Chapter 36: Wooden Tower

In just this one evening, the amount of information I gained from Hai’an and Wood surpassed everything I had learned in the previous days combined.

Out in the wilderness, neither time nor space allowed me to truly start training or learning new combat skills.

But for now, I had a clear goal to strive for—

Learn two more combat skills and attain a professional level.

Even if I didn’t continue in the adventuring trade, the status of a “professional” would be like a “technical certificate” from my previous life, ensuring I could live comfortably in this world.

The half-elf Hai’an had also made a promise to me: after completing the task and returning to Nyum, he would try to find a suitable mentor to assist me in learning combat skills.

From a cold, pragmatic perspective, this favor, in exchange for my help, provided me—someone who had just transmigrated to this world—with access to channels and the substantial funds needed to hire a professional, which I otherwise lacked.

Though I hadn’t acted with such calculations in mind, there was no doubt this exchange was not a loss for me in my current situation.

Eager to absorb as much relevant knowledge as possible, I sat by the campfire and asked the two about “professions,” “combat skills,” and “adventurers,” delving into information about this world’s supernatural forces.

It wasn’t until the moonlight deepened and the mist thickened that I reluctantly ended the conversation.

This wasn’t some cozy, safe tavern; we were still in the perilous Mist Forest, with a long journey ahead tomorrow.

So, we assigned a night watch and the rest went to rest early.

…

We were about to reach the location where the wooden token was found.

At the crack of dawn the next day, our group packed up and continued deeper into the forest through the mist.

Unexpectedly, despite venturing deeper into the outskirts of the Mist Forest, where dangerous situations should have become more frequent, we didn’t encounter a single magical creature the entire morning.

The only remotely thrilling moment was passing by a calf-sized, golden-eyed black panther.

Its sleek, jet-black fur glistened, and its paws made no sound as they tread on the meadow.

No battle occurred; it merely glanced at our group from afar, confirmed we weren’t prey it could take down, and silently retreated into the shadows of the dense forest.

If not for Wood’s warning, I and the others wouldn’t have even noticed this minor episode.

Later, Wood explained that the four rust monsters from yesterday likely caused weaker magical creatures in the area to steer clear, allowing us to travel so smoothly.

“Hiss!”

A long snake with pale yellow spots on its scales was driven out of the grass by a battered single-handed hammer, its slender body slithering and vanishing into the underbrush.

“Another one! Are we walking into a snake nest or what?”

Larry wiped the sweat from his forehead, muttering.

The single-handed hammer, contaminated by the rust monster’s venom, was no longer fit for combat, so he used it as a stick to drive off snakes and insects.

But the weight of the metal hammer seemed to drain Larry’s stamina, as he swung it repeatedly.

He was already panting heavily.

Yet, he didn’t suggest stopping to rest.

Because compared to earlier, our group’s pace had slowed considerably.

It was like how the closer you got to an oasis, the more fertile and moist the soil became, or how the air grew heavier with moisture near a lake.

As we approached our destination, strange objects, like the carriage we saw earlier, appeared more frequently.

Just from what I saw, there was half a thatched hut, a collapsed mud-brick house, and even a five-story wooden tower.

Though all were reduced to ruins, the remaining details clearly showed they shared the same origin as the token and carriage, bearing a distinct Eastern style.

Under Wood’s lead, we cautiously entered the ruins to investigate.

While we found many traces of intelligent beings’ lives, we didn’t discover a single corpse.

Moreover, these heavily damaged structures looked like lost relics, yet the materials were oddly new, showing no signs of weathering over time.

“Crack.”

A branch snapped.

Walking through the mist in the dense forest, I kept my gaze forward, my mind focused, alert to the surrounding thick bushes and tall grass.

In my left hand, naturally hanging by my side, I gripped a smooth, cool, hard object.

It was a fragment of some kind of porcelain I found in the ruins.

Hard to imagine that, having transmigrated to this fantastical world, I would still encounter such delicate, glossy traditional objects.

I had been so surprised at the time that I instinctively picked it up from the rubble.

Feeling the soft texture under my fingertips, I couldn’t help but recall Wood’s judgment about the towering wooden structure, over ten meters tall but mostly collapsed, which we had seen earlier:

“Based on how these wooden materials have been affected by the mist in the forest, this building was likely constructed in the Mist Forest only one or two months ago.”

“Of course, considering the resources and manpower required, as well as the dangerous environment around here, I don’t think anyone would actually settle here.”

His words were immediately met with rebuttals from Hai’an and others.

After all, the building was right there; if no one lived in it, what was the point of building it?

I had my own thoughts on this.

Unlike the others in the group, who were all native to this world, the soul in my body came from another.

The knowledge and memories from my modern life in my previous world, combined with the familiar details in the ruins, allowed me to recognize the purpose of that towering wooden structure at a glance—

It was an inn!

The realization only deepened my sense of strangeness.

An inn built deep in a forest teeming with dangerous magical creatures—who would come to stay?

And judging by the density of buildings along the way, even if all those ruined huts and houses were fully occupied, the population would hardly support an establishment of such scale.

Moreover, in my view, anyone with even a basic concept of urban planning wouldn’t have built what I saw along the way: a shabby slum shack here, a refined mansion there, just a few steps apart.

One structure after another, with no rhyme or reason.

To me, it didn’t feel like someone had come to the forest depths to build these structures for settlement.

Rather, it was as if an invisible hand, transcending space and time, had plucked a few buildings from a town in a completely different world with an entirely distinct aesthetic and casually tossed them into the Mist Forest.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.