Mysterious Fog World: Eldritch Nexus

When Drake and his group passed the territory, they felt it passing through a thin membrane.

The difference between the inside and outside of the territory was like the difference between day and night.

A few other explorers left with them in their vehicles when they left.

Many changed directions but few traveled in the same direction.

He noticed that as the distance from the territory increased, the fog concentration increased, and he lost sight of more and more vehicles traveling in the same direction as him.

That was because there was no concept called directions in the Fog Zones. Even when traveling straight, no one knew where they might go.

To check it, he took the Territory Compass from Yumi and asked Ayame to drive straight. Initially, the compass was pointing straight back, but as the distance between them and the territory increased, the compass started fluctuating. Sometimes right, left, front, back, etc. That meant, even when traveling straight, they were never going straight.

Only when inside a Fog Zones, could directions still be believed to some degree, but never between multiple Fog Zones.

Drake got bored traveling for some time. They didn't encounter many monsters on the way only some small monsters that they ignored.

To pass the boredom, he checked what the twins had achieved in the training room.

Deaths:

Yumi Murasame: 754

Ayame Murasame: 754

First, he checked how many times they died. Their number of deaths and still the willingness to serve him was more than enough proof of their strong willpower. Not everyone had the mental facilities to die so many times with no issue.

When he first read the introduction of Training Room, he thought of an even better use for it.

No matter how high the willpower, continuous deaths would still hurt sanity. But after every resurrection, the body will reset to the best possible state while keeping any growth before death. And it also reset the sanity.

This was a subtle form of mind break that he could use on his followers to make them more loyal to him.

That was the major reason, he needed strong willpower. Only a strong willpower could handle so many mind breaks. That would in turn only reinforce the mind. This would cause a virtuous cycle of breaking and reinforcing the mind.

As an Eldritch Nexus, his sanity wouldn't be affected no matter what. That's why he didn't have the SAN attribute in his status panel. He did not need to ever worry about a decrease in SAN value.

Then he checked what they gained after so many deaths.

Name: Yumi Murasame

Loyalty: 100 (Zealot)

Level: 0

SAN: 5

Path: None

Skills: None

Mastery: Archery (Beginner, Lv 10), Stealth (Beginner, Lv 8), Pickpocketing (Beginner, Lv 1), Unarmed Combat (Beginner, Lv 4)

Name: Ayame Murasame

Loyalty: 97 (Fanatic)

Level: 0

SAN: 5

Path: None

Skills: None

Mastery: Dagger (Beginner, Lv 9), Stealth (Beginner, Lv 9), Pickpocketing (Beginner, Lv 2), Unarmed Combat (Beginner, Lv 3)

He was shocked to see the changes in their status panel. That was years worth of hard work that they got in mere 24 hours.

Of course, their speed would slow down as their mastery increased but the changes were still shocking.

‘Xianxia protagonists are right. Breakthroughs happen when life hangs between life and death.’

Not everyone could use that though as one wrong step could result in falling into the unending abyss.

However, that was not a problem for Drake.

“Stop!!”

While checking the girls' status, he was also keeping an eye around while using the appraisal skill (used before to check the girls’ status in the beginning) to find some hidden treasures.

Ayame stopped immediately. Both girls were alerted.

“Reverse”

Drake didn't explain much, only ordered her to reverse the car.

“Stop”

After reversing for a few meters, he ordered them to stop again.

Then he pointed them towards a tree. The tree looked rotten. Otherwise, it didn't look any different from the other trees.

Both girls nodded seeing the tree. They could use appraisal too after receiving it from Drake.

Yumi shot an arrow to the stump of the tree.

“KHEEE”

Suddenly a voice came from the point the tree was pierced. What Yumi shot was an insect-type monster called Rotten Tree Bug. It looked just like the bark of a rotten tree, so with the dark environment it blended effortlessly with the tree.

Drake didn't even notice when Ayame left her seat and reached the monster. She collected the Fog Coins dropped on the ground near the monster. Then she used her dagger to remove a piece of wood from the tree.

She came back and handed both to Drake. That piece was Drake's aim.

Name: Rotten Tree Core

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

It could be found rarely in the rotten trees in the Fog Zones.

He gave it to Yumi to keep in the back.

He thought that it was a good start to the adventure.

After traveling for a few hours and killing monsters on the way, they stopped for a while to have lunch.

