Marvin abruptly turned around, but the space behind him was empty.
That strange voice seemed to have come out of nowhere.
"Who is it?" he asked in a loud voice with both his hands on his curved daggers, on guard.
His Perception didn't notice anyone when that voice echoed.
Only silence followed.
That voice from before didn't speak again.
Marvin carefully inspected his logs and found no skill check against an illusion or anything else like that.
That voice had a purpose, but it was strange.
Marvin coldly snorted and ignored it as he entered the forest.
He wasn't spineless enough to be scared away by a sentence.
The forest was very dark.
Compared to Thousand Leaves Forest, the Lumber Woods' trees seemed taller.
But unlike the vibrant and lush Elven forest which felt full of vitality, the Lumber Woods' tall trees seemed to be deformed.
The layers of bark seemed like elderly faces, strange and indifferent, making anyone that looked at them extremely uneasy.
Who knew how the lumberjacks could work in that kind of environment?
Marvin didn't know too much about this forest. As a matter of fact, the Lumber Woods were considered as dangerous as the wilderness by many forces' intelligence groups. It was even a grade higher than the Dead Area.
Therefore, he was very cautious and kept following the river after entering.
On both sides of the river, there were many abandoned logging sites. This part was the place where the lumberjacks kept working, after all, so it couldn't be too dangerous.
Otherwise, those weak humans wouldn't be able to survive there.
What annoyed Marvin was that this forest was extremely vast, and the trail ended at its entrance. Tracking Butterfly would be really difficult.
He followed the river and met some random humans. They had lost their minds to the Chaos Magic Power.
Marvin wasn't lenient.
This world was cruel. If they couldn't resist, they would turn into Monsters and keep wandering the land, bringing more harm to other lifeforms.
Marvin hurried and eventually found a strange comb in the lumbered clearing.
'An Elven comb.'
The comb was in between the logging sites and the river, very conspicuously resting on a stone.
It was clearly a signal left behind by Butterfly.
Perhaps she ran out of breadfruit and could only use another way to leave a trail.
'She knew I would follow the river…'
'She left breadfruit and a comb. This proves that she was still clear-headed when she did this.'
'What is she doing in the end?'
But regardless, since he got something of hers, he could keep tracking her down.
He unhesitantly used Night Tracking.
Just as expected, that thin red line appeared in his field of vision and pointed toward the depths of the forest.
Marvin had no choice but to leave the river and head deeper into the Lumber Woods.
From the details of Night Tracking, Butterfly shouldn't be too far away.
What was she doing?
The answer would soon be revealed.
But just as Marvin prepared to go forward, that voice echoed once again. "If I were you, I wouldn't be misled by others."
"This forest is a dead place, no one knows how many lumberjacks died here."
"The Alliance only sees this place as a goldmine and doesn't care how many people they sacrifice. Trust me, if you go in, you'll die."
Marvin quickly looked around again.
But no one was there!
"Who are you?" Marvin asked with a heavy voice.
On the surface, he looked calm, but he had already activated [Earth Perception]!
The next second, every sentient lifeform that was nearby appeared in Marvin's mind.
He could feel the salmon moving in the river, the crabs running amuck on the riverbank… As well as a repulsive tree!
He instantly understood.
Even if that voice didn't echo again, Marvin had already locked onto the other side!
It was the extremely ugly tree!
"I thought it was something else…" Marvin sneered, "Turns out it's a [Whispering Treant]."
The other side remained silent.
But it didn't matter anymore. Marvin had found the origin of the voice and naturally wouldn't be disturbed by it.
In fact, a Whispering Treant wasn't a nature-type creature. It was said Evil Dragon Tidomas, now the 2nd Overlord of the Negative Energy Plane, used spells and curses to create these kinds of Treants.
Whispering Treants had no fighting ability and could only frighten people.
They were very rare in Feinan, so he hadn't expected to see several of them in the Lumber Woods.
The rumors about Devils must have come into being because of these Treants.
Marvin was a Ruler of the Night, so the Treants naturally couldn't do anything against him, but they still tried to threaten him.
This was due to their instinct.
But thinking about it, regardless of who it was that planted these Whispering Treants, it meant that this forest had a huge secret.
Hidden secrets.
Marvin's curiosity was roused.
He ignored the Treant and rushed deeper into the forest.
The dark forest might feel really unpleasant to others.
But a Ruler of the Night and Night Walker would actually feel like a fish in water.
Marvin's speed wasn't affected by the terrain.
After an hour of crazily running, Marvin eventually reached his goal.
'That girl really went far.'
Marvin estimated that he had already reached the deepest parts of the Lumber Woods. This place should be the core of the forest.
Why did Butterfly run here?
Marvin kept going forward while thinking about it.
Not far ahead, he saw a gap between some bushes.
Marvin softly walked over.
After moving a branch aside, he caught a glimpse of some ruins.
He suddenly froze.
There was an ancient inscription at the edge of the ruins.
Ancient and strange runes appeared before Marvin's eyes.
In the middle of the rubble, there was an altar that had partially fallen apart, presumably due to the passage of time.
'This is…'
'This is a temple!'
Marvin suddenly felt as if he couldn't utter a word.
Lumber Woods, Chromatic Dragons, a temple amidst ruins...
These things all felt familiar.
'Is it really the [Dragon God's Wrath]?'
He thought to himself, 'Then, the ruins are not only the temple of the Chromatic Dragon God, but also the place where his corpse is buried…'
Suddenly, a hand grasped his shoulder!