Everyone kept screaming as they fell deep into the ground. Some players were wise enough to use their magic to protect themselves and soften the effects of the fall, while those who couldn't think well for themselves smashed their heads against the stony ground, their bodies twisted with broken bones as they breathed out their last breath.

"Where… where are we?" A female voice asked, trembling in fear.

The surroundings had a glitter of light around them, but above them, there was nothing. No sky, just plain darkness.

Lila stretched out her hand; she had barely survived the fall, along with others. "Weird, I feel stronger." She mumbles out.

"Me too." Another male voice added. Testing out his ability, and it came out stronger than ever.

"Woah!" Another voice peeks out in excitement. "Did you see what I did?"

'The mana flow here is strong.' Grove thought. 'Where is this place?' He turned to look around, and then his eyes caught Lucian. One of Lucian's teammates, Soren, broke a leg because of the fall; he was being healed by Luna.

Grove smiled to himself and let out a flame from his hand. He approached Lucian with a silent step but stopped when he saw the worried expression on Lucian's face. He followed Lucian's eyes and saw a huge tree, alight with mana, and close to the tree were different beasts who were as white as a ghost hovering over the tree. Shocked and afraid of the white beast that suddenly turned around to stare at the humans, Grove unconsciously deactivated his magic, making the flames go out. He tried counting how many beasts were present; he didn't notice them earlier because he was too focused on Lucian.

'9, no. 20' Grove thought as he turned on his heels to get a proper count of what the other players hadn't noticed because of the increase in mana flow, '30?' he asked himself; he had lost count. Other than the ones hovering over the tree, there were others lingering around.

[Spirit beast] Lucian's system flashed in front of him, identifying the creatures before him.

[Harmless creatures that can't be killed because they are already dead. They barely showed themselves to people and lived in a secluded part of the celestial realm.

Lucian raises a brow at the word 'harmless.' He wondered if his system was trying to trick him again. After his bad experiences with Wisteria, he didn't believe that there was such a thing as a harmless beast.

Two beasts hovering around the tree begin to move towards Lucian's direction.

"Don't come near me!" Grove shouted and shot a fireball at the beast, alerting Lucian of his presence and other players of the beast that was in their midst.

Lucian's system detected another beast that was SS+ rank, but quickly it glitched away and disappeared as though it had never shown up in the first place; however, Lucian caught a glimpse of it.

'Was that an error?' Lucian thought, hoping that it was. His eyes cautiously move around in search of a beast more horrifying than the spirit beast, but there was nothing.

Luna stared at her hands, amazed by how quickly it was for her to heal Soren. 'Where is this mana flow coming from?' she thought, but didn't have much time to dwell on her thoughts as Soren pushed her down because of the fireball Grove shot again towards the spirit beast.

Like the first time, Grove's flames had no effect, even as other players joined him and used their new strengths against the spirit beast. Only when one of the players had tried to punch the beast did Grove realize that the beast couldn't be touched.

Lucian gripped Reed, who had a horrified look on his face. "Don't look at the beast; move your legs." He said. His teammates followed him.

Grove stopped attacking the spirit beast when he noticed that Lucian was getting away. He tested out a new technique of bringing out flames from the heels of his feet to increase his speed. Grove smiled to himself when it worked; he felt as powerful as the hero, and somehow the taste of power made him feel like he should stay under Hlasked forever. He won't let the spirit beast get in the way of his future.

Lucian groans in pain as Grove uses his elbow to hit the back of his head. Although like the others he could feel the increase in mana, with his ability he could use it to easily get rid of Grove and the other players who were after him. But he chose not to.

Other mana flows Lucian had felt were pure; the mana raging under Hlasked was in-between pure and dark. Lucian was the only one who could feel this abnormal difference due to his dark attributes. He had learned not to trust anything in Hlasked, and he was going to keep following his beliefs.

"I can handle him." Lucian handed Reed over to Soren. He had an ominous feeling about the mana flow, and he didn't want any of his teammates to use it.

Grove glared at Lucian, covering his hand with flames. He wanted to burn down Lucian's pretty-boy face that pissed him off.

"I will burn you and your foolish overconfidence." Grove sneered.

"Captain." Marta called out in a worried tone because Lucian was refusing to use his ability.

"Trust in the captain." Soren said he tried to keep his strong, but worry lingered at the edge of it.

Reed turned his face away from the fight and tried to keep as much distance as Soren's strength could allow. He didn't want to get burned.

Luna held her sword, ready to use her ability against Lucian's orders if he planned on truly using nothing but his bare fist to fight against Grove. She didn't understands Lucian's ridiculous orders; when she healed Soren earlier, her ability was strong and fast. She thought this was the perfect place for Lucian to used his ability, he needed to stop being a fool.

In a light-speed motion, a spirit beast stepped in between Grove and Lucian before they could attack each other. It opened its mouth and spoke in a language they couldn't understand.

Grove screamed in fear, thinking that the beast was about to attack him. Lucian gave the beast a questionable look and then continued moving forward with his teammates.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.