It must not come into contact with the body."
As for why it couldn't come into contact with the corpse, and what would happen if it touched the corpse, the other party didn't elaborate.
The next morning, the two people set out.
They worked together to lift a raft to the river beach, and then pushed it into the water little by little. Helfas was behind and climbed onto the raft while dripping water.
Suddenly, the other party urged Helfas.
"Pull harder!"
"Hurry up, there's no time."
The two people slid hard to the opposite bank. The raft was driven downward by the current, and finally landed at a location diagonally opposite.
The young man abandoned the raft and ran to the shore, urging Helfas to quickly enter the forest.
"Come in quickly."
Helfas also ran in, and just as he entered the forest, there was a loud noise from behind.
"boom!"
Helfas looked back and suddenly saw a thick whip-like tentacle stretching out from under the water, tearing open the entire river.
It flapped and waved wildly on the surface of the water, splashing layers of water.
The tentacles grazed the raft, and the raft immediately fell apart.
As Helfas stared, a young man's voice came from behind him: "Shock me!"
Helfas looked back at the young man's surprisingly calm face. They were only one step away from being torn apart, but the other party's voice did not even change.
"You know there's something under the water here?"
But as soon as the words came out, Helfas understood how the other party knew.
The other party must have been observing his cloth lantern, felt its changes, and discovered that something strange was quietly approaching them.
He asked again: "Aren't you afraid?"
The young man said: "There is no danger here, so what's the use of being afraid?"
Helfas: "Although this is true, fear is an instinct that comes from the deepest part of my heart. Even if you know it, you can't suppress it. Why can you act so calmly?"
The young man said: "Then just think that I am born without knowing what fear is!"
The two men then set off.
On the way to their destination, they passed a pool where the two fetched water.
"There is no problem with the water here. You can fill it with more water. It will be used later."
They passed a swamp, the young man told Helfas.
"There is something scary and strange here. Anyway, don't get close. Stay away from this place."
Helfas saw a forest with fruit hanging on it. The young man climbed on the tree to pick the fruits, and then threw a few down skillfully.
"This kind of food is edible, but it doesn't taste very good."
On the road, the other party was strolling leisurely, as if walking in his own home.
——
at night.
With the help of the special lantern, Helfas opened his scroll and map, and recorded several strange things he saw along the way. Although he didn't know their characteristics, even some of them were worth remembering.
When these bits and pieces finally come together, a strange world will be revealed in front of Helfas.
Next, Helfas made marks on the map, including marks about dangers, water sources and food places, as well as their tracks along the way.
It can be seen that they are getting closer and closer to their destination, but the destination on the map does not have a temple drawn on it, but is painted in black.
Helfas didn't understand what that meant either.
Because the map was originally abstract enough and not accurate enough in many places, Herfas had corrected it many times along the way.
While Helfas was writing and drawing, the young dragon man was standing not far away looking in the direction of their destination.
He knelt on the ground and stared into the distance quietly.
It's like praying.
After Helfas finished his busy work, he looked at the young man who had remained motionless.
Kneeling for so long without moving required a certain amount of willpower. He suddenly felt that the other person might be a very devout believer.
"Why do you go to see God, because you believe in him?"
The other party slowly turned his head when he heard the voice and said to Helfas: "Because everyone says that God is omnipotent and can fulfill any wish of man."
Helfas asked again: "I don't know if God is omnipotent, but why does He want to fulfill any wish of man?"
"His omnipotence is only His business, what does it have to do with mortals?"
The young man said: "Since He is so omnipotent, it doesn't matter if He lends a hand to help us, right?"
Helfas: "If you have a lot of food, suddenly one day many people who have nothing to do with you and don't know you will come to you and talk about you."
"There is so much food anyway, so it doesn't matter if you give me some."
"Will you give it to me then?"
The young man was stunned.
Then he laughed, a little dryly.
"I'll probably close the door and keep them all out!"
The topic suddenly became awkward and the scene became very quiet.
Although Helfas blurted it out, it felt wrong after saying it, as if he had personally exposed other people's dreams and obsessions.
Especially when this road has not come to the end, and everything that is right or wrong has not yet been proven.
So, he said something again.
"What I said may not be correct, because I only look at such things from a mortal's perspective. Maybe the gods' perspective on the problem is completely different from ours."
"We are here discussing what gods are like and what they would do. Perhaps they are like bugs on the ground imagining the world that birds see."
The young man slowly raised his head and asked Helfas the same question.
"Then why do you want to go to the temple?"
"I've heard about you, a man with black hair and black eyes who possesses the special power to fight against weirdness. Haven't you been searching for news about weirdness?"
"Why do you come here and want to see the gods?"
Helfas: "You also know me?"
The other party: "When the merchants from the Golden Tribe came, I heard them talk about you."
Helfas nodded. He had almost forgotten that when the other party set off, the merchant had already visited the Zhi tribe.
Helfas: "I have some questions I want to find answers to. Whether it's a temple or a god, I want to take a look."
