Far below the thriving businesses in the Ellipsia Citadel, dense green clouds made of divine threads fly by while I continue to plumt downward.
Every few minutes, I try opening up my purple barrier to let as few threads inside as possible.
However, each ti, no matter how little the opening is, I'm struck by the sa unfathomably painful and instant attack on my physical form.
These passing minutes turn into hours, and it feels as though I'm making no progress at all.
Even with 50% of my world's stats still surging through , I still feel as weak as an unawakened human in this high pressure environnt.
I feel large amounts of green threads assimilate with my body and core each ti, growing my True Core's power, but it doesn't change the fact that my physical form is just far too heavy for this realm.
My speed moving downward gets faster and faster, and the thickness of the clouds only increases.
It makes need to wait longer between each barrier opening, to the point where, between every single exposure, I need almost half an hour to fully process the new threads.
On a positive note, the purple ring around my finger is having a field day devouring as many green threads as it can. Its absorption rate is almost ten tis as fast as mine, and it can stay constantly absorbing, effortlessly converting them to its sealed version of purple threads.
This makes the exoskeleton barrier around far stronger as I fall, but it doesn't make feel any better, as the difficulty of the work ahead of only gets tougher and tougher with every minute that passes.
By the ti it takes over an hour to process all of the threads, the density of green clouds around hits their peak.
I'm unable to send a wave of perception out, even in the tiny fractions of a second I get while opening my barrier, as my total concentration is locked on not being devoured by my environnt.
However, the fact that the threads aren't getting denser is almost equally as concerning as if they were...
Very soon after this realization cos over , I see the air below turn darker green, then fade to black.
I know very well what an abyss looks like; and this isn't it. Even without my maxed-out perception or aura to probe my surroundings, my eyesight is still far better than average.
There must be a ground below.
With no way to eject mana, demonic energy, or even divine power without my certain demise, I just brace for impact.
---
A heavy thud echoes throughout the desolate area, and intense vibrations rattle through my body.
While they aren't nearly as painful as being torn apart by divine threads, the pain is quite unexpected.
I thought my barrier would take the entirety of the force, but the imnse amount of weight my body has paired with the speed of impact sohow pushes pressure through the barrier on the impact zone.
Even Celia's emotions ripple through our emotional link, showing confusion at this turn of events, as her skin-tight exo-suit should have absorbed the entire impact.
Nevertheless, all around , shards of dark black rock fly upward as my body makes a crater in the floor beneath the green clouds.
Surprisingly, not many rocks at all are upset by my impact either; I've only created a hole ten ters deep and double the distance wide at most.
Most of the jet-black shards are extrely heavy, and most aren't larger than the size of my palm.
They appear to be devoid of all energy; even the divine threads around just flow by and not through the odd black stones.
As I let out a groan, sit up, then get to my feet to walk out of the crater I've made, in all directions as far as I can see, the landscape is made of these dark black rocks.
With the dense green clouds moving by even down here, and the rising and falling rock piles making hills and small valleys, I can hardly see more than 200 ters in any given direction.
From having entire planets in my sights just hours ago to now being thrust into such a strange and limiting environnt, I'm imdiately put on edge.
My gaze stays sharp as I slowly turn around in circles surveying the area and weighing my options, then start walking in the direction of the Citadel where I was traveling last.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Every footstep I take crunches through these dark rocks, so of them as small as a marble, while others are as finely ground as dust.
These crunches are the only bit of sound that echoes through these obsidian wastelands.
While falling through the air, I felt safe enough to absorb threads; down here, it feels like I'm being watched. So I trust my instincts and put off training any further until I figure out what this place really is...
---
While I walk between two large piles of black stones, about a kiloter away, two small green creatures with pointed ears and poorly made stone weapons crafted from the black stones we're standing on hide behind a small pile of rocks, watching wander through the barren lands.
They both watched fall from the sky and have been whispering to each other for minutes as I unknowingly walk in their direction.
"Troy, it's a human..." whispers the small creature with roughly fitted brass knuckles made of black rock around both his clenched fists.
The other, with a short sword about half a ter long, replies, "Yeah, Rain, and look at his palm. He's still a Lord..."
Rain looks down at his own palm to see a lightly glowing [0], then gazes over to Troy, seeing the sa marking, before staring up into the endless green sky of clouds above.
A third, even smaller creature pokes his head in between the two with an innocent, curious look.
"Where did he co from...? -And what a weird avatar..."
As I walk forward, unaware of where or what eyes are truly watching , Rain whispers to the little one between them.
