Mimic Awakening

In the Tontheo Forest within the territory of the Kingdom of Roheazul, there is an area where a large freshwater lake is located. The lake was originally surrounded by trees, but people have been cutting down and uprooting trees to create space for human activities.

From the sky, the lake suspiciously has a perfectly circular shape. The lake is reportedly measured to be more than eight leagues, or forty kilometers, wide.

Not only the shape and size, but the lake’s depth is also strangely odd. Allegedly, the lake is more than a league deep in all areas. It is deeper than any inland water on the continent, and only deep trenches in the ocean can outclass it.

According to the investigators, it felt like a large cylinder of dirt and rocks was carved out of the continent and then the hole was filled with water. This claim is strengthened by the fact that there was once a large dungeon in that exact location.

The people who have gone here are not sure where this lake came from. All they know is that there is supposed to be a dungeon in the exact location until the lake suddenly appears.

Even though the dungeon has gone, people still visit the lake from time to time for various reasons. Some come to investigate the mysteries shrouding the lake, some are drawn by the beautiful scenery created after a disaster.

Because its surface is tranquil and the water is clear, the lake has become a spot for tourism. Since it is still new, the lake is void of fish, and only birds, animals, and monsters come here to drink.

Copying from nature, humans have started fetching water from the lake for drinking and cleaning, as it is apparently safe to drink. The lake is basically a huge water reservoir of hundreds of cubic leagues of freshwater.

But due to the situation of the kingdom, the ongoing war with the Empire of Siafran, the kingdom basically cannot spend their precious resources to investigate or facilitate the lake.

Currently, the lake is open for everyone to use. As a society, unspoken rules have been set around the lake to properly take care of it, like the rules of not throwing waste into the water or taking a dump or peeing near the shores.

As a place with a mysterious origin, there have been people around the continent who come to the lake to admire its beauty or seek answers to how it exists. One of them is a long silver-haired man from a nation in Central Revoria, who is accompanied by four men.

Sitting on a log outside of their camp a hundred meters from the shores, the Grand Inspector of the Kingdom of Dinral, Sir Nord Millis, seems to be lost in thoughts as he is looking at the summer sun’s reflection flickered by the water’s calm ripples.

He has been here for several days to investigate the lake, but he cannot find information any different from the reports his nation has received. The reports are almost exactly the same as he has personally seen here.

What’s the point of coming here anyway?

Bored at the waters, Alfred tries to look up at the blue sky. The shadows of the flickering leaves of trees nearby run over his face. The temperature here is nicer compared to his homeland, which lies on the equator.

Out of habit, he slips his hand under her coat and takes out a metal case from its breast pocket. Still locking his eyes to the sky, he opens the case and grabs a single cigarette from it.

He lights it with his index finger before putting its butt between his lips. After inhaling a lungful of smoke, he exhales most of the secondhand smoke through his nose and then breathes out the rest by his mouth.

Smelling the scent of tobacco, a blonde-haired man comes out of the tent. He walks toward the source of the smokes before he takes a seat on a log adjacent to the grand inspector, facing the extinguished campfire with him.

"You are killing your lungs if you smoke so much, Sir Nord."

"I know, Linc," Nord replies to his subordinate’s concern as he looks at the burned firewood of the campfire. "The smoke just calms me down."

"I know that you usually burn a stick every time you get excited or stressed. But please do it in moderation, sir."

"Doesn’t matter. This is my last stick anyway."

The two do not utter a word for a while. The whistling sounds of winds passing through the leaves fill the silence, and the faint sounds of water gently hitting the shoreline reach their keen ears.

"So we really do not have any new information to bring back?"

"The new things we learned are insignificant," Nord answers Linc’s question. "We have been here for days, and we have yet to confirm the disappearance of the dungeon. Even if the dungeon has sunken under the lake, no one can withstand the pressure of that depth to visually confirm its fate."

"I agree, it’s deeper than the sea after all. Not even the max coverage of your detection can reach the bottom of the lake. How did they measure the lake to be over a league deep?"

"Apparently, it was just a rough estimation by a monster tamer, who used an aquatic monster to measure the depth of the lake."

"A tamer, huh?"

"Now then." Nord stands up from the log before he stretches his back to shape. "This might be our last day here, so let me use this time to enjoy the view of the lake as a tourist."

"Is that so, sir? Please enjoy your stroll."

◆◇◆◇◆◇

Along the shores of this circular lake, Nord is following the shoreline as he walks leisurely around the lake circumference.

He mostly locks his eyes on the clear and reflective waters, enjoying the view, and looks for more clues in his investigation at the same time. From what he can see, the lake is so vast that its clear waters stretch to the horizon.

In the area where his team camps, only a few rows of trees have been cut off along the shoreline, unlike the area near the former route to the dungeon, where a patch of land is void of trees.

Currently, Nord has walked over a league along the shore, and he is already in a more spacious area. The closer he gets to the road, the more people he sees. But since he is in the Kingdom of Roheazul, where nonhuman races are persecuted, he has yet to see a nonhuman ever since entering the nation.

As Nord walks casually along the lake, his eyes lock on a person sitting on a vertical piece of log twenty meters from the water. It is a man with a light-to-medium skin tone and thick, dark, wavy hair that is styled upwards.

When he gets closer to the person, he sees that the man is holding a sketch pad with his left arm as he is holding a pencil in his right hand. At that distance, Nord notices that the man has brown eyes and a short, trimmed mustache and stubble along his defined jawline.

Curious, Nord steps closer to the man and stands behind him. When he gets to see what he is working on, Nord is impressed to see a detailed illustration of the lake before them.

"What an amazing piece of art—"

Nord immediately stops speaking as soon as he realizes that his words are leaking through his mouth. Hearing a voice behind him, the man briefly turns his head and takes a glance at him before focusing on drawing again.

"Thanks for the compliments, sir," The man says without turning his face; his tone is strangely monotone and serious.

After the man’s short reply, Nord is left out of words. It is not like Nord has something to do with the man and his sketch, so he can just leave him alone.

Since it is the first time Nord has seen this man, he hopes that he might help him with his investigation and proceeds to give him questions. Just like he does these days. This person might know something that no one has not.

"Ahem." Nord clears his throat. "Good day to you, mister. I really like your drawing. Would you mind lending me some of your time?"

"Go ahead," The man immediately replies without stopping stroking his pencil on the paper.

"Can you tell me what you think of this lake? Do you believe that it just popped up out of nowhere?"

"I heard that this lake appeared immediately after a dungeon vanished. Apparently, all the knights, adventurers, and mercenaries in and out of the dungeon vanished along with it, including the kingdom’s hero."

"Yeah. That might be devastating news to the citizens of this kingdom. I heard that the Great Sorceress, the most powerful individual in Western Revoria, has gone missing in the dungeon as well."

"We can expect that the hero’s fate is the opposite of this lake," the man continues. "But I can’t say the same for the Great Sorceress."

"Why do you think that?"

"Do you think that Western Revoria’s most powerful person can be taken down by monsters? If you had seen the Great Sorceress in action, you should have known the answer."

"What?" Nord cannot understand the man’s latter sentence.

"Well then, I have done my purpose here." Once he is finished with drawing the lake, the man stands up. "Those are my answers to your question, sir. The answer to your question might blow up right in front of you. I shall take my leave."

"Wait! What do you mean by that?"

Right before Nord’s eyes, the man vanishes on the spot.

"Did he just vanish? Teleportation?"

Left behind, Nord cannot stop thinking of the man’s words.

"Blow up...? Explosion...?"

Before he knows it, Nord turns his turn to face northeast. He suddenly remembers the powerful magical residue he felt yesterday.