"""
The one hundred and more successors who ca to the Underground City, it must have been a long ti later.
Even if they suddenly decided not to co, Naifertali would not bla them—for as a wise one, she naturally knew that "grace should not breed resentnt."
And the most urgent matter at the mont was to help those three young people.
Free their souls from being aninglessly corroded by nightmares.
"Regarding the happenings inside the ’Sporogenesis Mill’ nightmare, I indeed do not understand. Just as you do not understand..."
After all, this nightmare was too dangerous.
Once entered, it’s hard to extract oneself—just like a larva caught in a spider web.
Those who barely survived this nightmare would not dare to try a second ti.
—A wise one never acts recklessly.
When she realized that she could not purify this nightmare by her own power, she would not even attempt to try—it was aningless, putting oneself in danger.
Not only had Naifertali never entered this nightmare, but she also prevented Niusel who once wanted to enter this nightmare.
Niusel back then, wasn’t as steady as he is today.
He was a hot-blooded youth, like an excited large dog. He didn’t understand that there are things in this world that cannot be changed by one’s power alone—the truth of this.
However, Naifertali did not do nothing.
Although she never entered the nightmare, she had done so investigation in her spare ti.
—It was just in case.
If ever there were a chance to resolve this nightmare, or if the situation beca so urgent that one had to enter the nightmare, she could grasp the situation as quickly as possible. Not waiting to load the bullets until the enemy was in front of her.
This is called foresight.
"I have already investigated what happened in the Black Mushroom Mill years ago,"
Naifertali said seriously to Niusel, "You can tell them these matters. It might help them."
"You speak, I will rember."
The Overseer Niusel nodded.
"As you know... the incident at the Black Mushroom Mill occurred seven years ago, in July. In another seven months, it will be exactly seven years."
At this point, Naifertali paused slightly.
Speaking of which, "seven" is a lucky number.
Could this also signify sothing?
She shook her head lightly and continued, "The mill owner’s na was Ian, and he had a dwarf wife and a daughter Alice, only seven years old.
"At the ti, a strange disease had spread through this city for a while."
Those involved in the mushroom industry, blisters suddenly began to grow on their bodies. At first, it was just red spots, but later they turned into transparent blisters, becoming unbearably itchy.
And with their continued contact with mushrooms, these blisters would gradually grow bigger, gradually beco transparent, until it beca impossible to work. If the blisters were broken, those around them had a chance of becoming infected.
"Seven years ago..."
Niusel mused, "That’s when you were in the Bone Eating Forest, right?"
"Hmm, not too far from here."
Naifertali nodded, asked casually, "And you were in the exploration layer at the ti... around the Coal Ash Wasteland?"
Niusel humd in agreent, "Yes, I was quite lucky then. Later, I discovered a mining area, which is now the Miserolo excavation site."
"Then you might not know about this. Back then this place wasn’t famous, it was an area established around the ’Misty Forest’ for logging, temporarily nad ’Black Mushroom Mill.’ It wasn’t yet a proper city district, therefore, it was lacking wise ones and Diggers.
"The lumberjacks realized they might have been infected by so spores... so they sent an uninfected ssenger to the nearest city—the ’Bone-nurturing Ground’ near the Bone Eating Forest. My teacher was there at the ti."
As Naifertali spoke, she extended her hand to the Ritual Plate behind her.
In the wake of her trailing hand, a pale blue glow erged on the Ritual Plate. Quickly outlining the locations of the Grey Forest, Bone Eating Forest, Bone-nurturing Ground, Black Mushroom Mill."
"""
"’Bone Healer’ Seti?"
Niusel imdiately reacted.
Naifertali beca a sage at a young age, not unrelated to her teacher—a Gold-rank Transcendent.
As the most powerful idol wizard of the Underground Federation, as well as the most excellent healer and a knowledgeable ritualist, no one wants to offend Seti.
After all, no one knows when they might suddenly need a doctor to save their life...
Naifertali learned about the knowledge of mysterious rituals from Seti, and also picked up so basic dical skills. Because she didn’t want to beco a Transcendent, she was able to graduate early from Master Seti’s tutelage and beca a sage thanks to Seti’s connections.
