Far below the thriving businesses in the Ellipsia Citadel, dense green clouds made of divine threads fly by while I continue to plummet downward.
Every few minutes, I try opening up my purple barrier to let as few threads inside as possible.
However, each time, no matter how little the opening is, I'm struck by the same unfathomably painful and instant attack on my physical form.
These passing minutes turn into hours, and it feels as though I'm making no progress at all.
Even with 50% of my world's stats still surging through me, I still feel as weak as an unawakened human in this high pressure environment.
I feel large amounts of green threads assimilate with my body and core each time, growing my True Core's power, but it doesn't change the fact that my physical form is just far too heavy for this realm.
My speed moving downward gets faster and faster, and the thickness of the clouds only increases.
It makes me need to wait longer between each barrier opening, to the point where, between every single exposure, I need almost half an hour to fully process the new threads.
On a positive note, the purple ring around my finger is having a field day devouring as many green threads as it can. Its absorption rate is almost ten times as fast as mine, and it can stay constantly absorbing, effortlessly converting them to its sealed version of purple threads.
The other, with a short sword about half a meter long, replies, "Yeah, Rain, and look at his palm. He's still a Lord..."
Rain looks down at his own palm to see a lightly glowing [0], then gazes over to Troy, seeing the same marking, before staring up into the endless green sky of clouds above.
A third, even smaller creature pokes his head in between the two with an innocent, curious look.
"Where did he come from...? -And what a weird avatar..."
The tiny green creature nods, still wide-eyed with innocence, and skips away into the green fog.
I hear other footsteps trailing away in front of me and think about retrieving my Soul Weapon, but upon visualizing what opening my storage and taking the time exposed to this pressure would do to me, preparing without it is the better option right now.
I pause my steps and put up my hands to fight, still scanning the endless black wasteland, unsure what that sound was or if it was even an enemy.
Whatever it was, it was running away. Even if this is a trap, whatever was lurking in the fog has certainly already seen me. Giving it any more information won't hurt...
"Hello...? I—come in peace, as long as you do..."
My footsteps forward continue, but I hold my breath in order to use my other senses to the best of their ability, even without using excess energy outside my barrier.
No more footsteps can be heard, and I walk forward for another few minutes, right past another massive mound of black rocks. However, this one catches my attention.
For some reason, in the back of my mind, a warm pressure leans toward a small isolated area on the mound.
I give in to the feeling, similar to when I felt that small white pill of low-quality Ether rush into my body during the trials.
I shove my hands into the pile of rocks and begin throwing dozens of them behind me until I find the one that drew my senses in.
It feels warm in my hands, and there are small fractures on its surface that glow with a faint white light.
My eyes widen at the discovery, but simultaneously, I feel two more of these warm pressures moving toward me from the opposite direction, from behind another large rockpile stacking tens of meters high.
I don't bother trying to keep the glowing stone; whatever is coming my way is more of a threat. So I get back into a fighting stance and turn their way just as they jump out from behind the adjacent rock structure.
My eyes fall on two goblins no more than half my height, gripping black stone weapons like their lives depend on it.
One, with obsidian colored brass knuckles, matches my stance, grits his teeth, and yells out in a scratchy high-pitched tone.
"We'll both die before we let you take our mine!"
The other, with a jagged self-made short sword, points it my way.
"Surrender now, or—or—"
I can see his hands shaking as he stutters, but the goblin stays staring me in the eyes while finishing.
"Or I'll stab you! So—leave before we have to!"
My mouth is left wide open, and all of my worries of having to fight mysterious powerful green cored beings leave.
I want to let out a laugh, but I decide to just play along and take a step back, putting my hands up.
"Fine, fine. I'll go the other way. My bad."
Then I grin while leaning down to pick up the interesting rock I dropped before.
Both of the goblins look equally relieved at my decision not to be hostile, but their eyes widen at the rock I grab from the ground.
I hear gulps from each of them and watch their eyes track the stone, but as I take a few steps back, it's clear they're not going to risk their lives for it.
However, an extremely loud and angry woman's voice comes echoing out from the endless green mist behind them.
"Not so fast! Just because you can intimidate my underlings doesn't mean I'll let you rob us blind!"
Out from the fog, accompanied by heavy and fast footsteps, I see the figure of a creature about the same size as myself.
There's a faint warm pull from the Ether Sense in my mind that signals the approaching monster's direction, but I can't fully make it out until it jumps off a raised area of rocks over 30 meters away. Then I see a Hobgoblin gripping a massive black hammer in both of her palms.
She has a feminine figure but is covered in muscles, striations, veins, and a skin tight glossy black armor near vital areas. With a bright green True Core glowing in her chest, this is clearly a dangerous monster.
So much down here makes no sense at all...
Her speed coming down toward me is far faster than my unenhanced eyes can track, and without the mana skill boosts, I can't dodge or jump away fast enough.
The only thing to do is block, so that's what I do, raising both my arms into a cross in front of my head. I feel the massive hammer smash down on me.
The initial physical impact feels like nothing at all, as Celia's barrier absorbs the force just like the gravity and pressure around me with no issue.
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