Subedei slowly walked alone and sat beneath a dead tree.
He lifted his head, gazing at the clouds drifting across the sky, lost in thought.
Several hours passed, and night fell. Subedei then rejoined the others.
Zev and Subedei looked at each other, but neither spoke, standing silently side by side.
Once everyone had gathered, Zev said,
"Let's move on to the next floor."
Everyone looked at the notification in front of them and selected Yes.
[Do you wish to proceed to the next floor?]
Yes / No
At that moment, a small black hole appeared in front of them.
It rapidly expanded until it grew large enough to swallow them all.
Subedei looked at it with slight surprise, then glanced to the side.
The others stood there without any visible emotion.
Zev took the first step forward.
As everyone followed him into the black hole, the space around them began to distort.
When they opened their eyes again, thick fog limited their vision.
Unlike the wide open land from before, they now stood among the ruins of collapsed buildings.
From all directions, faint, demonic whispers could be heard.
Hearing this, they grew cautious and spoke quietly.
"Can you hear that too?" Zev asked in surprise.
The others quickly nodded.
"It sounds like someone is whispering right into my ear."
"Yeah… it's making my skin crawl."
Before long, something seemed to fly ahead of them, and the demonic whispers grew clearer.
Zev immediately raised his sword and slashed toward the shape in the fog but hit nothing.
Whatever it was melted back into the mist and vanished.
As they continued forward cautiously, a white, shadow-like figure suddenly streaked past them.
Along with it, a whisper like a demon murmured directly into their ears, sending chills down their spines.
The sound grew louder, filling them with fear and panic.
Subedei attacked the thing, but his strike passed straight through it without effect.
Though they couldn't see it clearly, they realized it was some kind of flying white entity.
Fearful and shaken, they moved closer together.
When another one passed by, they finally saw it clearly.
Its upper body resembled a human's, while its lower body flowed like smoke or mist.
Its face looked human, yet completely devoid of emotion.
Its ghostly white body made the demonic whispers grow louder the closer it came.
It wasn't screaming or shouting, yet something like hellish murmurs constantly emanated from it.
Seeing this, everyone was terrified, unable to believe what they were witnessing.
Only then did they understand why their attacks had done nothing.
"...A ghost?" someone whispered.
The three men began trembling uncontrollably.
Zev and Subedei, however, remained relatively calm.
As they continued forward, they encountered many more of these beings.
They didn't attack, merely flying past or circling around them, whispering loudly as they followed.
At first, everyone felt relieved.
Neither side could harm the other they couldn't attack the spirits, and the spirits didn't attack them.
But as more spirits gathered, the whispers grew louder and increasingly unbearable.
Unable to endure the sound, Zev and the others began attacking again.
Their weapons passed straight through the spirits heads, torsos, arms, necks no matter where they struck, it was useless.
Realizing they couldn't kill them, they gave up attacking and pressed forward, gritting their teeth and hoping to escape.
The whispers only grew louder.
Unable to endure it any longer, Subedei activated all his skills.
[Your weapon is enveloped in mana. Strength increased by 20%.]
[Mana-based skill effectiveness increased by 10%.]
Power surged through his body as his spear became wrapped in blue mana.
Roaring in frustration, he swung his spear wildly.
Strangely enough, when his attack struck a spirit, it actually caused damage.
The area he hit shattered and tore apart as if wounded.
The spirits' emotionless faces twisted as if screaming yet no sound came from their mouths.
Instead, the demonic whispers grew even louder.
Subedei didn't care.
Seeing that the spirits could be harmed, he grew excited and began attacking more carefully.
When he pierced a spirit's head with his spear, its face contorted in agony as its head slowly evaporated into the air.
[You have slain "Whispering Spirit".]
Seeing the notification, Subedei smiled and continued attacking.
The four watching from behind stared in disbelief.
Zev's eyes focused on the blue mana surrounding Subedei's spear, and realization dawned.
His eyes gleamed.
Activating his own skill, Zev enveloped his sword in mana and struck a spirit.
[You have slain "Whispering Spirit".]
As Zev smiled at the notification, Subedei turned and noticed the blue mana on Zev's sword.
At that moment, Subedei understood.
Mana that was the key.
His excitement faded slightly.
He had thought he was special.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
Killing the Whispering Spirits came first.
Before long, the two of them eliminated all nearby spirits and moved on.
Although they had discovered how to kill them, mana drained quickly if overused.
They continued slaying Whispering Spirits until their skills expired.
When the mana faded, spirits once again gathered in large numbers.
They clenched their teeth and kept moving forward.
Everyone covered their ears, but the whispers didn't fade in the slightest.
They were baffled.
Blocking their ears changed nothing the sound remained just as clear.
Suddenly, the large man walking at the back screamed like a madman.
"Stop! Don't kill me! I'm begging you!"
His face was filled with terror as he screamed and cried hysterically.
The two beside him recoiled in shock.
They tried to calm him down, but it was useless.
"Are you okay?"
"What's wrong with you?"
"What are you so afraid of?"
No matter what they said, it had no effect.
His face was twisted with panic, eyes locked on something ahead.
But in that direction, there was nothing only thick fog.
The man flailed his sword wildly, screaming for his life.
Everyone backed away from him.
When the two friends tried to approach, they were lightly cut by his sword.
Seeing this, Subedei quickly moved behind the man and struck his neck, knocking him unconscious.
The man collapsed heavily to the ground.
His two friends rushed over to check on him, casting hostile glares at Subedei.
Because of this, they decided to stop and rest for a while.