Maria was right.
This planet reeked of weirndness. It was messed up in ways Varian previously hadn't experienced.
When he took a few steps into a forest, he'd see a few children getting murdered brutally. If he tried to help them out, he'd be ambushed by demonic one-eyed flying creatures that orchestrated the illusion.
Or if he even tried to sit under a tree, the tree's branches would slowly creep behind him and try to activate an illusion that could put him to sleep forever.
It was ridiculous, exhausting and felt like the realized version of a huanted world from the movies he watched.
No, this was worse.
"Rraaaa!"
A shrill scream pierced the minds of Varian and Maria by the riverside, causing them to clutch their heads in response.
"You said this place was safe," Veins popped up on Varian's forehead as he struggled to withold the raging fury. For some reason, his emotions were getting volatile here.
Despite knowing a battle against Maria here would be in his worst interest, he didn't care about offending her.
"I said what I believed," Maria glared back at him while taking out a pink flower from her storage ring and sniffing it lightly.
The sharpness in her gaze disappeared and she passed him the flower, "Our emotions are being manipulated."
Varian wanted to throw the flower onto the ground and stomp on it. Did she really think his emotions could be manipulated so easily?
No, he wasn't that weak. He's—
[Host, shut up and take it.]
Varian's grip on the flower loosened and he sniffed the soothing fragrance. His fury disappeared as if it was never appeared and he slumped onto the wet grass on the riverbed with a complex expression.
"I think we need to get out of this place as soon as possible."
Maria rolled her eyes at him and lay down on the grass, "Thanks for the directions, Captain Obvious. But we're on the riverbank for a reason."
"Don't tell there are mermaids here for you to steal their star pearls," Varian shook his head.
"Well," Maria Virdis curled her lips. "No fishes, but there are chickens."
"What do you mea—"
A giant bird whose size seemed larger than ten football stadiums stacked together flew over their heads and disappeared into the fog.
Then, the relatively calm flowing river water began to grow turbulent.
"It's called the bird of sweet dreams. It injects its power into this water and anything that drinks this water will be tainted by its power and slowly grow mentally attached to it, ultimately being enslaved by it." Maria explained.
Varian took a few steps from the sweet river water with a regretful expression.
She chuckled at his action and continued. "On contrary, if you use its brain, it'll shield you from these spiritual attacks. If you're a spirit pathwalker, it's a treasuretove."
Varian gulped.
[[Spirit]: Rank 2 (249/250)]
As he was about to propose a 'deal', the turbulent river water stilled without any warning and reached a point of stagnation.
Then, globules of viscious green liquid began to appear in the water that slowly began to flow.
Varian and Maria grew alert at the bizzare change and slowly walked in the direction the bird flew off to.
They could only see hundred meters into the fog and were otherwise blind. For the speed of celestial rankers, this distance was too low for any usage.
But they worked with what they had and the green liquid patches in the river certainlyed helped in guiding them.
After an excruciatingly long and cautious journey of two hours, they found the corpse of that same creature—the bird of sweet dreams.
Its neck was broken and blood was oozing out of its veins. Its huge body was almost completely blocking the river flow, a ridiculous feat.
They walked along the enormous corpse in an attempt to learn more.
"Huh?" Varian stepped back instinctively as he noticed something was off. "Is it the same bird? This one is…small."
It's still massive. Almost the size of a village. But compared to the bird he saw just a while ago, this one did have a significant difference.
Maria nodded. "The fog."
A chill shot up Varian's spine as he realized what was actually happening.
It wasn't a hidden beast or the body decomposing by itself and certainly not an illusion placed on them by an enemy.
It's the fog.
The fog began to envelop the corpse, squirm and slowly nibble it. As it did, the fog grew slightly thicker and more opaque.
"Holy shit," Varian involuntarily unsheathed his sword.
The fog was very, very creepy. Was it really dead? If it had any sentience, then…
"The bird has been ambushed," Maria bent down to inspect the broken neck of the bird and concluded.
She was using a treasure in the form of a hand mirror. Every time she moved it around the bird's body, a colorful stripe of different dimensions would appear on it.
"Ten, no, thirty…rank 3s," Maria slowly stepped back and looked around with vigilance.
Varian too watched the surroundings and tightened his grip on the sword.
The Demon Sword, as greedy as ever, was pulling away the blood of the bird and drinking it with relish. It hummed and vibrated in his hand, its power increasing at a visible rate.
Varian wondered if he could fight peak rank 4s with his strength. No, it's still a bit too early.
"T-Ten rank 4s…" Maria grabbed her spear and called out her two rank 4 puppets. Varian moved closer to her and hoped things wouldn't fuck up too badly.
"A-And…" Maria's voice was so quiet that Varian would've almost missed the word she said next. "O-One…"
"Before us, there must've been at least ten teams here, fifty or sixty members who came here. All dead." Varian used his rank 3 famine powers and said after smelling the death in the air.
Despite the fog blocking his sense, he could feel it vaguely. The corpses were just a distance away. And standing beside those corpses were hungry, predatory eyes.
"You're not a predator, you're a coward," Varian said to no one in particular. While his voice reached several miles despite being obstructed by the fog, there was no response to his words.
Ten silhouettes moved behind the fog, positioned themselves in an ideal ambush position, and waited.
And waited.
An hour passed by just like that.
Maria's patience was wearing thin or at least that's how she seemed. Varian didn't trust what the woman said or how she appeared. For someone putting up the act of an arrogant missy so naturally, this wouldn't be a cakewalk.
What worried Varian was the occasional aura shockwaves that hit them from the distance.
And—
B…oom!
An explosion so quiet that'd you almost certainly miss it if you didn't concentrate. It occurred before every fight and the fight itself was concluded within minutes.
He gained a rough idea of what was happening here.
In addition to the all-concealing fog, the corpse itself was so long, wide, and tall that it hid the hunters perfectly.
A new team would come to one side of the corpse or another. Then they did something that triggered an explosion after which they'd be quickly finished off.
And what would every team try?
'Get the bird's brain. Approach its head!' Varian stopped in his steps, noticing that he was already a bit away from the bird's long neck and was now only some distance from its coveted head.
'Oh, fuck.' Varian's expression fell and the space around his body blurred, as he tried to teleport at the last moment.
But an overwhelming amount of energy engulfed his surroundings, breaking the space and making it too chaotic for any attempt of 'escape'.
The tower closed up the space. So, Varian wouldn't end up outside the tower in some remote area by entering into the chaotic space, but it'd still be dangerous.
'If I'm rank 3, I could manage the risk,' Varian clicked his tongue and sprinted away like his life depended on it, because it did.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Maria Virdis reacted just a moment earlier than him and when the explosion swept them, she was already fleeing on a flying metal board.
At the same time, eleven humanoid rank 4s appeared on round one-eyed flying monsters which themselves were also rank 4.
To Varian's puzzlement, the humanoids were challengers and the one-eyed monsters were natives.
'Are you kidding me?'