Drake's family usually had their lunch at their respective workplaces so he did not need to log out for lunch.

Both sisters wanted to feed him, so as a merciful lord, he let them feed him a few bites. Both were on the moon after that.

“RUSTLE”

When they were packing up, they heard some rustling sound as if someone was running towards them.

Both sisters covered him, as whether friend or foe, Drake's security was the most important.

When it reached within a few meters of them, they saw it was a humanoid creature with greyish skin, sharp teeth, and yellow eyes.

Zombie

Level: 0

“Young master that’s a zombie”, informed Ayame. She had no need but it was still her duty.

He was fed up listening to them calling him lord, so he ordered them to call him young master. The girls agreed, but secretly still called him lord.

These zombies are different from zombies shown in various media. When a creature died in Fog Zones, the fog would corrupt their bodies and then they would turn into different types of monsters. The zombies were one of the ones found more commonly.

“Let me handle it.”

Since it was only one zombie and was not too strong, Drake decided to fight himself.

Ayame and Yumi backed off but remained alert.

Drake slowly moved towards the zombie with his sword in hand. When the zombie was close enough he slashed it with his sword.

The sword hit it near the shoulder it didn't do much damage. He felt as if he hit rubber not skin.

The zombie roared and swiped his face with its class. Drake hurriedly pulled back his head. He barely made it as the claw was mere millimeters away from his nose.

He did a few back-and-forths with the zombie. He was barely holding back against it. His way of fighting could be called ugly, but that was expected he couldn't become a sword master in a day.

The twins were tensed the entire time. Many times they wanted to help but stayed put to not disturb the lord.

After a few more rounds Drake was getting out of breath and the zombie was also covered in numerous wounds. But those wounds did not affect it as it could fight with full strength till his head was not damaged.

Drake's reaction time was getting slower. The zombie attacked again, Drake was a step late to dodge but hurriedly put the sword in front of him to protect himself.

“Young Master!” *2

Drake was covered in sweat, his body was aching, he was out of stamina, and had little to no strength left in his body.

The zombie also had many injuries and had lost one hand but was as ferocious as ever.

It again attacked him. The attack was aimed at his head. One hit and he would die.

‘Like hell, I will go down like that in a fight with a mere zombie.’

The world seemed to be moving in slow motion. The claw of death slowly but steadily moved towards his head.

Ayame ran towards him and Yumi was ready to fire at an opportunity.

Suddenly Drake felt as if he saw an opening in the stance of the zombie. He thought it was an illusion but he gambled.

He put all his strength into a last strike and slashed at the zombie’s neck.

Before the claw reached his head, the zombie's head separated.

[Mastery Unlocked

Sword (Beginner, Lv 1)]

He lost all strength in his body and fell. Ayame came and quickly caught his body before he fell.

“Ha, ha, ha” After the adrenaline calmed down, Drake started panting crazily.

He sat down with Ayame’s help and started taking deep breaths.

“Young Master we were not able to help you in time. Please punish us.”

Both Yumi and Ayame knelt in front of him in guilt. They had a face as if they had committed a cardinal sin.

“It's not your fault”, said Drake, still panting.

“But-”

“No buts. I need to learn to fight and for that, I need to take risks. So get up. No more talking about this subject, that's an order.”

They got up but resolved to work even harder to minimize the risks taken by Drake as much as possible.

Drake got up, Ayame wanted to help but he refused. He sat back in the car.

He checked but the zombie didn't drop anything, not even Fog Coins.

‘Bad Luck’

The twins packed up and also came back to the car.

They resumed their journey.

Drake recalled his fight against the zombie. That was his first real fight. The few fights he had before were inside the territory against very weak creatures.

Even if he struggled in the fight it was still manageable. There was no life and death moment in those fights.

The fight made him realize why fog explorers had such a high mortality rate. Fighting against monsters inside the territory compared to monsters outside the territory was never the same.

But that was not enough to stop them as great risks were often accompanied by great rewards.

The Rotten Tree Core that they got could be sold in the territory for at least 10 silver. That was only the base price as in small territories like the Black Forest Territory, Sequence Treasures would be auctioned instead of being sold directly. So depending on the need, it might even fetch 50 silver.

While thinking about such things, Drake fell asleep as the fight took a heavy toll on him.