MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 292

Chapter 292: The Mist Vultures
Walking through the hallways of the bottom floor of the safe room, they all could feel that there was something in the air.

Something evil and ancient.

“Did the new recruits get infected by the disease by walking over this place?” Lionel asked and pointed at the ceiling.

“That’s what we thought so as well.” Mikael pointed at the ceiling. “The cafeteria is directly above us, so you can tell why it has been such a wide-spread problem.”

“The sickness seeps through the ceiling and infects everyone that happens to walk directly above the door.”

With the lantern in hand, Mikael looked ahead and saw that their destination was just up ahead. At the same time, the air turned heavy, like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room.

“We’ve arrived.”

Up ahead, they saw a rusty, old door that had been standing since the beginning of time. It looked like it had survived through the destruction and rebirth of the world.

It also had four chains—three of them were wrapped tightly around the door handles, while the last one was dangling by the side, nearly broken and rusted.

It looked like the chain would break at any moment.

“Nerezza, do your thing.” Mikael said.

Nerezza rolled her eyes, and as her hair started floating like gravity had flipped upside down, she gently spread her arms around and gave a certain buff to everyone present.

They all could feel that their resistance against the sickness’ corrupting force had increased.

“How do we open the door?” Oldman asked. “If we touch it, don’t we automatically get sick?”

“While the weak may not be able to open it…” Mikael stepped towards the door and slammed his hands against it. “…We can!”

With a strong push, the door slowly creaked open, and even though it was quite a heavy door, Mikael was still able to open it like it was just any ordinary door.

As soon as the door opened, a strange view opened right in front of them.

Steps led deep into the mist, and those steps seemed to be hovering in the air, as if defying gravity. Those led somewhere very deep.

‘Wait, mist?’ Adam’s eyes turned serious. ‘Don’t tell me we’re going to the world of the mist!’

“Come on, everyone, enter quick!” Mikael shouted. “If I don’t close the door soon, the entire safe room will be infected in a matter of seconds!”

Everyone quickly ran through the opening, and Mikael slammed the door shut behind them.

The First Sister leaned over the steps to look at the mist-covered ground below. She couldn’t tell whether it was actual ground below them or whether they would just fall down into an endless misty abyss.

“This is now unknown territory.” Mikael said. “No one has traversed beyond these steps before.”

“Why not?” Akuji asked. “I thought King Moriarty was investigating this place. Wasn’t he curious enough to check what is on the other side?”

“We thought it would be better to keep this place locked.” Mikael said. “There are legends of a powerful entity that dwells there, and we did not want to risk awakening it.”

“But we’re taking all the risks, fucking great!” Akuji scratched the back of his head in frustration. “This sounds more like a suicidal mission with each passing moment.”

“That’s what mercenaries are for.” Mikael said and waved his hand. “Let’s move. The longer we stay, the more certain we are to be infected by the powers of the sickness.”

With that, they started moving through the mist, and after a short while, the lantern on Mikael’s hands died.

It became suddenly dark, and it became quite difficult to follow the steps, but then Lionel took the front, and using his Kiryoku, he was able to move seamlessly through the world.

Others followed closely after him.

Kyikaa…

Kyikaa…

Adam stopped moving and perked up his ears.

Behind him, Sepheron accidentally collided into him and asked. “Why did you stop?”

“Didn’t you hear that? There is something making noise.” Adam said.

Hearing their discussion, the people at the front also stopped.

“I can’t sense anything with my Kiryoku.” Lionel said. “You must be mistaken.”

“It sounded like ‘kiyaak’ or something.” Adam said. “It was very quiet, but I definitely heard it.”

“Oldman,” Mikael said. “Make the mist disappear for a moment.”

“I’ll try.” Oldman picked up his banjo and started strumming a soft melody.

As the soundwaves collided with the mist, it slowly started to dissipate more and more. However, after two hundred meters of clearing the mist, there was still nothing but mist ahead.

Oldman stopped playing the banjo and shrugged his shoulders. “There is nothing.”

The mist started to gather in front of them again, even thicker than before.

‘Weird, I swear I heard something…’ Adam frowned.

“Let’s continue then.” Mikael said.

However, after taking a single step, his ears perked up as he heard the sound of wings flapping.

With his right arm, he drew his Sword of the Morning Sun, and slashed through the air above them.

