Chapter 31

"What the hell?" Manuele walked through the portal and saw a dense forest ahead. He cast a glance at the surroundings and saw the man who entered first staring into the trees. He was a tall, muscular man with dark brown hair.

The boy wondered to himself where Lucia, Samuele and Sofia, who had entered just before him, were.

"Oh, I see." Said a voice behind Manuele. The latter turned around and saw a boy, about his age, entering just after him. "We are being divided into teams... Interesting." He said with a half smile, looking at the other two in front of him. He approached Manuele and introduced himself, offering him his hand. "My name is Diego, pleased to meet you."

"Manuele, my pleasure." He reciprocated, shaking his hand. Then Diego approached his other companion and repeated the action.

"You are?"

"Tommaso. Now that we've finished the introductions, let's get moving." He said rudely, not even returning the handshake, but Diego remained with a smile, not seeming the least bit impressed by his behavior.

"I understand your impatience in wanting to enter that wonderful forest." He joked in a polite tone. "But I think it's best to wait for further directives. Don't you agree with me, Manuele?" He asked, turning his gaze toward the boy.

"I think I do. I mean, what should we do in there?" He asked in an uncertain tone.

"Hello, Adventurers!" From above their heads, a figure appeared to the three boys. The latter had mixed reactions.

Manuele was surprised. Tommaso looked up at the figure with mild interest. Diego, on the other hand, looked at him with a smile, not seeming the least bit surprised.

"That is..."

"Guild Leader's right hand man." Finished Diego, continuing Manuele's sentence, looking at him with half-closed eyes.

"Welcome to the first test of this exam. Your purpose is simple: all you have to do is overcome the obstacles that will come your way and arrive at the place where the second test will be held. Good luck to you all." He explained and immediately disappeared.

"But what kind of powers does he have? Can he fly and disappear?" Manuele wondered, shocked by the man's abilities. Diego chuckled and shook his head.

"No, that was just a hologram. I bet the others saw the same thing appear over their heads, too."

"Really? How do you know that? Adventurers' abilities are not divulged to people."

"It's just a hunch, my dear fellow." Said Diego. Then he noticed that Tommaso was heading toward the woods. "Has anyone ever told you that patience is a great virtue, Tommaso?"

"And has anyone ever told you that minding your own business you live a hundred years?" He answered aggressively.

Diego turned to Manuele. "We should follow him. You never know, he might get lost." He joked. Meanwhile, Manuele looked at the two of them with a frown. He mentally wondered which group of fools he had fallen into.

"However, I am a magician." Said Diego, throwing a small fireball at the trunk of a tree and digging a small hole. The group had been passing through the woods for a few minutes and silence enveloped them.

"I am a thief." Said Manuele.

Diego looked forward to Tommaso, who was leading the group. "And what class are you? Well, not that it needs saying. You carry two swords with you. If you're not a Warrior, I wouldn't know what else you are."

"Since you already know the answer, why do you keep asking useless questions?"

"There are no useless questions. Only poorly asked questions. Every question, in its own small way, can carry within it great wisdom. The more a question is asked in the right way, the better the answer you will get."

Tommaso clicked his tongue, disinterested in his speech. "Whatever you say." He said, breaking off a branch that was annoying his path.

"But will there be an end to this forest, or not?" Manuele asked, annoyed. Several minutes passed and still nothing happened. "What would be the obstacle to overcome?"

Diego suddenly stopped in front of a tree. "The forest itself." He said in a serious tone, looking at the tree with the broken branch.

"What do you mean?" Manuele asked with a frown.

"We have already passed this tree. Do you see the broken branch? It was Tommaso who did that."

"Are you serious? Can't it be a coincidence? It's just a branch, after all."

"Yeah, you're right. All trees may have broken branches, but how many have a hole dug in the trunk at the same spot where I threw the fireball?" Then he pointed with his hand to a spot behind them. "I noticed it about 10 meters back."

"Fuck!" Manuele imprecated. "What do we do?"

"As far as I know, we have two options: either we keep running around in circles, in a vain and desperate attempt to find the right way out, or we start thinking with our brains."

"Well, then start running that hamster in your head, Mr. 'I ask intelligent questions'." Said Tommaso. "What's your plan?"

"The confidence you place in me flatters me." He joked jovially. Then his eyes became more serious, while maintaining a small smile. "I can confidently state that we are not going around in circles. If you notice, the branch that Tommaso broke is not on the ground. Also, the trunk that I hit had ophelias at its foot, while now it does not have a single flower. In conclusion, it is the trees that move. And I bet if we tried to go back, we still couldn't get out of this forest. We are trapped."

"Your plan, then, is...?" Tommaso repeated, getting nervous.

