"Have you already voted?" Dox was taken aback for a moment. He had just been spacing out for a few seconds, and they had already finished voting?
Angel nodded, "Vay and I chose to take that dog hole above, while Black Earl and Kaier decided to continue on the big road. Now it’s up to you to decide."
Angel didn’t block his words, and everyone else heard it, but no one objected. They all knew that Dox’s inspiration was the key, and their choices were not important.
"I see..." Dox noticed that even Black Earl didn’t object, and Vay cooperatively nodded with Angel, so he was convinced. After all, the situation outside the illusionary realm was quite urgent now, and it was normal for everyone to make decisions quickly.
Angel: "Have you made up your mind? Are you going to take the dog hole above or the right path?"
Dox considered for a moment and said, "Let’s continue forward."
Angel paused for a second but quickly regained his composure, "I thought you’d choose the small path above like me, but I didn’t expect you still wanted to admire the beauty of the mutated carrion squirrels."
Dox: "That small path is very high, and it’s so narrow; doesn’t it seem strange to you?"
"What’s strange about it?" Angel looked up at the hole above. Apart from being a bit high and small, there was nothing strange about it.
"It’s just that you have too little experience exploring ruins. Such an intriguing small path is meant to trap Transcendents. Curiosity can be exploited, and who knows, the end might just be a trap." After speaking, Dox didn’t forget to elevate Kaier. "Look at Kaier; he’s explored many ruins and chose the right path. And the one who followed your choice is a homebody who hasn’t stepped out in decades."
Angel:... Kaier and Vay, he just randomly distributed the choices, and that can become evidence?
Angel couldn’t refute his previous words, so he could only say dryly, "I see... Cough, since you voted for the big road, let’s continue forward then."
After making their decision, everyone didn’t hesitate and continued moving forward.
At this moment, Dox approached Angel and whispered in his ear, "Actually, there’s another important reason I chose the big road."
Angel’s eyes lit up. Could it be inspiration?
Dox: "Because Lord Black Earl chose the big road. If there’s a thigh to cling to, why make any independent choices?"
Angel: "... When you made the choice before, you didn’t consider Lord Black Earl’s option."
Dox: "Wasn’t there no danger before? Now with the magical creature tide outside, naturally, I should first consider the thoughts of the thigh."
You really are a fickle fence-sitter.
Angel suppressed his urge to retort and said calmly, "I think in the future, when you make decisions, you should think independently."
"Wasn’t I just thinking independently before?" Dox was puzzled for a moment and then suddenly had an epiphany, "Oh, I get it. You think I didn’t support you and only considered Lord Black Earl’s choice, so you’re feeling a bit uneasy, right?"
Angel:... Not at all.
"No worries, next time when making a choice, I’ll consider your feelings more. Of course, in the end, I’ll still think independently." Dox comforted him.
Angel really didn’t want to continue talking with Dox, as this guy always made people want to retort.
He walked ahead with large strides, came beside Black Earl, and directly switched to "private chat" mode.
However, Dox didn’t follow, instead furrowing his brow slightly, as if thinking about something.
"Is Dox’s choice this time reliable?" Angel had originally quite believed in Dox’s inspiration, but after hearing Dox’s reasoning just now, he started to doubt it.
Black Earl: "As long as he is currently in a state of inspiration outbreak, all his reasons are unnecessary to listen to. They are all deliberately guided by inspiration. If inspiration had guided him to choose the small path initially, he would have had a different pretext then."
Angel pondered, "Only look at the results, don’t ask about the process?"
Black Earl: "No need to ask. Any choice he makes now will have a self-justified process in his own mind. The more you inquire, the more this self-justified process will be ingrained in him. And to allow inspiration to advance, he must first have a process of self-doubt, not increasingly believing his choices are right."
Angel: "If all the choices he makes are correct, will he have self-doubt?"
"If it were you, would you?" Black Earl countered with a question.
Angel thought for a moment and nodded, "I would. I believe in being lucky once or twice, but not in being perpetually lucky."
Black Earl: "So do you think that Dox will have self-doubt now?"
Angel glanced at the carefree-looking Dox with peripheral vision and hesitantly said, "If inspiration never appears, and only guides in the shadows, he should doubt. But now, with inspiration showing up occasionally to make its presence known, Dox will just think it’s as usual. It’s likely he won’t have much self-doubt."
Black Earl: "What you said isn’t wrong, but you are only considering it from your perspective, or rather, the most normal perspective. But do you think Dox is a normal guy?"
"Perhaps he’s already started feeling that something’s not right."
Black Earl said meaningfully.
Angel thought about it and felt that what Black Earl said was right. Jon often told him not to judge others by one’s own standards, especially in the Wizards’ Realm where freaks and oddballs were aplenty, normal thinking seemed to be the minority.
"Did you probe that small path earlier?" Angel didn’t pursue the issue with Dox any further, as it was something Dox needed to experience himself as part of his growth process.
"Very long, not a dead end." Black Earl’s words were concise, "What about you, did you find anything? Didn’t Speedy also go there just now?"
Angel nodded, "At the deepest part, there’s a sealed gate, resembling the kind in a prison. The sealing power is strong, but it doesn’t impede the flow of elements. Speedy perceived through the seal that it was quite a spacious area inside, and the wind was flowing. As the lord said, it’s not a dead end."
Black Earl: "Do you think the ones who built the underground labyrinth would inexplicably place a seal on a small path? Moreover, all these years, that seal hasn’t been broken. Has no one else discovered it?"
Angel: "Are you suggesting... there’s danger inside?"
"Since Dox arrived here, did he make any wrong choices?" Black Earl said, "No need to overthink what the danger is, or why no one has touched the seal in all these years. Anyway, having chosen this path, why care so much? What if the seal Speedy sensed was a trap?"
Angel paused; if Black Earl hadn’t mentioned it, he indeed started pondering why no one had discovered or destroyed that seal all these years.
Looking back, that path was indeed very peculiar.
Anyway, they had no intention of turning back. Peculiar as it may be, if curiosity got the better of them, they could always return to the Nightmare Realm later to see what lies at the end of that path.
As they continued onward, the number of mutated carrion squirrels surrounding them finally showed signs of thinning out.
After enduring the mental pollution along the way, the two apprentices finally heaved a sigh of relief.