Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route

Chapter 282: Nunu’s First Trial

"Awoooo!"

A piercing wolf howl exploded through the snowy forest. And it was not just one, but a whole pack. The howls rose and fell one after another, instantly tearing through the silence of the snow-covered woods.

That sudden chorus of wolf howls also made the small figure struggling through the snow ahead shudder. Instinctive fear surfaced in his green eyes. The little fellow opened his gap-toothed mouth and jerked his head around.

He saw shadowy figures rushing in from every direction behind him. They were lean and powerful, with sharp fangs, and in an instant, Nunu recognized what those things charging toward him were.

Wolves!

No, how could this be?

Nunu’s little brain instantly froze, because Kalo had told him that the adults of the tribe had already cleared out and driven away the wolf packs nearby. That meant there should not be any wolves here!

But the truth was, he was being chased by wolves right now!

Nunu only froze for a moment. Then he instantly began running forward. He really was terrified, but he did not stand there stupidly because of fear and panic like some other children would, nor did he start screaming and crying.

"No, no, no, don’t be scared, Nunu, don’t be scared! Mom said snow wolves are huge. If you really run into them, then all you have to do is crawl into a gap between rocks, or, or climb up a tree!"

Muttering the words his mother had told him, Nunu spread out his hands and feet, staring ahead in a panic as his eyes worked hard to search for something that could help him escape.

Trees... no, that would not work. The tribe had moved to a different place, and in this new place, this dense forest was full of tall, thick trees. Climbing them would take a lot of effort. Unlike their previous home, the trees here were not something a child like him could climb. At least, he could not.

Then crawl into a gap between rocks?

Rocks would definitely work! He was small, and if he curled up, he could hide completely!

Although the wolf pack would definitely trap him there once he hid among the rocks, the adults would absolutely come looking for him, just like... just like before. Thinking of this, Nunu widened his eyes and searched for rocks. But very soon, he realized he had been overthinking it.

The snow was too deep. Everything he could see was a sheet of white. On top of that, he was in the forest, and his vision was blocked. Finding anything was basically impossible!

As he was thinking, Nunu’s foot suddenly slipped. His body pitched forward, and in the next moment, Nunu curled into a tiny ball and tumbled down.

Nunu began yelling in fear, and while his heart raced in terror, his eyes were unusually bright.

"Nunu!"

In the sky, Layka saw her son roll downward and instinctively cried out.

"Don’t worry. He won’t get hurt." The next moment, Logan’s voice sounded beside Layka.

Layka looked into the mirror and saw that while Nunu had indeed rolled down, in reality... he was, he was flying?

His tiny body had curled into a ball and was rolling toward the valley, but he was not actually touching the ground. Instead, there was a small gap between him and the snow. When Layka looked more carefully, she discovered that visible green winds were pushing him forward from behind.

"Change the terrain. You can pull Nunu into your domain now," Logan said to Lissandra beside him after seeing that Nunu had been spun dizzy.

Lissandra raised her hand and lightly swept it. The wolf pack made of ice crystals scattered, and an ice mirror appeared in front of where Nunu was falling.

The next moment, the tiny ball entered the ice mirror.

Layka, Nilah, Logan, and the others were also pulled by Lissandra into her domain world.

Inside Lissandra’s domain, everything as far as the eye could see was a vast expanse of white. This little world of ice and snow was empty.

Then a gentle, pleasant voice sounded in that little world.

"Lissandra, create a small slope over there first."

"Mm, too high. A little lower. Then here, create a dense forest."

"Now it’s time for the village. Put it right here. I remember the Notai tribe’s previous camp was in this direction."

Listening to Logan’s voice, Lissandra did everything one by one.

While doing what Logan arranged, Lissandra secretly felt speechless. Doing something like a child’s make-believe game made Lissandra feel the slightest bit ashamed.

She was already ten thousand years old, all right?

What exactly was she doing right now?

Thinking this, Lissandra took a deep breath.

Inside her domain, dense forests, mountains, villages, rocks, and... some small illusionary snowfield animals created from magic appeared one after another in this little world.

If that child named Nunu failed to catch the yeti and failed to gain the power to dispel True Ice, then Logan, you can just wait to die!

