Chapter 21: Spores Under the Moonlight, Wolves in the Mist

Lucoco’s plan was very simple.

Locate Ino, create some noise elsewhere to draw away those flies, and then take Ino away while she had the chance.

The chanting time for **[Warp]** was still quite long.

The last time she had transported Ian and Lino, it took nearly one minute.

The disturbance it caused was so great that even **[Perception Masking]** had almost failed to hide it.

Perhaps due to a bit of PTSD, Lucoco always felt a hint of discomfort in her legs.

Her idea was good, but the suffix displayed behind **[Warp]**—**[Area belongs to the Unified Magic: Teleportation Shield Barrier; temporarily unavailable]**—slapped her right in the face.

The elites of the Demon King’s army, who were frequently slaughtered, knew that this kind of barrier was dirty, but very effective.

Many powerful magic beasts were ground to death simply because they could not use teleportation magic to escape.

A certain Demon King whose teleportation magic was currently sealed let out a fierce, childish howl: “You old fogies from the Church! You just wait—!”

After finding a lake that led to an underground river, the Demon King fell into a deep sleep…

—

Among the streams and riverbeds, a thin mist quietly rose, gradually permeating the entire forest.

Under the moonlight, everything became somewhat hazy…

“Phew—I’m exhausted—my legs are about to break! Du Lin—.”

Su Yue panted heavily, leaning against an old tree and rubbing her sore calves.

“Didn’t you want to take this? You kept shouting that this was definitely going to be an easy quest!”

Du Lin, annoyed, lightly nudged the back of Su Yue’s knee with her own.

“Hey! Don’t nudge me—”

Su Yue nearly lost her balance and fell to her knees.

“Then let me ask you, an eleven-year-old girl who just awakened her Sigil. She’s been pursued by nearly 1,000 people, and yet they haven’t found her for days! Would anyone believe that if you told them!”

Du Lin snapped a blade of grass and bit it, looking lazy.

“That’s why—let’s work harder to help out. Maybe we’ll be written into a story… She’s a **[Saintess Candidate]**, after all, and…”

Du Lin seemed to want to say more, but her train of thought was interrupted by a figure darting through the mist.

Su Yue’s body shook, and she straightened her back instantly.

“Don’t stop halfway! And what? Do you want to suffocate me? Tell me, tell me! I have OCD!”

She grabbed Du Lin’s shoulders and shook them.

“Stop shaking me—stop shaking me—”

Du Lin felt dizzy from the shaking.

She swatted Su Yue’s hands away, her gaze locked firmly ahead.

“Tell me! And what?”

Su Yue hopped in front of her, waving her hands incessantly.

With her vision obstructed, Du Lin pressed down on Su Yue’s head and dragged her to her side.

“Let me ask you, is there a magic beast called a **[Moon Wolf]** in the Echo Ridge Bestiary?”

“Huh? Why ask that all of a sudden?”

Su Yue escaped the grip, looking confused.

“A wolf just darted past,” Du Lin pointed into the distance.

“A Moon Wolf is just a Moon Wolf—.”

Su Yue waved it off and kicked a stone at her feet.

“No one has been to this dump in years! That bestiary is hundreds of years old. Hurry up! And what?”

“Um… and… sorry, I forgot the rest.”

“You! You did that on purpose, didn’t you!”

Su Yue jumped up and down, making a move to hit Du Lin’s head.

Du Lin dodged the sneak attack nimbly and looked up at the sky.

“Su Yue, do you know the characteristics of a Moon Wolf?”

Su Yue flopped down on a rock, looking at the galaxy in the sky.

“What characteristics? I don’t know, and I can’t walk anymore. I need to rest for a bit…”

—

The base mechanics of the game meant that no NPC would be surprised by a treasure chest popping up.

After all, sometimes people would wake up and find a newly spawned chest in the corner of their own house.

What Lucoco wanted to do was very simple: let certain individuals within the range of **[Domain of Grace]** use their greedy imaginations!

Didn’t they want to find Ino?

Then she would let them use their imaginations freely—!

For example, what if they mistook a fleeing rabbit, a lurking magic beast, or even a Mimic for an unconscious Ino?

As for the real Ino, the Moon Wolf…

She was currently moving along the correct path under Lucoco’s guidance.

Moments earlier…

“Who are you…”

The girl, struggling against the beastification of her body as her consciousness grew hazy, looked at the mud clump that had suddenly emerged from the sludge.

After days of fleeing, her will was on the verge of collapse.

She didn’t even have the energy to wonder if the thing before her was a hallucination.

The scales of good and evil in the girl’s heart had already tipped to an irredeemable point.

Compared to those chasing her, she felt that even a worm in the mud was more reliable.

“When the moon is full, a star is missing in the west. The path in the east is always full of wild chrysanthemums.”

The mud clump whispered, as if telling a fairy tale to a child.

