Everyone then started eating, and Lina said, "Wow. This food is great."
And Raja said, "It's really good, but I think the food on the previous floor was better."
Gen then said, "It's true, the food on the king's floor was better. Not that this is bad, obviously."
And Lan said, "You are right. The food on the previous floor really is better. The highlight of this food is the effect it has."
"And what is the effect?"
"When you finish eating, you'll understand."
Everyone then continued eating, and out of nowhere, Marco dropped his fork from his hand, which made a lot of noise and made everyone look in his direction.
Gen then asked, "What was that, Marco?", but he didn't answer him, and Gen asked, "Hey, is everything okay with you?"
Everyone was looking at Marco when suddenly Lapis dropped her fork. They then looked at her, and just as Gen was about to speak, Cris also dropped her fork, and then Gen asked, "Hey Lan, what's going on?"
And Lan said, "Don't worry, it's just the effect of the food."
"And what effect is that? They're not even responding to us."
"The effect is quite simple. It increases their comprehension."
"Comprehension?"
"Yes."
"Then why are they like this?"
"The increase in comprehension has caused them to enter into an enlightenment."
"Enlightenment?! Are you telling me that they will awaken essences?"
"No. They will only experience what it feels like to be enlightened, but it will also make it easier for them to become awakened in the future."
"I understand, but I'm not feeling anything different. Does this food not work on awakened people?"
And Lan said, "It does. It's just that its effect is stronger the lower the comprehension of the person, and awakened people usually have a high comprehension. So it's not affecting you very much."
"So there are no benefits for awakened on this floor?"
"Of course, there are Gen. Do you remember I said we had a special awakened service?"
"Yes, I remember."
"Well, it's time for you to try it."
Lan then stood up and said, "Come with me.", the remaining four then stood up and went after her.
They then left the room, and Lan started down a flight of stairs.
Raja then asked, "I thought we were on the first floor."
And Lan said, "We were. Now we're going underground."
they then continued down the stairs, and at the end of the stairs, there was a room that you couldn't tell how big it was because of a significant quantity of mist permeating it.
Stanley then asked, "What is this? Why is there mist underground?"
And Lan said, "This is not normal mist. This is essence mist."
Lina then asked, "This is essence mist? And how can we see it?"
And Lan said, "The owner made it that way."
Gen then said, "What is this room for?"
And Lan said, "Well, just by sitting in this mist, you're going to get huge benefits."
"What kind of benefits?"
"Most likely, your essence will get closer to the next level. That's if it doesn't level up."
Raja then said, "Are you serious?"
And Lan said, "Yes. Why don't you test it."
The four then entered the mist, and just after entering and walking forward a bit, Stanley stopped and went into a trance.
Lan then said, "Looks like he's beginning to comprehend. How lucky for him."
And Gen said, "I'm not feeling anything different."
And Lina said, "Me neither.", and Raja agreed.
Lan then said, "That's normal. It usually takes a while for the mist to take effect, especially at the beginning of the room. He only went into trance because his essence had just awakened, so it's quite weak, which makes the process easier. By the way, which level are you three on?"
Lina then said, "I'm on the External level right now."
And Raja said, "I'm on the Influence level."
Gen then said, "Well, it's hard to tell."
And Lan said, "What do you mean it's hard to tell? Don't you know what level you're at?"
"It's not that. It's just that I have three essences. Which one do you want to know the level of? The strongest? or the weakest?"
"You have three essences?! How is that possible?!"
"I don't know, but I do have three."
"Tell me which ones and their levels."
"Ok. Well, one of them I can't tell you, and I don't know their level either, so there's no way I can tell you anything about it."
"... Okay."
"And the other two. One of them is on the Outer level, and it's the essence of the Unending."
"Unending? You have a conceptual essence?"
"Yes."
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that."
Raja then said, "You haven't seen anything yet."
And Lan asked, "What do you mean?"
Gen then said, "He's talking about my other essence."
And Lan said, "Is it conceptual too?"
"No. It's a physical essence. It's the essence of the spear."
"Spear essence?"
"Yeah."
"Well, maybe it's not the most commonly used weapon, but it's not a big deal. No offense."
"No problem. Well, moving on. My spear essence is at the Half King level."
"What?! Half King?!"
"Yeah."
"How can there be a person at Half King level in a place like this."
Lina then said, "Do you know the Half-King level?"
And Lan said, "Yes. The owner has already commented about this level to me, and speaking of which, who is your teacher?"
Gen then said, "Well .... I don't like to talk about my master."
And Lan said, "Hm ... that's fine. Being at the Half-King level, I can understand that your relationship with him must not be very good. After all, you are treading a different path from what he taught you."
"Yeah."
"Well, enough talk. Enjoy the mist. I'll be waiting for you here. Oh, another thing. The deeper you go, the easier it is to understand something, and if you make it to the end of the room, you're in for a big surprise."
Raja then asked, "What kind of surprise?"
And Lan said, "Well, if you want to know, you'll have to get there."
"Okay."
Gen, Raja, and Lina started to go deeper into the mist, and as time went on, Lina said, "I'm starting to feel something."
And Gen said, "I'm not feeling anything yet."
Raja then said, "I'm also feeling a different sensation. Let me try something."
Raja then concentrated, and all the mist of his essence came back into his body.
He then said, "It seems that this mist doesn't affect us per se, but rather the mist of our essences. I brought mine into my body, and now I'm not feeling anything."
And Gen said, "So that's why I'm not feeling anything."
Lina then started to bring her essence mist into her body and said, "Damn. I still can't bring all my mist back into my body. I hope I can make it to the end of the room."
And Raja said, "I wonder what's at the end of the room?"
Gen then said, "There's only one way to find out.", and then he kept walking forward, and Raja and Lina came right behind.
They kept walking for quite a while, and with each step they took, the fog got thicker. Lina was having trouble continuing, and then she said, "If this fog doesn't clear soon, I won't make it to the end of the room."
And Gen said, "Hang in there, Lina, we've walked a long way. The end must be near."
They then kept walking, and when Lina was close to reaching her limit, Raja said, pointing in one direction, "Hey, what's that?"
Gen and Lina then looked in the direction Raja had pointed and saw a big black shadow.
Lina then said, "I can't tell either. It's too far away."
And Gen said, "I can't see it from here either, let's go towards it, maybe it's the end of the room.", and then the three of them went on towards the shadow.
When they reached it, Raja said, "It's a door."
And Gen said, "It looks like we've reached the end of the room."
Lina then said, "Well, let's just go in. I don't know how much longer I can last out here."
The three then went towards the door, and Gen opened it. He then walked through, and Raja and Lina came right behind him.
After getting through the door, they began to look around and realized that they were in a place that appeared to be a restaurant. The place had a counter and some stools in front of it, and behind the counter were some plates where the food was to be made. They then approached the counter while looking around.
After a while, Raja said, "Maybe we should sit down.", and the three of them sat down, with Gen in the middle.
Just after they sat down, Gen noticed something and said, "There is a bell on the counter."
And Raja said, "That's right. How did we miss it?"
He then reached out and touched the bell. After a while, a man came out of a door behind the counter and said, "Well, well, well, it's been a long time since I've had any customers from the Interior. Welcome."