304 Withered Forest of the Wes (1/2)

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The Withered Forest of the West.

This place held many memories for Raven. It became his second home when the Kingdom was destroyed and everyone else died.

The Withered Forest is about 5 kilometers in diameter, it is surrounded with a wall of poisonous thorns which will cause one's body to decay at a visible pace should they touch them. That being said, these wall of thorns didn't prevent the evidence of decay from seeping out of the forest, this is through the dead soil about a couple meters away from the actual forest.

There are two entrances to the forest, one on its north and one on its west.

Raven is currently entering the western entrance since it was the closest to him.

As he walked towards the forest, Raven remained alert yet also relaxed. His eyes reflected several images of him roaming and living his previous life here. He couldn't help but to smile, thinking: 'Those were the days.'

Indeed, those were the days.

The days when he struggled to get proper rest due to paranoia. The days when he endured hunger. The days when he nearly lost himself due to loneliness. The days when he felt like suicide was a tempting offer. The days when he felt cold, alone and afraid. The days when he picked himself up and gnashed his teeth in order to survive.

Indeed…those were truly the days.

”This smell…” Raven's face turned slightly ugly, ”A fresh victim of the thorns huh?”

He activated his ocular technique and scanned everything within 200 meters around him. His hunch was correct, not too far away from where he is, there is a dead beast which appears to be a huge boar with wings.

”It probably attempted to escape.” Raven muttered, ”Sadly, the forest didn't want it to leave.”

He shook his head and entered the forest. As soon as he took his first step inside, the scenery around changed every so slightly. The wall of thorns wriggled and trapped him in, the dead trees seemingly became taller and the atmosphere suddenly turned gloomier. At the same time, Raven also felt several eyes looking his way.

Raven smiled and shrugged it all off. Once he did so, the changes disappeared and everything inside the forest return to its previous state…or so it seems.

He knew very well what just transpired here. It wasn't good in any way, shape or form but it brought a smile on his face for some reason.

”Still the same…” he muttered under his breath.

As one of the Four Extremes, the Withered Forest of the West surely is packing some serious threat. The dangers inside this place is just as bad as the forest's appearance.

The Withered Forest of the West is home to the Withered Dream Tree - A sentient being that is said to feed on the dreams of the creatures who approaches it.

The Withered Dream Tree isn't all that dangerous, when one doesn't allow it to feed on their dreams that is. It is the aftermath that takes the cherry on top. Once the Withered Dream Tree devours a dream, the victim would be affected by its decay or as the records describe - the Withering Poison. It is precisely this poison that caused this entire forest to end up like this.

And because the Withered Dream Tree is sentient, of course it knows how to lure in its prey. The wall of thorns outside is its doing, any living being that enters this forest won't be able to leave unless they fed their dreams to the tree at least five times. But the thing is that, one only have 5 times for their dreams devoured by the tree before the Withering Poison kills them.

Escaping is a no go either. Anyone or anything that tried to escape without fulfilling the requirements will be hunted by the tree via the wall of thorns. The corpse of the winged boar that he saw outside is the evidence of that.