After everything was finished, Logan did not start right away. Instead, he looked at Layka beside him. "Layka, you can go see Nunu now. Also, later, I need you to leave one of your personal belongings in the village so Nunu knows you’ve ’disappeared.’"

Layka reached out and stroked Nunu’s face. Even now, she did not know whether her decision was wrong or right. After seeing Ashe, she had believed Logan’s words. And after witnessing Logan and Lissandra’s abilities, she also believed that Nunu would not encounter any real danger.

That power to change the world, the way the witch created ice mountains and snowy fields with a wave of her hand, as if she had become a creator, convinced Layka that under their protection, Nunu would not face true danger. It also made her willing to believe what Logan had said.

After all, two people this powerful had no reason to deceive her and come all this way just to play a role-playing game with Nunu, did they?

Even so, Layka was worried about one thing: how would Nunu see her after learning the truth?

"I..." Layka hesitated, then said, "I have a flute. Nunu loves it. I originally planned to give it to him as a gift on his fifth nameday. He also likes that flute very much, and he gave it a name, Svellsongur."

"What’s that?" Nilah poked her head out from beside Logan and looked at Layka curiously.

Svellsongur. Honestly, it was a pretty nice name.

Nilah had always been a strange young woman. Back when she had not yet been called Nilah, she had liked heroic stories and books about rumors and biographies, and she would imagine herself becoming the hero in those stories. So, if she had been placed in modern society, to put it plainly, Nilah would have been a girl with a flair for dramatic fantasy.

Naturally, a word with that kind of fantastical flavor would pique Nilah’s interest.

Layka explained, "That is the name of a weapon Nunu imagined. He is a born minstrel, with astonishing imagination and creativity. Sometimes, the world of children is far more interesting than that of adults."

After hearing Layka’s explanation, Nilah’s interest, which had just been stirred up, instantly faded.

Damn. It was just a name a child imagined. What was interesting about that?

"Then we’ll leave the flute here. Mm, how about placing it here?" Logan chose an obvious spot and asked Layka.

Layka nodded and handed the flute to Logan.

Logan reached out and took the flute, walked past Lissandra, then placed it on the steps covered by wind and snow. To be honest, that flute really was quite beautiful. Overall, it had a bronze-yellow color, simple and ancient, yet delicate.

After placing the flute, Logan clapped his hands. "All right. Time to wake our little protagonist."

In a daze, the little fellow lying on his back in the snow reached up to brush away the thick layer of snowflakes on his face. Then his eyes suddenly snapped open.

"I... I’m okay?"

"You almost weren’t, little guy." A voice sounded behind Nunu.

Nunu instantly sat up. His furry felt hat made him look like a little animal. He turned to look at the person behind him, and then he saw a blurry figure.

Nunu could not see his face clearly because green light covered it, but through the green glow, Nunu could tell that it was a human. An adult!

"Who are you?"

The little fellow was not afraid. Instead, he asked with some excitement. In his cute child’s voice, he continued, "Did you save me?"

"Save you?" The figure nodded. "If brushing the snow off you so you wouldn’t be buried by the heavy snow counts, then yes, I did save you."

"Then you saved me! Thank you!" Nunu said loudly. Then he continued very seriously, "My mom said children can’t go out at night, because the snow at night is very, very cold! Lots of children like me never made it to their nameday because of the weather!"

"Wait, you still haven’t told me who you are. Oh, right, Mom says my name is Nunu. What about you?"

Watching Nunu crawl toward him, Logan’s eyes moved slightly beneath the green glow.

As expected, although Nunu was still very young, he had a strong curiosity and a strong desire to explore the world.

He truly was a born minstrel.

"What I’m called isn’t important, Nunu. What matters right now is that you’ve been unconscious for two days. If you don’t go back soon, your mother will worry about you."

"Ah!" Nunu opened his mouth wide and stared blankly at Logan. Then he asked, "Two days? I slept for two days?"

"You didn’t sleep. You were unconscious."

"Isn’t that still sleeping?" Nunu instantly stood up and looked around. Then he seemed to find the right direction.

As the child of a nomadic tribe, a sense of direction was Nunu’s inborn gift. He quickly found the way home. But when he looked up at the high ground above, Nunu’s little face immediately wrinkled like a bun. He turned to Logan, stretched out a small hand, pointed upward, and said, "Did I fall from there?"

Nunu saw the green adult nod at him.

