But before Ren could fully wake from his sleep, both of them gathered around, their faces clearly showing worry.
"Ren, what exactly happened yesterday?" Yuna asked in a rush, her eyes filled with confusion.
"Yeah," Nautilus added, his voice deepening. "I don't remember anything… What did we do before we went to sleep?"
Ren paused slightly. He frowned, carefully observing both of their expressions. There were no signs of pretense; they truly didn't remember anything.
A cold shiver slowly ran down his spine.
"...You both don't remember anything?" He asked slowly, his voice dropping in tone.
Yuna shook her head. Nautilus stayed silent, his brow furrowed in confusion.
Ren instinctively glanced around.
Everything looked the same… the wide grass field, the sparse trees, the soft sunlight filtering through the leaves. There were no signs of enemies, no obvious changes.
So… what happened?
He clearly remembered, they had walked through the forest together, then found a safe place to rest. They ate, prepared for the next day. But after that...
Ren's gaze dropped to his hand.
Silverfruit.
He had eaten it. But what about Yuna and Nautilus?
He clenched his teeth, a growing sense of unease spreading within him.
Something wasn't right.
Ren felt his heart rate slow down uncomfortably. This feeling… it wasn't just a coincidence.
He closed his eyes, trying to recall every detail of the previous night.
Everything was still clear in his mind, he had taken them to a safe spot, built a small fire, and laid down his unconscious friends on the dry ground.
When fatigue set in, he decided to rest. But then… the void suddenly appeared.
There were no images of the last moments before he fell asleep.
No sense of time passing.
It was as if all three of them had been cut off from reality in the same moment.
Ren clenched his fist, his fingers unknowingly scratching at the damp grass beneath his feet. He didn't like this at all.
"...Maybe it's just from being too tired," he said, trying to keep his tone as calm as possible.
Yuna and Nautilus exchanged a glance before turning back to him. Clearly, they weren't fully convinced by this explanation, but there was no way to argue against it.
"Then..." Nautilus slowly spoke up. "What do we do next?"
Ren took a deep breath. They couldn't just stand here, lost in confusion.
Ren slowly inhaled deeply, feeling the cold air fill his chest, spreading a sense of clarity through his tense muscles.
He needed to keep his thoughts from drifting too far, not let the fragmented memories pull him into a chaotic whirlpool. Maybe all the strange things he had felt last night… were just illusions.
A product of a mind exhausted after a long stretch of fatigue and stress.
But the feeling of unease still crept through every fiber of his being, refusing to disappear.
He, Yuna, and Nautilus, the three of them had been through so much since they entered the forest.
The blurry dreams mixing between reality and fantasy, the moments where memories suddenly vanished, the abnormality in how they had fallen asleep without anyone noticing, it was all too fragmented, yet simultaneously too clear to be dismissed.
Ren closed his eyes for a moment, trying to piece together the fragments of memory.
And then, like a painting gradually revealing itself from a fog, everything started to fall into place.
He remembered.
They had been lost in the forest.
Thick fog surrounded them from all sides, wrapping around their bodies in layers like invisible chains, seeping into every breath, every crack in their consciousness.
Distorted hallucinations appeared, blending between reality and dreams. Confusing images, incomprehensible whispers echoed in their ears, completely disorienting them, as if they were drifting in an endless sea with no shore in sight.
And then… that tree.
A magnificent tree, with bark so rough it looked like it had existed for centuries, its roots deeply entrenched in the earth.
But what was terrifying wasn't the tree itself. It was the dense roots spreading out like living arms, wrapping everything around them, as if it were a sentient creature.
It stood there, towering and cold, like a watcher that never slept. They had fought it, believing it was the source of all the anomalies in the forest, thinking that if they defeated it, everything would end.
But they were wrong.
The worm.
A chill ran down Ren's spine as that image suddenly resurfaced in his mind.
A bizarre creature, with an outer shell so smooth it reflected the dim light, long and serpentine, its color pale as if it had never seen the sunlight.
It wasn't on the ground. It hid deep within a camouflage shell, creeping through the roots, the wood, the veins of the trees, like a massive parasite draining the life from its host.
It didn't fight directly; it controlled, manipulated, like a puppet master pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
And only when Ren killed it did everything truly end.
At that very moment, he, Yuna, and Nautilus had been thrown out of the forest, not by a gust of wind, nor by anyone pulling them away.
