Although the city where Lu Ban lives is next to a river, there is rarely heavy fog. Most of the time, the river is half-covered by a thin mist, like a veil on a woman's face, covering the mountains and rivers.

But now, what he saw was a thick fog that was enough to obscure his vision.

The white fog filled the air, and the carriage was blurry less than a meter away. When I looked up, I couldn't see the night sky, and when I looked down, I could only vaguely see the gravel road. The rolling fog gave people a feeling of uneasiness.

The only comfort is probably the few lights on in the distance. The artificial light penetrates the fog, guides the direction, and exudes a warm feeling.

The driver was a man with dark brown hair and dark skin. He put down the whip in his hand and looked back.

"I need to pee."

Lu Ban's companion nodded, and the two watched the driver get off the carriage and walk into the thick fog.

He didn't walk too far, Lu Ban could still vaguely see the driver's back through the thick fog.

"My name is Drizzt. You can also call me Old Drizzt. As you can see, I'm a detective."

The companion struck a match and lit the tobacco in his pipe.

"?"

Lu Ban had some doubts.

Shouldn't a name like Trist belong to a foreigner, or is this person's surname Trist?

How weird.

"But then again, if this is your first time meeting a companion, it should have been not long since you finished the guidance mission, probably within four missions. Under such circumstances, you actually dared to choose the [Erosion] difficulty. You are very brave."

Drizzt took a puff of his pipe, and shifted his gaze slightly from the coachman who was pulling up his trousers to the dim lights in the distance.

"Luckily you met me and followed my lead. The difficulty of [Erosion] is that it is easy for something to go wrong. As long as you are cautious, plan carefully before taking action, and don't trigger too many events, you won't..."

When he turned his gaze back, there was suddenly no further news.

"Hmm? Did you see that?"

Drizzt asked Lu Ban.

Lu Ban nodded.

The driver was nowhere to be seen.

The driver just shook his body and pulled up his trousers. The moment he turned around, the fog became thicker, slightly covering him, and then surged away.

Then the driver disappeared.

Silently, without any warning, without any struggle.

Drizzt reached into his coat and pulled a revolver from the holster under his arm.

He slowly walked to the place where the driver was sitting, but did not dare to get up to investigate. He just picked up the lantern on the side and shone it on the place where the driver disappeared.

There was no trace of gravel or weeds.

The fog seemed to be afraid of the light and retreated a little, revealing something gray and twisted.

"That's right."

Suddenly, a voice came from behind Trist. He was startled and quickly retracted his hand holding the lantern and turned to look.

Lu Ban was sitting near the door, holding a crowbar in his hand.

"Don't speak suddenly..."

Drizzt broke out in a cold sweat.

"oh."

Lu Ban nodded and continued.

"My name is Lu Ban."

"ah?"

Trist was stunned and didn't react to what Lu Ban meant.

"My name is Lu Ban. It's polite to introduce myself."

Lu Ban repeated it.

"……knew."

Trist wondered if there was something wrong with the man in front of him.

If his companions were not hostile, he might have to use his pistol to be on the alert for Lu Ban.

"In addition to not actively causing trouble, the difficulty of [Erosion] will also often cause trouble to find us. It seems that this is the first test."

He sat in the driver's seat and hung up the lantern.

"Our mission objectives are the same. At least we must successfully reach Kushui Town first."

Lu Ban did not object.

He couldn't ride a horse or drive a carriage, so he sat in the back to keep watch.

In the thick fog, only one or two lights ahead support hope.

"This is not just a wild road...it's some abandoned village."

While driving the carriage, Drizzt looked around.

The fog was not static; it would rise and fall like a tide with the movement of the carriage and the barely perceptible night breeze. When it receded slightly, one could see the weeds on the roadside and the debris hidden in them.

Those were the remains of buildings. It was unknown what kind of impact could have caused the walls to collapse like this. Some of the ones that were still standing were looming in the fog, like some kind of giant beast ready to attack.

There was no sound in the fog, no insects chirping, no birds singing, no animals moving at night, nothing.

The cold fog carries a slightly damp and rotten smell that penetrates deep into the lungs, making the body feel cold and causing one to shiver uncontrollably.

A world of total silence is like death.

Only the sound of horse hooves and wheels rolling on the gravel road filled my eardrums.

"I came to the Kingdom of Night once before, but it was a very simple survival mission. I survived in a wine cellar for six hours until dawn. As long as you have a gun and bullets, it is not a problem to deal with ordinary monsters."

Perhaps Drizzt was really trying to instruct the newbie, or perhaps he was trying to ease his own fear as he spoke.

"I've never encountered a situation like this. Are we really close to those lights?"

When he was a little doubtful, he found that there was no sound around him.

Yes, even the sound of horses' hooves and wheels disappeared.

Trist looked back at the carriage and saw Lu Ban sitting in the chair, not saying a word.

The disappearance of the sound of horse hooves and wheels meant that the car had stopped.

"drive!"

Drizzt whipped the whip, but the horse didn't move.

"There seems to be something ahead."

Lu Ban raised the hand that wasn't holding the crowbar and pointed.

Drizzt picked up the lantern and reached forward.

He saw that in front of the horse, where the thick fog was dispersed by the light, there was a stone statue.

The stone statue was shrouded in mist and its specific appearance could not be seen clearly.

A light appeared behind Drizzt.

Lu Ban held a high-intensity flashlight, penetrated the fog, and shone the light on the stone statue.

This is a human-shaped stone statue with slightly broken limbs in a kneeling posture, saluting in a certain direction, facing sideways to the carriage.

But the head of the stone statue was not human.

It's a fish.

It was like chopping off a fish's head and sticking it into a person's neck.

The shape of the fish's head was also quite strange, sharper and more slender. The fish's mouth was half open, revealing the jagged teeth inside. The gills were slightly open, and the delicately carved internal structure could also be seen.

"Normal stone statues wouldn't behave like this."

Drizzt's voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of disturbing some being sleeping in the fog.

"This kind of stone statue, which is obviously used to worship certain gods, would not be deliberately carved with defects. However, the teeth of this fish, and the connection between the head and neck are very unnatural, just like..."

“It’s like a real living thing.”

Lu Ban said the second half of Trist's sentence. He stretched out his crowbar, knocked on the statue, and chiseled off a small piece. It was indeed stone.

"Let's go around it. At least there's light..."

Drizzt raised his whip and pointed ahead, but he didn't finish his words.

Because in the fog, even those lights that brought warmth and hope disappeared.