"...Wait, that’s not right?"
Niusel quickly noticed sothing contradictory, "If Master Seti were there, this minor problem should have been resolved quickly."
If he hasn’t heard of it until now, it ans that the disease at the Sporogenesis Mill was a minor issue... at least it was eventually handled properly.
For many years, he had never seen a similar disease.
"The problem lies here."
Naifertali spoke slowly, "This is not a disease, but a curse poison.
"It’s poison and the curse from the followers of the spider-god ’Black Widow,’ placed in the mushrooms."
"...So Master Seti can’t resolve it?"
"How could that be possible. It’s just that, to see through and resolve the unknown curse hidden within the ’poison,’ the teacher needs more ti to develop an antidote."
The woman with red hair took a deep breath, "But the lumberjacks... they can’t wait.
"Sohow, a rumor erged among them: saying that this strange disease is incurable, and the ssenger took the chance to run away... He won’t return.
"Panic arose among the lumberjacks. But they quickly realized that, despite also working with mushrooms, Ian’s family hasn’t gotten ill.
"They pressed Ian for answers about why they weren’t sick. But it was clear that Ian didn’t know either, as he hadn’t touched the poisonous mushrooms. Ultimately, the panicked lumberjacks quickly concluded that it was Ian’s family who poisoned them."
"There was no evidence for this, and it was undoubtedly a false association. But they didn’t like Ian’s family to begin with—also workers, but Ian, with a mushroom mill, earned more money with less expenditure and less effort.
"In the end, they fell out with Ian’s family in the process of ’demanding an explanation’ and ’seeking the antidote.’ However, the Black Widow follower ’Deword’ who was hidden among the crowd, took this opportunity to incite the others again—to grind an antidote from the livers of Ian’s family.
"You know, this was a traditional redy from the pioneer days. Of course, we now know that it doesn’t work... but they were ignorant of this.
"Back then, about a quarter of the lumberjacks heeded Deword’s instigation. The rest, although they found it inappropriate and too radical, ultimately did not stop the violence of the lumberjacks—after all, they were not familiar with Ian’s family.
"They just watched from a distance.
"Ian’s wife was a fugitive murderer from the Winter Duchy... a silver-rank Transcendent criminal. But she was disabled, long tornted by the Frost Beast, and had established a Curse Binding of ’no wounding’ and ’no killing’ when she was imprisoned, and her combat strength was no longer what it once was. Her profession was ’Giant Slayer,’ which wasn’t much help in a fight; and Deword was equivalent to the Black Widow’s bishop, having murdered thirteen people, he had mastered thirteen different poisonous Transcendent abilities.
"After fighting Deword, she was overpowered but managed to escape. But seeing Ian gutted to retrieve his liver, with her daughter still sleeping upstairs, she still took up arms and killed her way back, eliminating Deword but in doing so, triggered her own Curse Binding, lost her strength, and eventually succumbed to poison.
"In the end, the family was still pushed into the gears of the mushroom grinding machine. The intense hatred and curse materialized, gushing out endlessly from the machine in a river-like flow of blood, engulfing both the waiting rioters and the onlookers, ultimately consud by the machine.
"The mill, soaked in blood, beca overgrown with mushrooms. And half a day after that... from the bewildering forest, the lost ssenger finally arrived late, bearing the ssage that ’Master Seti will arrive in three days.’
"But it was just this half a day late... everything was too late."
Naifertali sighed.
In her opinion, Ian’s wife was certainly no saint... but these rioters deserved their fate.
Their death was more than justified.
What troubled her was that the "mastermind," "wrongdoers," and "bystanders" all ended up with the sa fate... and now, even completely innocent passersby are caught in the web-like nightmare, tortured to death.
The mainstream view of nightmare studies is that hatred can greatly amplify the intensity of nightmares. Because nightmares are the wounds left by deceased Transcendents in the world, they are a bloody "testant to make the world rember my death."
And what Naifertali knew was that this nightmare was still harming innocent people.
From this perspective—this hatred fernting till now has beco twisted.
The victims of the past are now no different from the perpetrators.
—It’s ti for this [Nightmare] to be terminated.
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