Chapter 303: Changing Times.
He didn't know when it was, but Jinx had again disappeared for a while now.
'Where are you...? I want you with me this time...' he spoke in his mind.
He remembered that Jinx had also disappeared during the time he had met her. Was it on purpose? Ozul didn't know. But because of the weird connection that they shared, he believed that if he were to just call her in his mind, she would surely appear sooner or later.
And just as he expected, she did. But not until he had reached the forest.
———————
With his new speed, it didn't take long for him to arrive above the Old Whispering Woods on the same day.
He wasn't sure if he would really find that druid again in this forest, but he had nowhere else to start.
And just as he had expected, Jinx appeared around him sometime later when he landed on the ground and decided to travel by foot. The trees around this part of the forest were quite tall and it was inconvenient to look for her from above as the tall and dense canopies hindered his vision.
From the journal containing the information on exotic animals, he had learned that the Dark Druid was one of a kind, and stumbling upon it was completely up to luck.
"Let's hope we find her soon..." Ozul muttered. He wasn't confident in finding her so easily, "Well we have a little less than a year to find her..."
Previously when he had encountered her, he wasn't able to sense the Druid at all until she was so close to him. Even then, she didn't give him any particular feeling except for how he didn't find her as unpleasant as he found many other beings and objects.
For now, he expanded his area of focus to maximum and started to travel deeper inside the forest at a speed practically invisible to any Mage below Rank-9.
.. .
Just like that, Ozul's search for the Druid began while the world itself awaited and prepared to watch what would happen at the end of the year.
Except for a few individuals, the rest of the world was completely clueless about why even the strongest pillars of the continent were forced to move out from the Neutral Lands.
While Ozul searched, Raven and Blaze worked endlessly to expand the influence of the Three-Eyed Strangers, albeit discreetly.
Their first aim remained all the small organizations all around the world. They didn't try to integrate their spies into those millions of unnamed groups since that was a task that required tens of years and they didn't have so much time.
Raven also didn't think that Ozul would find whatever information he wanted from those unnamed groups.
Unless an organization was famous enough to at least control a fraction of resources, it wouldn't hold anything valuable.
Their strategy was simple and ruthless: they chose a small region and began to cause chaos anonymously, creating situations in which all organizations would run out of manpower and be forced to recruit more people under them.
For a few organizations, they didn't have any other choice but to kill a few as well.
Neither of them had any sense of justice or the heart of buddha. They did what had to be done in order to achieve what they wanted to achieve.
Just like that, small regions from all over the world faced sudden situations where they would be forced to hire more people under them. What no one noticed was that after they were finished with new recruitments, the troubling situations would just as suddenly disappear as well.
From smaller regions to bigger counties and then kingdoms, it felt as if this year was just unlucky for everyone.
A few of the organizations did notice that something was off, but Raven and Blaze both didn't go overboard. They were careful with every step since Ozul had warned them that he wouldn't come to help.
.. .
While the world was plunged into unlucky times for the unfortunate organizations of relatively smaller scales, the Church of Light didn't have room to breathe either.
All the loyal allies of the Church all felt its plight as they were called to search for the ancestor.
After a few weeks, the Leonhard Dynasty and the Mercenary Guild were starting to have some suspicions as well.
What caught Lammert off guard was when the Ashin Family suddenly started to usurp the Church's territories outside of the Neutral Lands!
The Church was thrown into another fit of anxiety and desperation with this unfortunate news.
At this moment, Lammert sat on the main seat of the chapel with scrunched-up expressions. His hands were itching to pull out his own hairs in front of all the Bishops kneeling and trembling before him.
"How! How!? They must know something! But HOW?!" Lammert shouted hysterically.
It had been weeks but he didn't receive any news of Darcia. She had suddenly disappeared from the face of the continent. No matter how or where he searched, there were no traces left of her!
At this point, even if he didn't want to believe it, the possibilities of her death became evident. Though he didn't stop the search, he did start thinking of ways to contain this information.
He even secretly executed a few of the Bishops who knew that Darcia had left after Ozul just so no one would come to the same conclusion as him.
