Lian stood still, at the end of the hallway, that creature was still there and was watching him.
To be more exact, both of them were observing each other, and Lian was also trying to understand what exactly this monster was.
Because if it was only about its appearance, he had never seen anything like it before, and more importantly, he could still feel the small soul attacks that were hitting his soul.
[ Target Identified ]
[ Fallen Monster - Level 20 ]
[ The Purple Skull ]
The notification slowly disappeared.
Several seconds of silence passed, and then Lian moved, in one instant his body disappeared, he realized there was no point in wasting time, and the best way to learn about this monster was to attack it.
The stone floor under his feet cracked, and he shot forward like a bullet, the distance between them disappeared almost in the blink of an eye.
The icy claws of Glacial Reaper Claw formed on his hands, and the air around him froze, the sound of breaking ice spread through the hallway.
And the attack came down.
But...
The monster showed no reaction, it did not dodge, it did not defend, it did not even move, it simply stood there and looked at him.
At that exact moment...a terrible pain exploded inside Lian’s head.
It felt as if thousands of needles entered his brain at the same time, his vision became blurry for a moment, the movement of his claw was pushed away from its path, and instead of the monster’s neck, the attack only scratched its shoulder.
Lian immediately jumped back.
His heart was beating fast, but the pain did not stop, instead, it became even stronger, for a moment he heard a whisper, a voice that did not belong to any language.
Meaningless whispers.
Far away.
But at the same time, right next to his ear.
He frowned.
He took another step back, the whispers became louder, for a moment he thought there was a shadow standing behind him.
When he turned around...there was no one there.
An illusion, only an illusion, but even that was enough for him to understand what he was facing.
Lian took a deep breath, the pain was becoming even worse, and he immediately opened his panel and increased his Spirit.
[ Spirit : 150 --> 180 ]
Slowly, he felt the pain becoming weaker, before long he was able to take a calm breath, and his mind became calm.
But he still remembered that terrible pain, a pain that was worse than any physical pain, he had never imagined that soul attacks ( Soul Attacks ) could be this terrifying.
He looked away from the monster’s eyes, and started thinking, if he continued like this, he would not even be able to attack.
[ Thunder Calamity ]
Suddenly lightning appeared from his body, and bolts rushed toward the monster, it tried to retreat, but its speed was nothing special, and the lightning finally hit it and threw it several meters backward.
However, the monster did not seem to feel any pain at all, and slowly stood up again, and at the same time Lian once again felt a terrible pain deep inside his mind and soul.
However, it was not as deadly as before, and it was somewhat bearable, he endured the pain and continued attacking, and for the first time they directly started exchanging attacks with each other.
But to his surprise, either the monster was too weak or Lian was too strong, and the Purple Skull did not have any special ability in physical combat.
And after several attacks and several retreats, the full picture became clear.
This monster was weak, at least physically, its speed was average, its strength was not very impressive, and even in close combat it only seemed to be around the level of normal monsters in the low twenties.
But...its real power was something else, Mental Corruption and soul attacks.
It could attack the enemy’s soul and mind, and if his Spirit had still been five...that first attack alone would have been enough to kill him again.
Even with one hundred Spirit, he would have had no chance, and the soul attacks could still kill him, at the very least, one hundred and fifty Spirit was needed to have a chance to resist and fight.
Now he understood why only ten students had managed to defeat this monster, he doubted there were many students in the entire academy who had high Spirit.
Almost everyone gave priority to the other stats instead, especially before Level 20 and the first evolution, when the number of Stat Points they could gain was very limited.
But for him, it was no longer a problem, one hundred and eighty Spirit was showing its difference.
The pain was still there, the pressure was still there, but he could resist it, he could think, he could analyze.
And more importantly...he could learn.
Lian slowly closed his eyes, mana flowed through his body, he calmed his mind, ignored the strange voices, and pushed the whispers aside.
He focused on his breathing.
One time.
Two times.
Three times.
Little by little, the pressure became weaker, not that it disappeared, but it no longer controlled him, and a small smile appeared on Lian’s lips.
"So that’s how it is..." Then he attacked again.
But this time not directly, not foolishly, he was looking for a solution, this battle was meant to be a training battle, not a battle where his life depended on it.
He was here to learn from battles, and because of that, he tried many different skills and many different methods.
And a few minutes later, by chance, he discovered something.
Shadow Skin.
When his body entered the shadows, the soul pressure became weaker, not completely, but clearly weaker.
It was as if the shadows hid part of his existence, not only his body, but also his presence, even his soul.
Lian’s eyes lit up, he had finally found the enemy’s weakness.
The real battle started from that moment.
Lian moved through the darkness.
He disappeared, they exchanged attacks and he appeared again, then disappeared once more, the monster tried to find him.
But for the first time since the battle had started, the creature moved its many eyes with clear uneasiness.
It could no longer completely sense Lian’s presence, it was as if its eyes no longer had the power they should have had.
The monster’s movements became slower, and it decided to change its strategy, but at that exact moment...Lian attacked.
From inside the shadows, from behind it, Glacial Reaper Claw came down with all its power.
The icy claws passed through the monster’s neck, and the sound of breaking bones echoed through the hallway.
The monster trembled for a moment.
All of its many eyes opened at the same time, the whispers turned into screams.
The soul pressure exploded one last time, but this time it was too late.
The monster’s body was split in half.
Ice spread through its body, and a moment later...its entire body turned into thousands of pieces of ice.
Only the sound of Lian’s calm breathing remained, and a few seconds later, a notification appeared.
[ Target Eliminated ]
[ Simulation Complete. ]
But immediately, a second notification appeared on the screen.
Hi
Lian raised an eyebrow.
This was the first time he had seen something like this.
Then information about this monster appeared, and he could look at its background and its real abilities.
[ Purple Skull ]
[ A Fallen Monster that was Level 70 in its real form, it was weak in every area except soul and mental attacks, because of this, it was considered one of the weakest among all known Fallen. ]
[ But it has terrifying soul abilities, no soul attack works on it, the range of its soul attacks is more than 100 kilometers, and it can kill any Awakened within that range if they have weak soul power, or at best completely paralyze them. ]
Lian’s eyes narrowed, so this creature was not even anything special among the Fallen, but as expected, it had once been a very dangerous threat.
But these monsters still could not be underestimated, it was powerful enough to kill every normal person in the capital by itself.
Within a range of one hundred kilometers, it could kill every living being whose soul power was weaker than its own! That number was ridiculous and terrifying.
The white light of the simulator slowly swallowed the surroundings, and a moment later, he was back in the normal environment.
His body was tired, and his mind even more so, when he walked out of the room, he looked at the time.
It was already night.
Almost five hours had passed without him even noticing, after leaving the training building, he went directly to the dining hall.
He ate a simple dinner.
Then, while walking back to the dormitory, he took out his phone.
There were no important new messages, only a few messages from Liana, Selina and Marcus, they had finally entered the Ruined Realm.
Lian showed a small smile.
"At this rate...we probably won’t see each other for quite a while."
For a few moments, he looked at the night sky.
He was curious, when they met again...how much would they have improved? And how much would he himself have changed?
Then he turned off his phone, and quietly looked into the distance.
Tomorrow.
The time had finally come, the time to return, the time to face the Vorhelm family.
The time to return to the home he had left a long time ago, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Tomorrow is the day...I’ll finally start walking toward my old home."