This was a peaceful and dim forest. The lush foliage was like a maiden's flowing skirt, and the sunlight was like her faintly visible skin. The light sprinkled over the rocks and soil, as if bringing those things to life, imbuing them with vitality.

  A white-furred rabbit poked its head out. It had a unicorn horn on its head, and the edges of its ears were tinged with a fluorescent blue. It turned its head back and forth, looking around, seemingly enjoying and breathing in the morning air.

  "Whoosh!" An arrow of shadow pierced through the rabbit, directly shooting through its head. "Breakfast is roasted rabbit with two fruits." This was Lux. She was wearing her strange clothes sewn from grass thread and animal hides (if those patterns that looked like they belonged to some kind of black magic could even be called clothes). The black shadow cloak on her body had also dissipated. Lux ran over, grabbed the rabbit, and lifted it up.

  "This rabbit is quite heavy. Not bad." This was a good start to the day... during these three months of being lost.

  Yes, Lux had been lost for a full three months. The voice and finger that seemed to belong to Mitty had only given her a brief direction, and then disappeared. And now, Lux had been living like a wild person for three months.

  These three months weren't just about hunting and traveling (though Lux had no idea how much effective distance she had covered). Lux had also hunted a lion that could use magic, obtaining a pair of Lion Gauntlets (replacing the original Black Bear Paw Gloves). These Lion Gauntlets had five sharp short blades on the outside and could release impact magic, capable of blasting enemies away at close range.

  Another gain was that Lux had hunted a black hawk. Originally, she wanted to see if she could obtain a pair of wings, so she could quickly fly out of this forest. But she spent an entire day just getting the chance to devour a giant black hawk (with a wingspan of nearly three meters), and in the end, only obtained a Falcon Anklet, which increased agility and granted a very fast burst of speed.

  Now Lux was very confused. She seriously suspected that some kind of magic was trapping her in this forest. After all, she had climbed several mountaintops to carefully determine her route before setting off. It couldn't be that her sense of direction was hopelessly bad, could it? It couldn't be, right...?

  She was quite frustrated. Her original desire to immediately search for a way to possibly revive Mitty had now been reduced to simply adapting to a life of hunting every day and running around in the jungle.

  "Wait." Lux suddenly stopped and listened intently. It sounded like a voice. Although there were many sounds in the jungle, this sound was more like someone talking...

  "Could it be people!?" Lux was overjoyed. Having not seen another living person for three months, she really wanted to give that person a hug... if that person was clean and didn't mind how dirty she was (which was a bit of a double standard).

  Of course, Lux immediately became cautious. She lowered her body, slowly approaching the source of the voices like a leopard. This was a technique she had learned after failing repeatedly at the beginning of her hunting. After all, the only animals she could catch directly were large beasts like deer, bears, and wild boars. Any smaller animals would immediately scurry into their burrows and escape if startled.

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  Lux moved through the undergrowth, constantly using trees to conceal herself. Her ears listened intently, trying to pinpoint the voices. Her eyes scanned back and forth, locking onto the direction of her targets.

  The voices became clearer and clearer. It really was people talking, and there were several of them. They were speaking the common language of the Continent of Divine Grace.

  Lux suppressed her excitement. She continued to crawl through the undergrowth, inching forward. She was about to see the figures. The people seemed to be discussing something. Some of them sounded nervous, some seemed angry, and some even sounded excited.

  Lux approached. She finally got a clear view. And after seeing what was there, she thought this world was insane. Or maybe she just didn't understand this world.

  She saw a group of mushrooms and fruits with limbs talking! And also radishes, potatoes, and various other vegetables with limbs. But there were the most mushrooms.

  As for the fruit people, there were apple people with human-like facial features on their apple heads and apple-peel bodies and limbs. There were grape people with what looked like trendy purple grape hairstyles piled on their heads. And there were 'obese' watermelon people with round watermelon bodies.

  The vegetable people were all pretty much the Luxe. They waved limbs that seemed to be made of fibers, discussing something.

  And the mushroom people felt like they were entirely made of mushrooms, with giant mushroom caps on their heads and cylindrical mushroom bodies, and their facial features were on these mushroom columns. Oh right, these fruit and vegetable people were all wearing simple clothes.

  As for what they were discussing, sorry, because their arguing was too intense at the time, and Lux was too shocked when she saw this group of 'people,' so she didn't hear anything clearly.

  'Maybe I should go say hello,' Lux suddenly thought. 'Hi, I'm a meat-based human. Nice to meet you. Don't worry, I won't eat you. I mean no harm. For a long time, I've only been eating meat, okay, and some fruit, but it was all wild fruit. You guys probably don't consider those as your kind, right? Haha, by the way, do you know how to get around?' She believed that such a friendly greeting would create a good first impression with these vegetable and fruit people.

  "There's an elf eavesdropping over there!" A small mushroom boy appeared behind Lux while she was thinking these random things. He had discovered Lux, pointed at her, and shouted.

  "Hi, I'm a meat-based human..." Lux stood up and said the greeting she had prepared in her head. But she couldn't even finish her sentence before many arrows and spears were launched at her.

  "Alright, looks like our friendly meeting is a failure," Lux said, summoning the Beast Gauntlets. Instantly, white bone armor covered her entire body, blocking all the attacks. The arrows and spears shattered upon contact with her incredibly hard armor.

  "But I'd still like a chance to explain. Can you all calm down? I didn't mean to eavesdrop, and I'm not an elf." But Lux's explanation seemed useless. When that little mushroom boy shouted, many of the mushroom, vegetable, and fruit people were startled, but soon, a group of weapon-wielding plant people (let's just call these fruit and vegetable people "plant people") charged at Lux, while the others fled backward.

  "Okay, then just point me in a direction, and I'll leave immediately. Do you know of any towns nearby?" But the plant people ignored Lux's words and continued to attack.

  "Alright, then goodbye." Lux realized that communication was impossible. Besides, these attacks couldn't hurt her (shadow magic defense, bone armor, and the speed boost from the Falcon Anklet made it easy for Lux to dodge), so Lux didn't want to get tangled up with these plant people.

  She flashed away and disappeared into the jungle. After running quickly for a while, the sound of the plant people chasing her faded away.

  "Looks like I'm still lost," Lux said helplessly.

  Meanwhile, on the other side, the little mushroom boy scratched his head, wondering, "Speaking of which, why did that elf have round ears? And her clothes were even uglier than mine." Before he could figure out the answer, a mature tomato person hit him on the head (mushroom cap). "That was dangerous! Why didn't you run?"

  The little mushroom boy felt wronged. He wanted to say that he was the one who discovered the elf, but soon his mother ran over and hugged him, crying.

  To Friends Who See This:

  I am willing to publicly share the text copyright of my novel "The Devouring Curse" published on Royal Road.

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