I don't know how long I've been descending, suddenly, I felt I touched the ground.

At the same time, the surrounding darkness suddenly disappeared, and the previously invisible small map showed the surrounding terrain.

However,

even if the small map doesn't show it, I can tell where I am just by sight, because I am currently in the midst of a vast forest with towering trees. Looking up, the trees next to me extend almost endlessly.

And directly above me, a magic circle with black lightning is slowly closing.

Could it be that I was teleported from that magic circle?

Without daring to think too much, I quickly summoned my ice skateboard and headed towards that location. But when I approached the magic circle, a black lightning directly struck my ice skateboard, shattering it completely.

I quickly spread my wings and continued to fly, but the magic circle seemed to have some kind of sensing ability and immediately closed with a swish!

The black arcs disappeared into the air, leaving me alone in the sky with my wings spread, dumbfounded.

...

What on earth is going on? There's actually a teleportation gate in a temple relic leading to the outside world?

And this place doesn't look familiar to me at all. At least as far as I know, the human settlements in the western continent don't have such tall trees.

Am I in the forest sea of the elves?

I looked around and then opened my status bar.

Effects like flight prohibition have disappeared, and even the magic recovery speed has returned to normal. At the same time, it also shows a bonus to wood elements. I hope a group of elves or druids won't suddenly appear, otherwise that would be troublesome.

And where did Fran and Aliyah go?

I remember they entered the tower before me. In theory, they should have arrived before me. Why can't I see them now?

Is it because there was a deviation in the teleportation or did they arrive early and leave first?

I opened the communication system and looked at Aliyah's name. It still showed gray, which means she is not in my vicinity.

The time I spent falling is neither long nor short, but what I can confirm is that during this time, unless Aliyah used acceleration to sprint all the way, she wouldn't have left the communication range.

Suddenly, I felt a sense of loss. I don't have any survival skills in the wilderness. How can I find a way out in this forest... without even a sense of direction?

After some thought, I flapped my wings and flew straight to the top of these tall trees.

Since I can fly, I might as well fly up and see the situation. This way, I can directly see which places around me I can explore.

As I flew over the treetops, I was instantly amazed by the scene before me.

Endless trees resembling an ocean appeared in front of me. Looking in any direction, there was no end in sight.

It's as if you are in the middle of the sea, with no landmarks around, only green this time.

What should I do?

The only thing I can think of now is to take out my compass, determine the south, and head back to the human area. Although I'm not completely sure, this does indeed seem to be the forest sea of the elves, and the only way to leave is to walk south.

Click!

Suddenly, the sound of an electric arc appeared from a distance. I looked towards the source of the sound and found a new black magic circle appearing less than 50 meters away from me.

I quickly flew over. Although I don't know how this magic circle operates, since I came from here, it shouldn't be wrong to go back this way!

I flew to the lower end of the magic array and then flew directly into it.

At the same moment, a black sphere flew out from the magic array! It crashed into me directly.

I hesitated for a moment, then quickly reached out and caught the black sphere. It burst like a bubble, and Aliyah fell out of it.

"Wow!"

When I caught Aliyah, she continued to scream until she saw me and finally stopped.

"...Fir..."

"Yes?"

"So dark!!!!"

Her voice was filled with tears. When she hugged me tightly, I could feel her trembling.

It seems that the experience just now was really overwhelming for her.

"I used night vision but couldn't see anything. It was so scary! What was that thing?"

"Probably... an ancient portal or something. I think the monsters probably passed through a similar portal and ended up in the temple, then went to the Western Continent through the temple."

"That's just awful! Why did they make it all black? They should've added some light to the teleportation process!"

So Aliyah is afraid of the dark... No wonder she seemed more confident after transforming into a wolf. The wolf's night vision ability must have made her less afraid of the dark.

But once she couldn't see her surroundings, she became even more panicked.

"It's okay, it's okay~ Just don't rush like that next time... It's really good to have you here. I was wondering how long it would take for me to go through the Forest Sea alone."

"What... What are you talking about?!"

She pushed me away suddenly, but when she realized we were still flying, she quickly grabbed my clothes again.

"Land already! Is flying really that fun?!"

"It's okay..."

"..."

Seeing Aliyah's unhappy expression, I spread my hands and landed on the ground.

"Okay, Aliyah. Let's start with a question. Do you know where we are?"

Although I had a guess, it's better to ask just in case.

"I think... we're in the Forest Sea. The entire continent only has the Forest Sea that looks like this."

"Yeah, we should go south to leave... By the way, have you seen Fran?"

"Not at all. Does that mean she didn't appear?"

"No, I was here first, and then your portal appeared a while later."

"I see. It seems that we didn't appear in the order we entered the magic array. But... why did we end up here?"

"No, it's more like the magic array is bidirectional, linking the temple and the Forest Sea, which is why the monsters appeared."

"I see... Huh?"

Aliyah suddenly made a strange sound and pulled something out from behind me.

"What is this?"

She seemed to be holding... a blowpipe?!

"You have..."

I was about to say that Aliyah had one on her back too, but then I felt a paralysis icon flash before my eyes, and I collapsed.

Oh no!

It's the Sleeping Needle!