Chapter 242 239: The Fog (2)

Chapter 242 239: The Fog (2)

As told before, the Fog fed on the emotions of the beings trapped within it.

All life forms in the Fog would become its sustenance.

Their emotional state, particularly negative emotions like fear, anger, and despair, nourished the Fog and could trigger strange and dangerous events.

An increase in these odd occurrences within the Fog also correlated with a spike in the mortality rate.

Basically, the number of beings trapped inside it determined its true danger level.

If the fog was covering the entire valley, Val was in a lot of trouble!

'If I am the only one in the fog, it won't grow. But if there are others, it will grow rapidly, and I will be stuck in a sticky situation.'

Val couldn't help but notice that the situation was unusually unfavorable for a lone wolf like him.

Kicking aside the emerging negative thoughts, he recalled the last important thing he knew about it.

There were ways to escape the Fog, but there were no guaranteed methods.

One could only rely on a mix of luck and hard work to escape it.

The idea was that the more you moved, and the greater your luck, the better your chances were of escaping its clutches.

However, moving blindly in a place where visibility was zero could easily turn into a life-threatening mistake. The risks were high, and not many were brave enough to take that gamble.

'It's not a problem for me,' Val thought.

Val, in his past life, didn't see the light for a long time.

He was allowed to escape the 'dark' after he was trained into becoming a killing machine that followed orders without thoughts of his own, and treated life with no respect, killing whoever he was ordered to. Because of the countless days and nights he spend in the dark, it was like a home to him.

Besides, he had learned and founded many skills that allowed him to travel in the dark with utter ease.

Thus, he was really fine despite being unable to see a thing.

Val couldn't help but think that the Fog was like a natural enemy to humans. Darkness was a primal fear for many. In the dark, your senses were limited; you didn't know who or what was around you, or where you were going.

This uncertainty gave birth to fear, and in the Fog, that fear was more than a simple emotion—it was a form of sustenance and empowerment for this malevolent phenomenon. In other words, in the fog, your own psychological vulnerabilities would turn against, stabbing you where it hurts the most.

What made the Fog particularly horrifying was that it didn't directly kill its victims. Instead, it trapped them inside of it, torturing and feeding off their negative emotions until they were driven to the point of insanity, often leading to suicide. It made sense, considering humans and beasts were more useful to it alive and miserable than dead.

Val summarized what he knew about the Fog and came to two big conclusions.

A: If you have the courage to traverse the fog while being as blind as a bat, you might just survive.

B: He needs to get out of here before he starts seeing and feeling odd things. After all, the moment that happened, he knew that his chances of escaping would drastically diminish, and the likelihood of becoming another statistic in the Fog's grim toll would sharply rise.

He needed to leave the Fog asap.

But still he couldn't leave the altar behind. He had to take it with him.

After all, the research so far was that the altar was a complex machine that could be used to teleport large distances and possibly even jump to different worlds.

Though there wasn't concrete evidence supporting the latter, the former had been experienced firsthand by Alaric and his team. Val knew of this through Alaric's diary.

While the altar's full capabilities were not yet understood, Val was certain that once they learned the way to harness its power, it would become an invaluable asset.

That prospect might not be immediate, as Lucious was likely to persuade the Queen to halt any experiments on it for the time being to avoid the attention of the Unknown.

However, Val believed that one day, perhaps when they felt more prepared to face the Unknown, they would pick up where Alaric left off and find a way to put the altar to good use.

Even if others didn't he would once he was certain that he could survive an encounter with the Unknown.

Basically, when that time comes, the prices of the altar woukd sky rocket, and the more altar one would have, the better.

With this in mind, he trapped the altar in his soul power to preserve it

After securing it in this way, he uprooted the altar and placed it into the pocket dimension within his Void Orb.

This pocket dimension existed outside the normal flow of time, ensuring that the altar, now shielded by his soul power and stored inside of it, would remain undamaged for decades to come.

'Let's get moving.'

While on the move, Val activated the Heavenly Eye skill. He believed that with this skill, he would be able to see through the fog. His vision expanded in all directions and gained the property to see through objects. And then he noticed he was able to see despite being trapped in the Fog.

The fog stretched as far as the eye could see. The entire Shadow Valley and maybe even the surrounding areas were overtaken by the fog. He also noticed he could only see to a certain point in the fog.

As a result, he realized one more important aspect about his skill.

'My Heavenly Eye skill is not as omniscient as I thought.'

'And... I am in deep shit.'

Seeing that the entire Shadow Valley and all its inhabitants were trapped in the Fog, the dreadfulness of the situation became apparent to Val.

He was born fearless and had extensive control over his emotions. As he had tried his best, he was able to keep calm despite being trapped in the Fog. n.-O--V/-E-.L--b((I()n

But the problem was that the others weren't like him!

The fog must be feeding on their emotions to grow at this very moment.

The situation... It seemed might turn even more unfavorable for him sooner than he expected!