The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 1021: The Stranger

— Why not tell Mr. Lu Li the truth?

At the edge of the withered forest, Mildred Humphrey and Blitz Tyler watched as the fog swallowed the students' figures.

— This is his chance... You didn't tell him either.

Mildred Humphrey watched the figure walk into the fog, then turned and headed back to the cabin.

...

A viscous gray fog, like molten cheese, pulled at Lu Li. It blocked the path of his companions and muffled the surrounding sounds, leaving him to move in complete silence.

Just as the viscosity threatened to slow his steps to a crawl, the fog vanished without a trace, like the last wisp of smoke from an extinguished campfire.

Lu Li stepped out of the fog.

Vast and gloomy, dim and oppressive, a dead forest tangled in vines stretched into the distance, its branches like those of the Distorted Figure, frozen in the air.

Roots hanging from the canopy resembled the ridges inside a seashell, while shorter ones dangled high in the air like stalactites. The shift in scale was so jarring it felt as if his own consciousness had shrunk. Unfortunately, Lu Li couldn't find a single familiar landmark anywhere around him.Lu Li pulled a guiding needle from his inner pocket. Its pointer aimed directly at the bizarre, withered forest of the Distorted Figure ahead. Opening a small wooden box containing an eyeball, he summoned the Trader, Antoni, to confirm his location.

The guiding needle could only keep Lu Li from getting lost in the vast Swamps. Antoni the Trader could help him find an exit, but the "exit" Ernie Hamilton Wayne had mentioned and the "exit" from the Swamps were not necessarily the same destination.

Antoni the Trader quickly took his bearings and confirmed they were in the northern part of the Swamps. To get back, Lu Li would have to head south by entering the withered forest in the distance.

After scanning his surroundings and making sure there were no clues left behind, Lu Li skirted the marshy puddles and headed for the withered forest.

Remaining in the open swamp seemed safer than entering a withered forest that could obscure his senses. But for Lu Li, the forest was his natural ally.

The Swamps.

As a Forbidden Zone bordering Midnight, the Old Sewer, and the Academy of Giant Trees, the Swamps were constantly being explored and weakened. In some ways, the surface might have been even more dangerous than this dim world.

But that didn't mean it was safe; the Swamps were a Forbidden Zone, after all, and terrifying creatures still roamed its unknown regions and depths.

And this was the deep part of the Swamps.

Lu Li was alone, yet it seemed he wasn't.

Keeping his distance from the dead silence of the mudflats, which concealed who-knows-what, Lu Li walked for several minutes, only drawing slightly closer to the distant withered forest.

It was farther than it appeared, but fortunately, the broken mudflats revealed a fractured path leading to the withered forest. The surrounding area was open enough that he didn't have to worry about sudden attacks; he just had to be wary of the nearby pools of mire.

His boots pressed into the soft earth. A clump at the edge slid into the mire, sending out a ripple that was suddenly thrown back toward the bank by a much stronger one.

A tremor pulsed from deep beneath his feet. The surrounding bogs, faintly reflecting the dim canopy, were covered in viscous ripples, creating a murky, distorted world.

Looking around, Lu Li glanced to the east, where the subterranean tremor seemed to originate—

Unfurling his map, he saw that the eastern area was marked as the mining district of the underground dwellers.

The tremor was likely coming from the mines.

The shaking continued for several tens of seconds, leaving behind murky mudflats that had not yet settled.

Lu Li scanned the area again. Many of the disturbed mudflats were now bubbling, and indistinct shapes rose to the surface before quickly vanishing as if nothing had happened.

Memorizing their locations and giving them a wide berth, Lu Li stepped over the mud and pressed forward, his steps firm.

The subterranean tremors from the mining district repeated several more times at a near-constant frequency. Each time, they churned the mud, revealing the safe path to the dense forest while simultaneously tossing various objects from the mire onto the bank.

For instance, a set of clothes, thrown onto the bank and caked in silt, its color impossible to discern.

He poked the muddy clothing with a branch and discovered an arm bone wrapped within, covered in bite marks of an unknown age.

Tossing the branch aside, Lu Li skirted the mudflat, which lay at the edge of the withered forest.

He entered the dark, dead forest. Not the slightest breeze stirred, and the only sound was his own footsteps; the trees were lifeless.

Walking through the dead forest, Lu Li felt like someone strolling through a cemetery of tombstones—calm and solemn.

It was not Lu Li's arrival that broke the peace of this place, but a series of quiet, muffled cries.

— An Exorcist? Over here, I'm here...

Following the sound, he saw the roots of a withered tree tightly wrapped around a strange creature. A hideous, deformed, spider-like form seemed to be consuming a poor girl, and a corrosive fluid was causing her half-devoured body to rot and decay—

However, the situation was not as gruesome and horrific as it first appeared.

The spider-like form and the girl's upper body belonged to a single consciousness. Only the corrosion and decay were truly harming the spider-girl's body.

— I'm from the Academy of Giant Trees...

The spider-girl, trapped in the cage of roots, appealed to Lu Li for help, tossing him an academy insignia similar to his own:

— Exorcist, help me get out.

When the two insignias were joined, they formed the complete image of the Giant Tree. It was a badge from the Lower Academy.

Lu Li's gaze fell on the roots tightly entwining the spider-girl, forming a stomach-like sac that was slowly digesting her.

"These trees are alive. Don't get too close, they'll attack you," the spider-girl warned from her prison.

That was why she hadn't resisted, enduring the pain of being digested as nourishment—

— What should I do?

— Try using fire.

Lu Li didn't follow her advice. Instead, he focused his mind, trying to sense the forest. But just as when he first entered this withered wood, it felt like a graveyard where the trees had erected their own tombstones. There wasn't the slightest sign of life, and even infusing it with humanity would likely only turn the tree trunks into soil from which new plants might grow.

— This isn't connected to the forest. It's not a part of it.

And the key point was this: Lu Li felt no emotion coming from the root prison.

Friendliness, welcome, rejection, hatred... there was none of it.

For Lu Li, as the Lord of [Treewhisperer], the truth was obvious.

— What does that mean?

— It's probably some kind of anomaly imitating the appearance of tree roots. Freeing you won't provoke any resistance from the forest.

Slightly stunned, the spider-girl plunged her sharp forelimbs into the roots. The prison squirmed, shrank from the damage, and retreated into the ground, leaving the now-freed spider-girl with a vexed expression.

No surprises, no conspiracies.

If Lu Li hadn't shown up, the spider-girl would have likely been forced to fight back before the corrosion caused her serious harm, only to then discover the truth—the predator had nearly been eaten by its weak prey.

Lu Li stood nearby, waiting calmly as the spider-girl treated her wounds.

The serious wounds, which would have been fatal to a human, didn't seem to bother the spider-girl at all. She took some crushed herbs from a pouch on her belt and applied them to her body, mixing them with the rot and pus from the digestion process until she was coated in a layer of sludge.

— I'm so lucky to have run into an Exorcist. Before we came in, we were all talking about whether we'd have a chance to meet you. Can I follow you and be your companion?

The lively, cheerful, and talkative spider-girl, who brought a spark of life to the "graveyard," then swore an oath.

— Wherever your sword points, that is the way!