Damien's fingers tightened slightly around his mug as he moved to take another sip of his beer.
"What kind of creatures?" someone asked when the place seemed to be getting too quiet.
The woman shrugged. "No one knows. Big. Too big. Shapes under the water that blot out the moonlight. Sounds like the sea screaming when they move."
A hush followed.
"Almost every ship that gets close vanishes," she continued. "Ninety-nine out of a hundred. Maybe more."
"Ninety-nine point nine," someone corrected bitterly.
Damien exhaled quietly through his nose.
That explained a great deal.
The Forest of Twin Disasters wasn't just isolated by land—it was actively guarded by the sea itself.
Storms above.
Monsters below.
A perfect cage. No wonder the last people had entered the forest through Teleportation Scrolls and not water or air. They'd die before reaching. To be put in simple terms, the Forest itself was a nightmare but the waters surrounding it were even worse than nightmares.
And yet…
