Now, Adrian had a choice. He could either enter the unknown formation that leads to who knows where, or he could turn around and leave now and try to make the perilous journey back by himself.
"Well, I’ve co this far. Why not?" Adrian mused to himself as he steeled his resolve. With light steps, Adrian walked forward and stood in the centre of the formation.
As soon as he reached the centre of the formation, the golden hue of the formation surrounding him intensified rapidly.
Without warning, Adrian’s vision beca blurry as he felt his surroundings shift. The rapidly shifting surroundings beca disorienting, and he had to close his eyes in order to avoid the dizziness.
Because he practiced the astral steps, Adrian beca slightly familiar with the laws of space. So when he felt the space surrounding him beco stable, he knew that the teleportation was over.
He opened his eyes and soon felt in awe at the breathtaking view.
When Adrian opened his eyes, he found himself standing on top of a cliff with a breathtaking view. From afar, he could see a palace located between two mountains, the view eerily similar to what was on the map.
’The map!’ As soon as his thoughts settled, he rembered the map that he had been holding before he entered the teleportation array.
He looked around frantically for it but couldn’t find it anywhere around him.
"It seems that the map was the key to this place.
What even is this place?"
Adrian murmured to himself. However, even though he asked the question, he could make so guesses.
’It seems like I entered a mystic realm.’ However, this one seems a little small. From the books I read, shouldn’t they be bigger than this?’
’This one is barely the size of a town. I feel like I can see the end of it from here.’ Adrian thought to himself as he put his hand horizontally over his eyes and peered into the distance.
Indeed, aside from the castle between two mountains, there was nothing to see on the horizon. A faint mist hovered around the edges, as if marking a boundary.
Adrian turned around and saw that there wasn’t much behind him as well. Only about a dozen ters of land before the sa mist hovered in a circular format.
The total size of this mystic realm only amounted to about 15 to 20 km². He reckoned that it wouldn’t even take him half a day to get to the castle in the distance.
He was also a bit confused. Normally, mystic realms were usually filled with various dangers and perils that one would have to overco before they got to the prize.
But from seeing the size of this one, he doubted how dangerous the journey would be. As he walked to the edge of the cliff and peered over, a scene that seed to answer his previous question ca into view.
A maze that spanned the entire expanse of the mystic realm ca into view. Starting from the bottom of the cliff, all the way to the castle in the distance, stood a seemingly endless expanse of stone walls that made their way towards the castle in the distance.
"What a huge maze!" Adrian muttered to himself in surprise.
"No wonder I didn’t see those guys earlier. They must have already ventured into the maze."
However, Adrian didn’t rush. He wanted to make full use of his advantage. He sat down at the edge of the cliff and started studying the maze.
For hours, he tried to find various patterns and pathways that he could follow that would lead him out of the maze.
However, after studying it for a while, a slight frown creased his eyebrows. It wasn’t that he found the maze too difficult. Quite the opposite.
He found it a bit too easy. He was expecting a complex array of twists and turns that would require him to use all his strength. However, that didn’t seem to be the case.
He mused that even if he didn’t study the maze from above, it still wouldn’t be too difficult to pass it.
"If that’s the case, those guys from earlier should already be close to completing it."
He muttered to himself.
However, would a trial set in a mystic realm be that easy to complete? This question gnawed at him.
He had a feeling that there was more about this maze that he hadn’t uncovered yet. However, there wasn’t much he could do from atop the cliff.
He made up his mind and imdiately began descending the cliff. When he reached the bottom of the cliff, what greeted him was the sight of five different entrances.
This was part of the reason why he waited atop the cliff to study the maze. You would think that finding the correct entrance was also part of the maze, right?
So did Adrian. However, from his study, all of the paths seed to be the correct one. All of them, without fail, seed to lead to the other side.
This made him wonder the point of having multiple entrances in the first once. Sensing sothing amiss, Adrian decided to go for the entrance in the center.
This one seed the most straightforward and would take the least amount of ti to cross. After all, he was still worried about Julian and his crew and wanted to catch up with them as soon as possible.
If he took too long, they may whisk away all the benefits that could be present in this mystic realm.
As soon as he stepped into the passage at the center, the atmosphere changed. The silence was heavier, pressing against his ears. The air carried an unnatural stillness, like the world inside the maze existed separately from the one outside.
The world outside felt distant, as if muffled behind an unseen barrier. The maze did not close behind him, nor did the walls shift, yet he felt like he had stepped into a different space, ironically.
Honestly, he was a bit let down by it. He was expecting so dramatic reaction from the maze, but all he got was silence.
However, he wasn’t totally disappointed. He could feel a formless weight pressing down on his shoulders, subtle yet insidious.
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