Just as Catherine had said, he indeed saw an old woman near the ancient oak tree gathering dry wood.
"Child, what are you doing alone in the woods? Are you lost?" the old woman with gray hair noticed him and asked in a kind tone.
Egon kept his tone innocent as he replied, "No, grandma. I am here to gather a special blue herb that my maid found for me yesterday. Have you seen any kind of flower like that? I can't find it anywhere she said."
The old woman looked greatly interested.
"Oh, you're so young, and yet you ventured out into the woods alone... you must be a very brave boy." Her eyes shone with a secret cunning.
"Tell me child, would you like to take a test for courage? If you win, I will give you something that is far more precious than a strand of that special herb... Do you want to give it a try?"
'This is it...' Egon barely concealed his excitement. He acted hesitant at first, like any boy of ten years would.
But seconds later, he nodded.
"Yes, Grandma. I will do it."
There was no more hesitation in his tone.
The old woman's smile widened, no longer kind, but truly cunning. The face of the humble wood gatherer was completely gone.
Egon knew he had found the guardian of the Elixir of Souls. Her immediate offer of a "test for bravery" was the exact challenge laid out in the lore he had created for his novel.
"Very well, little one," she said, her voice now deep and resonant, echoing slightly in the stillness of the woods.
She pointed a gnarled, crooked finger toward the base of the massive Ancient Oak Tree. The tree's roots, thick as house beams, twisted over a depression in the earth.
"Look down there. You see that hole?"
Egon looked. Hidden between two roots was a dark, narrow opening, barely large enough for a child to squeeze through.
"Your test is simple: Go into the dark, and return with a pebble," the guardian stated. "If you come back with nothing, you are a greedy thief. If you come back screaming, you are a coward. If you return with the pebble, you are worthy of what I offer."
Egon recognized the test instantly. It wasn't a test of strength or wit, but of conviction and control over fear. The hole was legendary among local children for being haunted. In the novel, the hole contained nothing but chilling air, darkness, and the guardian's minor illusion to draw out primal fear.
The only thing truly dangerous about it was the mind of the person entering.
'This is exactly how Veera passed,' Egon thought, straightening his small shoulders.
'Veera walked in knowing the danger and accepting it. I will walk in knowing there is no danger at all.'
He glanced back at the olf woman, making sure to show a controlled, determined focus, not the blind panic she surely expected.
"A pebble, right? I understand," Egon confirmed.
He took a deep breath, fixing the location of the hole in his mind.
He knew what the guardian saw: a small boy overcoming his terror for the promise of a great reward.
What the guardian didn't know was that she was about to be tested by the very mind that had invented the test itself.
Without a word, Egon dropped to his hands and knees and squeezed himself into the suffocating, freezing darkness beneath the roots.
"Let's see if you can surprise me, boy," the old woman muttered, watching him go with faint smile on her aged face
Egon went in.
And just as he expected, he found a whole new unground cavern inside.
The environment was slightly dark, illuminated by colorful, luminescent light from crystals embedded in the cavern walls.
By mentioning a "pebble," she had meant one of these crystals. So to say, the task was easy.
However, the moment he took his first step, a zombie-like face appeared straight in front of his, making him jump back in shock. He barely held back the scream that tried to claw its way out of his throat.
Then, crawling onto the rocky ground, he scrambled backward. The zombie figure chased after him with a slow, deliberate step, as if it wasn't in any hurry at all.
It wasn't alone. Many more necrotic ceatures, enough to cause nightmare for any ordinary boy, chased after him with an eerie grace.
But Egon knew they were all illusions. So he wasn't too worried about their futile efforts to scare him. He simply ignored them and began to dig a blue crystal from the wall.
--
Outside, the old woman was still waiting. Minutes passed. Still, she hadn't heard any screams of fear, nor had she seen him coming back.
"Did the little boy fainted or something? Was the task too hard?" she couldn't help but doubt.
However, a few seconds later, her doubts were proven unnecessary.
The young boy came out with a nonchalant air surrounding him. It was as if the test was nothing but a walk in the park.
He held a blue crystal in one hand, and a bunch of Blue Star Grasses in the other.
"Child, what's your name?"
"Jo, no It's Egon."
She quickly noted the name.
"Egon, you are truly brave. You have succeeded," the old woman said with an amused smile. "But you're too greedy..."
Egon returned a cunning smile. "I have met the conditions, haven't I? And since Grandma didn't prohibit me from picking anything else, I just used the best of my opportunity."
"True," she conceded. "This isn't against the rule. But do you know how many years it takes for just one Blue Star Grass to mature?"
Egon acted oblivious as she revealed, "One hundred years for each. And you have taken most of my precious grasses away... You've made this old lady so sad..."
"Ah??!"
Egon now felt genuinely bad for the lady. He immediately handed all the Blue Star Grasses back to the old woman. He had initially picked them up for his elder sister, but now that greedy choice had come back to bite him.
However, before the herbs could reach her, he saw a sudden, knowing smile on the old lady's face.
"Hehe, no need to give it back, My Child. I was just trying to lift my boredom by teasing you. You're not just brave and cunning, but have good conscience as well. For this, I shall forgive you."
After saying that, she immediately pulled something out from her pouch. It was a shimmering bottle containing some kind of blue liquid inside.
Egon knew what it was: the Elixir of Souls, the thing he came here for.
"Here, take your reward. This is the Elixir of Souls, an invaluable resource for someone young like you. You just have to drink it. Trust me, this will prove very useful in your upcoming Soul Book awakening."
His heart thundered with exhilaration as he received the bottle.
"Thank you, Grandma. I am deeply grateful."
The old woman's smile was kind, as if she were watching her own grandson.
"I will eagerly wait for you to grow up, Child. For now, remember my name: Melissa.
The Forgotten Queen of Souls: Melissa."