Deep in the Flesh and Blood Forest, the "Explorer One" golem is slowly advancing in autonomous mode.
Its black-gold body stands out starkly in the twisted organ jungle.
Each step lands on the moist flesh and blood ground, producing a nauseating squelch, like stepping on a fresh corpse.
Ron monitors the golem’s movements through the spiritual link, but his attention is somewhat distracted by something else at the moment.
The conversation during the descent with Maxim sent a chill deep into his bones.
"Master Maxim, do you remember Master Corina?"
He had asked tentatively, trying to keep his tone casual.
"The silver-haired School mentor, always wearing a silver mask."
Maxim’s reaction at the time is still clearly etched in Ron’s memory.
The Wizard first furrowed his brow, the fine scales wriggling slightly in thought, producing a faint rustling sound, like the sound of a snake shedding its skin.
His expression shifted from confusion to deep unease, finally turning into an almost fearful blankness.
"Corina?" Maxim repeated the name, his voice full of emptiness:
"That name... is completely unfamiliar."
Painful struggles flickered in his abyss-contaminated, clouded eyes.
As if something in the depths of his memory was desperately struggling to surface, but was being suppressed by some indescribable force.
"Silver hair, mask, my colleague at the Black Mist School..." Maxim’s voice began to tremble:
"I should know such a person, I should remember... but... but..."
He suddenly stopped, clutching his head tightly.
The silver scales started to writhe violently, as if something alive was crawling madly under his skin.
"Damn it! Why does this name feel so familiar, yet I can’t remember at all?!"
Maxim’s voice carried despair and anger: "It’s like someone used a hot iron clamp to forcibly dig something important out of my brain!"
His emotions were so agitated that even the abyssal atmosphere outside the void remains shield began to stir.
The twisted faces beyond the barrier all turned towards them, silently mocking.
Uther glanced over with a frown, seeing it was someone Ron knew, he said nothing more.
"Master Maxim, calm down." Ron’s voice remained steady:
"The abyss environment amplifies negative emotions, you need to control yourself."
"I’m sorry... I lost my composure." Maxim took several deep breaths, trying to calm down.
But the fear in his gaze towards Ron was inexplicable:
"Ron, the person you mentioned earlier... did she really exist? Or... are we all experiencing some collective hallucination?"
This soul-deep doubt sent a chilling apprehension through Ron.
"Of course, she existed." His voice was firm, but a hint of doubt crept into his heart:
"Master Corina, the up-and-coming Wizard dispatched from the Crystal Tower to the Black Mist Jungle.
She was the one who brought me from the Faruk Kingdom to the School and later became Trish’s mentor."
"Trish?" Maxim’s expression grew more confused: "Another completely unfamiliar name..."
"You and Master Corina should be familiar with each other." Ron’s voice took on a certain prompting:
"You were both members of the same exploration team, venturing into the Abyss Sixth Layer together."
"No... impossible..." Maxim rasped:
"I’ve never teamed up with any female Wizards to explore the abyss, my teammates should all be... all be..."
He suddenly stopped, his face showing an even more terrifying expression.
"I... I can’t recall the names of any of my teammates!"
His words were full of despair:
"I remember having teammates, remember fighting side by side, remember life and death together... but their faces, their names, are all a blank!"
The kind of innate fear made this seasoned Wizard, who had faced countless life and death trials, tremble like a child.
As if something had erased certain important people from his memory!
Maxim’s spirits had fallen to the lowest point:
"I can remember techniques, remember knowledge, remember various details... but those people, those truly important people, are all gone!"
Seeing the prematurely-aged man with graying hair almost breaking down, Ron felt a deep empathy.
"The influence range of the Land of Oblivion is more extensive than Professor Yutel described." He silently analyzed in his heart:
"Not only those directly devoured will be erased, but even closely related parts of their memory will be affected as well."
This was a chilling realization.
If the Land of Oblivion truly possesses such a powerful reality-altering capability, then huge gaps might exist in the entire history of the Wizard World.
How many important figures, events, or even some critical knowledge inheritance have been completely erased by this force?
And these survivors don’t even know what they’ve lost.
"Master Maxim." Ron finally spoke, his voice holding a certain comfort:
"Perhaps I remembered something wrong, the abyss environment does induce false memories."
This was a well-meaning lie.
Although Ron deeply believed in his heart, he didn’t want to cause Maxim more pain.
After all, what good would knowing the truth do?