And so, Emilia and Mimi continued walking through the Ashenbane Forest, leaving the Lesser Death Bear's corpse behind.
The deeper they went, the more the forest seemed to blur into itself. Every direction looked the same, with endless rows of black-barked trees crowned with pale white leaves. As time passed, the fog thickened with each step, swirling low around their ankles, and the silence pressed in, broken only by the crunch of Emilia's boots on the damp soil.
Apparently, besides its high-level monsters, the Ashenbane Forest was infamous for another danger: its ability to disorient adventurers.
Because the terrain looked so uniform and the forest stretched on for miles, it was far too easy to lose track of direction. To make matters worse, compasses were useless here, for the air had been cursed by some kind of dark magic. Thus, without a plan and proper preparation, adventurers could wander for days until exhaustion sets in, leaving them as prey for lurking monsters.