Young man: "If you can't find the answer, what will you do?"
Herfas: "I haven't thought about it yet."
"A traveler on the road only knows where the next stop is. If you ask him where he will end up, most people can't see that far."
"Perhaps all we can choose is to keep going and then one day stop."
"Because I'm tired, because I can't walk anymore."
"Or dead."
The young man said: "Aren't you also very calm when talking about death?"
"Listening to your story, you must have faced danger many times, right?"
"After so many experiences, are you still scared?"
Helfas: "Yes, I'm still afraid."
"Because when I'm really facing death and making a choice, no matter how hard I try to muster up the courage, I tell myself that death is nothing to be afraid of. What I want to do is very important."
"But my body tells me I should be afraid."
"It will tell the heart that you should beat bang bang bang. It will make the body tired, painful and desperate. It will use countless forces to overwhelm your will and use all kinds of forces to make you retreat and avoid death."
Helfas sighed.
"What kind of courage does it take and what kind of people have you experienced?"
"Only then can we suppress the body's instincts and transcend the body's instincts to face death and choice?"
His words seemed to have meaning.
The young man said: "Can't it be natural?"
Helfas: "Maybe!"
The young man lay down and got ready for sleep.
And Helfas finally picked up the map and prepared to roll it up.
But when he took the last look, he still said with some doubts.
"Why is this destination a black mess, and there is an abstract sign somewhere else? What does this mean?"
The young man's voice came from the edge of the light emitted by the lantern.
"It is rumored that the temple is at the bottom of a huge deep cave."
"So that's also a symbol. The big piece of black painted by the map painter means the hole."
Helfas turned sideways: "How do you know so clearly that you even know what the person who drew the map thought?"
The young man lying on the ground said: "Because the map in your hand was drawn by me when I set out."
Helfas turned to look at the other party and nodded clearly.
After a while, he said.
"Thank you for the map, and thank you for the raft."
——
It's another full moon night.
This time Helfas did not go to spy on the moon in the sky. He and the young man hid in a cave and looked out carefully.
They saw dense vines spreading from the depths of the earth.
"Swish swish swish~"
Helfas once again saw the terrifying strangeness he saw before on the night of the full moon, but it was far away at the time, but now it seemed to be close at hand.
He could hear the squirming and rubbing sounds of the vines, as if there were countless huge snakes squirming on the ground.
Those "snakes" covered the entire forest in front of them.
Along with the mountains.
Finally, they became entangled and turned into a huge pillar extending towards the sky, reaching towards the moon in the sky.
Helfas couldn't help but take a look, and what caught his eye was the opponent's huge body that was completely incompatible with the structure of a living body. When the opponent moved, the forest in front of him was only the image of it.
Helfas: "This thing is actually here?"
As we get closer to the location of the temple, there are more and more weird things in this area.
The young man's lantern seemed to start warning every time he walked a certain distance. The two of them simply watched the changes in the light and walked around, choosing paths at random.
It's possible that they just took a wrong turn and went straight into the weird belly.
But when they got really close to the location of the temple, all the strange traces disappeared.
It's like this is a weird forbidden place.
Even Helfas' Biphasic Demonic Insect Face and the young man's lantern stopped making any movement and no longer gave any response, but this made the two of them feel at ease.
At least I can move forward boldly without fearing every step I take.
They passed through a huge canyon, walked along the ground where no plants even grew, and finally saw a huge bottomless pit.
The young man stood on the edge of the pit: "The temple is down there."
Helfas carefully looked down, unable to see the bottom at all, only endless darkness.
He asked: "How to get down?"
The young man took out a roll of rope from the package: "Use the rope."
Helfas looked down: "This rope is completely not enough!"
The other party said: "After using the rope, then use tools to climb down."
Helfas: "Climb?"
The young man said: "Are you scared again?"
He looked at the pothole below and told Helfas a way to overcome his fear of heights.
"You just need to imagine that the darkness below is actually soft. When we fall, we actually fall on a soft bed, and then we can have a good sleep."
"That way you won't be afraid."
Helfas was stunned.
Is there any point in this kind of self-comfort? If you fall, you must be asleep and can't sleep.
Not only is the bed soft, but the bed itself is also soft and requires a shovel to shovel it up.
Seeing the young man saying this seriously, it seemed that he was not joking, but really wanted to comfort Helfas and let him have the courage to climb down.
"Rather than being afraid, I want to know, has anyone really succeeded in going down before?" Helfas said.
"Can you still come up alive?"
The young man was noncommittal: "How else would anyone know that there is a temple here?"
Helfas nodded, and then asked again.
"Then has he seen God?"
"In other words, has your wish come true?"
The young man didn't answer again.
Because while Helfas was talking, he had already fixed the rope and started climbing directly down.
Helfas watched the other person go down, and grabbed the rope together, and the two of them went down the rope together.
The darkness engulfed the two of them little by little, and they didn't speak, only the sound of breathing.
There is a bottomless abyss beneath your feet.
Any mistake would result in a broken body. (End of chapter)
