"Wraiths."
What Eren saw gave him shivers. These were not ordinary monsters he had battled in his past life. He doubted they could even be called monsters at this point because of their appearances.
The wraiths looked like humanoid rankers of mixed races. But the flesh on their bodies was mangled and rotten. Many wraiths were missing the flesh on their face and limbs, making the skeletal structure that is found within them visible to the naked eyes.
Many wraiths were missing eyes in their eye sockets. Some had yellowish-white crowns in place of the scalp. Some had missing teeth. Others had their limbs fractured and twisted in an abnormal direction.
The wraiths were wearing tattered clothes that looked like they would turn to dust anytime now. Some of these monsters also carried in their hands old, worn-out weapons that didn't look threatening at first glance.
But Eren could feel with his mana sense that the wraiths had their own brand of magic working for them. The mana signatures they gave off were similar. And they had coated their worn-out weapons in the same mana signature– making it difficult for the butcher to feel the potency of the weapons and the magic the wraiths were using.
'Eren, the wraiths are the product of forbidden magic used on the dead bodies of the rankers. Beware, these guys are not apparitions like what you battled in the underground dungeon.
Only a few tricks can work to counter them. Fire-based spells are one of them. The physical damage you can inflict on them will have almost no immediate effect on wraiths. It is only when your fire-element mana invades their bodies that you will see satisfactory results.
Wraiths use only one form of magic irrespective of the element the dead bodies of the rankers were previously associated with– the netherworld ice element.
The wraiths you see still have their physical bodies. But they can also exist for some time in their mana-body form before getting dispersed into nothingness.
Do you understand what that means?'
Eren made a suppressed gulping sound as he heard Alephee's description of wraiths. Forget about the lightning spells. If even his physical attacks fail to yield results, then he was screwed by the tests on the first floor.
'It means I'll have to be wary of them even when I destroy their corpses. They are almost like ghosts that reside in the bodies of the deceased.
Wait. Dead rankers! Are these the bodies of the rankers who had come here and died in this place? This fucking Purgatory is giving a new meaning to the word recycle. Fuck!'
Eren cursed the way this place handled the dead bodies of the rankers. Not because he was empathetic to them. However, these guys died and made his job more difficult.
"Skrreeeeeeee!"
The silent wraiths that were walking aimlessly in silence produced a sharp sound in unison when they saw a live ranker looking at them from a distance. At least 25 of them appeared all at once. And they all started running towards Eren without a moment's delay.
'What rank do these guys have? I can't sense shit.'
Eren gripped his weapons hard as he saw the horde of wraiths approaching him frantically. Some of them were threateningly agile even with their twisted limbs and corpse-like bodies. They looked at Eren like he was their mortal enemy and produced the same sharp sound in unison as if to challenge him.
'The Wraiths don't have ranks like the normal rankers. But what I can feel from my soul sense, they are as powerful as an F-Ranker in the solid stage.'
Eren listened to Alphee as he started running towards his enemies. There was nothing he could do or use to defend himself in this open terrain. He might as well take the initiative and attack them instead of running around and wasting his stamina and mana.
'Fuck! This dungeon is trying to kill me. I'd have to fight this undead horde for seven days and seven nights? What the fuck!'
The gap between the difficulty levels of the underground dungeon and solo towers was huge. But it was too late for regrets. Eren used his movement spell and got close to the horde of wraiths that were eyeing him. He was followed by his fire snakes.
The first thing that hit Eren was the rotten smell coming from the bodies of the wraiths. The second was the abnormal mana signature the monsters were giving off. The third was the soul-freezing cold he felt coming from their bodies.
'I'll kill you again to give you the rest you fuckers deserve. Sleep motherfuckers, sleep for fuck's sake.'
Eren was especially agitated compared to the usual battle stress he was able to cope with. Hence his cursing had increased. The same cursing speech he used to have when he was a nobody in his previous life. The upcoming battle with the wraiths had made him revert to his previous foul-mouthed self.
"Breath of fire."
Eren released his fire-element spell from his mouth as soon as he appeared in the middle of the monster horde. The fire snakes that were following him entered the battle as well and executed the same spell at different places.
The pitch-black night lit by the starry skies soon found a set of new light sources in the form of streams of fire generated by the fire snakes and their caster at the same time.
"Skreeeeeeeeee."
The flesh burning stench started exuding from the wraiths' bodies as they were subjected to the fire. But that didn't prevent them from confronting their attackers fearlessly. It was as if they didn't care what would happen to their bodies.
Eren wasn't done yet. He stacked his movement spell as soon as he saw the wraiths coming to get him. By now they had surrounded him from all sides and there was no way to run. Therefore, he charged up his legs and jumped high-- the only place he could retract to for the time being.
Eren first tossed his katars in the air. Then he executed his fire-element spell as soon as he found himself stabilized in the air a few feet above the ground. The target of his attack was right below him– concentrating on his previous position.
"Just fucking die already.
Fireballs."
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AN: VEH will have a mass release tomorrow. The illustration of wraiths will be uploaded to Insta and Discord soon.. Also, VEH reached the milestone of 400K words with this release. Cheers!