Diego took a breath and gave a big smile. "I don't know."

Tommaso grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to himself. "You're just wasting my time!" He exclaimed, gritting his teeth.

"I told you. Patience is a virtue." He said calmly, not caring at all about the situation he was in. He took the hand that held his collar and pushed it away. "If we are patient, we will find our way out. Let's keep walking in the meantime." He adjusted his shirt as if nothing had happened and led the group. Manuele was the first to follow him, after casting a glance at Tommaso. The latter sighed with a grunt and stood behind the two.

"Not that I don't trust you..." Manuele began, looking at the trees around them. "But what are we doing? I feel like we're going in circles, and like you said, we'll never come to a solution this way."

"Turning in circles? I don't think so. We have a good idea of what's going on. We just have to figure out how to overcome it. And we can find the solution by keeping walking."

Manuele lowered his shoulders and sighed. He did not understand what he was getting at. Diego stopped in his tracks and stared at something to his left. "Let's go this way."

"Why, what did you see?" Manuele asked curiously.

"Let's find out."

Manuele stared at the spot the boy had previously observed, and it was a strange tree, differently shaped than the others, with branches that intertwined in an unusual way.

"I don't understand. Did this tree attract you? It's strange, yes, but we've seen others like it."

"Sure, because we've passed it several times before." He explained.

"Then what are we doing?"

"Of course if I hadn't been here, you two would have died here." Chuckled Diego. Tommaso grew nervous at his response.

"Don't underestimate me, stick." Said the man in a low, dangerous voice.

"I don't underestimate you, don't worry. I just admitted the truth." He asserted carelessly, drawing Tommaso's hatred to himself. "The tree that you, Manuele, mentioned, we have seen several times, it is true. And it is also a strange tree, different from the others, but that is not the reason why I changed our path. All the trees were always changing their position. Some of them we would find to the right, others in front of us. Except for this one, no. This tree was always only on our left. This is what intrigued me, my comrades. Nothing more, nothing less."

After a few minutes, they saw the exit. Manuele smiled radiantly. Once outside, he turned to Diego and asked a question. "Do you have an ability that allows you to detect strange things?" He asked simplistically. Tommaso looked at him out of the corner of his eye, waiting for the answer.

Diego chuckled, "No, nothing like that. I simply like to consider myself a good observer."

The trio resumed walking, until they found themselves in front of a wooden bridge suspended in a ravine. By means of ropes, it attached itself to wooden poles placed on both sides.

"That bridge does not give me a good feeling of safety. Not at all." Manuele shook his head with a snap of his tongue. To look at him, he looked unstable. He was overtaken by Tommaso, who approached the suspension bridge and put his foot on it.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're not exactly a feather." Said Diego with a slight note of amusement and approaching him. "How about going over last? If it collapses as you pass, Manuele and I would have no way to pass." He prodded.

"But if it doesn't collapse, that means it can safely hold the weight of you wrens." He retorted with slight anger. Then he explained. "I'll go by myself. Once I get to the other side, it will be your turn."

Diego looked him in the eye. He thought about it for a few seconds before smiling and speaking. "And I thought your hamster was lazy." He stepped back and let him cross the bridge.

As soon as he began to walk, being careful where he put his feet, nonhuman cries began to be heard from the woods.

Manuele and Diego drew their swords and turned their backs to the bridge. "I figured it wouldn't be so easy." Affirmed Diego.

"What are they?"

"The most annoying creatures possible..."

Dozens and dozens of Goblins began to emerge from the woods, wielding weapons, including knives, swords, and sabers.

These jumped at the two Adventurers, but they managed to defeat them easily.

"This is more of a battle of attrition for us." Diego explained. "There seem to be hundreds of them, ready to bite our throats. They are weak, but there are still too many of them." They would have to hold out until Tommaso had crossed the ravine.

Manuele cast a quick glance at him and saw that he was not even halfway across the bridge. "Not to rush you, but hurry up!"

"No!" exclaimed Diego loudly toward Tommaso. "Go slow, take it easy. Do everything to keep that bridge from collapsing!" If the bridge had collapsed, not only would Tommaso have fallen off, but both Diego and Manuele would have been stuck there.

Tommaso advanced, step by step, holding on to the ropes as well. He was too focused as well to respond to the other two. His eyes, having to watch where he put his feet, fixed on the void below him. He kept going, until he reached the other side and stepped off the bridge, releasing at a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

"It's your turn!" He shouted to his companions. The latter did not let him repeat it twice. They turned toward the bridge and began to run, knowing they had no other choice. The bridge began to sway left and right. The situation worsened when the Goblins jumped on it as well.

