Naturally, he was still sane enough to keep searching for the ancestral wine jar on the road, making the viewers believe that he simply changed his search area without any purpose.
Though, clan leader Azesdirth wasn't fooled.
'Success.'
Arentis was quite surprised to hear positive feedback from his father about their strategy...He truly hadn't anticipated that prince Domino would still target Felix when the distance wasn't making it easier for him.
'I ain't complaining.' Arentis snickered and informed his teammates to hasten their search.
...
Oblivious to the current development, Felix could be seen standing before a small squarical cave with his chin resting on his palm.
'The Intel I was given by the clan head says that the Erraga mountainous chain is habituated by dangerous night poisonous rodents.'
Felix had used all of his visions to scan inside the cave for any hidden dangers...However, he found absolutely not a single life form.
This should have put him at ease, but Felix knew that the dimensional pockets dangers shouldn't be treated in the same manner as the outside universe.
'This is truly too weird...Fifty years shouldn't be enough for such drastic changes in environments and even livable spaces of lifeforms. It looks like the time does run much faster after the gate closes.' Felix commentated as he wore his void suit from top to bottom, not planning on taking any chances.
Then, he crouched and walked slowly inside the squarical entrance as it was barely one meter tall.
With his perfect night vision, he knew that the tight tunnel would be like this for the next one hundred meters.
After, it would expand bigger and bigger until even an adult dragon could stand proudly inside.
In a few moments, Felix exited the tight tunnel and was met with an underwhelming sight of nothingness.
There was nothing but rocks and boulders inside the cave.
Felix expected as much and continued his journey towards four tunnels, which were separated by quite a long distance.
This signified that the tunnels led to different locations which were far apart from each other.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'Those tunnels must be new. Either the mountains had gone through a drastic change in structure as well, or I have entered from an unexplored area.' Felix thought as he kept studying them.
The information he read about the Erraga mountainous chain didn't include those giant tunnels or even the squarical small cave.
'Let's go with the middle.'
Felix started walking through the middle tunnel, not planning on wasting his time on extensive examination.
As long as he didn't know about the final destinations of all four tunnels, he could only depend on luck.
After Felix disappeared through the tunnel, millions of red dots started to emerge on the ceiling and the walls of the spacious cave.
Those red dots were all facing one direction...The middle tunnel!
All of those red dots were actual eyes of invisible dark creatures that resembled bats.
Unlike bats, it appeared like their bodies were made out of jello as they had no bone structure or blood vessels.
They were truly creepy and would make anyone reconsider their decision in stepping inside the cave if they saw them.
Alas...Neither Felix nor the viewers spotted them.
Abruptly, those bat-like creatures started crawling on the walls and the ceiling towards the middle tunnel...They made absolutely no sound due to their jelly-like bodies being firmly glued to the surfaces.
Oblivious to the millions of crawling creatures behind him, Felix kept walking slowly with his guard up and base visions activated.
From time to time, he turned around to check behind him. When he saw nothing, he continued his exploration.
All of his visions had failed him to spot the dark creatures due to their unique body structure...So, they kept on approaching him until only a hundred meters separated them.
Abruptly, all of them started emitting an inaudible sound wave towards Felix.
The soundwaves were extremely tiny and shouldn't cross more than a few meters, but when there were millions of them at the same time?
They harmonized and empowered each other to reach Felix's ears.
The void suit did its job to block more than 80% of them...But the last 20% managed to penetrate its fabric and enter Felix's eardrums.
Still, Felix didn't react at all since the soundwaves were muted to the point, the soft gales in the cave were a hundred times louder than them.
So, Felix continued on his journey without a single clue in his mind.
As for those bat-like creatures? They didn't bother following him anymore...
In a few moments, Asna frowned at the sight of Felix standing absentmindedly while staring at the ceiling.
'Felix?' She called.
No response.
She tried to read his thoughts and saw that he was still actively thinking about cave.
'The deeper this goes, the more promising it looks.'
'What if I found the ancestral wine jar hidden here? Heh, I will camp it from a distance and catch it at the last day to avoid getting hunted for it.'
'Idiot?'
No response.
'Something is going on.' Asna already pretty much guessed what was going on with Felix.
She nerfed her mental defenses to the same range as Felix and looked through his eyes again.
This time, she was met with an entirely different scenery.
Felix was still walking in the tunnel while looking around him.
'He really has been put into an hallucination.' Asna's eyelids twitched.
She had no idea when did it happen and how did it happen since she was busy playing cards with the rest of the tenants.
'Should we warn him about this?' Asna wondered while looking at the others.
Everyone looked up causally and shrugged their shoulders at the same time. 'It's his problem to solve.'
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThen, they returned to their poker table.
'But, he can get killed...This is real life.' Asna got a bit worried.
'You have helped him enough to deal against mental attacks when he was weak.' Thor stressed, 'Now, he has all the tools to deal with them on his own...Plus, if he can't even break through such a simple hallucination, he will get killed eventually when he deals with the true horrific mentalists.'
Thor was right...Felix could have easily blocked the dark creatures' mental attacks if he had utilized his physic shield.
He had learned it personally by Thor to act as his protection against mental attacks...Felix must have felt that it wasn't necessary due to not spotting any lifeforms with his visions.
'He got too confident with his void suit and mental defenses to believe that he wouldn't be subjected to an invisible mental attack that was on the level of empyrean rank.' Jörmungandr added calmly.
He guessed correct.
Felix truly believed that it wasn't necessary to add another layer of mental protection when it was already high enough...Especially, when using physic shield required active concentration, mental energy, and lightning energy.
'Still, are we just going to watch him get eaten or killed?'
Asna might have understood that Felix should be responsible over his f*ck ups, but as his partner and girlfriend, there was no way she could watch him suffer when she had the option to help him.
'You don't have to worry. The Nightcrawlers Bats have attacked him. They are known for feasting on their prey after exhausting them mentally until they die.' Lady Sphinx said calmly while pushing a mountain of chips, 'I am all in.'
With Lady Sphinx truth eyes, nothing escape her...Unlike everyone else, she had spotted the nightcrawlers before Felix even stepped inside the cave!
'If it's like that, then I don't mind anymore.' Asna dropped her worries and refocused on their poker game.
In her eyes, Felix had all the time to own up to his mistake and free himself from the hallucination.
Since time run much faster in a hallucination, she didn't worry about Felix wasting too much time on this.
Just like they had figured out that Felix had been had by a mental attack, the viewers started having some doubts when they saw Felix's absentminded expression.
'What's going on?' Clan head Kyrsun frowned as he controlled the nanodrone to zoom in Felix's face...When he saw his inattentive deadpan eyes, he knew that Felix was in a pickle.
"Will you look at that." Green clan head Azesdirth chuckled mockingly, "Your ace has gotten himself in deep trouble in the first hour."
"Such a silent deadly ambush...It must be the nightcrawlers or the illusionists sparrows." Black clan head Ygos commentated.
"You better try to wake him up." Red clan head Bymid said, "We won't judge you for it."
"No need...He will handle it on his own."
Clan head Kyrsun refused to send messages to Felix to help him break the hallucination...His pride enforced him to follow the rules and not cheat like Azesdirth.
Plus, he honestly would feel somewhat disappointed by Felix if he had to save his ass in the first hour of the ceremony...