Awakening: I Ascend As A Legendary Ranked Necromancer-Chapter 64: Rest

They entered the hallway, and we got to rest and gather our energy for the next stage. The hallway was just that, an hallway made of black and white striped metal that shone with its own light.

Temur quickly brought out his cooker and began to roast a monster’s meat. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"This meat is high in mana, it will replenish our mana quickly. It’s expensive too, and it’s a shame that I have to cook it without all my favorite spices."

I and the others didn’t care whether it was his favorite spices or not. As long as it tasted good and the smell made us salivate, we were good to go.

We quickly ate it and drank water to push it down.

"Ahhh! Time to take a nap before the door opens." I lay down and closed my eyes. There was no specific time for the door to the next stage to open, it might be quick or take a while. Either way, it was better to try and rest.

All of us lay down and were soon sleeping. There was no reason to be alert here because nothing but the door could disturb us, and fortunately for us, it took a while before the door opened.

When the light from the door hit me, I winced and covered my eyes, groaning.

"I guess it’s time."

The others stood as well, stretching and groaning. Temur grinned.

"Well then! Let’s see about this stage that can’t be cleared."

When we entered through the door, we weren’t shocked when we stepped into a forest with the sun shining on our heads and the cries of insects chirping.

"Outdoor then?" I said. Some of the previous stages happened in locations like this, a volcanic rock mountain and a sea but never a forest, and a large one at that.

Dile sniffed, then walked a few feet forward. He crouched and touched the earth, rubbing it with his fingers.

"This is a swamp land."

"A swamp land." Cele grimaced. As a fire mage, she didn’t like it one bit.

"You are right! This is the swamp land!" a spirit said. It hovered above us, buzzing fast like a bee. It looked like the spirit from the previous stage, but this one had four hands.

"Welcome to a stage that can’t be cleared! The sixth stage! You can forfeit now with the blessing of King Solomon, or you can continue, but know this, this stage is made so it can never be cleared."

I almost rolled my eyes. There they went again with all the hubris. The same was said about the previous one, and still here we were.

"Why do you make a stage that can’t be cleared if this is a game?"

"Because King Solomon doesn’t want anyone to win his game. It’s a type of punishment for some criminals. So what do you say, brave warriors! Do you want to continue, or do you want to forfeit this stage?"

This time Temur turned to us and asked,

"What do you think, guys? Should we go for it, or should we stop here?"

Litha and I turned to the rest of Thayer’s team. They were the only ones who could determine this kind of thing after all. For us, we had already looted enough for this zone.

Cele looked at the spirit doubtfully and then at the environment. She looked at her two teammates, and they communicated with their eyes.

"Yes. We will continue."

Temur faced the spirit.

"Now tell us what all this is about."

"It’s simple. There’s a monster in this place that only lives in the area. Kill it, and you have cleared the stage."

"That’s it? We just have to kill a monster?" I found it baffling.

"Why is this called a stage that can’t be cleared then... or is it the time limit?"

The spirit shook its head.

"No. For this stage, there’s no time limit. You can take as much time as you need."

"That’s it?" Temur demanded.

"Yes, that’s it," the spirit answered.

Litha’s lips twitched. If something looked too simple, that usually meant there was a horrible twist somewhere and there was only one place that twist could be.

"Tell us about the monster."

The spirit moved closer to us.

"The monster you are killing is an Onus!"

Litha hissed and flinched as she heard that, but the others just looked at her in confusion.

"An Onus! You have that kind of monster here!"

The spirit giggled and disappeared.

"What is an Onus?" I asked. I’d never heard of a monster with that name, and the way Litha reacted to it didn’t instill confidence.

"They are weak monsters but ranked very highly because of their special abilities."

"What abilities?" I asked, because how could they be weak and then ranked highly again?

"They are spirit monsters that feed on Awakener’s mana and then leap onto their backs and crush them with gravity. Once they latch onto your back, it’s almost impossible to get them off because they just get heavier and heavier with gravity.

"What makes them tricky is that they are spirits and can’t be killed by ordinary means," Litha explained. "They are also rare. That’s why I was surprised when I heard it was the monster we were to kill."

We began to walk around the swamp after listening to Litha’s explanation. We started with the exploration of the nearby swamp, led by Dile and Temur, who were the veteran hunters among us.

We saw a trail and began to follow it, but the swamp got in our way with how our legs sank sometimes. The smaller insects didn’t let us rest one bit either, with their constant biting and humming.

"We’ve been looking around for close to forty minutes and we haven’t seen any monsters. Maybe the impossibility of this stage is the fact that we have to look for monsters that don’t actually exist?" Tim asked.

I was getting tired of getting my legs mucky, so an idea occurred to me.