Chapter 412: They Wouldn't Be Traumatised

"W-What happened?" Rishana opened her eyes, feeling a headache as she heard an eerie sound of the wind that blew through the rocky terrain. She looked around, eyes widened as the surroundings beyond 30 metres were veiled by fog.

She heard some faint sounds of a bird echo. She was unsure from where it resounded. But considering the depth of the sound, the animal that produced it surely had powerful vocal cords. Rishana had zero intentions to investigate it; all she thought was in keeping herself safe.

"This is a hallucination…a hallucination…a hallucination." She got up, punching the wall lightly to feel a sting in her fist. Everything felt realistic. Loose soil fell off from the point of impact as she felt the protrusion vibrate.

"Dammit," She noticed the soil come off in thin streams from the place the protrusion was attached to the rock pillar. Rishana swerved her head, looking around to see the top of a rock pillar situated nearby.

Rishana didn't hurry in her jump, for the rock pillar's top only had a square metre in area. If she made a mistake, then she would fall. She took in a deep breath, "You can do it, it is possible."

The trembling under her legs intensified as part of the protrusion along the sides fell off as sand, making the base thinner and thinner. She only had a couple of seconds before it lost all of its foundation.

"Ahh," Rishana leapt using all her strength. Her Sync Rate was 56 percent. So, she was slightly stronger than girls her age. In her hurry, despite her mental plans, she jumped with more strength than necessary.

Her jumping angle wasn't perfect that she would stop upon landing. Chances are, she would proceed forward until her foot left the surface, no longer having a base to anchor upon. The moment she leapt, Rishana knew, she wouldn't make the landing safely.

Her eyes drifted towards the unending chasm trailing past the rocky terrain visible to her as her body arched. Her foot landed on the rock pillar's top when it creaked under her weight, caving in easily.

"Aaah!" Rishana screamed in fright as her legs went into the soil, crashing with the rock pillar's interior as her body slammed into the wall. The wall cracked as part of her foot peaked out while her body leaned over. The caved in part was a metre deep.

"Ah!" Rishana flailed her hand, grabbing hold of the wall on the other side, using it to pull her back. She barely managed to straighten herself when the walls collapsed on all sides. Some of them fell on her legs while the rest tumbled to the ground, turning into loose soil during the fall.

There was no sound of their impact as Rishana only heard the sound of the breeze blowing past like always. She panted, looking back to see the protrusion she woke up on, now only left with a small part less than 10 centimetres in length.

Rishana hadn't even managed to take a breath in relief when the rock pillar she was on started to tremble. "Dammit, not this too."

She saw soil fall off from the sides, causing faint sounds that made her heart lurch. Rishana looked around, noticing the rock pillars were farther apart than her reach. "What should I do?"

The rock pillar began to tremble as a large piece fell off from its sides, causing a portion of the top to become unbalanced. Rishana immediately shifted her body weight to one side when she noticed a rock—the size of her fist—fall off thanks to her actions. "Why?"

In her tension, she suddenly recalled Jyorta's words as her Tier 1 Skill activated by itself. She then perceived her height, "What? It's only 30 metres?"

But even that height was more than enough to kill her. So, her situation hadn't changed. Soil continued to fall off the rock pillar as it destabilised more and more as time passed. No matter which way she moved, small pieces of it still fell off under her action.

"How will I know if it would fall?" She screamed in frustration as she thought about her discussion with Jyorta, concentrating further with her Skill as she began to sense minor fluctuations in the data she perceived.

…

"Ug…uh…uwakk…wah!" Duvic was in a cage of ice, with no hope for exit. His body shivered from the cold as his limbs turned numb. In the beginning, he had flailed his hands by force when a small protrusion on the ice wall cut his hand. It bled now while the pain made his hand feel heavy.

He had been trapped in the ice cage for the past 10 minutes with no hope for escape. His eyes started to close as he felt drowsy, his body lacking the energy to even move. All he could do was huddle in place in the hope for someone to save him.

