After finishing the breakfast that counted as lunch, taking advantage of the time when the sky was still early and the clouds had not yet turned pitch black again, Jasmine looked at the Dry Tree Forest, which had lighting clearly gloomier than the outside by a few degrees, and felt her curiosity rise again, eager to go and explore a bit.
"I advise you not to enter there, my dear friend. The Dry Tree Forest is not a place where the living should set foot." Elvius advised, his tone becoming serious in a rare way, and the green flame in his eyes also sank low.
"Will there be danger inside?" Jasmine stopped her steps and turned back to ask.
Just looking at the outward appearance, inside the Dry Tree Forest, except for those tall dry wooden trees, the entire forest looked completely bald, without a single ray of fresh greenery, and the soil was barren and cracked.
Wherever the line of sight reached, except for Elvius, one could not see a single living creature active; the silence was to the point of being eerie.
Even the Sparrow that just moments ago was perching on Elvius's head pecking at his bone, when it flew to a certain distance, it seemed to touch some invisible curtain. It ruffled all its feathers, cried out in panic, and hurriedly flew far away, as if it had seen something terrifying.
"Do you know why inside the Dry Tree Forest there are only Undead creatures?" Elvius tilted his head to ask Jasmine, his deep eye sockets staring intently at her.
Jasmine shook her head, waiting for the answer.
Elvius lowered his voice, whispering like a passing breeze, just as if he were afraid someone would hear: "Because this is a cursed land."
The existence of the Dry Tree Forest could be traced back to the early period of the Dragon Era. At that time, this piece of land did not yet belong to the territory of the Black Dragon, magic had not yet faded, powerful mages still reigned supreme, and humans still lived in constant fear, struggling for survival in the cracks between all sorts of fantasy races and monsters.
Later, the Church flourished, and the strength of the human kingdoms became stronger day by day. Added to the fact that dragons began to disappear from the continent, the positions of the two sides were almost reversed; conversely, a number of other races were captured by humans, kept in captivity as Slaves, and treated cruelly.
Now, even in Jasmine's small territory with few people, one could see the silhouettes of a few members of other races working very hard.
As for the cause of the formation of the Dry Tree Forest, it could no longer be traced back; too many secrets had been buried by time.
Since there have been records, this place has already been a place where Undead creatures wander, a place where the living do not dare to venture near.
It is said that in the past, there was even a powerful Lich living inside, but along with the fading of magic, it has been a very long time since anyone heard news of the Lich. Even the number of Undead creatures in the Dry Tree Forest has decreased significantly, becoming more desolate than ever before.
According to Elvius's words, during his journey of traveling to seek inspiration for composition within the Dry Tree Forest, he also very rarely met his own kind to chat with.
Jasmine still cherished her life very much. She still had many things to do in this territory. Having heard Elvius say so, she immediately abandoned the intention of wanting to enter the Dry Tree Forest to take a look, and she even instructed the other guards not to get too close, to avoid encountering unnecessary trouble.
Taking advantage of the fact that it was not raining at this moment, Jasmine intended to operate around that area to see if she could find a few ripe berries in the dense bushes nearby.
Just now she saw a few Sparrows flying into the bushes, thinking that inside there would surely be food that birds liked.
Do not look at the fact that this time going out they brought quite a lot of food; in reality, except for Jasmine herself, the guards were only shared half a piece of bread as a main dish each day, and after that, they drank vegetable soup to fill their bellies, that was all.
Therefore, along the way, whenever she saw anything edible, Jasmine would not let it pass, accumulating small amounts to make a large amount.
"Huh? What is this?"
After the rain, the humidity in the air was very high, and the soil was soft and porous. In the morning there was also drifting mist, so a number of brightly colored mushrooms also took the opportunity to compete with each other to push up from the damp underground, looking like tiny little umbrellas.
Jasmine looked with craving. It was a pity that the varieties of mushrooms she knew were not many. Except for a few types often seen in the supermarket in her previous life, regarding wild mushrooms, regardless of whether their colors were brilliant or not, Jasmine usually did not dare to pick them because she feared poisoning.
She brushed aside a few rotten dry leaves on the ground. The smell of damp earth rushed up to her nose, and she only saw a patch of apricot yellow color that was extremely eye-catching hiding and appearing within the clumps of lush green weeds.
That was a small cluster of mushrooms that had just pushed up from the soil. The mushroom stalks were chubby, and the mushroom caps had not yet fully spread open. Each tiny plant looked very pleasing to the eye, plump and full of water.
Of course, there were also plants that grew faster, which could barely be distinguished as a type of mushroom thanks to their distinctive shape, and furthermore, it was one of the types Jasmine was quite familiar with and loved.
"Chanterelles?"
This type of mushroom is very easy to recognize. It has a distinctive funnel shape, wavy cap edges, and a fresh apricot yellow or egg yolk yellow color, usually growing in large clusters under the canopy of trees.
One only needs to find a small bush, and one can discover an entire large group surrounding it, spreading out wide like a golden carpet.
Sure enough, Jasmine only casually searched in the pile of fallen leaves beside it a few times, and immediately saw many mushrooms of apricot yellow color that had just pushed up from the soil, densely packed everywhere.
It was a pity that it was still early now. If she could let these mushroom plants grow for two or three more days, waiting for the mushroom caps to spread wide out before picking, the harvest would be many times more abundant.
Although the shape was the familiar Chanterelle (Chicken Fat Mushroom), if told to pick and taste it immediately, Jasmine would not dare either; being careful was still better.
But this did not affect the joy of seeing this type of mushroom of hers. After all, who could refuse the joy of picking mushrooms? The feeling of harvesting from nature always makes people excited.
"Angus, go get two sacks over here. We will pick all of these Chanterelles." Jasmine ordered, her voice full of enthusiasm.
This time going out, they prepared quite a few sacks, all for the purpose of containing reserve food.
Of course, you could also conveniently buy sacks at the food store when buying food, but it would be hard to avoid having to spend a few silver coins. This expense, for the current Jasmine, was also not a small expenditure and needed to be saved bit by bit.
After all, the remote border region lacked materials, and the price of sacks was not cheap. Since there were already sacks available in the castle, then naturally bringing them along directly was the most profitable.
Angus very quickly took two sacks from the horse carriage over to help. Unfortunately, the cow-headed man was clumsy with his hands and feet, and furthermore, he could not distinguish the differences between the types of mushrooms very well. Regardless of whether it was a Chanterelle or another brightly colored poisonous mushroom, if he saw they looked roughly similar, the cow-headed man would stuff them into the sack.
After stuffing for a while, he was discovered by Jasmine. For the sake of her own small life and everyone else's, Jasmine forbade the cow-headed man from picking anymore. He only needed to help her carry the sack by the side, avoiding damaging the mushrooms or mixing poisonous mushrooms in.