Even if they suddenly decided not to come, Nefertari would not blame them. As the Wise, she naturally knew that “kindness should not be returned with enmity”.
The highest priority was to help those three young people, stopping them from meaninglessly eroding their souls in the nightmare.
“I really don’t know what happened in the ‘Sporeggar Mill Nightmare’. Just like you don’t have any clues either.” After all, this nightmare was too dangerous.
Once inside, it was hard to get out — like a larva caught in a spider’s web.
Those who barely survived this nightmare never dared to have a second attempt.
The Wise would never act recklessly.
When she realized that this nightmare could not be purified with her strength, she would not even attempt. It was a pointless act that put her in danger.
Not only did Nefertari not enter this nightmare, she even stopped Nieusel, who wanted to enter this nightmare.
Nieusel back then was less sensible than he was now.
He was still a hot-blooded youth, like a naughty dog looking for fun. He still did not understand that some things in this world could not be changed merely by one’s power.
However, Nefertari was not doing nothing either.
Although she had never entered this nightmare once, she had done some research in her spare time.
She did it just in case.
In the future, if there was any chance to resolve this nightmare or the situation was so urgent that she had to enter the nightmare, she could hasten her speed to grasp the situation. It was to prevent the case of reloading bullets in front of enemies.
In other words, it was her foresight.
“I’ve investigated what happened in Black Mushroom Mill back then.” Then, Nefertari told Nieusel seriously, “You can tell them these. Maybe it can help them.”
“Tell me now. I will remember them.” Overseer Nieusel nodded.
“As you know… something happened at Black Mushroom Mill in July seven years ago. Seven months later, it will be seven years since that incident.” Having said that, Nefertari paused slightly.
Speaking of which, “seven” is the lucky number in this world.
Does this also portend something?
She shook her head slightly and continued, “The miller’s name is Ian. He has a dwarf wife and a seven-year-old daughter Alice.
“At that time, a strange disease was prevalent in this city for a while.”
People who worked in the mushroom cultivation industry suddenly started to develop blisters. It started out as red spots turning into transparent blisters that became unbearably itchy.
As they continued to be exposed to the mushrooms, the blisters grew larger and more transparent until it became too difficult for them to work. If the blisters were punctured, the people around them might be infected with the blisters.
“Seven years ago.” Nieusel stumbled into deep thoughts, “Were you in the Bone Eater Forest at that time?”
“En, it’s not too far from here.” Nefertari nodded and asked casually, “And you were still in the exploration layer around the Cinder Barren, right?”
Nieusel replied, “Yes, I was lucky at the time. Then I discovered another mining area, the Misero Excavation Site.”
“Then, you probably don’t know about this. At that time, that place was not well-known. It was a logging area built around the ‘Maze Forest’ and temporarily named ‘Black Mushroom Mill’. It was yet to be an urban area with no Wise and Digger looking over that place.
“The lumberjacks realized that some kind of spore might infect them, so they sent a disease-free messenger to the nearest city—that is, the ‘Bone Farm’ near the bone-eating forest. My teacher was over there.”
As Nefertari said, she reached out and stroked the ritual disc behind her.
Under her dragging, a light blue brilliance appeared on the ritual disc. It quickly outlined the locations of Gray Forest, Bone Eater Forest, Bone Farm, and Black Mushroom Mill.
“[Bone Healer] Seti?” Nieusel reacted immediately.
Nefertari became the Wise at a young age, and her success was related to her teacher, a Gold Rank Transcender.
As the most powerful Idol Wizard in the Underground Federation, Seti was also the best healer and a knowledgeable ritualist. So no one wanted to offend him.
After all, no one knew when they would need a doctor’s help.
Nefertari studied the Mysterious Rituals from Seti and learned some novice medicine skills along her journey. Since she did not want to be a transcender, she graduated from Master Seti early and became a [Wise] by virtue of her relationship with Seti.
“Something is not right?” Nieusel quickly noticed contradictions, “If Master Seti is there, a small problem like this should be resolved pretty soon.”
