Chapter 146: Fate Trajectory Grafting

The instant her words fell—

The forest beside the lake suddenly erupted with waves of horrifying cries, as though some signal to attack had been issued.

There were the high-pitched howls of wild wolves.

The sharp, piercing screeches of Goblins.

And the deep roars of many unfamiliar creatures Lance had never heard before.

Listening to those dense sounds, Lance unconsciously tightened his grip on Cecilia’s thighs.

He understood very clearly in his heart—

What awaited him next would be a high-intensity battle of attrition.

There was absolutely no way he could carry an unconscious person on his back while flexibly dodging and counterattacking within a monster tide.

He rapidly swept his gaze around the surroundings, carefully observing the terrain.

Very quickly—

He discovered a naturally defensive position near the shallow shores at the edge of Emerald Star Lake.

It was a gigantic white rock elevated roughly two meters above the water surface.

About half of this massive rock was already submerged beneath the lake water.

It possessed a perfect terrain advantage with water on three sides, while only the side facing the forest had a narrow shallow-shore pathway leading toward it.

This kind of terrain was practically a perfect natural fortress.

As long as he firmly defended the entrance of that shallow path—

He could utilize the terrain restrictions to the greatest extent possible, preventing those crazed monsters from bypassing him and attacking Cecilia behind him.

Without hesitation, Lance carried the girl and swiftly headed toward the white rock.

Ilysia’s phantom maintained her semi-transparent state while leisurely floating beside Lance.

However, her beautiful mouth had not stopped moving for even a moment.

“Little handsome guy, hurry and tell me, did the future me become a legendary spellcaster renowned across the continent?”

“And what about that fool Karen? What happened to him afterward?”

“Let me secretly ask you something—within the stories passed down in your era, did he and I successfully end up together in the end?”

All kinds of strange gossip questions emerged endlessly.

While perfunctorily dealing with this chatterbox Witch’s curiosity, Lance exerted force with both legs and steadily leaped onto the broad white rock.

With gentle movements, he lowered Cecilia from his back and allowed her to lean securely against the flat stone steps.

At this moment—

The enormous full moon in the sky poured down silver-white moonlight without restraint.

The soft radiance illuminated Cecilia’s tranquil face.

Her silver hair gently drifted in the night breeze, and combined with the serene scenery of lake and mountains, it made the sleeping Half-Elf girl appear breathtakingly beautiful.

Standing atop the white rock, Lance looked toward the shallow shore below.

A full moon night.

Protecting an unconscious companion alone.

An enormous incoming monster tide.

Every one of these harsh conditions perfectly matched the trial requirements for the advancement of 【Pale Sentinel】 displayed on his class panel.

As long as he survived tonight’s trial, one foot would already step through the doorway into becoming a Professional.

After confirming Cecilia’s safety—

Lance tightly gripped the Shortsword in his hand and jumped down from the white rock without hesitation, landing steadily at the entrance of the narrow pathway.

At the edge of the dark forest in the distance—

A black mass of monsters had already emerged.

Relying on his excellent night vision ability—

Lance recognized several species within the monster group that he was relatively familiar with.

There were robust Gnolls, along with packs of Goblins moving in groups.

However, he quickly noticed—

The monsters spawned within this projection space were clearly somewhat different from the country bumpkins wandering around the outer regions of Copper Creek Forest.

The Gnolls here possessed dark brownish-gray fur, and those clawed arms looked noticeably longer and stronger than ordinary members of their species.

The differences among the Goblins were even more obvious.

These green-skinned monsters had actually already developed clear class distinctions within this sub-instance.

With his sharp eyesight, Lance noticed several Goblin Thieves holding sharp bone blades in reverse grips while hunching over and attempting to blend into the shadows.

Further behind them were even Goblin Shamans holding skull staffs while muttering chants under their breath.

Although these class-mutated Goblins still had not reached the true threshold of Professional rank individually—

Among ordinary monsters, they were already extremely troublesome opponents due to their disgusting skill coordination.

Aside from that—

The monster tide also contained several rare species Lance had never encountered in reality before.

For example, there were Lizardmen dragging thick tails while gripping crude spears.

As well as Kobolds that were only slightly taller than Goblins, currently gathered together while barking wildly.

Looking at those Kobolds, Lance truly broadened his horizons.

As expected, they were completely different from the savage Gnolls.

The surfaces of the Kobolds’ skin were not covered in fur, but instead layered with dense dark scales.

There were even two slightly raised fleshy bumps protruding from the tops of their heads.

No wonder these weak little creatures were considered to possess noble Dragon bloodlines in various Monster Codices.

However, the actual status of Kobolds within the monster world—

Was probably only just barely enough to qualify them to sit at the same table as Goblins among the bottom-tier species.

Kobolds were genuinely weak in combat.

They were even inferior to Goblins.

After all, due to the massive population base of Goblins, powerful variant individuals frequently appeared among them.

Meanwhile, not only were Kobolds weaker, but even their reproduction rate was slightly slower than Goblins.

After confirming the species distribution of the monsters ahead—

Lance rolled his shoulders and forcefully shook his wrists.

He knew a brutal hard-fought battle was inevitable.

At this moment, Ilysia was still flying back and forth above his head without the slightest sense of tension, continuously chattering away.

However, this Witch’s endless rambling—

Did indeed provide Lance with many extremely valuable pieces of core information.

“If my analysis of this spell formation earlier wasn’t wrong.”

Ilysia stopped before Lance and analyzed seriously.

“Little handsome guy, as long as you rely on your own strength to withstand a certain number of monster tide assaults within this sub-instance—”

“Then you outsiders will be able to safely leave this place.”

“This forcibly separated section of space is a Historical Echo Projection.”

“It uses the real environment as an anchor point to forcibly pull into reality those famous legends from history that were widely sung about and spread across large regions.”

“Even if you truly suffer fatal injuries here, it won’t result in actual death, so you don’t need to be overly distracted worrying about that little girl behind you.”

After quietly listening to these rules—

Lance raised his head.

Looking at the monster tide ahead that had already begun howling while rushing toward him, he asked the final question he cared about most.

“May I ask, do you know what the real purpose is behind the person orchestrating all this effort to create this historical projection?”

“Ha, now that’s finally the right question to ask me.”

Ilysia crossed her arms before her chest, revealing a proud expression.

“Back then, Karen that fool and I also experienced quite a few similar dangerous historical projections during our adventures.”

“However, because the core spell formations constructed by spellcasters differed, the ultimate purposes of the historical projections they created were also completely different.”

Her expression gradually became serious as she stared directly into Lance’s eyes.

“And the kind you encountered today—not only dragging people inside, but even forcibly assigning roles for them to play—”

“This should belong to the strictly forbidden Fate-type taboo category, or perhaps a special prophetic historical projection.”

“If my guess is correct—”

Ilysia directly pierced through to the truth.

“What the person hiding behind the scenes truly wants to accomplish should be the extremely rare ‘Fate Trajectory Grafting’!”