The path was indeed not like he remembered. Not only was the dirt track replaced by a small rock path, basically just made from one rock placed in front of the other and embedded into the ground, but there were also other things like fences, some wooden boards talking about the hero's party, and some other trivia about the forest that Meriel thought every child in the Lavarza kingdom should already know.

  He had nobody to share his discoveries with, however, since Ziggy was still occupied by jumping around, running through the trees, and sniffing and looking at every branch that moved or made a sound.

  "Yes, Ziggy. A lot of sounds, huh?" Meriel chuckled, watching him once again jump at a squirrel that must have moved above in the crown of the tree. Ziggy looked up at Meriel, his tongue completely out, and then started flapping his wings and jumped into the tree. He dropped back a second later, holding the squirrel in his jaw, though it was still alive. He didn't need to crush it; he'd not need to ever eat, after all.

  "Spit that out of your mouth!" Meriel reprimanded, making Ziggy look at him sadly. But he gently lowered his mouth and let the poor creature out. Meriel could swear that the squirrel looked at him, as shocked as Ziggy by his raised voice.

  Content with Ziggy finally sitting on his ass for at least a second, Meriel brought his attention back onto the wooden board, inspecting it. It was still the same writing and the same language he remembered, so not that much time must have passed. But certainly enough for these changes to occur.

  The boulder in front of the entrance, the boards which explained absolutely common facts everyone should know. All weird changes.

  "Of course, dire wolves go by here. Who doesn't know that?" he muttered to himself, shaking his head. It was as obvious as worms being in the ground or mana being everywhere in the world. Who would even get some new information out of these plaques?

  Sighing, he stepped away, continuing on his path.

  No matter. He pushed all of these things to the back of his mind. He would get to discover all the changes soon in more detail, but he needed to head towards Mura City and learn as much as possible.

  Hopefully, the butcher that made the best sirloin steak was still there somewhere, or at least the shop was. He hungered for any meal. Now that he was out of the stasis, he had to remember to drink and eat again, much to his chagrin. Apparently even being locked had some advantages, and now, after such a long time, he'd gotten so used to them. The thought of drinking water didn't occur to him until his head swam from dehydration.

  Thankfully, conjuring water came as easily to Meriel as breathing.

  He ordered Ziggy to collect some fruits hanging from the trees around, though most of them were not edible. He bit into the fruity flesh of an apple, letting the first taste of meal fill his mouth. It was the next to the best feeling he'd ever experienced. He almost cried right then and there, making Ziggy look concerned, but he fought the feeling back, swallowed and ate it almost in one gulp.

  "Oh, I can't believe how much I missed that," he smiled, holding on to it and throwing it up and down in his hand.

  As he continued, he quickly activated his radar spell, not wanting to get surprised by another animal, possibly one which thought of them as an easy meal, especially not after finding the squirrel so close nearby.

  The new path and wooden boards made him think that perhaps some of the monsters have been cleared from this area, but he couldn't be so sure. It was the Fall judging by the temperature and the leaves starting to fall onto the ground, so some animals should be migrating towards the South already. Meriel couldn’t remember exactly which animals, however—so many memories, so many learned things.

  Lost to the damned ravine.

  As they continued walking, perhaps after 30 minutes, they approached a small clearing, large enough for several houses. The trees were completely gone from this area, not even the tree stumps left, giving it the look of a logging site. But most importantly, there was complete silence.

  He saw the leaves straighten on Ziggy's back, felt his own skin get goosebumps, and he also felt the radar spell register someone at the other end of the clearing.

  He quickly assessed the situation. It was too calm here and too silent for it to be an animal. Though there were some beasts that were prone to ambush attacks, none of them were common in this area in particular.

  Bandits then. Or something of the like.

  What was he to be afraid of? Bandits? Not as long as he breathed. He stepped forward, his posture confident and straight.

  "Whoever is there, I know of you. Show yourself!" he shouted, letting the silence carry his words to the other end of the clearing.

  More silence continued. He even began wondering whether he had manufactured this idea of bandits in his own head. But suddenly, there was movement from a bush on the other side, and the man—twice as wide as Meriel was—stepped forward.

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  It appeared that Meriel was once again correct in his deduction. If there was a cartoonishly common depiction of a bandit, then it stood right in front of him.

  A huge blade, though chipped and clearly not that well cared for, held in the bandit's meaty hand showed his occupation even more than his silly appearance did. The bandit wore a leather tunic marred by some stains and meal remains, and the man himself was bald and several of his teeth were missing, the gaps in his smile visible even from a distance.

  Meriel looked beyond the man; however, he was sure that bandits didn't attack just by their lonesome.

  "You think you are fooling me? Step forward, all of you!"

  "Okay, okay, who are you ordering to, huh?" one of the other bandits grumbled, stepping towards the first.

  Overall, six of them stood there. Most of them were shorter than Meriel himself, and they were all the colors of the rainbow. They looked quite silly actually. Meriel chuckled to himself.