The Church had just as many enemies as it had friends. But those allies only remained since it had the backing of a Rank-10 Mage. Once the news reached their ears, no one would be loyal enough to willingly be taken down together with the Church.
'Just How Did They Know!?' Lammert didn't think that the Ashin family suddenly taking advantage of their situation was coincidental.
Their sudden intrusion into the Church's territories at these times was such a shock for Lammert that he almost declared war against them in a fit of madness.
He couldn't think of a single way to save the Church's downfall if things continued to go like this, hence his frustration which he took out on the Bishops.
Meanwhile, in the confusion, Lammert also overlooked the disappearance of one of their priests during the search.
.. .
This year proved to be turbulent for many but most kept to themselves in anticipation of future events.
The Leonhard Dynasty was one of such organizations.
Although the people of the Leonhard Dynasty were famous for being hotheads and muscle brains, they didn't actually lack in the battle of wits and intelligence either.
During these unstable times, the Leonhard Dynasty didn't make any bold moves.
The Mercenary Guild tried the same but their involvement was inevitable due to the structure of their business.
Organizations and individual people posted requests, and it was up to the mercenaries to accept or reject. Hence, they were involved in most if not all major events all over the world.
Many organizations chose to do the same or at least decreased their involvement in worldly affairs. Their reasons centered on the fact that their members were suddenly visited by that old monster who had forced even the Rank-10 Mages to bend to his will.
In essence, no one remained unaffected by the sudden declaration of Old Gu to leave the Neutral Lands and him suddenly appearing before random people to give them an invitation.
Those people in question who were invited were mostly all excited. All of them trained harder than ever in seclusion.
After all, this wasn't something that they had ever heard of before.
It would be dangerous. But more than anything, they anticipated the rewards.
———————
While the world was thrown into an ever-increasing turmoil, Ozul continued to search for the Dark Druid simply for a few questions.
Unfortunately, even with his speed, he wasn't able to find any traces of her.
He had completely searched the Old Whispering Woods with no clues of her whatsoever after just a month.
After he had searched the whole forest, he didn't stop searching but instead moved to a different location that was known to be equally dangerous and mysterious as the Old Whispering Woods.
Still, he didn't have much luck in finding her.
'It wasn't wrong...' Ozul finally began to understand how true the statement about the Dark Druid in that journal was.
The author had confidently stated in the journal that one could only catch a glimpse of that creature with luck. They wouldn't be able to find that Druid if they purposely searched for her.
What Ozul didn't expect was that he wasn't able to find her even with his abilities.
He sat on a tree branch in the middle of the night. Jinx was curled into his lap, comfortably purring in his embrace.
He gazed at the sky for a while before playing with that new ability of his.
Just as he willed it, the dark aura was released from his body like the Ball of Purity. It enveloped his whole body, bringing a qualitative change to his abilities.
But just like earlier, he could only maintain this state for a while before he started feeling tired.
'Maybe for half an hour?' Ozul guessed his limits before closing his eyes.
If he ever needed to, this ability would be a trump card so he needed to be certain of its limits as well.
...
For the next couple of days, he searched all around strange and dangerous places but he had no luck in finding the Druid's traces.
Standing near Jinx while looking over a steep hill, Ozul even wondered if he would be able to find her before the tournament started.
Just as he was about to jump off, he suddenly had a thought.
Slowly turning around, he looked down at Jinx who simply stared back at him in response.
"Can you find her?" Ozul asked.
He was doubtful if she could, but he had a sudden urge to at least give it a try.
After not getting any response from Jinx for a few seconds, he shook his head and was about to turn around when Jinx stood up and began to walk ahead of him.
This came as a pleasant surprise to Ozul as he hurriedly followed after her.
The fact that Jinx could lead him to her even though she wasn't there the last time meant a lot of things but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt as if there really could be a deeper connection between them and the Dark Druid.
But unless he met the Druid again, he could not make any solid conclusion.
Jinx had done many unthinkable tasks before as well. So even if he couldn't be sure why Jinx was able to lead him; he didn't doubt her ability to do so after she started walking ahead of him.
