Three hours later, after dodging seven F-rank titanscarabs, Xander and Na-ri finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
"We made it," Xander said with a smile as the two picked up their pace and rushed down the tunnel to the opening.
As they neared the cave's exit, Na-ri said, "It looks like there isn't a beast guarding the opening of the cave."
"You're right, but we can never be too careful," Xander said as he stretched out his hand.
After two seconds, she took it, and they both phased into the mirage realm.
After phasing in, Xander marked her with his qi and then let go of her hand. She was still able to stay in the mirage realm at the same cost as before, other than the initial cost of qi it took to mark her. This was something they had discovered together, one of the many times they were sneaking past F-rank bug beasts.
Now that they were in the mirage realm, they slowly exited the cave, one watching the front and the other the back.
After walking 10 meters out of the cave, they confirmed that there didn't seem to be any beast guarding the opening.
Now that they were out and free, they had time to notice the slight grey mist that covered everything.
"So this must be the mist the prompt was referring to," Xander said as he looked around. He couldn't see too far since it was nighttime and they were in a large forest with towering trees over 500 meters tall and over 30 meters in diameter.
"It said that we can enter the mist and fight or find a safe zone," Na-ri started. "The caves seemed to be a safe zone since no mist entered it, so should we wait it out or keep going further in?"
Xander thought about it for a moment, then finally said, "I'd say we should stay in the safe zone, but sooner or later we need to find out how dangerous the mist is. So why don't we just keep going a little, and if it's too dangerous, we can run back to the cave system."
Na-ri thought it over, then nodded her head, "Alright, sounds like a plan."
With that, the two set off.
They had no particular direction in mind; they just wanted to put distance between them and the cave system that was filled with F-rank beasts.
They didn't know if there were F-rank beasts outside the cave as well, but choosing between being stuck inside a small, claustrophobic cave with a beast or being next to one out in the open seemed like there was an obvious choice.
After walking about 30 meters, they came across their first beasts.
[Common Fogclaw - G-rank - Low][Elite Fogclaw - G-rank - Low]
[Common Fogclaw - G-rank - Mid]
[Common Fogclaw - G-rank - Mid]
[Rare Fogclaw - G-rank - Mid]
[Common Fogclaw - G-rank - Mid]
[Common Fogclaw - G-rank - High]
[Common Fogclaw - G-rank - High]
"Well, that doesn't seem too bad," Na-ri said as she and Xander both pulled out their weapons.
Xander rushed left while Na-ri rushed right.
Xander dashed forward with lightning qi coating his body for extra speed.
He then used the attack 'chain lightning' to shoot out a bolt of lightning that jumped from one beast to another.
The Fogclaws, which looked to be made of hardened mist and fog, did not take the bolts of lightning too well.
After that, he finally reached his first beast, a mid G-rank. He slashed forward with 'soul rend,' and the beast blocked with its claw that grew to a massive size.
Even though the beast blocked with its hardened claw, causing there to be no physical damage, the soul damage from 'soul rend' was enough to cause the beast to shriek out in pain.
A second Fogclaw charged Xander and swiped down with its claw that grew to be way too big for its body.
Xander dodged back in a flash with 'bolt step,' then shot a beam of 'necrotic blast' at the already injured Fogclaw, the beam of death qi digging deep into its side.
Xander then moved on to the beast that was once again swiping down with its massive claw.
He dodged to the side, then hit it with a 'necrotic blast,' then flashed forward with 'lightning dash,' then blocked with a 'necrotic barrier,' then attacked with a 'spectral slash,' and killed it with a last hit of 'wraith's touch.'
Thirty seconds later, all the beasts lay dead on the forest floor.
After the fight was finally over and all the bodies were looted, Xander checked his death charge.
[First Trait: Reaper's Revival] - [Death Charge: Fully Charged]
'Finally!' Xander thought, excited, finally not worrying about instant death.
He still wasn't sure how the ability would work, though, which made him nervous.
He didn't know if he happened to run across a beast, person, demon, or devil that he couldn't beat and died, what would happen? Would he immediately be summoned back and just die again, or would he be teleported somewhere else entirely, possibly somewhere much more dangerous? He knew the ability was divine, so it would likely not have such an obvious flaw, but he was still a little nervous.
"So should we continue?" Na-ri asked Xander.
Xander thought it over for a moment, then nodded his head, "I don't see why not. We've only run into a couple of G-rank beasts, and we're still not too far away from the cave."
Na-ri nodded her head in agreement, and the two continued on their way.
As they walked forward, after about 10 minutes, Xander finally broke the silence, "So why do you think the tower created this event, 'The Blink,' or whatever you would call it?"
Na-ri continued to look around, ready for anything, but still answered, "I don't know. The tower always does what it wants when it wants, and there isn't always a known reason for it. Nope, I'd say there usually isn't a known reason."
"Ahh," Xander said as he nodded his head.
"So what's your goal for this event?" he asked.
"To conquer the planet, of course, and to do it in the correct way. How else are we going to get out of here, and I've got to get out of here," Na-ri said with a confident tone.
Xander nodded his head, "And why do you need to get out of here? Is there something you have to do in the real world?"
Na-ri continued to look around, but Xander could notice that she felt a little awkward and didn't want to answer, so he moved on.
"You said we have to conquer the planet the correct way. What does that mean?"
"This planet is filled with humans, demons, and devils, so your first thought is we will have to band together to fight against the demons and devils. And while you wouldn't be wrong, there is a second and possibly more deadly situation that you have likely neglected to think about," Na-ri said.
"And what's that?" Xander asked, curious about where this was going.
"While humanity is great at joining together against a common enemy, there's something else we're equally known for… we're greedy and power-hungry monsters that usually only care about ourselves."
"I wouldn't be surprised if more humans die by the hand of another human due to political strife than are ever killed by demons and devils, and that's not something I can stand for. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure we stick together and not let the power-hungry fools destroy us from within."
"That's uhh… that's not a bad goal, I'd say," Xander said, surprised at how much she had thought ahead.
"So what about you? Are you willing to help me out?" Na-ri asked for the first time, pausing her step and looking slightly up at Xander with a smile that a man would die for.
Xander paused himself and looked back at her for a moment, and then he confidently answered, "No… no, I don't think I will."