Mysteries: Arcana Wars

Backlund underground ▇▇▇ meters

Dungeon ▇▇▇

They put flashlights on their heads and continued to explore in the dark. Although the distance seemed not far, everyone's pace was slow due to the rough terrain.

"We are making pretty fast progress. We should be able to reach Hazel Street tonight." Evan looked at his watch and said to himself, "If it weren't for the ash killer causing trouble yesterday morning, we would have been there by now."

Fors agreed, chatting casually to relieve boredom. Looking at Fors's back, Leonard recalled the confession that Fors had just told to Gehrman.

This reminded Leonard of David Axus, the old colleague who had reached a dead end, and himself who was once as pale as paper.

Over the past few weeks, Leonard has been recalling his bleak life of more than 20 years over and over again. His original intention was to dig out the details that he had overlooked in his daily life. However, as his memories and scrutiny deepened, he could understand David's accusations against him at the time, and at the same time, he became more terrified.

Leonard agreed with David's accusation. Looking back on the short experience of "Detective Leonard" for more than 20 years, David's questioning was sharp and to the point. It was not just a simple jealousy or envy, but also a rebuke and warning.

David's dead end and Fors's complacency are things that "Detective Leonard" has never experienced before.

Of course, "Detective Leonard" doesn't need to experience these. He has enough talent to exempt ordinary people from the effort they need, enough family background to exempt ordinary people from their responsibilities, and enough indifference to exempt ordinary people from their desires.

The residents of the dungeons and slums make a living in chaos, just hoping for some Rune pounds to keep them alive for a few more days. David struggles with his wife's illness, hoping to gain some health and a future. Fors works hard to change his life, but he can't see any hope and can only keep going around in circles. Even a wealthy young master like Garrard, who looks carefree, is actually worried because of the dangerous living environment. There are terrifying hidden dangers around him, waiting for him to step into the trap one day and rush out to eat him up.

But Leonard never got to experience any of these.

With his strong talent, Pales' backing, and enough indifference and carelessness, he can walk the designed path like a clockwork puppet without much effort, and avoid material and spiritual damage when accidents happen. At the same time, "he" really doesn't have anything that can be said to be "loved". How can we talk about understanding and identification if we have not experienced it, "seen" it, and even more so, have not cared about it.

People are struggling in the world, but "Detective Leonard" is floating by this quagmire without getting stained by a speck of dust. No matter joy, anger, sorrow or happiness, they are like a gust of wind passing through his pale body, leaving no trace, as if he had never walked through the world.

Can a person who has never experienced the "human world" still be called a "human"?

Looking back now, Leonard still feels a little scared. Compared to being a living "person", "Detective Leonard" is more like an idol floating in the world, just like the beautiful images that Forth outlined in his poems, beautiful enough to sustenance people's fantasies, but they do not exist in this world after all, they are just a collection of some beautiful yearnings.

Pales would not care. He picked up "Detective Leonard" on a whim, and thought that since he was hopeless, he would just keep him. He would have done his duty if he could live to the death. The life of a mortal is very short, just a blink of an eye for an angel. Instead of spending so much effort to train him, it would be better to just wait a hundred years and restart.

This is the life of an angel, Leonard thought. For mythical creatures, supreme power makes many things so simple. What mortals have gone through countless hardships to obtain in the world, for angels, it is just a matter of breathing.

At the same time, for angels, a long life dilutes many things. Some misfortunes and setbacks can make ordinary people fall into decades of grief and despair, and they will spend most of their lives in depression, but these decades are just a quick glance for angels. As time goes by, layers of wounds come one after another, the old ones heal over and over again and become hard keratin, while the new scars can no longer leave new traces, and eventually become a wisp of wind passing by.

Thus, mythical creatures gradually cannot enter into the joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness of mortals, and cannot understand the fate of mortals, because they no longer have the ability to personally experience the struggles and comforts of mortals wandering in the world. They and mortals will eventually have different perspectives and lives, and they and mortals will eventually step into two rivers that will no longer intersect. Even if mythical creatures have the experience of being mortals in the early days of their birth, it is too short for their long lives, so short that the vast ocean will pour into the narrow golden river, and the brilliant color will eventually be diluted without a trace, leaving only a bottomless trench.

The accusations of "Detective Leonard" and David are a harsh wake-up call for Leonard now.

In addition to the indelible spiritual influence of the Extraordinary Characteristics, "humanity" can also be lost inadvertently in another way.

Therefore, he began to try to recall the memories of the "Detective Leonard" period and get to know the people around him from a new perspective. The trembling subordinates, the ordinary colleagues, the sheriff who always tried to make money, and Geraldine...

Leonard felt that Geraldine was one of the people that "Detective Leonard" owed something to. Leonard could clearly feel that Geraldine was so active in approaching him despite being ignored. In addition to her own enthusiastic and eccentric personality, she definitely had some purpose. But during the years they worked together, Geraldine was undoubtedly sincere and determined. Not only did she provide him with indispensable help in various cases, but now that he thought about it, she must have also taken on a lot of pressure for him in invisible places. This was definitely beyond the scope of duties of a detective assistant or investigative reporter, but at that time, "Detective Leonard" ignored everything equally and just completed every job he handled like a machine.

Leonard had to admit that Klein's "tragic death" in the Fifth Epoch had a great mental shock to him. But if this happened now, would he still have such a big reaction? At that time, Leonard was still a human in his twenties, but now as an angel, Leonard has experienced many twenty years. Countless people came to fight side by side with him, leaving a deep friendship, and then died in a certain battle, leaving only a Beyonder characteristic to pass on to the next person. Then the newcomer came forward and became his friend for a short time.

But that kind of close and painful experience will never happen again. The precious memories brought over from human time will eventually fade away in the wash of time, leaving only the purest and most essential part.

If Geraldine died tragically in front of him, he would probably just feel sad for her for a while. He would feel sorry and sigh that such a tenacious and resolute person died in this world, but there would be no more scars that were so severe that they could change the trajectory of life. Maybe Leonard would take her relics to find out why she approached him with great effort and sincerity, and then fulfill a wish for her. Then Geraldine would finally become a story that sank in his mind and would be given to the next new friend.

There finally appeared an unbridgeable gap between mythical creatures and mortals.

But Leonard thought that he had already come to this point, and there was no need and no way to pursue the emotions and life in his memory. Just as Klein had said to him in the Sixth Epoch, a new epoch meant a new life, and they would eventually find a new balance in a lifestyle that suited them. Although Klein was half-crazy at the time, Leonard agreed with this statement.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

A few muffled sounds interrupted Leonard's wandering thoughts.

Evan pulled a folding stick like a trekking pole from his backpack and poked the pile of debris in front of him three times.

"Who is blocking this place again? How uncultured..." Evan muttered as he put his trekking poles back into his bag.

"Oh my Evan, your dungeon joke is hilarious," Miss Christine commented.

The wooden boards and iron bars finally broke open, revealing a hole as wide as a person. Miss Christine took the lead and jumped into the hole. With the sound of a switch being turned on, a beam of light came out of the hole.

"Guests, guess where this is, no prizes required?"

Miss Christine's voice came from the light.

"Yes, this is the legendary [Underground Well]!"