"What the hell is going on?" Xander asked with a confused look on his face. He knew his tower knowledge wasn't the greatest even after going through the tower/world class in the academy, so he hoped Shin Na-ri might know what was going on.
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"No clue," Na-ri said with a just as confused look on her face.
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
"Woo!!" "Woooo!!"
After a solid minute, the noise finally stopped, and a prompt appeared.
[On random days, an hour before dawn, the siren will sound; an hour later, the mist will descend, and with it comes the unknown. Enter the mist and fight to survive, or find safe zones where the mist doesn't dare enter.]
Xander's eyes widened at the prompt, "That doesn't sound ominous at all," he said jokingly.
"Well whatever it is, it can't be much worse than this cave filled with F-rank bug beasts," Na-ri added.
"Yea, I guess you're right," Xander said.
"Alright, let's go, we need to get out of here," Na-ri said.
The two then cautiously started to walk forward into the unknown of the dark cave system.
***
An hour later.
They had luckily managed to walk forward for an hour, dodging bug beasts, both G and F-rank. Luckily, the bugs were territorial, so as long as they didn't enter the rooms they were in, they wouldn't give chase.
As Xander walked forward, katana in hand, he thought back to his latest kill, the F-rank Titanscarab.
'I wonder how much percentage an F-rank beast filled up my death charge,' Xander's death charge before the kill was 87%.
[First Trait: Reaper's Revival] - [Death Charge: 97%]
'Damn,' he was surprised to see that the death charge went up by 10% just by killing one F-rank beast.
'So dormants are 0.5%, G-ranks are 1%, and F-ranks are 10%.'
'I just need to kill three more G-ranks or one more F-rank, and my death charge will finally be full. Then I should be able to revive after I die,' Xander was excited but at the same time hopeful that he would never have to experience the process of death and revival.
***
About 30 minutes later.
Xander came to a halt and held up his arm, signaling to Na-ri to stop.
He whispered quietly, "I can sense movement up ahead."
Through his mirage realm sense, he was able to sense a small amount of movement about 30 meters in front of them behind a curved wall.
"Stay here, I'll go check it out," he said, and Na-ri just nodded her head.
Xander quietly phased into the mirage realm and started to ease his way forward.
After walking the 15 meters, he found himself at the edge of the wall. He peeked around it, and in front of him, about 15 meters away, sat two devils who had just killed a human kid that looked to be about 16 or 17 years old.
[Devil - G-rank - Low]
[Devil - G-rank - Mid]
They were each about 7 feet tall, much like the demons were, only instead of grey skin, they had smooth, almost polished dark red skin.
They had long wiry limbs that ended with sharp clawed fingers. Their faces were hauntingly beautiful in a creepy, terrifying way, with angular features and high cheekbones that gave them a regal, almost aristocratic appearance, which was a stark difference from the demons who looked like muscular monsters.
They were speaking quietly about their recent kill, their mouths filled with rows of sharp perfectly aligned teeth, and their voices were a chilling melodious blend of whispers and growls.
They had long sinewy tails that were tipped with sharp barbed points, and their entire bodies were covered with tattoos and markings.
Seeing the two devils were in their path, Xander eased his way back to Na-ri.
"There are two devils up there, and they just killed a human boy," Xander whispered through gritted teeth.
He had heard the obscene things they were saying about their recent kill, and it pissed him off to no end.
Na-ri nodded her head, "Alright, they're in our way, and we should kill them anyway, so let's go."
"Ok, just wait a second," Xander said as he sat down and started to quickly refill his qi.
After 5 minutes, he stood up.
"You ready?" Na-ri asked.
"Yes, but wait, there is something I want to try," Xander said as he reached out and tried to grab her hand, but she wasn't having it and quickly pulled it back.
"What are you doing?" she whispered in an aggrieved tone.
Xander raised his hands in surrender, "Sorry, I just wanted to try and see if I could bring you into my mirage realm with me."
Na-ri eyed him down, and after 30 seconds, she finally breathed out and nodded her head, "Fine."
She reached out her hand, and Xander grabbed it.
He searched for and felt the connection instantly.
After that, he phased into the mirage realm and brought her with him.
He happily noticed that the qi expenditure didn't increase at all.
He then let go of her hand to see what would happen, and of course, she phased back into reality, so he phased his hand into reality and took hers once again, pulling her back into the mirage realm.
They then walked slowly forward toward the two devils.
As they rounded the corner, they both got a look at the two devils who were now standing over the dead human body they had just dismembered.
They both had a disgusted look on their faces, looked at each other, nodded, then started forward once again.
They went completely unnoticed until they reached the 15 meter radius of the devil's soul sense.
Both devils had their backs turned to them, but as soon as they entered the radius, both devils stopped what they were doing and glanced at each other and then behind them, looking around the cave.
After they got a glimpse of the entire cave, they went back to what they were doing.
Seeing that they were no longer under suspicion, Xander loosened his grip on his throwing knife, and the two started walking forward once more.
They slowly walked all the way up to 3 meters behind the devils, and once they reached the distance, they pounced.
Na-ri, with her thin sword, slashed horizontally and cut the head straight off the devil on the left while Xander plunged his throwing knife into the back of the right devil's head, killing it instantly.
"Phew." "Phew." They both let out the breath they were holding.
"I have to say, your mirage trait is pretty nice. Very handy," Na-ri said as she looked down with a frown at the dead human boy.
Xander gave a short nod with a frown as he looked down at the kid as well, "Yea, it's not too bad."
After about a minute of just standing there in silence, they looted and dug out the cores of the devils and went back on their way through the cave.