'Where are you...? I want you with me this time...' he spoke in his mind.
He remembered that Jinx had also disappeared during the time he had met her. Was it on purpose? Ozul didn't know. But because of the weird connection that they shared, he believed that if he were to just call her in his mind, she would surely appear sooner or later.
And just as he expected, she did. But not until he had reached the forest.
———————
With his new speed, it didn't take long for him to arrive above the Old Whispering Woods on the same day.
He wasn't sure if he would really find that druid again in this forest, but he had nowhere else to start.
And just as he had expected, Jinx appeared around him sometime later when he landed on the ground and decided to travel by foot. The trees around this part of the forest were quite tall and it was inconvenient to look for her from above as the tall and dense canopies hindered his vision.
From the journal containing the information on exotic animals, he had learned that the Dark Druid was one of a kind, and stumbling upon it was completely up to luck.
"Let's hope we find her soon..." Ozul muttered. He wasn't confident in finding her so easily, "Well we have a little less than a year to find her..."
Previously when he had encountered her, he wasn't able to sense the Druid at all until she was so close to him. Even then, she didn't give him any particular feeling except for how he didn't find her as unpleasant as he found many other beings and objects.
For now, he expanded his area of focus to maximum and started to travel deeper inside the forest at a speed practically invisible to any Mage below Rank-9.
.. .
Just like that, Ozul's search for the Druid began while the world itself awaited and prepared to watch what would happen at the end of the year.
Except for a few individuals, the rest of the world was completely clueless about why even the strongest pillars of the continent were forced to move out from the Neutral Lands.
While Ozul searched, Raven and Blaze worked endlessly to expand the influence of the Three-Eyed Strangers, albeit discreetly.
Their first aim remained all the small organizations all around the world. They didn't try to integrate their spies into those millions of unnamed groups since that was a task that required tens of years and they didn't have so much time.
Raven also didn't think that Ozul would find whatever information he wanted from those unnamed groups.
Unless an organization was famous enough to at least control a fraction of resources, it wouldn't hold anything valuable.
Their strategy was simple and ruthless: they chose a small region and began to cause chaos anonymously, creating situations in which all organizations would run out of manpower and be forced to recruit more people under them.
For a few organizations, they didn't have any other choice but to kill a few as well.
Neither of them had any sense of justice or the heart of buddha. They did what had to be done in order to achieve what they wanted to achieve.
Just like that, small regions from all over the world faced sudden situations where they would be forced to hire more people under them. What no one noticed was that after they were finished with new recruitments, the troubling situations would just as suddenly disappear as well.
From smaller regions to bigger counties and then kingdoms, it felt as if this year was just unlucky for everyone.
A few of the organizations did notice that something was off, but Raven and Blaze both didn't go overboard. They were careful with every step since Ozul had warned them that he wouldn't come to help.
.. .
While the world was plunged into unlucky times for the unfortunate organizations of relatively smaller scales, the Church of Light didn't have room to breathe either.
All the loyal allies of the Church all felt its plight as they were called to search for the ancestor.
After a few weeks, the Leonhard Dynasty and the Mercenary Guild were starting to have some suspicions as well.
What caught Lammert off guard was when the Ashin Family suddenly started to usurp the Church's territories outside of the Neutral Lands!
The Church was thrown into another fit of anxiety and desperation with this unfortunate news.
At this moment, Lammert sat on the main seat of the chapel with scrunched-up expressions. His hands were itching to pull out his own hairs in front of all the Bishops kneeling and trembling before him.
"How! How!? They must know something! But HOW?!" Lammert shouted hysterically.
It had been weeks but he didn't receive any news of Darcia. She had suddenly disappeared from the face of the continent. No matter how or where he searched, there were no traces left of her!
At this point, even if he didn't want to believe it, the possibilities of her death became evident. Though he didn't stop the search, he did start thinking of ways to contain this information.
He even secretly executed a few of the Bishops who knew that Darcia had left after Ozul just so no one would come to the same conclusion as him.
