This tree was actually behaving like a person, even showing vigilance!
"Quick, you all—" Sean turned to call out to Asrant and the others, but when he looked back, there was no one behind him! His guard squad and Scholar Ross had vanished, and even the forest that had been there was gone.
Sean scanned his surroundings warily...
No.
This wasn't the path they'd just walked; it was a different place entirely.
"Who are you?" He turned back, his weapon at the ready, but when he looked at the tree trunk before him, it seemed to have shifted shape again.
"Come out, I know you're here... I mean no harm, I just want to talk," Sean said.
The place he was in now was likely an illusion, probably caused by that pollen scent he'd inhaled earlier. Using scent to induce hallucinations was just like putting the townspeople to sleep every night.
Whoever the opponent was, this ability must be unique to them.
He took a step back, turned around, and the twisted branches changed direction again. But this time, the branches in front of him didn't seem to shift; they just looked like ordinary limbs.
"Still not coming out?"
No response...
And the scene before him was no longer the forest path he'd been walking. Even his companions had disappeared.
It felt like he was trapped in a sealed space...
He looked up.
The moon and stars were gone, and even the road in the distance was invisible—not because it was too dark to see, but because it simply wasn't there.
In the far distance, the direction he and the others had come from was now a pitch-black void, as if space had snapped at that point, leaving him confined in a limited area...
Yes.
This wasn't reality; it was an illusion.
Now Sean was even more certain that the pollen had triggered the hallucination, trapping him in a mental world... And the opponent still refused to show itself, simply wanting to imprison him in this spiritual realm?
His mind raced for a solution...
He reached out and touched a leaf beside him. Even the mist on it was palpable—if this was an illusion, it felt incredibly real!
He felt around his belt for his weapons; they were still there, ready for battle at any moment.
No.
He had been pulled into an illusion. His real body was still standing motionless in the forest. Anything he held now was a product of his imagination—since his belt had a flintlock, imagining it would make it appear.
The same went for the grimoire and magic staff.
Sure enough, when Sean reached into his pouch, something that wasn't there before materialized as his thoughts shifted.
So that meant the Cain Tablet was also...
In an instant, as he imagined the Cain Tablet, the twisted forest before him shifted again—this time directly on the branches.
"What? Interested?" Sean suddenly said.
Even now, he was still puzzled. Was this thing the trees themselves?
He had encountered non-humans before, but this seemed non-human in a different way—not a beast or a mutant, but a tree-like life form.
Strange.
But thinking back to everything he'd faced, he'd seen weirder things. Even a talking rock would be normal now.
As Sean spoke, the presence went still again.
It seemed to be hiding, unwilling to truly reveal itself.
The shape on the trunk had appeared and then vanished quickly. He could barely track its true position—something that had never happened before. Even the Deep Ones or the Goatmen couldn't escape his detection, but this creature seemed to merge with nature itself, completely unfindable.
Occasionally, a shape would appear on a treetop, but it would vanish again, only to reappear on a distant tree...
"Don't you want to see it? I've been carrying the Cain Tablet in my pouch. You know what that is, don't you? Countless people revere it as a treasure, always seeking its secrets."
"And I have it with me," Sean continued.
The Cain Tablet seemed to be the only thing that could catch its attention.
He stared at the silent forest before him. Suddenly, it stirred—not from wind, but on its own. Even the branches moved with such realism. He wondered how Asrant and Ross were doing outside, if they'd been affected by the pollen too.
He hoped they couldn't see what was behind him!
If he could lure the opponent closer, preferably into attacking him with hostility, then his ability would activate.
He watched the trees quietly...
Suddenly, the scene before him seemed to freeze, and a tremor echoed in his ears.
"What are you carrying?! What is that!"
The silent forest shattered before his eyes, like surfacing after a deep dive.
He took a deep breath, and his mind snapped back to reality...
But the sight before him showed Sean the power of the Eye of Ghroth once more. The entire forest was entangled by countless tentacles emerging from the void, and above it, a massive rust-red sphere loomed at the center, nearly the size of the whole forest. Yet even so, it was nothing compared to the true body of Ghroth.
A dark slit slowly opened on the surface of the rust-red sphere, revealing an eye staring at him, at the entire forest.
"That's—!"
A voice came from behind, but when Sean turned, Asrant and the guards collapsed to the ground.
No one could look directly at that eye. He remembered feeling the same way the first time he'd seen it...
"Who are you?! Why do you have such power?"
A voice echoed from the forest, as the trees were nearly all trapped by the void tentacles.
They were all trees.
But this time, at the center, on a tall, bare treetop where the tentacles were thickest, a face-like pattern faintly emerged on the bark.
So it was a tree. No wonder he couldn't catch its body—if it was a tree that could shift its spirit through the forest, it was impossible to track. That was probably why so many tentacles had appeared this time.
"I should be asking you that. Who are you? Why have you put the entire town of Shanggu into a dream?"
"They chose it willingly. I didn't force anyone... I am a Wood Elf, a great being born from the spirit of all things. And you, who are you? How does a human wield such power!"
The face on the bark actually moved, looking up at the massive spherical eye above.
In that instant of contact, it felt like his mind was about to shatter.
...
Probably no one within hundreds of kilometers could look up at the stars normally right now.