Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

The forest ahead gradually became denser.

Bushes, thorns, and vines filled every corner, leaving no place to step!

All the space within the woods was shrouded in a darkness as thick as substance.

“You know about forest mazes?”

Polo raised his head, looking at the girl beside him in surprise.

“Hey, my grandma is a forest witch, more or less!”

The girl glanced at Polo with dissatisfaction, but she looked somewhat cute, “Even though I haven't learned magic yet, it's normal to know about this kind of thing, right?

Like the forest we used to live in, the reason why no outsiders came in was because of the forest maze.

Every ancient forest can become the carrier of this kind of magic, and with some special magic or... spells, such barriers can be formed.

Making people who enter it get lost or return to the starting point, and so on.”

“I see, no wonder those Bo Ren soldiers couldn't get in...”

Polo looked at the dark forest, nodding thoughtfully.

Walking into that, with everything pitch black, and with magical misdirection—who could find the way!

“Polo, how were you originally planning to get in?”

Leike suddenly asked with some curiosity.

“Oh, those dwarves will always come out, right? We'll just follow them from a distance, and I'll use my sense of smell to follow, and wouldn't we be able to get in?”

Polo replied indifferently, “Now that you know about forest mazes, you should know how to get in, right?”

“I...”

The girl hesitated for a moment, “Although I don't know magic either, I can try, and if it doesn't work... then we'll just have to do it your way, Polo.”

After speaking, Leike walked forward and stood before the thicket of thorns.

Polo was surprised to see that the small white pouch containing the Heart of the Forest on Leike's chest slowly floated up, and a verdant halo was projected out.

The thorns and bushes illuminated by the verdant light actually curled up.

A green path appeared before them!

“Let's go, Polo!”

Upon seeing this, Polo quickly quickened his pace to catch up.

This forest maze was very large, and there were countless strange plants.

The terrain also became rugged.

The further they went, Polo noticed that in the depths of the grass, there were many broken stones, and the surfaces of those stones were engraved with twisted characters.

On some stones, the surface was covered with moss, but the vague shapes could still be seen—

Like some ancient ruins forgotten in the forest.

“How far is this maze anyway... How is it that the scope of this forest seems endless.”

“That means this forest maze wasn't built well, the one my grandma built doesn't need to be so dense to make people get lost!”

After a while, looking at a small hill protruding from the ground in front of them:

“Which hill is this?”

“The seventh one—what's wrong, Polo, what happened?”

Leike asked with some confusion.

“I smell a lot of... dwarven scents, we should be arriving soon.”

Polo tightened his nose, untying the clothes he had tied on his back with vines and grass ropes, “I need to disguise myself, just in case.”

On the ground was the clothing from the dwarf killed by Leike.

Although it was made of animal skin, it didn't look simple, and it could be seen that it had been carefully sewn, the only place that looked a bit tattered—were the knife marks and the holes caused by Leike's arrows.

Polo put on that piece of clothing, his figure twisting and changing.

Soon, he transformed into the appearance of a small dwarf.

“So ugly, Polo, I can't even look at you!”

Leike narrowed her blue eyes, leaning back slightly, making a disgusted expression.

“Hey, if you don't want to see it... then you can use [Wolf's Guise] too!”

As Polo spoke, he reached out his hand, and a golden page floated out—it was [Cyclical Regression: Little Red Riding Hood · Wolf's Guise]!

“No way, I would rather die than turn into that!”

Leike quickly waved her hand and retreated, becoming serious, “Besides, Polo, you... are more suitable for this kind of disguise than me.”

Crossing over the seventh hill in front of them, the view suddenly opened up, a wide meadow.

Totems and stone statues of various cultural styles were tilted in all directions, and in the center of the meadow, there was a... wooden house that didn't look very sinister.

Polo even felt that it was somewhat similar to Leike's previous home.

But Polo certainly wouldn't lower his guard because of this, the horror of the dwarves that Leike described had already been deeply imprinted in Polo's mind.

“You go first, Polo.”

Leike spoke, she looked at the wooden house in the distance.

What Polo said wasn't wrong, there were indeed other dwarves coming out of it.

“Yeah, you also... be careful.”

As Polo spoke, he glanced at Leike and walked forward.

Leike nodded, turned around and walked back into the woods, the overly dense bushes separated, concealing the scarlet figure within, and closed behind Leike.

Given the unknown situation of the dwarf's nest, it was easier for Polo, disguised as a dwarf, to blend in.

After all... dwarves as creatures.

Aren't beings that would show mercy to 'cute girls'!

Seeing Polo walk over, one of the dwarves outside the door didn't notice anything.

As long as he had all the clothes and a complete understanding of the body of the person he was imitating, [Cyclical Regression: Little Red Riding Hood · Wolf's Guise] could disguise the appearance, smell, and voice in exactly the same way!

So... even the dwarves with their keen sense of smell didn't notice anything.

“Pulu, why are you back so late this time?”

The dwarf glanced at the clothes on Polo's body with many holes, as if thinking of something, “Did you encounter those humans from the east of the forest?”

Through Leike's description of him, Polo roughly guessed that the dwarf he was replacing.

Was probably named “Pulu”, so, adhering to the principle of saying less and making fewer mistakes, he replied concisely:

“Yes.”

“Those newcomers are hard to deal with, especially that dark one.”

The dwarf raised his arm, and Polo saw that there was a long, narrow wound on it, but... it had already scabbed over, and would probably heal soon.

“He gave Guji a sword, and Guji still feels a little pain.”

The dwarf, who was probably named “Guji”, said with some resentment, “Guji wants to kill those hateful humans and eat their hearts!

If they don't leave, wait... wait a few more days, and we can eat them!”

After the dwarf Guji finished speaking, he touched the holes in Polo's clothes and said:

“Give them to Snow White to sew later, you haven't been back for the past few days, it's been delayed for a long time... it will take longer tonight!”

“It's time to prepare dinner, go kill a few pigs first—but if this goes on, there won't be any pigs left.”

The dwarf Guji muttered to himself, pulling Polo into the wooden house.

And at this time, the one Polo was most apprehensive about was meeting that... Snow White.