Awakening: I Ascend As A Legendary Ranked Necromancer-Chapter 45: living darkness

"Is that...?"

"What the...."

"Is that a loli?" Temur demanded.

"That looks suspiciously like male," I said, squinting up at the thing.

Whatever it was, it was tiny, no bigger than a fist and wore colorful clothes. Its face was hidden behind a black veil, and it hovered above us, buzzing like a bee. "Welcome, great warriors!"

The voice was both deep and feminine at the same time.

We all looked up, and I realized it was as if we’d been expecting this to appear. I glanced back at the zone entrance, the door was gone. Everything had transformed into an unbroken, crumbled village.

"I’ve never seen a talking monster before," Litha whispered.

"Is that even a monster?" Cele whispered back.

The little thing floated closer. "I welcome you, brave warriors, who are here to look for the lost treasure of Adonijah!"

Whispers spread quickly among the newbies. Even Litha’s eyes widened in surprise. None of us had ever heard anything like this before.

"Are we sure we’re actually in a zone?" Tim asked. "Or is this some kind of prank?"

The veterans, especially the freelance Awakeners, smirked knowingly. I could tell they enjoyed watching the Guild teams scramble, clueless. They’d take all the benefits while we wandered blindly.

"Why didn’t Thayer tell us anything?" I asked Dile, frowning. "Did he brief you at least?"

Dile closed his eyes, his ears flicking. "Nope. We’re just as new to this as you are."

I grunted. Then I guess we wait and see. I called up to the hovering thing. "Who are you? And who is this Adonijah?"

Everyone’s eyes turned to me. Surprise, fear, and curiosity all swirled across their faces. Most people clearly wanted answers but held back to watch others do the testing.

Temur grinned. "Way to announce our presence, Torvan."

The small creature drifted closer. "I am the spirit contracted by Adonijah to oversee his castle and make his will known to those who would claim his treasures.

"And Adonijah was one of the generals of the wisest of kings, the ruler of the greatest land, with a heart full of wisdom and a mind full of understanding, King Solomon!"

Litha’s eyes gleamed. "We should make a lot from this zone. I’m fired up!"

Murmurs ran through the other Awakeners. A general of King Solomon? Even in other worlds, legends of him were known.

The spirit continued. "I have been tasked to put you through trials to see if you are worthy to walk the grounds of the great general, Adonijah!"

"The rules are simple. To enter the grounds, you must acquire green coins! You can collect them by defeating monsters!" With a flash, it disappeared.

"What did that thing just say?"

"Hunt green coins? Where?"

"There are monsters here?"

Whispers erupted. Even some veterans seemed taken aback. We started scanning the village, but there was nothing, just smoke, ash, and ruins.

Then the sky darkened as if the sun itself had been swallowed.

I looked up. The sky had turned a deep, inky black, like the maw of some abyssal monster that had suddenly swallowed us.

And then, as if we were inside a room, all the light winked out, leaving behind only the dark.

Darkness surrounded us, thick and suffocating. Darkness that was alive and breathing.

"What is going on?" I called, but no sound came back. The darkness seems to eat the voices and sounds of the surrounding, leaving nothing behind.

It was as if the dark had swallowed my voice. I paused, listening.

Nothing.

No heartbeat and n footstep echoes, everything seems submerged in eternal darkness and void. Have the hunt begun? What’s happening? I tried to speak again, but everything was thrown back to me.

"Litha! Temur!" My mouth moved, but no sound emerged.

They were feeling the same, as it seems they were swallowed by the tide. Each was feeling there thing on their own side of places.

Temur sniffed the air. "I can’t smell anything either."

Slowly, he reached forward and struck something, someone, by the feel of it. Immediately, his hand connected and I could see him faintly as if the darkness had lifted slightly.

"Dile? Can you hear me?" I asked. The beastman nodded.

Once we touched someone, we could see and hear them faintly. Temur grabbed Dile’s hand, and we extended outward until all six of us were holding hands in a circle.

"We have a problem," Temur said.

I looked at the others through the faint, wavering outlines, as if through a cracked mirror. "We can’t see or sense anything unless we’re touching it. We’re practically food for whatever’s in this zone."

Litha sent mana to her eyes, making them glow like a flashlight, but it did nothing. She gritted her teeth. "How can we defend ourselves if we can only see through touch? Temur, Dile, shouldn’t your perception be stronger than ours?"

Temur pushed his senses to the limit, but it was like a wet blanket over him. "I can’t sense more than half a foot away. What about you, Dile?"

"A foot," he said.

Cele created a fireball, and it hovered above our heads, but it was only visible to her.

She frowned. "We don’t know what abilities others might have. What if they can see? What if they target more than just monsters?"

The silence was heavy. Fear seeped between us with its inevitability as it seems there are something hovering around us.

This isn’t how I imagined things going. Will we be taken out without even trying? If we were suddenly attacked by something, then it might even be over before we know what happening!

Temur made a decision. "We can feel our feet on the ground. Let’s move slowly and bump into buildings. If we see when we touch them, we can enter and get away from the open."

Just then, a scream so bloody and pained it made my skin crawl, tore through the air, seemingly to make the surroundings to shiver.