Chapter Fifty-Five By the Brook

  I've been on the run in this forest for a month now, and before I arrived at the meeting point, Evan had already left, but he still kept his promise and left me my share - a silver-white ring. This ring looks very ordinary, but on nights with moonlight, it absorbs the energy of the moonlight. However, the tragedy is that I don't know how to activate its legendary ability. After studying for a long time without any results, I can only dejectedly put it away in my storage ring.

  The top priority now is not to study how to activate the ring's power, but to escape the pursuit of the dark elves. Those dark elves are the rulers of the forest, no matter how I flee, they can always track me down, they are like ticks on my heel, pursuing relentlessly, and several times they almost caught up with me.

  The most dangerous time was when I was intercepted by the trackers who arrived earlier, fortunately they did not expect that in addition to being a poor archer, I was also an entry-level magician with intermediate strength, my magic once again saved me, helping me eliminate those dark elves who were tracking me and earning me time to escape.

  In this vast forest, I've completely lost my way. My only goal now is to escape, keep escaping until I find a way out and shake off those damned spirits' pursuit.

  I walked to a small stream, the water was clear and transparent, several small fish were swimming leisurely in the stream, countless unknown flowers were quietly blooming on both sides of the stream, surrounded by a peaceful and quiet atmosphere. For a moment, I almost forgot that I was an escapee, lingering in this peaceful forest, even thinking about when I could build a small thatched hut here and live a peaceful life with my loved one.

  A distant roar of a wild beast whose name I do not know pulled me out of my reverie. I walked to the edge of the brook, bent down and splashed the cool water on my face with both hands. The water was icy cold, so I simply lay down on the ground and submerged my entire face in the creek. A refreshing feeling of coolness instantly opened up all the pores on my body. Ah, what a relief!

  I stripped myself naked and jumped into the creek, washing myself thoroughly. It's been a long time since I've felt so exhilarated. Those dark spirits chasing me were left far behind, they'll need some time to catch up with me again. My traps had given them a hard time, my magic also made them dare not to chase too closely. Now although they're still tracking me, I'm sure in their hearts they just want to go through the motions and complete their task.

  I am soaking in the creek water, enjoying this rare leisure.

  I closed my eyes, let go of my feelings, and I heard the birds on the trees chirping, heard the beasts in the distant forest growling, even I could hear the sound of fish swimming in the water...

  Wait, I seem to have heard something moving slightly behind the trees not far ahead. This endless escape has made my nerves a bit sensitive, and I get tense at every rustling sound. I shouted loudly in the direction of the tree: "Who is it? Come out!" At the same time, my eyes darted around, looking for an escape route.

  Behind the tree, a small deer's lovely head popped out, and the deer gazed at me with a pair of curious eyes, seemingly not afraid of me at all.

  I thought it was a deer, let out a sigh of relief, and just as I was about to get back on shore, I suddenly saw another head poking out from behind the deer's, with pointed ears, green long hair, fair skin, and a pair of bright but slightly frightened eyes.

  It's an elf! And it's a female one...

  My nerves tensed up again, I looked at the sprite while my body slowly moved towards my clothes in the water. As I walked, I asked in not-so-fluent sprite language: "Are you here to kill me? Just you alone? Where are your companions? Call them all out."

  That spirit saw me and spoke in the language of spirits, seemingly very curious. She came out from behind a tree, walked to the water's edge, squatted down, stared into my eyes and asked: "Are you human? How can you speak our language? It has been a long time since humans have come here. Generally, humans only appear in our main city of Shilia."

  When I heard the fairy girl mention Xiliaite, I knew that I had entered the realm of another fairy kingdom, Dalsus. So, I was saved! This is really great news. Then, the fairy girl in front of me shouldn't be here to kill me, and my heart felt a huge relief.

  I said to the girl, "So you're a spirit of the Kingdom of Dalsus? Nice to meet you, my name is Alik Solrens. I got lost in this mountain and am worried about how to get out. Can you sell me some dry rations and help guide me out of this forest?"

  The girl laughed at my words, her two eyes curved into crescent moons, and her pointed ears quivered with joy: "If you want to get out of this forest, I heard that it's impossible in less than ten days. I've never been out before, I don't know the way, so I'll take you to see my grandfather instead. He's the wisest elder in our village, he must be able to help guide you."

  When I heard his words, I nodded happily and was about to stand up when I suddenly discovered something extremely embarrassing - I wasn't wearing any clothes! The most tragic thing isn't that, the most tragic thing is that I only just realized now that the creek water is so transparent, I almost spoke with this elf girl for half a day stark naked!

  I awkwardly covered a certain part of myself and looked at the water surface to say to the girl: "Uh, could you please turn around for a moment, I need to put on my clothes..."

  I saw from the reflection on the water's surface that the elf girl looked down at me, then let out a loud "ah" and covered her face with her hand, quickly turning around. It turned out she hadn't noticed I wasn't wearing clothes either...

  I scrambled up the bank at my fastest speed in life, hastily putting on my clothes and pants. But heaven knows what was wrong, the more I hurried, the less I could put them on, and as a result, it took me half a day to get myself all tidy from head to foot. I let out a long sigh and said to the girl: "Alright, you can turn around now."

  The girl finally put down her hand covering her face, turned around, and I saw her staring at me with a bright red face. Just as I was about to say something to comfort her, the little spirit girl suddenly opened her cute mouth in surprise, stared wide-eyed, and pointed behind me.

  A chill ran up my back, I stopped all movement and stood still, I clearly heard the sound of a bowstring, that voice was very familiar to me, I myself was an archer, it was the precursor to the arrow flying!

  I didn't have time to think, I hugged the elf girl and fell to the left, but my movements were still slower than the arrow. My right back felt like it was hit by something, a huge force pushed me forward, I only felt a numbness on my right chest, and then I saw the arrowhead coming out from there.

  I only managed to say: "Just a little bit more and I could have escaped... Never mind, what's the point of taking a bath..." The intense pain from breathing made me pass out...