Since he had never heard of Black Mushroom Mill having this strange disease, it meant the incident was a minute matter. At the very least, it got sorted out in the end.
After all, he had never seen a similar disease for many years.
“That’s the problem.” Nefertari said slowly, “This is not a disease but a curse.
“The believers of the Deity of Poison and Spider [Black Widow] cast this poison curse in the mushroom.”
“So Master Seti can’t resolve it either?”
“How can that be? It’s just that to identify and neutralize the unknown curse hidden in the ‘poison entity’, the teacher needs more time to develop the antidote.”
The red-haired woman took a deep breath, “But the lumberjacks have no time to wait.
“For some reason, a saying soon appeared among them. They claimed that this strange disease had no cure, and the messenger had taken the opportunity to escape, so he would not return.
“Panic struck the loggers. But they quickly noticed that Ian’s family, involved in the mushroom industry, was not sick.
“They asked Ian why he did not get sick. But Ian did not know because he had not been exposed to poisonous mushrooms directly. In the end, the lumberjacks succumbed to panic and came to a hasty conclusion, where the Ian Family cast the poison.”
“There was no evidence for this, and it was undoubtedly a false connection. But they were already unhappy with Ian’s family previously. After all, all of them are workers. However, Ian spends less money and uses less effort to earn from a mushroom mill.
“In the end, they broke up in discord with Ian’s family in the process of ‘asking for an explanation’ and ‘asking for an antidote’. However, Black Widow Believer ‘Deward’, who was in the crowd, once again stirred up the crowd. He claimed that Ian’s family’s liver could be grounded to make an antidote.
“You know, it was a traditional remedy in the pioneering days. Of course, we now know that it doesn’t work, but the rest don’t know about it.
“At that time, about a quarter of the loggers agreed to Deward’s instigation. Although others felt a little inappropriate and too radical, they did not stop the atrocities of the loggers in the end. After all, they were not close to the Ian Family.
“So, they’re just watching from a distance.
“Ian’s wife was an escaped murderer from the Austere-Winter Dukedom. She was a Silver Rank transcender. However, she was handicapped and tortured by the Frost Beast for a long time. When she went to prison, she was committed to the curse prohibiting “hurting people” and “murder”. Her combat prowess was not as good as before. Her profession was the [Giant Slayer], and her profession’s skills did not help much in combat; Deward was equivalent to Black Widow’s bishop. He, who had murdered thirteen people, had already mastered thirteen different toxin-type transcended abilities.
“In her fight with Deward, she lost but escaped smoothly. But seeing Ian being cut open to have his kidney retrieved and her daughter still sleeping upstairs, she wielded her weapon and came back. Unfortunately, killing Deward triggered her curse. Thus, she lost her strength and died from poisoning in the end.
“In the end, their family was pushed into the gear machine designated for grinding mushrooms. The immense resentment and curse turned into reality, and the endless stream of blood poured out of the machine like an endless river. It waited for the opportunity to swallow the involved criminals holding the ‘antidote’ and the onlookers in the grinding machine.
“The blood-soaked mill was covered with mushrooms. Half a day later, the messenger who got lost in the Maze Forest arrived late with the message ‘Master Seti will arrive in three days’.
“Even though it was only half a day late, everything was too late.” Nefertari sighed.
From her point of view, Ian’s wife was naturally not a good person. However, the thugs deserved it too.
They deserved to die.
But what confused her was that the “mastermind”, “evil perpetrator”, and “bystander” had all ended up in the same fate. In the current state, even completely innocent passers-by would be drawn into a spider web-like nightmare, being tortured to death.
The mainstream view of nightmare science was that resentment could significantly increase the intensity of nightmares. Since nightmares were the wound left by the dead transcender in the world, it was the bloody last words of “letting the world remember my death”.
All Nefertari knew was that this nightmare still murdered innocent people to this day.
From this point of view, this hatred had lasted too long, and it had already become distorted.
The victims of the past were the perpetrators.
It was time for this [Nightmare] to end.