"We'll hold him off. Go run and get the leader from the mines, fast."
The tiny green creature nods, still wide-eyed with innocence, and skips away into the green fog.
---
I hear other footsteps trailing away in front of and think about retrieving my Soul Weapon, but upon visualizing what opening my storage and taking the ti exposed to this pressure would do to , preparing without it is the better option right now.
I pause my steps and put up my hands to fight, still scanning the endless black wasteland, unsure what that sound was or if it was even an enemy.
Whatever it was, it was running away. Even if this is a trap, whatever was lurking in the fog has certainly already seen . Giving it any more information won't hurt...
"Hello...? I—co in peace, as long as you do..."
My footsteps forward continue, but I hold my breath in order to use my other senses to the best of their ability, even without using excess energy outside my barrier.
No more footsteps can be heard, and I walk forward for another few minutes, right past another massive mound of black rocks. However, this one catches my attention.
For so reason, in the back of my mind, a warm pressure leans toward a small isolated area on the mound.
I give in to the feeling, similar to when I felt that small white pill of low-quality Ether rush into my body during the trials.
I shove my hands into the pile of rocks and begin throwing dozens of them behind until I find the one that drew my senses in.
It feels warm in my hands, and there are small fractures on its surface that glow with a faint white light.
My eyes widen at the discovery, but simultaneously, I feel two more of these warm pressures moving toward from the opposite direction, from behind another large rockpile stacking tens of ters high.
I don't bother trying to keep the glowing stone; whatever is coming my way is more of a threat. So I get back into a fighting stance and turn their way just as they jump out from behind the adjacent rock structure.
My eyes fall on two goblins no more than half my height, gripping black stone weapons like their lives depend on it.
One, with obsidian colored brass knuckles, matches my stance, grits his teeth, and yells out in a scratchy high-pitched tone.
"We'll both die before we let you take our mine!"
The other, with a jagged self-made short sword, points it my way.
"Surrender now, or—or—"
I can see his hands shaking as he stutters, but the goblin stays staring in the eyes while finishing.
"Or I'll stab you! So—leave before we have to!"
My mouth is left wide open, and all of my worries of having to fight mysterious powerful green cored beings leave.
I want to let out a laugh, but I decide to just play along and take a step back, putting my hands up.
"Fine, fine. I'll go the other way. My bad."
Then I grin while leaning down to pick up the interesting rock I dropped before.
Both of the goblins look equally relieved at my decision not to be hostile, but their eyes widen at the rock I grab from the ground.
I hear gulps from each of them and watch their eyes track the stone, but as I take a few steps back, it's clear they're not going to risk their lives for it.
However, an extrely loud and angry woman's voice cos echoing out from the endless green mist behind them.
"Not so fast! Just because you can intimidate my underlings doesn't an I'll let you rob us blind!"
Out from the fog, accompanied by heavy and fast footsteps, I see the figure of a creature about the sa size as myself.
There's a faint warm pull from the Ether Sense in my mind that signals the approaching monster's direction, but I can't fully make it out until it jumps off a raised area of rocks over 30 ters away. Then I see a Hobgoblin gripping a massive black hamr in both of her palms.
She has a feminine figure but is covered in muscles, striations, veins, and a skin tight glossy black armor near vital areas. With a bright green True Core glowing in her chest, this is clearly a dangerous monster.
So much down here makes no sense at all...
Her speed coming down toward is far faster than my unenhanced eyes can track, and without the mana skill boosts, I can't dodge or jump away fast enough.
The only thing to do is block, so that's what I do, raising both my arms into a cross in front of my head. I feel the massive hamr smash down on .
The initial physical impact feels like nothing at all, as Celia's barrier absorbs the force just like the gravity and pressure around with no issue.
However, when a warm white light flows through the Hobgoblin woman, into her hamr, and pulses into , I feel it send flying backward with a strange force that I have no idea how to block.
The white energy ripples through ignoring Celia's barrier entirely. I'm sent flying back over 100 ters until hitting a pile of black rocks, then the faint white light disperses out as quickly as it ca.
I could feel it even attack my mind as it washed through , but the sa warm pressure that was thoroughly trained inside the first round of the Mind trial in the tower easily protected from its pressure.
The only damage I'm feeling now is a little tingling all over, but it doesn't hurt. I'm more so shocked at what I just witnessed.
However, excitent fills my eyes as the enemy cos running my way with her massive glowing hamr, as I'll get to see that strange attack in action again.
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