Chapter 121: Chapter 121 - Adventurer Party(Part 5)

"Alright, we’re down to the ninth floor now. We’ll head in till we reach the path leading down to the tenth floor and then head back up," Suggested Ekspen, as we entered the ninth floor.

"Finally...," I heard Ilex mutter quietly to himself.

"Yes, it’s about that time, we don’t want to push too far beyond our limits and end up overexerting ourselves," Chimed in Sakri with a nod.

Great, it’s about time. I was getting pretty tired of this, there hasn’t been anything challenging since that swarm of Taratects. We’ve only encountered individuals or small groups of Monsters, none more than groups of five.

On the bright side, it’s meant that I haven’t needed to reveal any more of the tricks I’ve got up my sleeve. But on the other hand, it’s been so damn incredibly boring. And I have to put up with two more days of this crap?

Man, this really sucks. Hm? I can hear something up ahead with Super Hearing, though it’s not yet in the range of my Thought Communication. It’s not very easy to accurately gauge distances with Super Hearing, especially with sounds that are more than about a hundred and fifty meters away.

But I’m fairly certain that, whatever I’m hearing, is less than two hundred meters away, at least. From the sound of it, it’s only one Monster though, so it’s probably nothing to worry about. Still, might as well warn the others...

"There’s a Monster not too far up ahead," I remarked, before frowning as it got within the range of my Thought Communication, getting a bad feeling from it, "I don’t know what it is, though it feels pretty dangerous. There’s only one though, so it shouldn’t be too big a deal."

"Keep your guards up regardless. Disastrous Grades wander up to these floors more often than you’d think," Responded Dispo warily.

He’s not wrong, Disastrous Grades usually start appearing from the twenty-sixth floor onwards, but Prysm and I encountered twelve of them in the first twenty-five floors. Each one was alone though, so they typically don’t wander out of their usual territories in groups.

And it’s likely that this Monster I’m sensing is a Disastrous Grade...I can get a vague idea of how dangerous a Monster is when I sense them, and this one definitely feels more dangerous than a Common or Intermediate Grade. Still though, it’s not as dangerous as a Basilisk, so it’s probably in the lower end of the range in the Disastrous Grade Threat Level.

"How much further away is the Monster?" Inquired Ekspen warily.

"Sixty meters, more or less," I informed him.

"Manifest Soul Weapon: Mana Armament," Suddenly chanted Ilex, a cautious look on his face.

Huh? What kind of weapon is that? It looks like a handle shaped like the letter L, with a narrow slit on top of the longer part.

He was holding it by the shorter end, like a gun. Maybe it shoots Mana projectiles, it does have Mana in the name, after all. I should probably manifest my Soul Weapon too.

"Wow, you can even manifest your Soul Weapon without chanting?" Inquired Sakri with a look of intrigue, as I formed my whip.

"A whip, huh? That’s a pretty interesting weapon, don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else with one," Added Ekspen in fascination.

"We’re almost there, it should be in sight soon," I remarked, tightening the grip on my handle.

"Over there, I think I see it," Spoke up Dispo with a frown.

"That’s...that’s not good, it’s a Spectre, a very dangerous Disastrous Grade," Grimaced Sakri, as the Monster turned this way with a growl.

Oh, that’s one I haven’t encountered before. It kinda looks like what you’d imagine a ghost to look like...a really ugly ghost. It had pale and very shriveled skin, crooked but sharp looking fangs and claws, and its eyes were like glowing red slits.

Its lower half was like wispy smoke, reminding me of the lower half of a genie from fiction in my old world, it was floating about a meter above the ground...I’ve read that these Monsters can turn themselves intangible and pass through anything.

But unlike the Intangibility Skill, they can only turn their entire bodies intangible, they can’t selectively turn only certain parts of their bodies intangible. That said, it’s still a pretty formidable ability, this one might be tough to deal with.

