Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 128: Fog?!

However, the worries of the mercenaries increased as they proceeded further in because the fog started to get thicker.

Before, they only had a little amount of it that didn’t even obstruct their vision, but after a day of travel, the fog had become so thick that the rank-4 Mages could not even see more than 2-3 meters away from them.

Although Ozul had noticed that something was wrong, even he couldn’t just know everything.

Everyone tensed up as they took each step with caution. One thing that others did not notice was that the fog itself was also unusual.

Ozul also only realized it when he was almost about to bump into a tree. His focus was on training with the small spheres, so he would usually rely on his senses to walk, but this time he couldn’t sense the tree even when it was in front of him.

After that, Ozul put down the spheres and put all his attention on the surroundings.

Although it was only because he wasn’t fully attentive before, it had proved to him that not paying attention could be fatal.

.....

Ozul quickly checked if the group was still together or not since people suddenly disappearing was one of the common scenarios in such dense fog.

When he noticed that Raven and Blaze were still walking behind him, Ozul urged them to stay together, “Stay close.”

The duo hurried their pace and came closer to Ozul.

“Why is everyone so quiet now? Isn’t it just some fog?” Blaze whispered to Raven.

“Are you braindead or something? Don’t you realize how dangerous it could be when we can’t even see an object some few distances away from us?” Raven berated him.

“But isn’t it-”

“Shut up, and be alert,” said Ozul, not letting them continue.

Blaze did not say anything after that and quietly followed behind.

Ozul found it weird that some of the trees actually had a different sense than the rest. These trees looked like the rest, but they did not feel like them at the same time.

However, he could not understand what was so different about them. Eventually, he could only give up and focus on the surroundings to find more about the situation.

“Should we wait it out? Maybe the fog will go away after a day?” Asked a rank-6 mercenary to Clive.

“...No. We can’t be sure if it will really disperse after a day. What if it stays like this forever? We will only be wasting time here then.” Clive contemplated.

“Let’s keep moving. It wouldn’t be long before we get out of here. Everyone, just stick together!” Clive ordered after thinking that the hidden group of men was still watching over them.

Unknown to him, this fog was even able to affect Ozul’s senses, how could anyone from that hidden group not be affected by it?

They traveled for the whole day, and surprisingly, nothing happened. There were no traps, none of the people were missing, and there were no beast attacks either.

Instead, it had gotten all quiet now. Before they could at least hear the birds or the roars of beasts fighting in the distance, but everything had gotten still now.

Clive would occasionally order the groups to check their numbers and see if everyone was still there with them.

Although he wouldn’t care if others had gone missing, he wanted to know if something was wrong or not.

During night, it was even harder for the group to see anything, so Clive had no choice but give the order to light up the fire this time around.

They had heard no sound of beasts near them anyway, so it should be safe to create light.

Understanding the dangers due to this situation, the mercenaries did not spread out this night and some even hopped on the trees in pairs.

In contrast, the trio did not change their routine at all. There was still more than 60% of the Mana that Raven and Blaze had yet to absorb.

They both sat cross legged before Ozul released another fraction of Mana for them to absorb. Like always, he again reminded them to try and sense the essence.

“Listen here. This is the last time, you will have to absorb all this Mana together the next time if you can’t sense Mana this turn.”

However, his reminder this time was more of a death threat than reminder. It made both Raven and Blaze jump on their feet.

“But-” x2

“There will be no buts. You will sense the Mana this turn otherwise there won’t be a next turn,” Ozul said, not letting them even plead for their lives.

After saying that, Ozul created the Ball of Purity spheres and started practicing with them.

Blaze and Raven on the other hand had already started sweating even when the night was as cold as it could get.

Keeping the Mana at bay while also searching the essence mixed within was as hard as finding a needle in a haystack with a bomb ticking behind, threatening to explode at any minute.

Ozul let them do their thing while playing with six different spheres. After a while, he got bored of it and decided to try it out.

Although he had improved to a point where he could control four spheres in different directions simultaneously, he had yet to try it out like an actual attack.

He released all of the Ball of Purity and the matter suddenly turned into numerous thin needles.

Due to the fog surrounding him and the thin size of the needles, the mercenaries did not even notice anything out of usual. Everyone was minding their own business.

As Ozul willed it, the sea of needles hovering above him all divided into four groups. The four groups then separated as he willed them shoot in the four different directions.

Each group of needles seemingly disappeared in the fog, but Ozul could feel each single piece of it. And he was happy knowing that his practice had bore fruit.

The practice that he did with just those small spheres were so that he could get the feel of moving them in a different direction simultaneously.

Once he could do that to a single body, he could perform the same process on a group of bodies.

Satisfied with his progress, Ozul sat back on the ground and started practicing again with an improved mood.

Just as he was going back to it though, Ozul noticed the sudden steam coming out of Raven and Blaze’s bodies. Both of them were sweating as their skin had a tint of redness all over.

He approached them and noticed that both had difficult expressions on their faces as if they were holding themselves from losing control.

Ozul quickly tried to assess their situation and sent a stream of Ball of Purity inside them.

As the stream of Ball of Purity entered inside their bodies, Ozul directed it towards their Mana Cores.

As it got inside, Ozul was able to analyze their body from inside. At that time, he was surprised to notice that a thin stream of reddish energy was getting separated from the foreign Mana that he had released inside of them.

Ozul knew what this was. It was the essence that he had sensed earlier inside the Mana of the drakes!