Spending My Retirement In A Game

Chapter 921 The Dark Forest

Eisen walked out of the cave with a slightly annoyed expression. Dealing with that dragon was more than just annoying. Not because it was powerful in any way, of course. The black dragon itself just annoyed Eisen with the words that it used and the choices that it made. He knew that the chromatic dragons he would meet on his journey of becoming a champion for their side were going to be particularly evil, but he didn't expect something like this.

As far as Eisen knew, in order to make sure that the people siding with one side of the draconic war would be more likely to stick to that side, instead of flip-flopping between them, the dragons that were given the ability to choose a champion in this war were all toward either one end of the spectrum of good and evil. This way, it was also easier to sway public opinion. The metallic dragons would be seen as good to the core, while the chromatic dragons would be bad to the core. That would make the 'story' being told a lot more straightforward.

Either way, as the old man left the cave, he was left with that sour feeling in his mouth that he got whenever didn't quite sit right with him. In the first place, who was the one that cursed this black dragon? Something as sinister as this cursed energy can't come from the side proclaiming themselves as 'good'. At least, Eisen knew that it didn't come from his his son, Trygan. The crystal dragon king was someone that the old man had complete trust in. Sure, apparently he had made some choices that Eisen wasn't particularly happy with, but Eisen knew that Trygan wouldn't resort to anything that he found unjust, and something like cursed energy basically embodied injustice, at least that's what Eisen felt to be the case.

"Eisen! You're okay, what happened in there? We noticed all the cursed energy, and then the ground started shaking, and..." Bree had jumped off the carriage, clearly still extremely worried about the old man, but Eisen just shook his head while trying to calm down the half-fae girl and the kids.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. The dragon was weak, so I was able to slay it quite easily," Eisen explained, "I also heard where a dungeon is here in the forest, so let's head over there and check it out at least. From how it spoke, the dragon seemed rather apprehensive to speak about it, so I feel like there's something down there."

Bree quickly nodded her head, clearly extremely relieved that Eisen was doing well, scrambling through her backpack to take out her map of the forest, "Great! Where did it say it was?"

Eisen took a quick look at the map, "It said in the center of the forest, underneath a massive dead tree that acts as the entrance."

"Alright, so, apparently the monsters in the forest get stronger the deeper you go inside, so if it's in the center, it would make sense if the dungeon is a particularly large one," Bree explained, looking at the map and taking a few notes. She was quickly marking down a few different territorries based on the information she had gathered in town, as well as on what she saw while they were travelling here, "I would guess that it's around... here?" she explained, putting a small marker onto a part of the map.

He tried to push through the roof of the forest to fly toward the center, but the whole area above the trees was covered in a thick fog. And whenever he entered that fog, Eisen would get turned around and end up in a completely different place, so that wasn't an option either. After finding the carriage again, though it took quite a while, Eisen sat down and tried to think.

And that was when Sky came to him. He had borrowed some local storybooks from the town and had finished looking through them, "Eisen, I think I found something."

"Have you? Is it about the forest's distortion?"

Sky quickly nodded, a broad grin on his face, "Uhum. Basically, there's some kind of myth about the forest, and how some people found their way through. It looks like there might be some kind of pattern to it."

"Hm..." Eisen ran his fingers through his beard, "Interesting. So if it's not just about turning away anyone that comes, there's we can figure out how the magic works and find our way through... That, or..."

The old man smiled lightly. It would take a little while, but he could spare a few hours.

"Fafnir, come on, open the door. I need to work, so we're setting up camp here. I've got an item to make."

Though the others were curious about what Eisen was planning, the old man just said to wait it out. Fafnir opened the door to his dungeon, and everyone went inside. Eisen even parked the carriage inside, and then closed the door, locking it behind him. And then, he would make something to lead them through the forest.