'Move faster guys! Only a few gaps remained!' Felix stressed while pumping poisonous clouds even faster by emitting it through all of his pores.
He kept doing so while sprinting through the gaps, making him come in contact with many graves.
Unlike in movies and cartoons, zombies didn't raise, and the graves didn't shake.
It was ever so peaceful like nothing happened...But the low-pitched horrifying whispers Felix starting hearing nonstop said otherwise.
'Your flesh smells delicious...'
'Let me have a small taste...'
'I want to see mommy...'
'I will give anything you desire for a little taste...'
There were so many whispers, Felix was finding it hard to distinguish real words from gibberish. Yet, the recurring theme was always about his flesh.
Felix understood that they didn't want to literally eat him but possess his soul to feel the sensation of having flesh again!
'F*ck off will you?' Felix frowned in irritation as he kept waving his hand like he was swatting annoying flies.
With his abnormal mental defenses, he wasn't affected in the slightest by their mental attacks that were distinguished as whispers.
As for the irritation of their voices in his mind? He was already used to it.
"20% reduction to his mental defenses, yet Landlord is still standing strong against the damned souls' temptations!" Micheal said, "Meanwhile, some of his teammates aren't faring as good as him."
As he mentioned, Webor, Barbyclaw, and Rotspawn were starting to lose focus due to the whispers.
It wasn't bad to the point they would get possessed, but lacking focus resulted in their mission being delayed.
'Captain, the others are finding it hard to keep creating ceilings with the voices in their heads.' Nina spoke calmly, appearing as calm as ever.
'Help out Rotspawn.' Felix ordered, 'I will be assisting the others.'
'On it.'
Without needing Felix to say it, Nina understood that the only method to help her teammates was by blocking the blood light from reaching them.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtSo, the moment she reached Rotspawn, who kept shaking his head over and over again akin to a maniac, she created a giant solid earth cube around him.
Immediately after damned souls lost connection with the blood light, the whispers had lessened significantly.
'Tha..thanks, that was truly the f*cking worst thing ever.' Rotspawn said while trying to calm his agitated heart.
He was confident in his mental defenses to the point, he believed that he could resist for at least ten minutes or even more.
After all, he was a radiant player, and he had dealt with many hive race radiant players before.
Unfortunately, the mental attacks of the damned souls differ significantly from the ones of the hive race players.
The hive race players deliver heavy mental attacks that were forceful enough they could break the soul barrier.
But the damned souls kept assaulting him with countless small mental attacks continuously, making it hard for him to keep his thoughts in check.
'Just stay here.' Nina said, 'I will be finishing the rest of the gaps. We can't have you lose your focus lest the giant dome end up collapsing.'
'Okay, sorry about that.' Rotspawn sighed.
'Don't mention it.' Nina chuckled, 'Not everyone is used to dealing with annoying voices in their heads.'
Meanwhile, Felix had already saved Webor and Barbyclaw by putting them within a cube made out of his corruption poison.
He made sure that the poisonous cubic wouldn't touch them.
When the whispers got reduced and their focus was returned, Felix ordered them to hide within the dome and remain there.
'Nina, are you sure you are okay?' Felix asked, 'I can deal with the rest alone.'
'I am fine.' Nina replied, 'This is nothing compared to my father, mother, and teacher constant telepathic nagging.'
'Looks like we are in the same boat.' Felix chuckled, knowing how that feels when his consciousness space was inhibited with five tenants.
'Flesh...'
'Give me your flesh...'
'Me too...'
Suddenly, Felix and Nina stopped their discussion after realizing that the noisy whispers had increased significantly!
If they were dealing with tens of whispers per second, now they were hearing hundreds of them, making it truly difficult to hear one's own thoughts.
'It looks like we are being targeted by all the damned souls now.'
With three members being out of the picture, the rest of the damned souls were naturally going to switch focus to the last two living beings in their graveyard.
Still, Felix was able to toughen through the unbearable noise and finish his all the gaps in his area.
The moment he was done, peacefulness was finally restored in his mind.
'Nina, are you good?' He asked while wiping his sweaty forehead.
'Nina?' Hearing no response, Felix got a bit worried.
'Phew, I am finally done.'
Thankfully, before he could check on her again, she answered him.
'Good work.' Felix sighed in relief.
'Can we come out now?' Webor wondered after hearing their conversation.
'Yes, I believe we have covered every inch of this graveyard.' Felix permitted while teleporting a few kilometers in the air.
He stood above a void rift and examined the entire floor.
As he said, the entire graveyard had been hidden from the red light, resulting in the damned souls to return to their eternal slumber.
'How long are we supposed to wai..'
-Congratulation challengers.-
-You have successfully pacified the unsettled and met the conditions to climb to the second floor.-
-Time taken...Calculating...3 minutes and 43 seconds...You are the fastest team to clear the first floor.-
Before Felix could finish his thought, all of them received a series of blissful notifications from Queen Ai.
'Let's go! We are the fastest!' Webor laughed in delight at their achievement.
'Neat, if we keep the same performance, it will help us secure the win in case more teams got stuck at the same floor before the countdown ends.'
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmSince the game would last for three days, this entailed that there was a high possibility of two teams or more getting stuck at the same highest climbed floor.
To combat this, Micheal had informed them during the Q&A that the players with consistent best performance during their climb would be proclaimed as the winner.
"As I expected, first floor had been cleared by Landlord's team in a record-breaking time!" Micheal commentated excitedly, "If they kept the same pace, they will catch up to Siren's team and Kumiho's team in less than an hour!"
Ka-thum!!
Abruptly, the heavy fog at the northern edge had cleared out, exposing a giant wide open gate that was shining brightly.
'Let's move.' Felix said as he teleported next to the gate.
While waiting for his teammates to arrive, Felix requested from the Queen to present him the current ranking list.
//1) Kumiho's team: Fourth Floor.
2) Siren's team: Fourth Floor.
3) Aspidochelone's team: First Floor.
4) Erebus's team: First Floor.
5) Dune's team: First Floor.
12) Cherufe's team: Ground Floor.//
'They have climbed to the fourth floor already?' Felix raised an eyebrow in surprise, 'Not bad...But, they will definitely be stuck at the fifth floor.'
When Webor and the others reached him, Felix stopped bothering with the other teams and stepped forth inside the blinding gate with his eyes closed.
The instant he reopened them, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows in surprise at the magnificent sight before him.
A leveled grass field that was stretching to the horizon without a single rock or a tree in sight. The sky was blue and sunny while the wind was as gentle as spring breeze.
The entire floor exhibited a peaceful and gentle atmosphere that was completely opposite to the gloomy atmosphere in the first floor.
Yet, Felix knew that sights could be deceiving.
-Welcome to the second floor challengers-
-You may not use any ability or mutation...You may not fly, and you might not dig underground...Your movement speed has been decreased by 10%-
-Cross the grassland.-