Way of the Knights

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The Withered Forest of the West.

This place held many memories for Raven. It became his second home when the Kingdom was destroyed and everyone else died. 

The Withered Forest is about 5 kilometers in diameter, it is surrounded with a wall of poisonous thorns which will cause one's body to decay at a visible pace should they touch them. That being said, these wall of thorns didn't prevent the evidence of decay from seeping out of the forest, this is through the dead soil about a couple meters away from the actual forest.

There are two entrances to the forest, one on its north and one on its west. 

Raven is currently entering the western entrance since it was the closest to him. 

As he walked towards the forest, Raven remained alert yet also relaxed. His eyes reflected several images of him roaming and living his previous life here. He couldn't help but to smile, thinking: 'Those were the days.'

Indeed, those were the days. 

The days when he struggled to get proper rest due to paranoia. The days when he endured hunger. The days when he nearly lost himself due to loneliness. The days when he felt like suicide was a tempting offer. The days when he felt cold, alone and afraid. The days when he picked himself up and gnashed his teeth in order to survive.

Indeed…those were truly the days. 

"This smell…" Raven's face turned slightly ugly, "A fresh victim of the thorns huh?"

He activated his ocular technique and scanned everything within 200 meters around him. His hunch was correct, not too far away from where he is, there is a dead beast which appears to be a huge boar with wings. 

"It probably attempted to escape." Raven muttered, "Sadly, the forest didn't want it to leave."

He shook his head and entered the forest. As soon as he took his first step inside, the scenery around changed every so slightly. The wall of thorns wriggled and trapped him in, the dead trees seemingly became taller and the atmosphere suddenly turned gloomier. At the same time, Raven also felt several eyes looking his way. 

Raven smiled and shrugged it all off. Once he did so, the changes disappeared and everything inside the forest return to its previous state…or so it seems.

He knew very well what just transpired here. It wasn't good in any way, shape or form but it brought a smile on his face for some reason. 

"Still the same…" he muttered under his breath. 

As one of the Four Extremes, the Withered Forest of the West surely is packing some serious threat. The dangers inside this place is just as bad as the forest's appearance. 

Records about the Four Extremes are mostly unknown. Aside from what their ancestors called them that is. Nevertheless, with Raven's journey during his previous life, he came across several records that shown details about this plane. One those gave him some details about them, however it was a pity that he longer has a use for them once he received those records. 

The Withered Forest of the West is home to the Withered Dream Tree - A sentient being that is said to feed on the dreams of the creatures who approaches it. 

The Withered Dream Tree isn't all that dangerous, when one doesn't allow it to feed on their dreams that is. It is the aftermath that takes the cherry on top. Once the Withered Dream Tree devours a dream, the victim would be affected by its decay or as the records describe - the Withering Poison. It is precisely this poison that caused this entire forest to end up like this. 

And because the Withered Dream Tree is sentient, of course it knows how to lure in its prey. The wall of thorns outside is its doing, any living being that enters this forest won't be able to leave unless they fed their dreams to the tree at least five times. But the thing is that, one only have 5 times for their dreams devoured by the tree before the Withering Poison kills them. 

Escaping is a no go either. Anyone or anything that tried to escape without fulfilling the requirements will be hunted by the tree via the wall of thorns. The corpse of the winged boar that he saw outside is the evidence of that. 

But of course, there is a way for someone to leave this place without dying. How else did Raven came to reach the peak at the Divine Realm if he didn't escape?

"For now, let's search for that damn tree." Raven said as he started walking towards the depths of this forest.

Along the way, he would often step on some decayed corpses. Some broke under his weight while some became too hard. Bones, crumbling leaves, dried twigs and all sorts of dead things were scattered on the ground. 

Raven would also find some beasts here in there but he wasn't attacked nor provoked. They became strangely docile compared to how they would usually act outside of this dead forest. 

Some beast are already affected by the Withering Poison, which a testament that these beasts are capable of dreaming as well. Some of them didn't have it that bad, while the rest could only accept their fates. 

The signs of someone suffering from the Withering Poison is very visible. These signs will appear on their faces as black veins that pulses like the regular one. Depending on how bad their affliction is, these veins could easily cover their entire body, and once it does…death is what's after. Their bodies will decay at a pace visible to the naked eye and all they could do is to watch until they could watch no more. 

It is precisely due to how the beast behaves here that Raven decided to stay here, even going as far as considering this place as his second home. He was safer here compared outside, and the reason why he was able to stay here for a long as he could is due to the fact that he didn't sleep. 

Yes, that is one way to counter the danger of this place. Don't sleep. 

A person only has dreams or nightmares when they sleep. By not sleeping, then one's dreams won't be devoured. And if one's dreams aren't devoured then they won't be affected by the Withering Poison.

By the time he arrived here during his previous life, he had long since replaced sleeping with meditation or cultivation. And since he found this place safer than the outside, he didn't have to leave. His only problem is food since he certainly didn't want to eat the poisoned beast. He solved that problem with more meditations and cultivations. 

"Hmm." Raven stopped on his tracks and looked at the sky. "It's nearly night time. I should call it a day for now. I'll find that tree tomorrow."

Upon deciding that, Raven found a decent place to erect a tent and camp. Once he found a decent spot, away from the dying beasts, he erected his tent and grabbed a bunch of flammables from spatial ring. Ne then tried setting the flammables alight but suddenly remembered one important thing.

"Oh right, any ordinary fire cannot exist here. How can I forget?" Raven chuckled as he put away his sparking stones. 

Raven learned about this as a very painful lesson. He had tried, on multiple occasions, to start a fire inside this forest only to fail miserably. Thus forcing him to endure the harsh and cold winds within this forest. 

But this doesn't mean that he can't start up a fire in here. 

Raven concentrated and clasped his hands together. Circulating his Chaos Force in a unique way, a strange heat started rising in between his palms. After a few moments, he opened his hands and on his palms, a tiny blue fire could be seen. 

This was his Soul Fire. A fire he uses whenever he concoct pills. Soul Fire is not considered as a normal fire so it bypasses whatever restriction there is in this gloomy forest. 

Once the fire touches the flammables, it spread nicely and started burning brightly. The flames were blue and its temperature isn't so high but its enough to warm him up and possibly roast some meat.

Even without him looking, he knows that the fire definitely attracted the attention of some beasts here. While he rested, he could feel some of them moving closer to him. 

However, instead of chasing them away, he let them be. In a sense, he pitied the poor beasts, they were extremely helpless in this place and could only watch as their deaths comes closer and closer. The warmth of the fire must've attracted them and given them some sort of warmth and comfort. Raven is not that cold-hearted to rob them of that. 

The beasts went closer and closer until all of them were visible to him. It was a strange scene, a human in front of a campfire being surrounded by beasts seeking some warmth. He chuckled at the thought and made the flames bigger.. After that, he then sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state.