Pond of Truth!
There was an ancient folklore behind this place.
In the ancient time it was said that an honest woodcutter was cutting near a small pond, after a heavy day of work, things happened and the axe dropped in the pond.
Then a fairy appeared who gave him the choice of having a better iron axe instead of the rusted one.
The honest woodcutter was startled but in the end remained honest and answered truthfully, despite needing one.
The fairy silently returned to the pool and came back with another two, one was the new iron axe and another was a gold axe.
The honest woodcutter, although tempted, kept his honesty and insisted on getting his old axe back.
The fairy went back and came with a gold and diamond axe, of course, the honest woodcutter remained unfettered and unfazed by the persistent effort of the fairy.
At last, the fairy told the truth and gave him all the axe, the honest but poor woodcutter became rich after selling the axes, then another guy became jealous with his riches and asked him, the honest woodcutter told him the truth of course, even going into the details of it.
The jealous woodcutter took his brand new axe and accidentally dropped the axe in the same pond.
However this time, the fairy didn't appear, leaving the jealous woodcutter with nothing but empty grains.
And this is how the story ended.
Takashi didn't know if this was a true story or not, however the Pond of Truth was real and depending on your intention, they could glance at your soul and tell what you truly are!
But, unlike its grand story, in the actual game "Yokai Slayer", the actual truth was more cash grabbing:
Gacha Games!
This place was used as a Gacha Game, Takashi just didn't expect that he would be able to see this infamous money-grabbing mechanic so soon.
In the vr game, he heard that it takes one to reach at least level 12 to reach here.
And Takashi hasn't even unlocked the functionality of a level up yet, in fact, he didn't even have a class yet. There were many classes in this game like samurai, shinobi, alchemist, blacksmith and many more.
Anyway, everything considered, Takashi just didn't expect that he would unlock this "cash-grabbing" thing right after a day after his memory had returned.
Honestly, he was a little confused about what this would look like now that he was in reality, would it be like the game or something else entirely?
Countless thoughts were flashing his mind right now.
"What happened?" A man's stern and rugged voice rang in his ears.
"Nothing." Takashi replied.
His calm footstep reverberated in the dark passageway.
Soon, he saw a light in the distance and the general swiftly guided him forward. The moment he stepped out, the chirppings of birds, the roars of animals rang in his ears.
They came in a small forest and the outline of walls could be faintly seen around the place.
This was still inside the state of the Ashikaga clan but looking at a small forest inside the palace, it was very hard to phantom the sheer size of the entire Ashikaga clan as a whole.
This was truly enormous beyond something that people could even possible imagine.
It was almost like an entire city was inside the Ashikaga state, the only one who were capable of such a sheer magnitude of size were the Fujiwara Royal Clan, the second seal bearer clan, unfortunately, they faced some calamity on there own.
"Go inside." the man muttered with a frown, seeing that Takashi was staring straight ahead with a blank gaze.
"Okay." Takashi said in a whisper and walked in.
The man squinted while staring at his black, then his figure seemed to blend into the shadows before vanishing from the place, it was as if he didn't exist there in the first place.
It took a mere blink of an eyes.
Takashi suddenly turned around and narrowed his eyes as the man had already vanished in front of him, "Is that a Ninja?" he muttered in his heart.
Ninja was a common class in the game and was quite good for sneak attack and speed that was the only thing he knew about it because he hadn't played the game yet.
Anyway, Takashi trudged through the terrain, each step causing faint rustling sound from the grass as his vision was filled with nothing but green.
"Wait, how do I find the place?"
After going around the forest for sometime, Takashi was a little stunned on the spot, he had hoped that he would find it naturally but the forest was too large and going aimless seemed like a hassle.
Just then he heard a soft rustling at his left, he tightly gripped his katana and hoisted it forward and watched it intently with his pupils sharpened, watching it without a blink of his eyes.
He was still a lot weaker right now and it wouldn't hurt to be careful, would it?
Then a head popped out...
"Rabbit?" Takashi was stunned on the spot, looking at the rabbit head that was sticking out from the bushes.
The rabbit slowly came out of the bushes, a giant muscular body around the size of three feets, it's bloodshot eyes staring right at him.
...
[Rabbit]
Species: Guardian Beast
Strength: 10
Speed: 2
...
Swish!
The air tore apart as the rabbit lunged at Takashi.
"Forget it." He focused, circulating his Spiritual Qi through his body and into the blades. As it surged forward, closing in on striking range, Takashi swung his black katana.
Bang!
Victory was swift. Against the blade of his katana, the rabbit didn't stand a chance, it was cleanly sliced apart almost instantly.
Blood splattered everywhere.
"This is so weak?"
His face was smeared with blood, organs spilling onto the ground, a gruesome sight.
For a moment, Takashi stood stunned, his pupils vacant as he stared ahead, frozen.
The bloody stench and the guts spilling out made the world feel... more real.
Suddenly, he crouched low and vomited onto the earth.
At that moment, countless eyes in the forest fixed on him, silent, watchful, predator locking onto prey.