The two boys ran with difficulty. The bridge rocked harder and harder. The Goblins caught up with them and the duo had to defend themselves against their attacks.

"They tired me out!" Diego exclaimed with an annoyed frown. He turned toward them and opened the palm of his hand, out of which came a fairly large fireball that struck at high speed many of the Goblins present.

The bridge could stand no more, and the ropes on the side where Tommaso was standing broke. The Warrior acted quickly enough to grasp the ropes firmly before the bridge fell. His feet sank slightly into the ground because of the weight he was supporting. He gritted his teeth from the effort and continued to hold.

Diego and Manuele ran quickly, not caring about the other remaining Goblins. Reaching the other bank, Tommaso let go of his grip on the ropes, dropping the bridge and the rest of the creatures that had remained on it.

The three took a few breaths.

"Good thing it was you who said that patience is a virtue..." Tommaso said in a low voice, casting a glance at Diego.

"Yeah, well...I have a limit too. Let's keep walking."

They continued straight ahead. After a few minutes, they were confused by what they found in front of them. A door. And that was it, literally. The door stood in nothingness. All around, there was only a huge expanse of green. The door had decorations, with three coats of arms engraved at the top. Diego opened that door suspended in the air with curiosity, and what he found on the other side did not surprise him.

"I wonder what I was expecting..." As was to be expected, the door led nowhere.

"Maybe we need to solve a puzzle." Manuele surmised.

Suddenly, an engraved coat of arms lit up on the door, more specifically the one on the left. A few seconds later, it went out and returned to the way it was before.

The two looked with a mixture of curiosity and amazement.

"There's something here!" Tommaso's loud but distant voice called to them. He stood in a distant spot to their left. They reached it in a few minutes' run and saw a hexagonal stone embedded in the ground.

"What is it?" Manuele asked, looking at it more closely. He noticed that it was similar to one of the coats of arms on the door.

"I don't know." Tommaso replied. "But when I did this, something happened." He added, subsequently placing his foot on top of the stone. This glowed, only to go out a few seconds later.

"It is connected to the door." Affirmed Diego confidently.

"There are two others." Manuele said, earning the glances of his two companions. "In the door, the coats of arms were on three different sides. One on the left, one on the right, and one in front. Surely, this stone is connected to the one on the left. We are missing the other two. Diego and I are looking for those two."

"What about me?" Tommaso asked.

"You stay here. It is clear that these stones need to be activated at the same time." Manuele said.

"Clear, huh?" Diego looked at him curiously. "How do you know?"

"But where have you lived until now?" He asked, looking incredulous. "Haven't you ever played videogames? Uncharted, Resident Evil? No? A lot of games have puzzles that have to be overcome with at least two characters having to do an action at the same time in order to open secret passages. And this here is one of those puzzles."

Diego chuckled. "Well, if the expert says so, I trust him."

"All right, nerd. But you said we have to activate them at the same time. How do we do that?" Tommaso asked with a frown. At this question, Manuele smiled and turned his gaze to Diego, who looked at him curiously.

"You will throw your fireball into the air. That will be the signal to press the stones. That way, we will all do it together and the door will open."

"All right, but how can I tell that you are in position as well?"

"The two stones should be about the same distance from here, just in two different positions. At least, that's what I think. Just in case, once you get there, wait a few minutes before casting your magic."

"You got it." Said Diego in a joking tone. "Let's hit the road, then."

The two walked in different directions. Manuele passed a hill, continuing straight ahead from where the door was. He thought the stone could be found in that direction, and he was not wrong. A few steps away from him was the same hexagonal stone. He looked to his right, waiting for Diego's signal.

After a minute, he saw a burst of fire in the sky that lit up the sky for a few seconds. That was the signal. He quickly pressed the stone and it lit up. That was not all, however. A beam of light came out of the stone and reached the dark sky. He looked around and saw that the exact same thing happened at the other two locations where the stones were located. Two beams of light reached the sky.

The three of them returned to the spot where the door was located. Diego walked over and opened it. This time, in front of him he did not find the same landscape. A little further away, he saw a stone wall. He turned to Manuele with a wry smile. "Well, kudos to you." He said.

"Ah! And then they say videogames don't teach anything!" Manuele scoffed at those words. He approached Diego, who stepped to the side and extended his arm toward the portal.

"You first." He invited him to enter first. Manuele walked through.

Soon after, it was Diego and Tommaso's turn.

END OF CHAPTER.

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Two more new characters. It can be assumed, therefore, that another character will be introduced in the next chapter, since only Lucia, Sofia and ??? are missing. Let me just tell you that it is that classic character that in a dnd campaign can never be missing.

As usual, I ask you to comment, review and leave a power stone.

See you tomorrow, same time. Bye!