William slowly opened his eyes, feeling some pain in his head and eyes. It took him a while until he could clearly see the space around him.
"Where am I?" he muttered softly. His memories were scattered and he couldn’t properly recall anything.
"You are in the den of the Stone Titans. You were on the verge of death and I saved you." Suddenly a voice whispered in his ear.
He turned his head and saw a masked man. His pupils widened slightly, and for a moment he even thought he was seeing things.
He rubbed his eyes, but when he saw the man still standing in front of him, he let out a sigh of relief and realized it wasn’t an illusion.
"You are The Fallen?"
"Oh? You know me?" Daniel said playfully. He had a mask on his face at the moment, so naturally his true identity couldn’t be recognized.
Still, he didn’t expect the identity of The Fallen to be so well known. It seemed almost everyone in the country recognized him.
It had been a long time since he last checked the state of that video on Ctube, but now he felt certain it had received a huge number of views and followers.
"So it really is you. But why did you come here?"
"All contact between the Awakened and the raid team from last night was cut off, and everyone was worried. I was sent here by the Federation to see what happened."
"I see." William nodded, slowly got up, and tried moving his muscles a bit.
Daniel said nothing and also stood up.
"So a day has passed. But the way it went, I felt like hundreds of years had gone by." He said with a bitter smile. He never expected someone like him, with such vast knowledge and information, to fall into this kind of situation.
"Explain what happened."
"I don’t know exactly. We were continuing the exploration as usual. Everyone had come to search for powerful items and treasures. But in the outer layer, there was nothing. No matter how much we searched, we couldn’t find anything!"
"In the end, we wanted to enter the central layer, but one of the Federation’s Rank S blocked our way. We had no choice but to camp somewhere. Still, I didn’t expect that to suddenly happen." William said with a frown.
"What happened?" Daniel frowned as well.
"You heard the roar of the sea? That sound kept getting stronger and stronger until it started to affect everyone’s nerves."
"I don’t know why, but everyone suddenly went mad and began attacking each other. It was a complete mess. They all killed one another. I tried to stop them but it was useless. They attacked me too."
"So you killed them?"
"Yes and no. I thought I killed them, but they didn’t actually die. They transformed into something else."
"I see." Daniel nodded. Now his suspicion had turned into certainty. He quietly walked out of the den, and William followed behind him.
When they left and saw the scene before them, William was a little shocked.
"So all the Awakened turned into these?" Daniel looked at the Stone Titans whose arms were torn off and bound with mana.
"That’s right. Every single one of them that died turned into these things in a strange way."
For a few moments, silence ruled. Neither of them said anything, but the frown on both their faces was obvious.
Clearly, neither of them expected something like this when they entered the dungeon.
"That sound of the sea must have been a mental attack that caused mental confusion. But the transformation was probably a mechanism of the dungeon or something else." Daniel reasoned.
"But why didn’t it affect you?" William then looked at the man standing beside him.
"Because I am strong." William didn’t give any excuse and simply stated the truth. This wasn’t his first body. He had once possessed a very powerful body.
Mental attacks target awareness and the soul. Even though the physical strength of his current body wasn’t particularly strong, his spiritual power and mental strength were extremely powerful, even beyond Rank S.
Naturally, such mental attacks wouldn’t work on him.
Of course, he didn’t plan to tell this man, The Fallen, that in reality he was an incredibly powerful expert who had taken over this body.
"Makes sense. Actually, that mental attack probably tried to target me too, but it failed." Daniel nodded. Now he realized why he had been feeling uneasy since entering this dungeon.
It was because of that sound of the sea. The place they were in was far from the sea, and hearing it shouldn’t have been possible unless he strengthened his senses or used spiritual senses.
He hadn’t strengthened his senses, and he couldn’t use his spiritual senses either.
Yet he could hear the sound of the distant sea. That alone was a problem! He frowned deeply, because he was certain there was no way such a bizarre detail could have escaped him.
’Why didn’t I notice it until now?’ He could be sure there was something else interfering with his ability to think clearly.
"What happened to the others?" He put the thought aside for now and asked his next question.
"The others? I don’t know. That girl Diana went with the Rank S into the central layer, but I haven’t heard from them. Besides, it’s already been a day since I’ve been stuck here." William answered.
"What do you plan to do now?" He then looked at The Fallen and asked.
"I came here to save you all, and I’ve done that. I’m not stupid enough to step into the central layer." Daniel said lazily.
"Good. I like that. You’re a smart guy." William laughed loudly and patted his shoulder.
He thought maybe this The Fallen would try to act foolish and play the hero, but it seemed this man was smart.
"Still, one question remains. How are we going to take these Awakened who transformed into stone giants with us? And can they even be turned back to normal?" Daniel asked.
"Restoring them to their original state shouldn’t be difficult. A Rank S mage just needs to cast a reversal spell on them. But as for taking them out... I don’t know."
"For now, we should leave and report this. The Federation and the others will think of something." Daniel said, then opened the main system.
He had a bad feeling about this place and didn’t want to stay here even a moment longer.
[ Are you sure you want to leave the dungeon? ]
Both Daniel and William clicked on Yes.
Yet to their surprise—
[ Exit not possible ]