Chapter 147: Forest Ruins

I: [A dark force seems to have drawn near the territory. They covet the bright flames they so despise, intending to destroy them under the cover of night and plunge the world into endless darkness... Perhaps they will fail, but they will never give up...]

II: [The plants are restless, the beasts are agitated, and the entire forest is shrouded in a strange, gloomy atmosphere. Every night, a mysterious energy radiates from the top of a tall tower, and the area under its influence seems to be affected in some way...]

...

“Could this be... the Forest Ruins?” Su You frowned, staring at the second territory event for a long time before coming to a conclusion.

The first one was obvious—it was a warning and hint about the dark creatures’ attack the following day.

‘Have drawn near the territory’ meant they would arrive soon. ‘Despise the flame/destroy the flame’ indicated their ultimate goal was to destroy the Heartfire at the center of the city. ‘Under the cover of night’ hinted that their attack would come at night.

As for the last part, ‘Perhaps they will fail, but they will never give up,’ this not only implied that the dark creatures would attack twice—if they failed the first time, they would come again—but also suggested that this event wasn’t a one-off, but a recurring cycle.

Having analyzed the first event, Su You turned to the second.

This strange, entirely new territory event, Su You suspected, was related to a structure called the ‘Forest Ruins.’

She was only guessing because the previous descriptions of the Forest Ruins hadn’t been like this... but that wasn’t important for now.

The so-called Forest Ruins were actually similar to monster spawners—a randomly generated structure in the wild. While monster spawners produced monsters, the Forest Ruins represented ‘guardianship’ and ‘treasure.’

Guardianship meant that within the area covered by the ruins’ energy, no resources could be gathered—whether chopping trees, mining, fishing, collecting berries, or gathering fiber... all these activities were forbidden.

But ‘forbidden’ here didn’t mean you weren’t allowed to do them—it meant you simply couldn’t.

You’d find that trees could never be felled, rocks could never be mined, berries couldn’t be picked from bushes, and fish would never bite...

If you wanted to lift this effect, you’d have to destroy the ruins.

This brings up the second feature of the Forest Ruins—treasure.

Destroying the Forest Ruins was similar to destroying a monster spawner: you had to enter a ‘dungeon’ and fulfill certain conditions to destroy it.

The difference was, there weren’t many monsters inside the Forest Ruins—sometimes none at all. The real challenge lay in the oppressive darkness, twisted labyrinths, and countless traps and mechanisms.

Amid all this danger, the Forest Ruins also contained countless treasures—and ‘treasures.’

The former were genuine, with a chance of finding valuable items. The latter were actually part of the ruins’ traps and mechanisms.

...

Since this event had appeared, it meant the ruins must have spawned somewhere not far from the territory. Otherwise, it wouldn’t affect the territory, and the event wouldn’t have triggered.

Su You opened her map, circled a few likely locations where the Forest Ruins might have appeared with her quill, then put the map away.

Although destroying the Forest Ruins was important, the dark creatures’ attack tomorrow and the unlocking of the monster spawner on Day 12 were even more pressing.

At most, she’d scout those locations on Day 11 to pinpoint the ruins, but actually dealing with them would have to wait until after the monster spawner was taken care of.

After all, there was already a monster spawner at the mines, and there was no way the ruins would spawn in the same place.

As long as the ruins didn’t appear at the mines and didn’t interfere with their stone gathering, it didn’t really matter to Su You where they spawned.

So what if she couldn’t gather resources there?

At worst, she just wouldn’t chop trees in that area. It’s not like the whole forest would run out of trees, right?!

Even so, Su You couldn’t shake the feeling that this world was much harder than the previous game.

From the very start, the time limit forced them to establish their territory within three days, ensuring they’d face a dark creature attack the next day—Su You had already noticed this.

If, at the time, she could explain it as the system trying to weed out lazy players, everything that had happened since made it clear that wasn’t the case.

She’d never encountered, nor heard of, a situation where a monster spawner, ruins, and a double disaster all appeared in the same region—let alone by Day 9!

If Day 9 was already this fraught with danger, Su You could hardly imagine what Day 19, Day 29, or even Day 99 would be like...

Sensing the world’s difficulty was ramping up in strange ways, and worried that tomorrow’s dark creature attack might be even tougher than what she’d experienced before, Su You built four more basic arrow towers near the territory for extra defense.

She also dismantled the basic arrow towers flanking the main gate and rebuilt them as intermediate arrow towers.

With more towers, she crafted a batch of stone arrows and loaded each tower’s ‘ammo box.’

Not only that, she took out the mini-bombs she’d prepared for the monster spawner and put them in her backpack, so she could use them in case of emergencies.

While doing all this, Su You checked the tool shed. The black snake that had been resting in the corner that morning was now gone, and all the food she’d left for it had disappeared as well.

She searched the shed to confirm the snake had left, then closed the door and moved on.

...

...

While Su You was busy, Dory, who hadn’t left the territory, grew increasingly anxious watching her hustle about.

She knew the dark creatures would attack tomorrow—Su You had written a notice and posted it on the bulletin board first thing in the morning. Not just Dory, but everyone in the territory knew.

When Su You finally stopped to rest, Dory pursed her lips, hugged the item she’d made, and ran over to Su You.

(End of chapter)"

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