Chapter 375: Wraith

He lowered his natural defenses just a bit. He wanted to see how this fog affected his body and what its purpose was. The moment he did, he was able to feel the fog seep into his skin, deep into his pores. Then it began to eat away at his mana. It even started to try and eat away at his aura, though that was much harder for it to accomplish. The second it touched his ruinous aura, it was eviscerated without leaving a trace behind.

With that being said, he still felt some of its effects. When the fog seeped into his skin, it started to affect his physical senses. His eyesight began to blur, and even his ears and nose started to numb in a disturbing way.

He shook his head, trying to clear it, but he was unable to. Realizing that this fog was dangerous, he reactivated his defenses and used [Phoenix Renewal] to clear the fog out of his system. Thankfully, this was very easy, and the fog stood no chance against his healing skill.

He could not even begin to imagine how debilitating this fog could be to someone without a skill like Julius or something that could prevent it from affecting them. It was very insidious and he was glad that this was a Tier 3 rift. He had a feeling that if it was a Tier 4 rift, he might have had much more trouble dealing with it.

Of course, he still had [Absolute Spatial Perception], but losing the rest of his senses wasn’t a pleasant experience. He did some more tests. He used some aura and attempted to blow the fog away.

It actually had more of an effect than he expected it to have. His aura, whether it was because of its ruinous effects or the mere fact that it was more powerful than this fog, wiped away all of the fog it managed to touch.

It also ascertained that this fog was easy to remove, but the problem was that there was so much of it. The entire floor was covered with it. He doubted he had enough aura to even make a dent in all of this fog.

However, what he disliked about this fog the most was that it directly affected his own mana manipulation. It was slight, but it was enough to be noticeable. More importantly, it was very annoying.

He didn’t like it when anyone or anything came in the way of his mana and how he used it. His mana was his own, and the mere thought of something interrupting this made him angry.

He had a plan to deal with this, though. He closed his eyes to concentrate and activated [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin]. He did this because this skill was the primary source of the ruinous effect of his aura and he was hoping to use it to help what he had planned.

He took control of his aura and created a bubble around himself. This was actually easier than he expected and was very similar to how he shrouded his own aura. The difference was that he was extending the distance of the shroud. Since he chose to do this, his aura inevitably started to do its ruinous thing. However, it was exactly what he wanted since his aura was viciously tearing through the fog before it could touch him.

Because of this, the fog’s effects couldn’t touch or get near him. This meant the fog no longer influenced his mana manipulation, something he was very happy to see.

He took his time getting used to maintaining this aura shield, and as he was, he thought about what he had heard from Ashton. According to the man, the furthest a person had reached was the eighth floor. At first, Julius didn’t think this to be a significant accomplishment.

However, he knew better now. The last floor was already pretty tough, considering that it was the second floor. This floor, he believed, was much more dangerous simply because of the fog. He had severely underestimated the difficulty of this rift. He had come here expecting to clear it without much trouble.

After all, he had defeated multiple Tier 4s at this point. What was a meager Tier 3 rift in comparison?

He was glad to be proven wrong. This meant that he would find some excitement in this rift. He just hoped that the others didn’t find themselves in danger. He knew that they were talented, but he also knew that they didn’t have the diverse skill set like he did. Perhaps, Derek and maybe Aubrey were the only ones.

It was only once he felt comfortable that he continued on his way through the forest. He knew that the notification never mentioned anything about monsters or threats, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t encounter any. The only condition was to find a way out, which was pretty nondescript.

That was why he kept a lookout for anything that might be a threat. After almost half an hour, he hadn’t come across anything and began to think he would not have to fight any monsters in this fog. There was a good chance that this fog was the challenge of the floor.

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It was certainly powerful enough to be considered the main danger.

In hindsight, there was a good chance that this was a secondary effect of the floor or the fog. However, he was glad that his perception skill still worked because it allowed him to dodge the sudden attack with just enough time to spare. He used [Void Step] to evade the strike and sent out a burst of kinetic energy in the direction from which he had been assaulted.

He didn’t sense anything, though. Like a ghost, whoever or whatever attacked him had disappeared back into the fog like nothing had happened.