"That’s really high!" Nunu said.

"Mister Green, can you help me?"

Logan froze, then realized that "Mister Green" was referring to him.

"You want me to help you get up there?"

"Yeah. I’m not going to look for a hero anymore! I really, really want to find Braum and have him teach me how to become a great hero from the stories, but I’ve been out too long. Two days. That’s two whole days! Mom must be looking for me everywhere right now. I love Mom the most, so I don’t want her to worry about me!"

As he spoke, Nunu said in a very serious tone, "I’ve never been out for that long before. I thought I could find Braum in one afternoon!"

If you don’t want her to worry, then don’t go running out to become some kind of hero!

After hearing Nunu’s words, Logan truly felt both speechless and amused.

But Logan merely stretched out his hand, then used magic to send Nunu upward.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"I... I’m flying!"

"Mister Green, I’m flying!"

With both feet off the ground as he slowly flew higher, Nunu began yelling excitedly. He looked down at Logan, his little face flushed red. But soon, as though he had remembered something, Nunu waved at Logan with a smile. "Ah, I need to thank you. Thank you for helping me!"

"I live in... I live in, anyway, I live in a village. Mister Green, come find me. I’ll have Mom sing for you. My mom sings the best songs!"

Nunu waved hard at Logan, but in the blink of an eye, he discovered that the adult below was gone.

And he himself was now standing on the snow. Blinking, Nunu lay down and searched for traces, but he could not find anything.

When he turned his head again, all around him was a silent stretch of white. No, it was not entirely silent. There was the sound of wind blowing past.

Nunu pressed his lips together and looked ahead. His eyes suddenly lit up, and he ran forward with quick steps. He pulled a fallen branch out of the snow, raised it high, and walked into the forest while waving the branch in his hand.

"This little guy, did he just turn that branch into a weapon?"

"Lissandra, have your people get ready. After Nunu enters the village, have your people take him to the Foundling Village."

"I know," Lissandra said.

Nunu walked for who knew how long. Only when his feet were sore and his eyes were nearly unable to stay open did he finally see the tribe’s camp.

His weariness instantly faded quite a bit. Nunu excitedly stood on tiptoe and peered around. Although he felt a little disappointed that he had prepared a weapon but had not run into any snow wolves, safely finding the tribe and returning to his mother’s side made Nunu happy again.

But after walking a little closer, Nunu discovered that there were no adults around, nor was there everyone’s good friend, Kona.

That instantly made Nunu panic, and a terrible thought appeared in his mind.

He quickened his steps, running toward the tribe’s camp while shouting loudly.

"Is anyone here?!"

"Nunu’s back! Mom? Mom?!"

Nunu ran into the tribal camp and looked around, but he discovered that this place was completely different from the one he knew.

Snow covered the tents, and the wooden houses the adults had built had become broken and shabby. The open space where the snow had been cleared away, which they had originally planned to use for singing and celebrating winter, had vanished as well.

Nunu looked all around, gradually growing anxious. A sob entered his voice.

Until he saw a yellow flute partly exposed in the snow on the steps.

Nunu instantly ran up and reached out to grab the flute.

"No... no way."

After recognizing the flute, he held it in his arms. His flushed cheeks were filled with anxiety, and tears slid down his face as Nunu began to worry about his mother.

"Mom would never abandon me. The others wouldn’t either. They must have run into danger!"

"It must have been bandits! This must have been done by bandits!"

Nunu raised his voice. These words were all spoken for himself to hear.

He believed the adults would not abandon him. And even if he had gotten separated from them, Nunu would not blame the adults.

The reason all of this had happened was because he... because he had gone looking for some hero, and that was why he had been separated from the adults. And now that everyone was no longer in the tribe, it must be because they had been attacked by another tribe.

Something like that had happened before.

Thinking of this, Nunu gripped the flute in his hand tightly.

"I... I have to find Mom."

He held back his tears and sniffled.

Raising his arm to wipe his face, he thought seriously.

But just as he had walked down the steps, Nunu heard movement.

He raised his head and looked forward. Then Nunu saw a group of tall figures.

Those tall figures wore black armor, with strange helmets on their heads and frightening weapons in their hands. Walking at the very front was a woman without a helmet. She was so tall, even taller than his mother!

And on her face were very beautiful red cloud-like markings.

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