Lesson 2: The two unresolved mysteries of Arcanegrove are the Portals and The Barrier. The Portals are what connects Arcanegrove to other worlds; sometimes it's a blessing because it’s a new world full of new resources but most of the time it’s a curse because it brings forth danger, such as monsters. The Barrier is an invisible wall that surrounds Arcanegrove; no matter how powerful a monster you are, you cannot walk through the barrier. Humans can leave; however, those exposed to the world of magic will lose their blessings, artifacts, and memories as soon as they set foot outside the barrier.
Crème Panama Pov:
As we set foot inside the portal of the Forest of the Damned, the sky darkens as the black clouds loom over. We were greeted by an open field and a camp full of armed police, it looks like they’re stationed here just in case of a monster breakout. It was cold and humid, as if a huge storm is about to go by, but the instructor, Ms. Corazon, ignored it, and so did the students.
After settling in an area, Ms. Corazon said, "Based on the report given to me by the head of the camp, there have been an unusual amount of small monsters appearing in this area. Usually, only nine hundred monsters come to the entrance for the whole month, but this past two weeks alone, there have been two thousand sightings of monsters. Your mission is to lessen the number of any small monsters you find, and by small, I meant fifteen feet and below."
I sit around, wrapping my gloves, as they put on their gear for battle: Karan takes out his crescent moon blades and checks his shockwave gloves and boots; Elise equips her Valkyrie shield; and the girl with the glasses takes out her staff and amulet. It’s even more amazing to see the weapons of other students, especially when they’re monsters. One has a huge battle axe the size of a door, the other has floating water surrounding her, and another one equips silver weaponry to its wings. Others didn’t need to change or equip anything, so they just sat around like me. I tried to find Cassidy, but shockingly, she was already beside me.
When I look at her, I see only sadness and sorrow on her beautiful face. Is she sad because she killed me? No, that’s hardly possible since I’ve been dead for almost three months now. I wanted to ask her why, but as I try to open my mouth, someone said, "Where is your shadow?" Both Cassidy and I look up, only to see a slim dude in a black sweater with dark hair and dark eye bags.
I only looked at him without answering. He continues, "My name is Estaroth; I grew up living with the spirits. I’ve seen almost everything on the spiritual plane, even the resurrection of the dead using soul insertion, but it’s the first time in my life I've encountered someone like you. How is it that your soul is gone but your sanity remains intact?" Cassidy looks at me, waiting for me to answer, but I don’t need to say anything. I shrugged my shoulders and took out a note saying I’m mute. Karan and Uncle Neo agreed to my coming to this school only with the condition of hiding my identity; having three layers of masks and being mute is a surefire way to stay anonymous.
"Since there are twelve of you, I decided that it would be easier for us to cover more ground if we moved in separate teams. The bracelets that will be given will monitor your heart rate and scan the monsters you’ve killed. If any problems arise while hunting, use these flare guns to signal the camp. Now for the teams: The Eastern team is Atlas, Screech, Momit, and Skrill; the North-East team is Estaroth, Aquarius, Berserker, and Misty; and lastly, the South-East team is Cassidy, Elise, and the twins. Go to your area and report back after six hours."
Our team runs through the giant trees, chopping down every monster they could find. I run as fast as I can, but it’s hard to keep up when Elise glides with the winds, Cassidy swings on the branches, and Karan bounces with his shockwave boots. The fat Orcs with clubs appear; they are one story tall, and as soon as we got closer, Elise stabbed the first orc right through the heart with her sword boosted by winds, Karan sliced the head of the orc with both of his crescent moon blades, and Cassidy hung the orc by the neck using invisible threads. I don’t want to admit it, but they're on another level; they don’t even stop to fight; they just hit and kill the orcs we come across.
After we killed forty orcs, they finally stopped running. I tried to catch my breath, but Elise said, "The monsters are getting fewer and fewer; we should separate to cover more ground." I was about to complain, but Cassidy agreed, and Karan said, "I’ll go with Cassidy, so you take him."
Elise and I went a little deeper to the forest and she said "I know we don’t know each other but to keep it short, I wanted to separate because I’m trying to investigate something in the forest of the damned and I might need to break a few rules. You good with that?"
I just put my thumbs up, smiled, and followed her. Her Bear bag begins to move and point towards certain directions, we went deeper and deeper to the forest until we saw a small abandoned temple at the top of a tree branch. Each of the trees here is like a four-story building, but luckily Elise can control the wind. She lifts us upward, and as we land, she enters the open temple. I stand outside as a lookout while she investigates, but I can’t see anything since the sun sets and the storm begins to brew.
I glanced down at the ground and saw a humanoid with a deer skull in the darkness staring right back at me. Shit… I immediately went to the temple to warn Elise, but she couldn’t understand my hand gestures. I took her journal and quickly wrote down, "Monster on ground." She was mad at first, but after seeing the note, she came out and looked below. The sun has set, and the rain starts to pour down. Our eyes widen as we see that there’s not just one humanoid but ten of them climbing up the tree. She quickly goes back inside, looks at the dusty altar, and says, "Oso, where is it!" Oso points at the Saintes statue in the altar, and Elise is hesitant but breaks it, revealing a pendant with an encased black shard. "All right, let’s go!" We were about to head out, but as we looked back, the monster was already behind us. Covered in darkness, lightning strikes, revealing a fifteen-foot wendigo crouching inside the temple.
Based on the book, Wendigos are evil spirits of the forest eager to kill and eat their victims; they have a human-like rotting body, but their head is the skull of a deer. Before Elise can react, it opens its mouth, ready to take a bite. I jumped, pushing her away with my body, and the Wendigo gnawed at my shoulder. The sharp teeth burrows deep as it tries to rip my shoulder off. Fucking hell, this hurts! "Look out!" Elise smashes its face with her shield and body weight; the wendigo lets go of my shoulder, but not without taking any meat from it. She drags me towards the side of the open temple, and we jump off into the air. "Zoom!" She holds on tight, and we blast through the storm. "Just a little more, and we’re almost at the base," is what I thought, but Elise struggles to control the chaotic wind of the storm.
Elise accidentally loses control, and we crash down below. I tried my best to cushion the fall as I hugged her and let my back face the ground, but we still got badly hurt. My spine snaps as it hits the ground; we bounce up to the massive tree; and my head cracks from the force of the impact. My vision began to fade, but before it did, I saw a wendigo looking at us from far away. Shit…