Vlad read everything left on the front wall and looked around in search of more. As he did, his eyes froze on the pile of corpses in the lower right corner.
At the top of the corpse pile rested a pale, bony face, one Vlad immediately recognized as Garm, the fisherman whose body had gone missing just hours ago from his grave.
'So it was Cazimir who took Garm's corpse, not the Deceiver,' Vlad realized, feeling relieved, even pleased.
Vlad had thought that the absence of Garm's body was the Deceiver's doing to erase any presence of Blight potion, but it seemed he was wrong.
He was delighted by this discovery because if the Deceiver had found out about Garm, then it would only have been a matter of time before he tracked down Cazimir to the Glade.
If that happened, he would find the message boards Vlad had left all over the Glade, and seeing them, he would know that someone other than Cazimir knew about his work.
If it had been a few hours ago, Vlad would have been happy to meet the Deceiver or his representative, as that would have helped clear some of his doubts. But now that he knew who the Deceiver was working with, it was best if he could stay hidden.
Vlad recorded every name and detail on the front wall, even those that seemed irrelevant, just in case. Once finished, he used explosive potions and reduced the markings on the wall to ash and rubble.
Vlad carried the corpses to the ditch one by one. After burying them, he began to clean up the place, placing the beast corpses in his inventory and removing the makeshift bed.
It would take too much time to completely clean the place, but Vlad wanted to do a decent enough job so that even if some adventurer happened to stumble into the mine, they wouldn't easily find what was wrong with this place and report it to the authorities.
On the other hand, if the Deceiver somehow tracked down this place, Vlad wanted him to believe that Cazimir had left.
Vlad left the mine, which was located on the farthest edge of Mist sink Glade. Its entrance was narrow and barely visible, concealed within a dense cluster of towering mist pines.
By the time Vlad left the mine, night had descended, but unbothered, he drank a night vision potion, began collecting the message boards he had placed all over the glade, and spent nearly three hours cleaning them.
His next destination was the city of Skyreach, but before going there, Vlad decided to collect a few things.
Namely, there was the large bloom of Nocturne Blossom, and if he was lucky, possibly a few spirit and law crystals from the Realm tear that Vel believed could be present in the hollow reach.
Thinking about Vel, Vlad again checked her status and saw that it showed no changes, but even after nearly five hours, she had not manifested.
While there was nothing wrong with her status, Vlad knew better than to summon her to confirm her well-being, knowing that taking on her true form had surely taken its toll on her.
After traveling for nearly an hour, Vlad reached his first stop. A large lake that was both beautiful and serene. Its waters were so clear that they mirrored the dark sky, filled with stars like polished glass, each ripple casting starlight in gentle waves.
A gentle current flowed through the massive forest surrounding it. The trees here were tall and regal, their canopies arching overhead in a dense, protective weave.
The Mist clung low to the ground, curling between trunks like wandering spirits, and the scent of wet earth and pine filled the air.
It was a beautiful place, nestled close to the road, an ideal resting spot. Yet no caravan or adventurer dared to linger there for long.
In recent weeks, a handful of unsettling incidents have happened in this exact area, as travelers have been found dozing off without warning, slipping into an unnaturally deep slumber.
There were no confirmed damages to any affected individual, but that did not stop wild rumors from spreading. They ranged from a wraith looking for a vessel to possess to whispers of a rouge magician feeding on dreams, lulling victims into sleep to slowly drain their life force.
However, they were nothing more than rumors. The true cause behind the unnatural sleep was far less sinister, yet no less rare.
A large bloom of epic-grade nocturne blossoms was growing somewhere underground. These elusive plants thrived only in ponds drowned in pitch darkness and rich in dark-elemental mana. As they matured, their petals released subtle, dream-inducing pollen into the air.
Vlad knew from memory that somewhere along the lake's walls was a narrow crack, a natural passage leading to an underground chamber where the Nocturne Blossoms grew in secret.
Vlad drank a breathing potion that would allow him to hold his breath for thirty minutes, a perfect counter to the effect of nocturne flowers.
He could have waited for the sunlight, but he decided to save time and use light crystals to begin his search. Vlad dove into the cold, glassy waters, its chill biting into his skin.
He swam along the towering stone walls that plunged at least forty feet down, searching every inch for the hidden crack he knew had to be there.
It took nearly two hours before Vlad finally found the narrow crack concealed behind a hollow section of stone. He had spent what felt like hours tapping the submerged walls, striking countless places, before the faint, hollow echo gave it away.
He swiftly removed the tough layer of stone, revealing a narrow crack, just wide enough for a person to slip through. Vlad eased his way into the winding passage, inch by inch, clearing jagged rocks that jutted into his path.
After nearly a minute of slow, careful movement, the tight passage began to widen. He ascended gradually and finally broke through the surface, emerging from the water with a quiet gasp.
Vlad raised his hand with the light crystal, his eyes quickly adjusting to the dimly lit chamber hidden far beneath the earth.
The underground pond stretched a few meters in all directions, calm and mirror-like. All around him bloomed flowers as dark as the night itself.
Their petals opened in perfect, circular symmetry, each one easily the size of his palm. They radiate a soft, eerie luminescence that pulses faintly with colorless miasma.
With a quick scan of the chamber, Vlad counted at least eighty fully matured blossoms, perhaps ninety, if not more. From their pristine form and deep saturation of color, there was no doubt that they were all of the highest quality.
The entire haul of Nocturne Blossoms was worth at least sixty thousand gold coins, or sixty thousand Galactic Gold Credits, when converted to real-world currency.
It was a staggering sum. Even for an upper-middle-class household, whose average yearly income hovered around a hundred and twenty thousand GGC, this sum was massive, nearly half a year's income.
The amount for Vlad's family was even more significant, as sixty thousand GGC far exceeded their annual earnings. With that kind of money, they could live in comfort and luxury for a full year.
Even his father could afford to take a few months off from work, and their family could go on a galactic trip.
Vlad carefully collected all the blossoms, placing them in his inventory before leaving. Now, the next place he had to visit was the hollow Reach.
The other end of mist shore woods, an area half shaped by the jagged cliffs of the sea and half swallowed by monstrous trees that claw at the sky.
Duskroot trees dominated the region, their massive trunks and dense canopies of broad, overlapping leaves casting much of hollow Reach into shadows.
The area was also one of the deadliest parts of the mist shore woods, inhabited by creatures boosting their strength up to fourth Rank, though the strongest type, the Beast kings, were very few.
It took Vlad an hour to reach the area where the suspected spirit roamed and slaughtered mountain bears in search of a host. With only a vague idea of its location, spread across nearly three kilometers, he began his search from one end, aiming to comb through the entire area.
Vlad had come searching for a small rift in the fabric of space that could be located inside a cave. No one would sense a thing unless they got close enough to feel the mana disturbance.
So, while he was focused on searching for the rift, he also focused more on hunting down beasts to level up and quickly push himself to the limits of the next rank.
Since the area ran rampant with predatory beasts, it was easy to find beasts to hunt, and before Vlad knew it, two hours were gone, and he had explored about a third of the area.