Still though, its upper body isn’t immaterial like its lower half is, so it does cast a shadow. Ilex’s Skill probably won’t work since the Monster itself isn’t touching the ground, but-...I then swiftly raised my blades defensively as the Spectre rapidly flew this way with a snarl, closing in at an alarming speed.

Suddenly, as its shadow faded, I leapt off to my left and let it fly past me, its shadow returning as it glanced at me from the corner of its eye...but it didn’t chase after me, instead making a beeline towards Ekpsen.

When its shadow disappeared, that must have been when it turned intangible...since light was able to pass through its body, a shadow couldn’t be cast.

I swiftly cracked my whip towards its right side with a flick of my wrist, the Monster quickly turning intangible in response, as the trio of Adventurers backed away, looking ready to fight back but refraining from doing so.

Looks like they’re giving us a chance to try and defeat it ourselves...they’re kinda putting their lives in our hands, I’m a bit surprised. As my whip passed right through it, I grimaced as it flew back towards me after letting out a growl.

It’s tangible again...from what I read about it, it can only stay continously intangible for ten seconds, and then can’t do so again for another ten seconds. Because of that, most Spectres only turn intangible for the moment when they’re about to attack or when they’re avoiding an attack.

And if they manage to get a part of themselves through a target’s body when attacking, they’ll instantly turn tangible, tearing open the spot or spots in the target’s body where their own body had been overlapping through intangibility.

As it began to close in on me and I prepared myself, it suddenly halted and turned intangible as it quickly began to fly back, as a bright projectile shot towards it.

"I can deal with this one," Remarked Ilex, a strange look on his face as I glanced at him, his Soul Weapon pointed at the Monster.

What’s with his expression, it’s hard to describe...there’s an eerie calmless about it, which sent chills down my spine. As the Spectre shot towards him rapidly, a wide smirk suddenly spread out on his face, as he suddenly switched his grip on his weapon to the longer part of it.

Suddenly, a large amount of Mana burst out of the slit at the top of the handle, forming a wall of energy in front of himself as the Monster closed in on him. It didn’t slow down, aiming to go right through the wall...but as it began to touch the energy, it suddenly let out a snarl of pain and halted, a bit of its forehead scorched off.

Huh? Its shadow had faded, meaning that I was intangible...why couldn’t it pass through that wall of Mana?

"Hehe...gotcha," Chuckled Ilex with a wild look in his eyes and a wide, open smirk, as the wall of Mana suddenly faded and he leapt towards the Spectre, forming an energy blade from the end of his Soul Weapon...hm, that sound, the manifested Mana is vibrating rapidly, you definitely don’t want to get hit with that.

He unleashed a rapid downward slash at the Spectre, which quickly began to fly away, before letting out a deafening howl of pain as he sliced off its right arm, blood gushing out and splattering the ground as it flew away in a hurry.

"Initiate Skill: Invisibility," Chanted Ilex with an amused laugh, disappearing from sight as he dissipated his energy blade.

"Is that really the same person...?" I muttered to myself in bemusement, as the Spectre looking around fearfully, clutching at its shoulder.

It then turned intangible as it began to look around more frantically, before letting out a gasp of pain as a Mana projectile burst out from behind it and shot through its left shoulder, blood pouring out from the hole formed by the attack.

"Hehehe...die!" He cackled gleefully, his voice echoing around the area, as he fired out another projectile, shooting through the Monster’s stomach from behind, "Die, die, die, die, die!"

With each ’die’, he fired out another Mana bullet, shooting through the Spectre’s body, before finally shooting it through the forehead and killing it, its body collapsing down and hitting the ground with a thud, bleeding out on the ground as it lay there lifelessly... 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Incredible...," Muttered Dispo in amazement as Ilex turned visible again, while the other two stared with wide-eyed disbelief.

"Ahaha...hahaha...hahahahaha!" Laughed Ilex with an almost deranged look on his face, his cheeks flushed as beads of sweat poured down his face, an euphoric expression as he ran his hand up his forehead, his fingers pushing back his bangs as he let out a content sigh...

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