Illusion

Wiping the sweat off his forehead Leo stood up and navigated towards the bathroom. He hadn't dreamt this nightmare for a long time, but it would never leave him alone. Once a month, a year, a week it came at different times, but it never stopped.

Leo threw a glance outside the window. The sun was slowly ascending. Entering the bath Leo turned on the coldest water to wash off the dream. It was one of the methods to forget the nightmare he discovered during the long years of the same thing happening.

After calming down Leo decided to clean his daggers' blades. He carefully took them out of the Inventory and started washing them under the water. Leo searched for cracks and other details that would indicate that daggers are damaged. but found none. Remembering the fight with a Cobra he swore that once in Academy he will take a weapon heavy enough to penetrate armor or scales.

Closing his door, Leo left Astrum base. While walking outside he saw some people glancing his way, but didn't mind it, because he hid his watch. He didn't want to repeat yesterday's mistake, hence made sure to prepare. Leo wore a long sleeve jacket with a hood which could hide his band and face.

Entering the forest Leo once again felt Mana density increase. He took a deep breath and chose to explore the south part of the forest. Walking deeper into the forest he found some people fighting an alligator, but they didn't seem to need help, hence Leo left them alone.

Walking further south Leo saw corpse remains, some were beasts and some people. Leo wasn't cold hearted, but wasn't affected by the death of people he didn't know. While walking near the corpses Leo noticed that all the beasts and people looked drained and unhealthy. Every corpse had a bite wound on its neck. Inspecting the remains Leo didn't see any blood, hence came to a conclusion that the culprit is a Vampiric beast that feasts on blood.

While inspecting the corpses Leo didn't notice the forest around him becoming darker and quieter. After doing the investigation Leo stood up and noticed that the forest changed drastically. He held his daggers in an defensive position and started slowly moving back towards where he came from.

While retreating Leo noticed that the sound and light came back to the forest. That piqued his interest. He stopped in his tracks and took a step towards the corpses. He noticed that the forest once again darkened and the sound became quieter the closer he got.

Shaking his head Leo tried to approach the corpses from a different angle, but the same thing happened. He deduced that there was some kind of illusion that was messing with his senses.

Before entering the area of the illusion Leo used his Mana Sense to make sure now no one was in the area. Not picking up any Mana use Leo held his daggers in a defensive position and advanced towards the graveyard of beasts and humans. While walking he saw all the corpses facing a certain direction. Turning his head to the way they were looking, Leo saw a darker part of the forest that seemed to be hidden from onlookers eyes. The nature there seemed to thrive there, everything was covered by trees, branches and bushes.

Walking towards the hidden part Leo used his dagger to push some branches and leaves to see what's beyond the greenery. Once the cover was pushed Leo could see a trampled path leading deeper into the forest. Clenching his daggers' handles Leo took a step forward.

Suddenly everything went black. Leo panicked, but quickly circulated Mana in his eyes and regained his vision, but what he saw shocked him. Previously green forest around him now turned into a dead one. Every tree and other plant was dead and grey. The only thing that was a bit different was the ground which was grey, but had trails of red. The trails led further down the path. Suddenly a system window popped up.

[ Illusion detected... ]

[ Host resisted an Illusion ! ]

[ Reward: +10Xp, +Skill { Passive } Weak immunity to Illusions ! ]

Gulping Leo wiped the sweat off his forehead and advanced further. He really didn't want to know what monster had power to create an illusion, but felt that it would be worth to explore where the trail leads.

Usually monsters with Illusion powers are very powerful. The strongest monster with illusion power is Hydra. There are stories about Hydra trapping people in never ending nightmares and torturing them till their death.

The powers that can mess with one's mind are forbidden and not taught in any of the alliance's domains. The only thing that is taught is how to defend against them and how to strengthen your mind. Leo resisting the illusion is commendable and not usually achievable among the people with weak will power.

The further Leo went the more red stains he saw. He had a weird feeling hence focused on his sense of smell and soon enough was assaulted by an iron smell.

' Blood '

Leo was not very surprised, because he kind of expected this, it was still shocking that someone could be this uncareful and just leave these stains, not minding about getting caught.

****

On the other side of the Forest...

A humanoid creature was sitting on a huge rock. In its hands one could see a beast lying lifelessly. The creature's head was strangely bent over the body of the beast and had its mouth was stuck to the beast's neck. The beast's body seemed to have an unhealthy look and looked drained. A faint slurping sound could be heard in the vicinity.

Screeeeeeech...

Suddenly the humanoid creature screeched from pain. It threw the corpse of the beast and rolled off the rock from pain. After a few minutes of agony the creature slowly stood up. Its eyes were purely red and had a tinge of madness in it. The humanoid creature looked towards the south and a huge unnatural grin appeared on its face which shouldn't be possible, because of the facial structure. Two protruding fangs could be seen extending further from its mouth giving it a wild and unattained look which could scare even a demon.

" Hehehehehe "