I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

The babbling became extremely noisy at this moment, as if it were bursting out of Lu Ban's head and about to tear his eardrums, when everything fell silent.

A salty, damp wind, carrying the smells of sourness and decay, wafted in front of Lu Ban's nose, accompanied by a faint sound of waves.

Lu Ban felt the hard chair beneath him and looked around.

Inside this antique-style carriage, it's hard to say whether it's Eastern or Western in style; in Lu Ban's words, it might be styleless.

The car body is plain, with no decorations on the roof or seats.

It seemed to be nighttime outside; it was very dark, with only the car's interior chandelier emitting light.

Opposite Lu Ban, there was a person.

The man was wearing an out-of-place coat, a deerstalker hat, and had a briar pipe in his mouth.

He looked like an Asian, with messy, jet-black hair like seaweed, but his eyes were almost lake blue, with a touch of European angularity.

The other person also looked around the car and then focused their gaze on Lu Ban.

"Are you my travel companion?"

The person spoke, and although the language spoken was not from Earth, Lu Ban could understand it without any difficulty.

"Travelers..."

Before Lu Ban's eyes, the flickering lights formed the cold text of the system.

【Land of Night】

[A year of surging tides and towering waves, yet the blood moon did not arrive.]

The gray tower and the black tower stand in stark contrast, while the demonic tide of the Black Forest stirs, and the small town, clinging to the edge of civilization, welcomes new guests.

Relax, it's just a wedding. Offer your blessings and enjoy the feast.

[This assumes you didn't see anything you shouldn't have]

[Mission Requirements: Attend the Hai family wedding in Kushui Town and witness the union of the bride and groom]

[Mission Requirement: Survive until the wedding ends]

[Difficulty: Erosion]

Number of companions: 1

You've finally met your companion! Explore the Silent Land together; you'll become best friends, won't you?

In other words, the man in front of you, like Lu Ban, is also a chosen one of the Silent Lands?

Is this mission a joint operation for the two of them?

Perhaps sensing Lu Ban's doubt, the man chuckled and spoke.

"It seems this is your first time in a multiplayer mission. No problem, I don't mind bringing along newbies."

He wanted to say something more, and reached into his pocket, but the carriage suddenly stopped.

"what happened?"

The man asked a question and lifted the curtain of the carriage.

Looking over his shoulder, Lu Ban saw that outside the carriage, the deep night was shrouded in thick fog.

Chapter 062 In the Mist

Although Jiangcheng, where Lu Ban lives, is located by the river, it rarely experiences heavy fog. Instead, the river is mostly shrouded in a thin, misty fog, like a veil on a woman's face, enveloping the mountains and rivers.

But now, what he sees is a thick fog that obscures his vision.

A thick white fog filled the air, making visibility less than a meter from the carriage. Looking up, one couldn't see the night sky, and looking down, one could only vaguely see the cobblestone road. The swirling fog gave one a sense of unease.

The only solace was the few lights shining in the distance; their artificial glow pierced through the fog, guiding the way and radiating a sense of warmth.

The coachman was a man with dark brown hair and dark skin. He put down his whip and glanced back.

"I need to pee."

Lu Ban's companion nodded, and the two watched as the driver got off the carriage and walked into the thick fog.

He hadn't gone far; Lu Ban could still vaguely see the coachman's back through the thick fog.

“My name is Drizzt, you can also call me Drizzt. As you can see, I’m a detective.”

The companion struck a match and lit the tobacco in his pipe.

"?"

Lu Ban had some questions.

Shouldn't a name like Trist be a foreigner's name? Or is this person's surname Trist and given name Trist?

That's weird.

"However, if this is your first time encountering fellow travelers, it should have been shortly after you finished the tutorial quest, probably within the last four quests. Under such circumstances, you dared to choose the [Erosion] difficulty. You're quite bold."

Drizzt took a puff of his pipe, his gaze shifting slightly from the coachman who was pulling up his trousers to the dim lights in the distance.

"Fortunately, you've found me. Follow me. The difficulty of [Erosion] is mainly due to the unpredictability. As long as you're cautious, plan carefully, and don't trigger too many events, you'll be fine..."

When he turned his gaze back, there was suddenly no further explanation.

"Huh? Did you see that?"

Trist asked Lu Ban.

Lu Ban nodded.

The coachman had vanished without a trace.

The driver had just shaken himself up and pulled up his trousers. As he turned around, the fog thickened, slightly obscuring him, before swirling away.

Then the coachman disappeared.

Silently, without any warning, without any struggle.

Trist reached into his coat and pulled a revolver from a holster under his arm.

He slowly walked to the driver's seat, not daring to get down and investigate, but instead picked up the lantern placed to the side and shone it on the spot where the driver had disappeared.

There was no trace of the gravel path or weeds.

The fog seemed to retreat slightly in fear of the light, revealing something gray and twisted.

"Oh, right."

Suddenly, a voice came from behind Trist. He jumped, quickly withdrew the hand holding the lantern, and turned around to look.

Lu Ban sat near the door, holding a crowbar in his hand.

"Don't speak suddenly..."

Tristan broke out in a cold sweat.

"Oh."

Lu Ban nodded and continued.

"My name is Lu Ban."

"what?"

Trist was stunned, not understanding what Lu Ban meant.

"My name is Lu Ban. Let me introduce myself as a matter of courtesy."

Lu Ban repeated it.

"……understood."

Trist felt that there was something wrong with the man in front of him.

If his companions weren't hostile, he might have had to use his pistol to keep an eye on Lu Ban.

"The difficulty of the 'Erosion' skill lies not in not actively causing trouble, but also in the fact that trouble often comes looking for us. It seems that this is the first test."

He took the driver's seat and hung up the lantern.

"Our mission objectives are aligned; at the very least, we must successfully reach Drywater Town."

Lu Ban did not object.

He couldn't ride a horse or drive a carriage, so he sat in the back as a guard.

In the thick fog, only one or two lights ahead offered a glimmer of hope.

"This isn't just a random road in the wilderness... it's some abandoned villages."

Drizzt drove the carriage while looking around.

The fog is not static; it rises and falls like tides as the carriage moves and the night wind is barely perceptible. When it recedes slightly, you can see the roadside weeds and the remains hidden among them.

Those are the ruins of buildings. It's unknown what kind of impact caused the walls to collapse like this. Some of them are still standing, appearing and disappearing in the mist, like some kind of enormous beast, poised to strike.

There was no sound in the fog—no chirping of insects, no calls of birds, no rustling of nocturnal animals, nothing at all.

The cold fog carried a damp, decaying smell that seeped into the lungs, chilling the body and making one shiver uncontrollably.

A world in complete silence is like death.

Only the sounds of horses' hooves and wheels rolling over the gravel road filled my ears.

"I came to the Night Country once before, but it was a very simple survival mission. I survived for six hours in a wine cellar until dawn. As long as you have a gun and bullets, dealing with ordinary monsters is not a problem."

Drizzt may have genuinely been instructing a newcomer, or he may have been speaking to alleviate his own fear.

"I've never encountered this situation before. Are we really that close to those lights?"

When he began to have some doubts, he realized that there was no sound around him.

Yes, even the sounds of horses' hooves and wheels have disappeared.

Trist glanced back at the carriage; Lu Ban sat silently in a chair.

The cessation of the sounds of hooves and wheels meant that the vehicle had stopped.

"drive!"