This was what Luccia had told Lucoco.

She said that if she spoke like this, Ino would definitely believe her.

The effect of **[Demon King Engine]** activated, suppressing the beastified girl’s hostility.

“A star is missing… wild chrysanthemums… in the west…”

The girl’s consciousness suddenly cleared. She stared at the mud clump in disbelief.

“You… you know my father and mother! Are you here to help me?”

“Ino, time is running out. Do not resist the moonlight. Imagine that time, under the moonlight, when your father ran while carrying you on his back. Head toward the stars… I will wait for you at the lakeside where the wild chrysanthemums bloom.”

“I… I understand…”

The girl looked up at the full moon in the sky, and her consciousness gradually sank.

But she remembered: toward the stars to the west, all the way west, to the lakeside with wild chrysanthemums.

Someone was waiting for her there.

As for a “randomly fleeing” wolf demon with no fighting spirit, those searching in the wrong directions for “treasure” wouldn’t care at all.

All they would see was a demonic wolf, nothing else.

During this time, Lucoco was sensing the locations of Ino and her sleeping main body while watching the two idiots to pass the time.

The two were currently arguing about whether a chest was real or not.

“I’m saying… are we still chasing it?”

Su Yue panted with her hands on her hips, kicking the rear of Du Lin, who was squatting by a bush.

Du Lin remained unmoved, staring at the plain, honest treasure chest inside the bush.

“Wait a second. I bet! This one is definitely real!”

Her eyes were gleaming.

“No, it’s not.”

Su Yue had a cynical look on her face.

She pointed at the slightly open lid of the chest and said irritably, “Look, look! The tentacles for catching people are sticking out… See—? They retracted again. That’s a Mimic, okay?”

Du Lin bit her finger, frowning deeply.

“But what if? I mean, what if there’s just a big octopus living inside? And there’s actually golden equipment in there!”

Her heart refused to give up, and her eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Lucoco just watched quietly…

While amusing herself with these two fools, she also replenished the chests they had opened along the way.

She had seen these two female players before: a Level 14 Warrior and a Level 16 Mage.

She remembered the Mage player quite clearly.

As for the Warrior, she remembered her being Level 15 back then?

Currently, the two were not in good shape.

Not only were their health bars half empty, but the Mage’s robe was also tattered to the point of being revealing.

The Warrior’s leather armor was also in a “missing pieces” state.

Clearly, their durability was almost exhausted.

“Du Lin—this is obviously a fake chest. Let’s go!”

“No… I think it’s real!”

“How many chests have you opened along the way? Which one was real?”

“Oh, right… Come to think of it, along the way, all the ones you opened were real…!”

Du Lin whipped her head around and stared at Su Yue.

“How about… you—”

“I’m not going!”

Su Yue glared at her and pointed at the chest.

“Such an obvious trap! Don’t tell me you didn’t see it.”

The chest lid moved slightly…

“But what if…”

Du Lin still refused to give up.

“Tsk.”

Su Yue reached out, grabbed her arm, and dragged her away.

“If we don’t leave now, we’re really going to lose the trail!”

“Alright, alright, I get it—”

Du Lin struggled, trying to break free from Su Yue’s grip.

She turned back to look at the chest and shouted, “Don’t pull me—let me open it one more time! Just one last time!”

After a lot of pulling and tugging, no consensus was reached.

“Humph—! Go ahead then!”

Su Yue gave up.

She let go angrily and snorted with her arms crossed.

“I’m not saving you this time! If your equipment durability hits zero, just wait to be violated by the Mimic! I will definitely—definitely watch closely!”

Du Lin didn’t listen at all.

Her eyes shone as she shouted, “Big treasure—here I come—!”

She lunged at the chest without hesitation, not even casting a single defensive spell on herself.

“I’m really fed up with you!”

Seeing this, Su Yue still raised her sword and followed.

“I’m opening it—!”

Du Lin pulled hard with both hands.

Su Yue’s sword light flashed down: *Squelch—*

The poor big octopus was sliced to death in its own home.

Beneath the chest, a bracelet lay quietly.

“Su Yue! Su Yue! Golden! It’s golden!”

Du Lin excitedly snatched up the bracelet.

She looked at it repeatedly under the moonlight, grinning from ear to ear.

“Hahaha—I told you! It was just an octopus hiding inside!”

Looking at Du Lin’s face, Su Yue didn’t know how to describe her current mood.

In short, she really wanted to hang the person in front of her up and give her a good spanking!

Was it a blind cat finding a dead rat?

Or had some pity mechanic been triggered?

Either way, she had guessed right for once.

Lucoco, the projection of the Demon King hanging from the tree, was equally amazed.

Her eyes widened into circles.

‘Good grief, is this girl unlucky or lucky?’

That didn’t matter.

What mattered was that she had to stop these two from advancing further.