What Lives on the Prairie?

Silver Wolf stood by the water and sighed. "Why swim down so fast? Just teleport me directly."

Vernacular Poet grinned. "Then let's just teleport over. We can give them a scare."

Silver Wolf tapped with her index finger. Aether Editing activated!

Silver Wolf and Vernacular Poet were already standing on a patch of dry stone ground. Neither of them felt any flowing water against their bodies, nor did they feel like they were suffocating.

There was none of that intense pressure from diving underwater, either.

"Interesting." She raised her head and looked around.

The entrance to the secret realm before them was completely different from the outside world. Though it lay beneath a deep lake, this place felt like another world entirely.

The air was dry and fresh, and they could even hear the faintest whisper of wind.

The surrounding stone walls were not damp like those of an ordinary cave. Instead, they carried the sheen of something polished by time.

It was as if someone had created an independent space at the bottom of the lake, completely isolating the entire secret realm from the outside world.

Vernacular Poet reached out and touched the stone wall beside him.

"There's actually no water?" Vernacular Poet was surprised. "Wolf Venerable, have we really not reached the depths yet?"

"We're at the entrance. We haven't gone in yet." Silver Wolf chewed her gum and blew a small bubble. "Let's wait for them. Didn't you want to surprise them?"

Vernacular Poet scratched his head and laughed. "Just kidding. I'm not that twisted, and they'll definitely know Wolf Venerable brought me here anyway."

Silver Wolf then gave the entrance a simple scan.

[Unknown]

[Based on analysis, Phanes has not synchronized the data. There is a 52% chance it is related to War of Fantasy.]

Silver Wolf smiled. "Looks like we're getting a history lesson?"

Vernacular Poet leaned against the wall and waited in silence while browsing the forum.

"Whoa!" Sunken Crow arrived at the entrance before Windchaser. He stared wide-eyed at Vernacular Poet and Silver Wolf.

Windchaser burst straight out of the water, spun once through the air, then landed steadily on the ground.

"Huh?" Windchaser pointed at Vernacular Poet. "So you hitched a ride behind our backs!"

Vernacular Poet chuckled and edged closer to them. "You know I'm not good at swimming."

Sunken Crow stood beside them in silence. In the end, he quietly looked away, as though he knew the truth but did not want to say it.

Windchaser went O.o. "For real?"

"Really. Why would I lie to you?"

Silver Wolf tossed each of them a small communicator. "Keep these as backups."

"Yeah, okay." Windchaser nodded obediently.

Vernacular Poet curiously examined the tiny, cochlea-shaped device.

Sunken Crow had already put his on without hesitation.

Silver Wolf pointed at the gate. "Then let me carry you through this dungeon."

With that, Silver Wolf led everyone into the secret realm.

The instant they stepped inside, the world changed.

An endless prairie stretched before them beneath a clear azure sky. A gentle breeze brushed past them, and vast waves of green grass spread into the distance like an ocean.

Cattle and sheep grazed with their heads lowered in the distance, and several small animals could even be seen running through the grass.

Silver Wolf frowned as she stared at the prairie. She could not sense anything strange or artificial about it at all. Why is this so normal?

"What is this?" Windchaser scratched her head, completely at a loss.

"Let's search nearby." Vernacular Poet began looking around first, while Sunken Crow silently followed him.

Windchaser remained where she was, gazing into the distance.

Silver Wolf found it suspicious and summoned Prometheus.

Prometheus took the form of a phantom Silver Wolf doll. "Beep beep~ Detection result: 72% probability of War of Fantasy. Excessive energy concentration."

Silver Wolf looked up at the sky. "The sky?"

"Wolf Venerable..." Windchaser glanced at Prometheus first, then suppressed her curiosity and continued, "Vernacular Poet and the others found a small house with someone inside."

Silver Wolf nodded. "Let's get closer."

Windchaser answered, "Yeah," as she moved closer.

Then Aether Editing teleported them directly over.

Vernacular Poet was still chatting with a strange creature. "So you've been living here for nearly several hundred years?"

It was an Elf less than a meter tall, floating in midair. Its body was colored in intertwined gold and white, and it wore a bracelet woven from grass around its wrist.

"Yep. Why? By the way, where did you come from? I remember you can't get past the edge." The Elf asked blankly.

Silver Wolf scanned the little Elf first.

[Unknown]

[Life signs: Growth]

[Related: Elf]

"We came from outside." Silver Wolf happened to overhear and explained.

"Outside?" The Elf repeated blankly, placing a finger against its lips.

Windchaser's eyes instantly lit up. "So cute!"

She was just about to rush over when Vernacular Poet grabbed her. "Calm down."

Silver Wolf was instead quite puzzled. "Hm? You don't know?"

The Elf asked in confusion, "Know what?"

"How long have you been trapped here?"

"Trapped here?" The Elf shook its head. "I was born here."

Vernacular Poet added the information he had learned earlier. "Wolf Venerable, I asked already. She knows nothing about this secret realm, and she's the only one in the whole realm who can talk."

"Mm..." Silver Wolf pondered for a while. "Then, little one, what's your name?"

"My name?" The Elf stared at Silver Wolf in confusion. "Oh, I'm Vita!"

"Vita, do you know about the War of Fantasy?" Silver Wolf asked.

"What's that?" Vita looked at Silver Wolf blankly.

Sunken Crow emerged from the shadows nearby and leaned close to Vernacular Poet to whisper something to him.

Silver Wolf did not quite understand their current situation. In her expectations, this secret realm should at least have some kind of puzzle to solve, or monsters guarding it, and some treasure after defeating them. That's why both sides were fighting over it...

How did it turn into a prairie with some strange floating thing?

When Silver Wolf did not explain for a long time, Vita turned to look at Windchaser beside her.

Windchaser was melted by that adorable gaze and racked her brains to recall part of the explanation. "It's, it's when a group of people and gods fought the Abyss so fiercely that the heavens and earth went dark, then drove the Abyss away."

"The Abyss? Abyss." Vita repeated the unfamiliar word. "What does the Abyss look like?"

Windchaser continued explaining excitedly while constantly moving closer to Vita. "It's purplish-black, all slimy, like a slime."

"A slime? Slimy..." Vita seemed to get an idea and flew around the house. Finally, she found a little box and held it in both hands. "Is it this?"

Windchaser instinctively opened it to look inside. It contained ordinary black soil, rich and fertile-looking.

"No, this is fertile soil..."

"Fertile soil?" Vita repeated blankly, then closed the box and put it back.

Silver Wolf shook her head and left Prometheus beside Windchaser. "Moo, this is my AI friend. I'll go take a look outside first."

"Yeah, okay."