"Please…please…save me…please…" His voice echoed like a broken cord as his throat was parched. He lifted his head and saw his reflection on the wall, an ashen pale face that was slowly turning red, a sign of internal bleeding.

His eyes were red while his nose had turned purple. The ice cage looked pristine like a mirror, except for some sharp protrusions on its surface. It reflected him whole, displaying his pathetic self, furthering his self-loathing.

"No! Save…me…" He began to cry, burying his head within his legs as he curled up in the corner, unwilling to look at his reflection anymore.

…

Sreshta was on a flat metal platform that was rusting all over. It was square in shape, spanning a side of 30 metres.

The metal platform was surrounded by metal walls on all four sides, rusting as the paint on them peeled off. It was thirty metres tall, with no room for an exit. There was neither a door nor a flight of stairs leading to the outside.

Sreshta had already scoured the entire area. There wasn't anything she could use to escape. She tried inflicting self-harm in an effort to wake up from this place. But irrespective of what she tried, Sreshta was unable to leave the hallucination.

Among one of her trials, she touched the wall with her hands when a poking rusted part injured her. It was a tiny wound, but the bleeding never stopped. Now, she was applying pressure on the wound to prevent the blood from flowing out.

"How do I escape from here?" She was afraid, nervous at the foreign place and was losing hope of escaping the longer she stayed. There was nothing in there to help her.

Sreshta had just stepped forth when she heard a splotch, gazing down to see the floor was wet. There was a thin layer of water on it. She noticed the water flowing in a thin stream, originating from somewhere else.

She focused on the water trail, concentrating as her Tier 1 Skill, Focus Vision activated.

…

It was a dark place, with only the sounds of her heartbeats resounding in her ears. She was afraid to breathe faster, taking slow breaths that hardly produced any sound. "H-Hello, anyone there?"

There was no reply, scaring her further. Suddenly, there was a whistling sound as an arrow landed beside her, shining with a neon hue upon landing. It faded after a second, causing the place to embrace darkness once again.

In the short second the arrow landed on the ground, all Bilena saw was a normal ground of mud that had faced a drought. The arrow pierced into the ground halfway up its shaft. Bilena started to cry once again, almost falling unconscious.

Before she fell unconscious, she heard the whistling sound once again as another arrow landed beside her, this time closer than before. The whistling sound was a tad lower than the first time. Her body jumped back in reflex as she was wide awake now.

Before she could react, a third arrow landed, this time only 20 centimetres away from her toes, adding mental pressure on her frail mind. The whistling sound was even fainter now that she couldn't react.

"Aah!" Bilena screamed in fear, watching the fourth arrow land just a centimetre away from her pinky toe. Her Tier 1 Skill, Enhanced Hearing was automatically activated as all her focus was on the arrows, for they were trying to kill her. Even if she was incapable of having the mindset to use them, under the threat to her life, her body was focusing all its energy on trying to perceive the arrows. That was why her Tier 1 Skill activated on its own.

She faintly perceived another arrow but failed to dodge on time, watching the arrow land between her first and second toe, making a cut that bled. Her toes weren't severed, but the flesh on them was cut to a fair extent that they bled without stopping.

"Argh!" She screamed, retracting her injured leg in reflex from the pain as she noticed another arrow land on the place her leg was on before. If she had reacted an instant later, the arrow would have pierced through her foot.

…

Jyorta sat in the study room, looking at the faces of his four teammates that had their eyes closed and were sitting still. This time, he increased the depth of his hallucination, making everything play within their mind.

He had his eyes closed, his breathing a steady form while his body barely moved except for the breathing action. Suddenly, the voice of a staff resounded in his ears, "Remember, if your actions inflict trauma on them, you would be severely punished."

"They…wouldn't…be…traumatised," Jyorta muttered with difficulty as he was soaked with sweat in maintaining four different hallucinations at the same time. "I…guarantee…it."