[Chaotic Realm Explorer – Unclassified Notes]The realm includes layered biomes and inconsistent spatial logic. Entry points are randomized.Indigenous entities are usually friendly. Don't mention the outside world around them. Seriously.Avoid anything yellow. That's not a joke.Wolves = hostile. Except castle wolves. And wolves with sheep. Trust the sheep.Stay away from cherry blossom trees. If surrounded, seek a bald park ranger. He knows.Red-hooded pigs will trade lollipops. Don't laugh—those things buff stats like crazy.There's a wandering merchant with a beard and a steel cart. His wares are good. Beware the cabbage that punches.Red and white orbs = capture tech. If you see one, try your luck—tame a beast.Penguin quartet. Earn their favor. They've got the best gear in the realm.CRITICAL: Blue grass means you're screwed. Run. If you can't run, teleport. Don't look back.Yarrow closed the manual slowly, as if the absurdity might bite him if he snapped the cover shut. His temples throbbed. He rubbed his eyes and turned to the carriage window, watching forests blur past under the soft hum of the land dragon's steps.
"This place is a fever dream," he muttered.
A realm? More like someone stuffed every fairy tale, JRPG, and fevered hallucination into a blender and hit purée.
The mixing of world logic, power scales, timelines... it was chaotic in every sense. Dangerous, yes—but the real threat might just be existential whiplash.
"Yarrow! Look, the statue!"Tao Hu had her face pressed to the window, her fox ears twitching with excitement as she pointed toward the distant silhouette of a towering statue half-swallowed by the treeline.
He followed her gaze. At the forest's edge, beyond tangled red cotton trees, a crumbling white figure stood tall—faded stone, vines, and cracked history.
The Chaotic Realm entrance was nestled in the ruins of the Red Cotton Sheep Forest. Technically, it belonged to the Cador family—not that anyone liked to talk about that. But since the castle above it had been in their bloodline for centuries, no one could challenge their claim to the entry point.
"It'll take another half hour or so," Yarrow said, pouring himself a cup of black tea from the carriage's crystal kettle. "No need to hurry."
The land dragon carriage was surprisingly luxurious—thick cushions, spell-stabilized suspension, warm lighting. A far cry from the bone-jarring horse carts he was used to. He stretched out on the couch, sipping tea like a lord.
This entire setup was Lawrence's doing, of course. The man didn't half-ass his missions. Two gold cards jingled in Yarrow's coat pocket—each one worth a small estate—because entry to the realm wasn't free. Those were their keys inside.
In exchange? A simple job:Bring back some things that caught Lawrence's eye.And recover one specific item—a lost box, left behind by a previous team.Supposedly it held rare artifacts they'd never managed to retrieve.
Which meant it was either cursed, impossible to carry, or both.
"What do you think the realm will be like?" Tao Hu asked, finally sitting down beside him. Her tail curled around her legs, warm against his thigh as she leaned in.
"How should I know?" Yarrow replied. "Never been. But if Lawrence is right… it's like a mirror-world. Everything works—but not quite the way it should. Layered timelines, mixed logic."
Tao Hu tilted her head, her golden eyes gleaming. "Do you think we'll run into people from back home?"
Yarrow glanced at her, then nodded. "Yeah. I think it's almost certain."
The mystic realm pulled from too many corners of existence for that to be coincidence. Familiar faces… were inevitable.
"I hope so," she whispered, smiling against his shoulder.
She was different out here—bolder when no one else was watching. There was a softness in her now, but a heat too—like fire tucked behind silk. She clung to his arm without hesitation now, even if her cheeks still flushed pink when their fingers brushed.
She was still Tao Hu—mischievous and unpredictable—but quieter, too. More real. More herself.
Half an hour later, the carriage came to a smooth stop.
Outside the window, the first light of dawn glinted off broken stone and cracked towers. The old Cador estate was a wreck of its former glory—ivy strangling its walls, moss swallowing statues whole. But fresh cart tracks and bootprints proved it wasn't as abandoned as it looked.
The gateway to the Chaotic Realm stood inside.
Yarrow slung on his pack, adjusted the sword on his hip, and exhaled slowly.
"Ready?" he asked, looking down at the little fox beside him.
Tao Hu flashed him a grin. "Let's go tame some wolves. And maybe punch a cabbage."
Carrying their luggage, Yarrow and Tao Hu stepped off the land dragon carriage.
At the crumbling manor gates stood a hunched figure—thin as a scarecrow, dressed in weather-worn butler attire, and coughing like an old chimney.
"Welcome… to Cador Manor..." the man rasped, his voice rattling through his chest. "I am… cough, cough... Hunter. The butler. You must have your invitation tickets?"
His breath wheezed with every word, like gears grinding inside a broken automaton.
Yarrow handed over the two gilded realm-entry cards. Hunter squinted through his half-moon spectacles, scrutinized the cards for several long seconds, then gave a frail nod and motioned for them to follow.
The manor loomed like a sleeping giant, all chipped stone and ivy-cloaked bones. Once the ancestral home of the Cador family, it had been abandoned after the fourth family head earned a duke's title and relocated everyone to the royal capital. Left behind, the mansion festered.
Some time after, a rogue black mage took up residence—bringing with him a wave of monsters and unnatural phenomena. The building rotted, cursed things bred, and treasure-seekers began whispering its name.
Then, over a hundred years later, as the Cador bloodline withered in relevance, they returned to reclaim their lost holdings—and discovered the Chaotic Realm's entrance, hidden directly above the tomb of the family's first patriarch.
From then on, the house of Cador surged back to power, riding the wealth and prestige that flowed from guarding the gateway.
"A textbook case of ancestors grinning in their graves," Yarrow thought as he followed the butler up the cracked stone steps.
At the front door, Hunter retrieved a rusted iron key and, with a groan of metal and wood, pushed it open. A strong musty smell greeted them. Though the manor was vast, it bore all the signs of quiet decay—dust-thick furniture, frayed tapestries, and drafts that whispered through every hall.
The Cador family no longer lived here. Only the old butler and the third young master lingered in the shadows of its grandeur. And though it appeared mostly abandoned, Yarrow knew better. Anyone foolish enough to strike here would be torn apart by enforcers pouring in through spatial anchors hidden throughout the estate.
Hunter led them to a room near the central corridor. The heavy door creaked open to reveal a chamber slightly more presentable than the rest. A fire crackled weakly in the hearth, casting long shadows. A luxurious sofa sat facing a glowing crystal projector, which was quietly playing some old black-and-white film.
"Young master… the new explorers sent by Lawrence have arrived... cough, cough..." Hunter called out.
"Yeah, yeah. Got it. No need to announce Lawrence's people next time."The voice from behind the couch was dismissive, gruff, and heavy—each word weighed down by what sounded like three hundred pounds of impatience and fried food.
"As you wish," Hunter said with a bow, then turned back to Yarrow and Tao Hu. "This way, please."
He led them down a flight of damp, winding stairs into the basement. The air grew cold and thick with the scent of stone and soil. Finally, they stopped before a sealed stone door—engraved, ancient, unmoving.
Hunter pressed a hidden switch on the wall. With a deep mechanical groan, the stone slab began to rise, revealing a space beyond: a grand crypt cloaked in silence and old magic.
At its center stood a massive tombstone—the resting place of the Cador family's first patriarch.
And above that, suspended like a wound in reality, was the entrance to the realm.
A shimmering rupture twisted the air, its edges jagged and ever-shifting, as if space itself had been slit open by an invisible blade. Through that crack, the chaos beckoned.
The Chaotic Realm awaited.
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