  Classic humanity. He emerges after who knows how long, and his first contact with other humans is him getting robbed.

  "Well, hello there gentlemen," Meriel said calmly. "I'm afraid I'll have to cut this greeting short. I have nothing to offer to you at any rate. However, I'll give you a minute to go away and do what you need to do..." He thought for a second, finding talking with another human being suddenly tiresome. "If you disappear, I'll let you live," he completed, smiling cordially at the men.

  All of them burst into laughter.

  "You hear this guy, John?" one mocked. "Oh, our great lordship will let us live if we let him go!"

  They were almost rolling on the ground now. One of them, the tallest man by quite a large margin, stepped forward, shoving the others out of his way.

  "Now listen here, your lordship," he snarled. "You are alone and, as far as I can see, unarmed. Literally, one of your hands is missing. We are much larger and there are six of us. How exactly do you think you will make us suffer? Huh?"

  “He dresses weird! Surely a noble! Maybe we can ransom him!” One of the others exclaimed.

  Meriel raised his eyebrows, glancing behind him. He was still amidst the trees, true, but could they not see Ziggy? Maybe not, seeing that it was already getting dark—undoubtedly caused by the shortened days of the autumn. But he'd not even need Ziggy for fools such as these.

  Tiring of the charade, he cast a quick incantation, and the ground under the six bandits started shifting, turning into muddy sludge.

  Their shouts came just as quickly.

  "Hey, what is happening?"

  "What is he doing?"

  "A mage—but why's he so strong?"

  One of them managed to crawl out, rushing at Meriel. Meriel considered just waving him away, maybe creating a gust of wind under his feet, but decided not to. Fools such as these didn’t deserve such easy treatment. As the man got nearer, he started laughing, perhaps confusing Meriel's standing still with fear.

  "I've got him now, lads. I've got him!" he shouted, stretching his arm behind his back, preparing to strike.

  Meriel didn't even know much of swordsmanship, but Jonathan taught him enough to know that the bandit was unbalancing himself far too much. Just as the man came within an arm's reach, Ziggy darted forward, appearing from behind Meriel's shadow, and took the man down to the ground, biting at him.

  Meriel had never taught him that, never taught him to be aggressive, but some things just apparently came naturally.

  "Don't kill him," he whispered, hoping that Ziggy listened.

  Then he stepped forward. The men were shouting for help now, waving their arms around. They were trying to use their swords as shovels to get away—all hopeless. Their bodies were half sunk into the ground now.

  "Okay, gentlemen, let us begin again. My name is..."

  He considered telling them his name, but decided it was too risky, for Jonathan could possibly use that information once it got out.

  "Well, my name doesn't matter," he said. "What I want to say, gentlemen, however, is that you've quite made me angry."

  "How the fuck is a mage so strong?" one of them muttered, looking at the sludge uncomprehendingly, ignoring Meriel.

  "Strong?" Meriel replied, meeting the man's eyes, confused, but then waved him away. "This is just normal magic. It's not even a high-level spell. Anyway," he continued, "I wanted to ask. How far am I from Mura City?" He stopped, temporarily forgetting what else he wanted to know, but a nudge from Ziggy, who silently appeared from behind him, made his next words come out. "Oh right, also, what year is it?"

  The bandits looked at each other, confused.

  "It's 3278, good sir," one of them muttered, nervousness visible. Finally, some respect.

  Meriel's mind stopped. He felt his breath quicken. Felt his mind go completely blank. It wasn't a few years that passed. It was almost a hundred. If he recalled correctly, it was 3181 when he got inside the Dungeon. Ninety-seven years.

  He felt his head swim and stumbled backwards. Fell onto his bottom and held himself in a fetal position. All he ever knew was gone. Every person, even Jonathan, that he wanted to get revenge on was gone. Beril. Vivien. Meriel's family who he wanted to visit for so long but he didn’t get to. His kid brother and sister—all dead for decades.

  A realization struck him—something so obvious yet he missed it at that moment. Elsa was a half-elf. Yes, they weren't as long-lived as normal elves were, but surely she should still be alive somewhere, right?

  That question, just that one single hope, made him stand up again.

  Ziggy met his eyes questioningly, and Meriel nodded.

  "Not all hope is lost, Ziggy. Shall we go?"

  He started walking forward again, ignoring the men shouting behind him. He didn't even look at what Ziggy made of the one bandit that he attacked. He was about to let them sink completely, turned around to watch. Meriel wasn’t a person that liked killing people. To be completely honest, he disliked all violence altogether.

  But the kingdom would always be a safer place without people such as these. He repeated the spell, and watched their bodies disappear into the mud. It wasn’t his first meeting with people like them, but he hoped it was close to the last.

  His head hurt from trying not to let the new information completely blind him. He had to hurry towards the city. Towards wherever Elsa was.