“Sky Splitter!”

With his masterful control and strength, the sword cut through the mist, splitting it in two, and even slicing through the dark clouds above.

Through the cut between the mists, they were all able to see misty creatures flapping their wings, and they were looking straight at them, as if they were preparing to attack!

“Vultures!” Oldman exclaimed. “However, they’re made out of mist?”

“A new breed of creatures.” Mikael said. “We shall call them Mist Vultures. This is already a groundbreaking discovery. I wonder what else we will find here!”

Kyikaa!

With a loud scream, the Mist Vultures descended upon them with ferocious speed. There were around four of them.

“Sun Slasher!” Mikael swung his sword through the air.

Within the slash, the power of the sun radiated outwards, incinerating one of the Mist Vultures in an instant.

The other three Mist Vultures managed to barely evade the slash, but they were still descending upon them.

“Ice Mortuary!” Sepheron summoned a chilling storm that encased one of the Mist Vultures in a block of ice.

With his clenched fist, he jumped towards the block of ice and punched straight through. The Mist Vulture let out a deafening screech as its frozen body shattered into a million pieces.

Akuji summoned a simple dagger to his left hand and threw it at the Mist Vulture. It landed directly at the center of its chest, but it didn’t look like it was in pain as it kept descending down.

“Dagaheru.” Akuji snapped his fingers.

The daggers multiplied a hundred times, and the Mist Vulture was quickly shredded into a cloud of feathers and blood. It looked like a porcupine, but instead of quills, it was covered in sharp blades.

Only one Mist Vulture was left, and it was heading straight to Nerezza, its eyes filled with rage and hunger.

“Reverse Healing…” Nerezza grinned, showing her sharpened teeth.

The Mist Vulture started bleeding from its eyes, nose, and ears, writhing in pain as it plummeted to the ground.

It got infected with the corrupting sickness!

The Mist Vulture was clearly in immense pain, but the pain just got worse and worse. Its screams sounded like someone was dragging their nails across a chalkboard.

However, Nerezza enjoyed listening to these screams, and her smile kept getting bigger.

But, at that moment, a greatsword smashed through the Mist Vulture’s head, ending its misery.

“What did you do that for?” Nerezza turned her angry gaze at Adam.

“I was getting headaches,” Adam said with a frown. “You think it is fun to keep hearing the sounds of torture? Give me a break.”

“Oh, you can’t handle some screams?” Nerezza said with a sneer. “What a baby.”

“If he didn’t do that, I would’ve!” Akuji screamed. “It felt like someone was stuffing needles into my fucking ears!”

“Hmph.” Nerezza rolled her eyes.

“Enough.” Mikael said. “Let’s keep moving. I don’t think we’re that far from land.”

“Why do you think there is land?” Sepheron asked with his cold tone.

“These steps must be going somewhere.” Mikael said and started walking behind Lionel. “I’ve learned one thing about this game—if there are stairs, they will always lead somewhere!”

…

In the safe room’s auditorium.

On one of the chairs, Dakota sat with her legs crossed, looking at the information of the current tutorial-takers.

Unfortunately, another couple of tutorial-takers got infected by the sickness. It was never nice to see such things happening because they would be in quite a lot of pain for the next couple of days before dying.

They couldn’t log out to escape the pain either, so they had to suffer through the sickness phase.

“Sigh… I hope they find out what the hell is causing it.” Dakota pinched on her glabella.

At that moment, the auditorium’s door opened, and a sweet-looking woman entered with a stack of papers in her arms, snuggled close to her chest.

“Miss Dakota, you requested these?” Muriel asked.

“Yes, thank you, Muriel.” Dakota said with a smile.

Muriel handed them over, bowed, and was about to leave, but then heard Dakota’s voice behind her.

“By the way, did you see him?”

“See who?” Muriel turned around.

“Adam.” Dakota looked at her and saw her eyes widen in surprise. “He is here, part of the mission.”

“He is… here?” Muriel looked genuinely surprised. “Hasn’t it only been one year? Isn’t it risky for him to take part in the mission?”

“I thought the same, but he…” Dakota laughed. “He is truly S-ranker; what a monster. He has already surpassed me in every way. I am sure he is more than strong enough to take care of himself now.”

“I see…” Muriel turned around and walked away, a small smile playing on her lips.