It was as if a giant invisible hand had grabbed all three of them, lifted them up, and forcefully thrown them beyond the boundaries of the forest.
That couldn't have been an illusion.
It couldn't have just been a dream.
Ren clenched his fist tightly, the numbness spreading from his fingertips.
He slowly raised his head, looking at Yuna and Nautilus, who were still watching him intently, their eyes filled with doubt and confusion.
"...I remember now," his voice dropped, but each word was clear, certain. "We were trapped in an illusion. The tree we saw… it was just a shell. The true thing behind everything… was a worm."
Yuna shuddered slightly, her hands instinctively tightening around the hem of her shirt.
Nautilus frowned, as though trying to dig through his own blocked memories. Then, he paused, his eyes flickering with realization.
They were starting to remember.
But... why did it still feel like something wasn't right?
Yuna and Nautilus' expressions were still tinged with a sense of daze, as if they only recalled fragmented pieces, not enough to form a complete picture.
Not enough to make them truly trust it.
Ren inhaled deeply, pulling all the thoughts he'd pieced together into the clearest explanation he could manage.
"…In short," he spoke slowly but firmly, "we were affected by some kind of strange effect.
Perhaps from the fog, or from the worm itself. It created illusions, disorienting us and putting us in an abnormal state. What we saw, the tree, the blurry images, even the empty memories, everything was distorted."
Ren glanced at Yuna and Nautilus, seeing them still listening in silence, their gazes reflecting contemplation. He continued.
"We fought, but not with the true entity controlling the forest. The tree was just a shell, or maybe a puppet being manipulated.
The worm was the one behind it all." He paused for a moment before concluding, "But somehow, when I killed it... the effect disappeared. We were also thrown out of the forest immediately after."
The three of them fell silent, as if digesting what they'd just heard.
Finally, Ren exhaled and shrugged. "Either way… at least we made it out. And the forest is no longer a trap."
Yuna and Nautilus exchanged a glance before turning back to Ren. No one objected. Perhaps they still didn't fully understand everything, but at least the most important thing was clear, they had escaped.
Yuna blinked, her lashes trembling as if she had just realized something. Her lips pressed together for a moment before she turned to Ren, her eyes darkening with a clear sense of suspicion.
"Wait a minute…" Her voice was slow, hesitant, but each word carried a trace of careful thought.
She stared directly at Ren, as though wanting to probe his mind for an answer. "If we were all affected… then why were you the only one who managed to stay somewhat lucid? Not only that, but you were able to kill the worm, break the illusion, and get us all out safely?"
Nautilus, who had been quietly listening, furrowed his brows. His brown eyes flickered with uncertainty. It seemed like Yuna had asked a question that even Nautilus hadn't considered.
He turned to Ren, his gaze sharpening as if weighing the meaning of the situation.
The air thickened.
Ren stiffened slightly. He felt his heartbeat falter for a moment, his hand instinctively clenching.
That's right... why?
He didn't have any skills to resist mental effects. No immunity buffs to protect him from the illusion's influence.
If the fog and the worm really could manipulate their minds, then he should have been swept into that chaotic vortex as well.
A slow unease crept into his mind.
Ren didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to believe there was something different about him... or rather, he didn't want to accept the possibility that he was beginning to vaguely realize.
His gaze dropped and landed on the two inventory slots neatly arranged in his bag.
A thought flickered, sharp and fleeting, like a blade slicing through his thoughts.
Two parts of broken swords...
Could it be... the Broken Oath?
He tightened his grip on the sword's hilt instinctively. His heart rate became erratic.
If both sword fragments really were pieces of the legendary blade, then... could they have special properties he hadn't noticed before?
Mental resistance? A form of protection against illusions?
Ren didn't know.
He couldn't be sure.
But the coincidence was too great to dismiss easily.
A strange sensation rose within him, like a vague but heavy warning.
He didn't say anything.
Instead, Ren simply tightened his fist, hiding the turmoil in his heart with a nonchalant shake of his head.
"…I don't know either," he spoke in a calm tone, though not revealing too much thought. "Maybe it was just luck."
Yuna narrowed her eyes slightly, as if not completely convinced by that answer.
Nautilus also didn't take his eyes off Ren, his gaze cold and sharp, as if trying to find a crack in Ren's words. But no one pressed further.
Ren looked down, pretending to check his equipment. His fingers instinctively brushed over the sword's blade, feeling the roughness of the crack on the surface.
Until he was sure about this... it was better to keep it to himself.