Daniel and Drael flew the entire way under the blazing sunlight toward the mountain range ahead. Since both of their mana pools had fully recovered, they decided to continue at full speed.
Fortunately, no monsters attacked them along the way. On the contrary, it was too quiet, and that in itself made Daniel a little suspicious.
His journey since entering the third floor had been strangely smooth. Even the attacks from last night werenât a big problem; they were resolved easily.
He was starting to feel that something was off. But since nothing had happened and there was no sign or clue to follow, there wasnât much he could do about it.
At this point, all they could do was keep going and hope to reach the mountains, if those mountains even existed at all.
After all, it was just Draelâs guess. There was no proof that such a mountain range actually existed.
Time passed slowly. As their mana gradually began to drop, they were forced to reduce their speed.
The sound of the ocean waves grew louder and louder. There was no doubt, if one of those waves hit them, nothing would be left of them.
Thatâs when they noticed a huge mist ahead, as if it was covering something.
"Whatâs that? Hmm... a mountain?" Daniel spread out his spiritual senses and managed to see what was behind the mist.
It was a mountain! A whole range of them! A smile appeared on his face as he looked at Drael. The guy had actually guessed it right.
"Finally... we made it. Though it took longer than I thought," Drael sighed in relief. He had been afraid that heâd been wrongâand that his mistake mightâve cost them their lives.
They both sped up again, and before long, they reached the mist.
"This mist gives me a bad feeling," Daniel muttered. He didnât know why, but his instincts told him that entering it could be dangerous.
"I donât sense any danger from it, but I get the same feeling," Drael agreed with a nod.
"So what now? Itâs not like we have another path, right?" His eyes landed again on the thick white mist ahead.
"We go through it. No matter what happens, it wonât be able to hurt me," Daniel said confidently. He truly wasnât worried.
Even if there was danger, so what? With his current strength, he doubted anything here could threaten his life.
And even if it somehow could, he still had his extra lives, he could just use one of them.
With that, both of them entered the mist. The dense fog quickly surrounded them and began to weaken their senses.
Before they realized it, even their vision started to fade, they could barely see ahead of them.
Both of them tried to activate their spiritual senses to see more clearly, but to their surprise, a mysterious force prevented them from doing so.
"Drael? You there?" Daniel said with a frown. The worst part was that their senses were continuing to fade even more.
He felt as though ash and dust were filling his whole body. At the same time, a horrible stench filled his nose, messing with his sense of smell.
"Iâm here! Where are you? I canât see you!" Drael shoutedânot because he wanted to yell, but because his hearing was growing faint, and he could barely hear anything at all.
So he thought maybe he and Daniel had gotten separated and that he needed to shout for his voice to reach him... unaware that his shouting only attracted unnecessary attention.
"Keep walking and donât stop! As long as we keep going, weâll eventually get out!" Daniel yelled back. He was in the same situationâhis hearing had weakened too.
Both of them kept moving slowly forward. The further they went, the weaker their senses became. Eventually, Daniel had no choice but to use mana to protect them.
It was clear that whatever was erasing their senses came from the mist itself. As long as it didnât touch him, his senses shouldâve been fine.
So he formed a mana barrier around himself. But it didnât workâthe mist passed right through it and touched him again.
A useless effort that only wasted mana.
He had no choice but to walk faster, hoping to escape the mist as soon as possible. But it was unclear how big the mist really wasâno matter how far he walked, he never seemed to reach the end.
"When I saw it from outside, it didnât look this big... whatâs going on?" he muttered, frowning. He clearly remembered that the mist wasnât this vast.
So why couldnât he reach the end no matter how much he walked? Based on his estimates, even in the worst case, he shouldâve exited it ten minutes ago.
But he still hadnât.
Could it be that the mist was expanding? If that was the case... would it ever even end?
His senses had grown so faint that he could barely see, hear, or smell anything. The only thing left visible to him was a faint light flickering in the darkness.
"Drael, you there?" he shouted.
A second passed... two seconds... a minute... two minutes... but there was no response. It was as if no one was there to answer.
"Drael?" he called again, but still, there was no reply.
His frown deepened. For some reason, a chill ran down his spineâhe could feel danger approaching.
The problem was, he couldnât see anymore. He couldnât hear. The only thing faintly left was his weakened sense of smell.
Even worse, he couldnât access his skills. He could only rely on his Laws at best.
If he encountered an enemy now, how was he supposed to fight? With nothing but instinct?
In the worst case, he could summon his Fallen. Even if they lost their senses too, at least their presence would make monsters hesitate to attack.
But what Daniel didnât know... was that the danger was already there.
Monsters in the darkness were watching him, waiting patiently for their prey to completely lose his senses.
Their long, sharp fangs were ready to tear him apart. There were too many of them to count, they had surrounded him completely.
And there was one more thing Daniel didnât realize: all this time, he had been walking in circles. He hadnât taken even a single step closer to escaping the mist.