Miss Joanna, the Eccentric

Finch was certain Lambert was dead.

The mission had been dangerous to begin with. Otherwise, Finch would never have pushed it onto someone else.

If he completed it, the credit would certainly be enough to earn him the position of vice-captain. But Finch still hadn’t dared to take it on himself.

And not long after Lambert set out, the Destroyer launched its attack. There was no way he could have survived that.

Still, for the sake of the mission, Liu Xuan had to find out what had happened to Lambert.

“Where exactly did he go, and what mission was he carrying out?”

Finch looked at Liu Xuan nervously. “Have you ever heard of the Wendigo—the Deer-Headed Fiend?”

“A kind of monster?”

“A terrifying monster! They eat people!” Finch was already trembling just from mentioning its name.

“Many years ago, there were rumors that creatures like that lived in a forest near Orenburg. That forest came to be known as the Cursed Forest. When we were children, many Orenburg parents used to scare us by saying, ‘I’ll throw you into the forest to feed the Wendigos!’ So you can imagine how deep the fear runs in everyone’s hearts.

“Unfortunately, the lord’s daughter went missing in that forest.”

No wonder Finch had said the mission was so important. If someone could complete it, the position of vice-captain would practically be guaranteed.

So the missing girl was the lord’s daughter.

“Since the forest is right next to Orenburg, haven’t you tried sending troops to clear it out over all these years? Even if Orenburg wasn’t strong enough to deal with the monsters, you could have asked the Empire for help.”

“Of course we tried. But no matter how many times we sent people in, all they ever found were wild beasts and ordinary monsters. They never found a trace of the Wendigo. Every now and then, we would hear that someone had gone missing in the area, but when we went looking, there was never anything to find. No one was ever seen alive again, and no bodies were recovered.”

After hearing Finch’s explanation, Liu Xuan agreed that the place was indeed strange.

That only made it more necessary for him to go.

Even if Lambert’s situation was set aside, a place that sounded this full of secrets either hid something valuable or contained a boss.

Liu Xuan immediately asked for directions to the Cursed Forest and hurried over.

The moment he arrived and saw the dense pine forest before him, so thick that it made him uneasy, Liu Xuan felt goosebumps rise across his skin.

The forest looked like something straight out of a horror movie—dark and sinister.

The sunlight outside was bright, yet only a few steps into the forest, it was already pitch-black.

Liu Xuan slowly entered the woods. According to Finch, the monsters inside usually attacked people who entered alone.

Whenever people entered in groups, the monster could never be found.

Not long after stepping inside, Liu Xuan encountered one of the forest’s “native residents”: a rabbit covered in green fur.

It had been chewing on the moss growing across the ground. When it heard Liu Xuan’s approach, it glanced back at him and immediately began hopping toward the depths of the forest.

But it had barely gone a few steps when a pale, dead branch beside it suddenly shot out with lightning speed. Like a claw, it seized the rabbit and hurled it onto the top of its own trunk, stuffing the rabbit inside.

A cloud of blood instantly erupted from the top of the tree.

【Soul-Reaping Whitewood】

Level: 18

Attack: 240

Health: 4,800

Armor: 50

Magic Resistance: 15

Skill: 【Root Entanglement: Launches five roots from beneath the ground to attack and bind an enemy, preventing movement. Deals 200 physical damage per second while restoring the same amount of health to itself.】

A level 18 monster…

Liu Xuan was completely uninterested.

He was already level 24. Killing a monster like this would not grant him any experience at all. Even multiplying it by 124 times would be useless, let alone ten thousand times.

The monster was still some distance away, outside the range of Heavenly Thunder. Liu Xuan had intended to simply leave, but the creature clearly wasn’t willing to let him go so easily.

He had only taken two steps when the ground beneath his feet suddenly burst open. Five roots wrapped around his legs and began crawling upward, attempting to activate their life-draining ability.

The skill had quite an impressive range, but that was precisely what doomed the Soul-Reaping Whitewood.

As passives such as 【Nightmare Incarnation】 activated, the dead tree in the distance instantly died.

Liu Xuan shook his head.

Why bother?

【Soul-Reaping Whitewood】: You think you can just walk away without killing me?

Monsters like this were probably the most common creatures in the Cursed Forest. Liu Xuan encountered quite a few as he continued deeper inside.

This made him curious. Even setting aside the legendary Wendigo, the forest was filled with monsters and extremely dangerous. Why did people keep getting captured here?

And why had the lord’s daughter come to a place like this in the first place?

As he was thinking about it, Liu Xuan suddenly heard a cry for help coming from the woods ahead. It sounded like a woman’s voice.

“Could it really be this convenient? I was just thinking about it, and now I’ve actually run into someone?”

Or was it not an NPC, but a player who had come here to level up and gotten into trouble?

Liu Xuan hurried toward the source of the voice. Before long, he saw a woman in a thin, flowing dress being bound by the roots of a 【Soul-Reaping Whitewood】. She was calling for help without pause.

She was an NPC.

Liu Xuan glanced at her name: 【Miss Joanna】.

She was not an NPC with any combat ability. Her stats were roughly the same as those of the ordinary people in Orenburg, though her level and health were somewhat higher.

Liu Xuan stepped forward and struck the 【Soul-Reaping Whitewood】 dead with Heavenly Thunder, rescuing the woman.

As soon as the roots withdrew, Miss Joanna collapsed weakly onto the ground.

“Are you all right?”

Liu Xuan was very interested in the NPC who had appeared here. Perhaps she knew something about the Wendigo.

The girl named Joanna wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. Still shaken, she replied in a delicate yet polite voice, “I’m fine now. Thank you.”

“Are you from Orenburg? Why are you here?”

The name 【Miss Joanna】 did not reveal much, and Liu Xuan was curious as to why she had appeared in a place like this.

Her answer, however, left him utterly stunned.

“My name is Joanna. My father is the lord of Orenburg.”

“Hm?”

Liu Xuan stared at her in surprise. “You’re the lord of Orenburg’s daughter?”

By Liu Xuan’s calculations, the Destroyer’s invasion had taken place eight years ago. Joanna had already gone missing before then, yet she was still alive?

Liu Xuan instinctively wondered whether this Joanna might actually be a monster in disguise. But 【Thunder Aura】 had not activated against her, which made the situation even stranger.

Seeing the surprise on his face, Joanna asked in confusion, “Is there something wrong with my being the lord’s daughter?”

Then a trace of panic suddenly appeared on her face.

“Could something have happened to my father? He was already seriously ill back then…”

Liu Xuan: Your father isn’t just seriously ill. Orenburg itself is already gone…

Could Joanna really have no idea what had happened outside?

And how had she survived in this forest for eight years?

“Do you know how long you’ve been in this forest?”

“It feels like... more than ten days, perhaps? Sir, could you tell me how my father is doing first?” Joanna asked anxiously.

More than ten days...

Had she lost her memory? Or was there something peculiar about this forest that made time flow differently for her?