The Church had just as many enemies as it had friends. But those allies only remained since it had the backing of a Rank-10 Mage. Once the news reached their ears, no one would be loyal enough to willingly be taken down together with the Church.
'Just How Did They Know!?' Lammert didn't think that the Ashin family suddenly taking advantage of their situation was coincidental.
Their sudden intrusion into the Church's territories at these times was such a shock for Lammert that he almost declared war against them in a fit of madness.
He couldn't think of a single way to save the Church's downfall if things continued to go like this, hence his frustration which he took out on the Bishops.
Meanwhile, in the confusion, Lammert also overlooked the disappearance of one of their priests during the search.
.. .
This year proved to be turbulent for many but most kept to themselves in anticipation of future events.
The Leonhard Dynasty was one of such organizations.
Although the people of the Leonhard Dynasty were famous for being hotheads and muscle brains, they didn't actually lack in the battle of wits and intelligence either.
During these unstable times, the Leonhard Dynasty didn't make any bold moves.
The Mercenary Guild tried the same but their involvement was inevitable due to the structure of their business.
Organizations and individual people posted requests, and it was up to the mercenaries to accept or reject. Hence, they were involved in most if not all major events all over the world.
Many organizations chose to do the same or at least decreased their involvement in worldly affairs. Their reasons centered on the fact that their members were suddenly visited by that old monster who had forced even the Rank-10 Mages to bend to his will.
In essence, no one remained unaffected by the sudden declaration of Old Gu to leave the Neutral Lands and him suddenly appearing before random people to give them an invitation.
Those people in question who were invited were mostly all excited. All of them trained harder than ever in seclusion.
After all, this wasn't something that they had ever heard of before.
It would be dangerous. But more than anything, they anticipated the rewards.
———————
While the world was thrown into an ever-increasing turmoil, Ozul continued to search for the Dark Druid simply for a few questions.
Unfortunately, even with his speed, he wasn't able to find any traces of her.
He had completely searched the Old Whispering Woods with no clues of her whatsoever after just a month.
After he had searched the whole forest, he didn't stop searching but instead moved to a different location that was known to be equally dangerous and mysterious as the Old Whispering Woods.
Still, he didn't have much luck in finding her.
'It wasn't wrong...' Ozul finally began to understand how true the statement about the Dark Druid in that journal was.
The author had confidently stated in the journal that one could only catch a glimpse of that creature with luck. They wouldn't be able to find that Druid if they purposely searched for her.
What Ozul didn't expect was that he wasn't able to find her even with his abilities.
He sat on a tree branch in the middle of the night. Jinx was curled into his lap, comfortably purring in his embrace.
He gazed at the sky for a while before playing with that new ability of his.
Just as he willed it, the dark aura was released from his body like the Ball of Purity. It enveloped his whole body, bringing a qualitative change to his abilities.
But just like earlier, he could only maintain this state for a while before he started feeling tired.
'Maybe for half an hour?' Ozul guessed his limits before closing his eyes.
If he ever needed to, this ability would be a trump card so he needed to be certain of its limits as well.
...
For the next couple of days, he searched all around strange and dangerous places but he had no luck in finding the Druid's traces.
Standing near Jinx while looking over a steep hill, Ozul even wondered if he would be able to find her before the tournament started.
Just as he was about to jump off, he suddenly had a thought.
Slowly turning around, he looked down at Jinx who simply stared back at him in response.
"Can you find her?" Ozul asked.
He was doubtful if she could, but he had a sudden urge to at least give it a try.
After not getting any response from Jinx for a few seconds, he shook his head and was about to turn around when Jinx stood up and began to walk ahead of him.
This came as a pleasant surprise to Ozul as he hurriedly followed after her.
The fact that Jinx could lead him to her even though she wasn't there the last time meant a lot of things but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt as if there really could be a deeper connection between them and the Dark Druid.
But unless he met the Druid again, he could not make any solid conclusion.
Jinx had done many unthinkable tasks before as well. So even if he couldn't be sure why Jinx was able to lead him; he didn't doubt her ability to do so after she started walking ahead of him.
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