Chapter 242: Voice of the Valley
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The same valley, the gloomy woods, the faint smell of dirt floated familiarly before Benjamin’s eyes. It was difficult to be certain, but he hoped that he was back in the real world.
This should be the real world, right?
This illusion was scary and very believable, even the System could not flaw in it. Benjamin himself did not know, exactly when they entered the illusion. In addition to that, regarding the memories, he didn’t even know which part was real and which part was fake.
If it were not for the help from the "emptiness" state of mind, he did not think that he would have been able to get out of the illusion. But, since he had come back to his senses, he now shifted his attention to the real world.
He noticed that he was on the ground and there was still some gravel on his face, as though he had just woken up from a dream.
At the same time, there was an ethereal voice from far away.
The voice had a "misty" quality to it, like a living thing’s unintentional whispering - making people feel as though they were hallucinating. It was as though this voice could only be heard when people are in a trance.
"This is..."
After hearing the strange voice, Benjamin immediately stood up, and turned to look around. But, the voice suddenly stopped, and the forest once again went silent. Benjamin used his water element sensing technique and looked around, but he could not find anything.
Benjamin was stunned.
What the hell is happening?
"That voice, did you hear it? Don’t tell me that was an illusion." He said to the System in his mind.
"I...heard it." The System replied hesitantly.
After giving it some thought, Benjamin continued, "Please record it and play it back to me... This is too weird."
"Sure, I’ll give it a try."
Using the System’s recorder, the voice was recorded and transformed into a track before being played back in Benjamin’s head.
But things got even weirder; the originally ethereal voice, when recorded and played back by the System, sounded like a wild animal’s low roar - it was nothing like an illusion, there wasn’t even any traits of a song, it was just noisy and normal.
Benjamin’s face looked confused.
"Are you sure you played it back right?" he couldn’t help but ask.
"I am. This is the track that I recorded." The System was also confused, "I don’t know why it’s playing such a horrible noise either."
"...Alright."
Benjamin suddenly got an idea.
By the looks of things, the name Valley of the Abyss might have some truth.
The System was still wondering why he missed the illusion; he suspected that he had contracted a virus. It told Benjamin that it wanted to go kill the virus, and disappeared.
With the System gone, Benjamin now turned his attention to the passed-out mages all around him.
By his count, all the mages in the group were still here, lying haphazardly all over the ground - not one person was missing. Benjamin let out a sigh of relief.
He then started to investigate his surroundings. He quickly realized that they were very close to their campsite from that morning!
Benjamin suddenly felt goosebumps all.
This meant that after eating breakfast that morning and packing up their things, they only walked a few steps before unknowingly entering the strange fantasy. Andy coming over to discuss the potions, meeting the mercenaries that were attacked by the strange snake, the mutated animals of the valley... the whole string of events, all of it was their imagination.
This really was strange...
At this moment, Benjamin even thought that it might be an inception. He wanted to spin the gyro to see if he was actually hallucinating. Instead, he took a deep breath and threw all these thoughts to the back of his head.
Don’t think about it, the more you think about it, the messier it gets. He should just wake the others up.
And so, he chanted a spell, and conjured a huge healing water ball. He hit the mages with the healing ball, and before long, the comatose mages slowly started waking up.
"What is going on?"
Benjamin waited for them all to wake up before explaining to them what had just happened.
What was most surprising was everything that happened in the illusion, nobody even had memories of it. As Benjamin was speaking, they all had their eyes open wide, a look of confusion on their faces, not truly understanding what Benjamin was talking about.
From what they could recall, not long after they left in the morning, everyone was travelling together before they suddenly lost consciousness.
Benjamin impatiently shook his head. The ethereal voice now became even more mysterious to him.
What was making that sound? Exactly what other unique creatures live in this valley? What is their purpose? The legend of the disappearances, could they be related?
Benjamin was curious, but he did not want to look for anything. After what just happened, everything about the Valley of the Abyss was strange to him - the danger levels just keep rising.
Who knew what kind of weird and odd things they would meet next? He felt that instead of hunting for answers, they should just quickly leave this place.
And so, after taking care of the team, Benjamin brought everyone together and they moved forward once again.
"Hold on... there is someone in front."
After walking for a while, Benjamin noticed five mercenaries in the bushes not far ahead.
The familiar looking mercenaries laid unconscious, not moving at all. From the looks of things, they were not part of the illusion, but were real people but were brought into the same illusion.
After some thought, Benjamin conjured another water ball, and woke them up.
"Ah... this is... you, you are..."
He didn’t even need to ask, they had lost their memories. They too did not remember what had happened in the illusion.
Before they could ask any questions, Benjamin interrupted them, "Hello, we are mages that were just passing by, and saw you passed out here; we decided to wake you up. Looking at your outfits, you must be mercenaries, and should be very familiar with the city of Rayleigh. Can you give us a tour, and take us there? We are very powerful, if we encounter any danger along the way, we can lend a hand to help."
Some of the mercenaries looked dumbfounded.
"That... hello, we are mercenaries from the city of Rayleigh." The mercenary with the crossbow scratched his head, he had no clue how to react, "What happened? We..."
"You lost consciousness, maybe something attacked you. I’m not too sure myself." Benjamin continued, "This place is full of illusions. I think, we should it as soon as possible."
"Ah...Why?"
"What? You have no idea why you suddenly lost consciousness - do you really still want to stay?"
"I...think so."
And so, under Benjamin’s firm leadership, the five stunned mercenaries joined the team. They continued on, heading towards the valley’s exit.
The Mercenaries Association was located in the city of Rayleigh, which is one of the larger cities in Ferelden. Since Benjamin wanted to go there, he decided to enlist the help of the mercenaries – knowing fully well that they were from the city from his earlier illusion. After all a tour guide would always be better.
At the same time, travelling with the mercenaries would reduce their suspiciousness.
Regarding the illusion, he was tired of explaining it. Since he was the only one who knew about the illusion and the secret of the voice, he decided to let the others live in ignorance.
"Teacher Benjamin." On the way, Andy came up behind him and tapped Benjamin on the shoulder. He hesitantly asked, "that... our..."
Before he could continue his sentence, Benjamin calmly continued his sentence, "I know, the ingredients for your potions are almost used up. Don’t worry, when we reach the city, I will take care of things."
Andy was stunned.
"How did you know I was going to ask about this?"
Benjamin laughed, "Because you said it before in the illusion."
"What?"
Benjamin just shook his head, "Nothing, nothing. You should go get some rest."
"...Alright."
With a head full of questions, Andy returned to his spot in the middle of the group.