Far below the thriving businesses in the Ellipsia Citadel, dense green clouds made of divine threads fly by while I continue to plummet downward.


    Every few minutes, I try opening up my purple barrier to let as few threads inside as possible.


    However, each time, no matter how little the opening is, I''m struck by the same unfathomably painful and instant attack on my physical form.


    These passing minutes turn into hours, and it feels as though I''m making no progress at all.


    Even with 50% of my world''s stats still surging through me, I still feel as weak as an unawakened human in this high pressure environment.


    I feelrge amounts of green threads assimte with my body and core each time, growing my True Core''s power, but it doesn''t change the fact that my physical form is just far too heavy for this realm.


    My speed moving downward gets faster and faster, and the thickness of the clouds only increases.


    It makes me need to wait longer between each barrier opening, to the point where, between every single exposure, I need almost half an hour to fully process the new threads.


    On a positive note, the purple ring around my finger is having a field day devouring as many green threads as it can. Its absorption rate is almost ten times as fast as mine, and it can stay constantly absorbing, effortlessly converting them to its sealed version of purple threads.This makes the exoskeleton barrier around me far stronger as I fall, but it doesn''t make me feel any better, as the difficulty of the work ahead of me only gets tougher and tougher with every minute that passes.


    By the time it takes over an hour to process all of the threads, the density of green clouds around me hits their peak.


    I''m unable to send a wave of perception out, even in the tiny fractions of a second I get while opening my barrier, as my total concentration is locked on not being devoured by my environment.


    However, the fact that the threads aren''t getting denser is almost equally as concerning as if they were...


    Very soon after this realizationes over me, I see the air below me turn darker green, then fade to ck.


    I know very well what an abyss looks like; and this isn''t it. Even without my maxed-out perception or aura to probe my surroundings, my eyesight is still far better than average.


    There must be a ground below.


    With no way to eject mana, demonic energy, or even divine power without my certain demise, I just brace for impact.


    ---


    A heavy thud echoes throughout the deste area, and intense vibrations rattle through my body.


    While they aren''t nearly as painful as being torn apart by divine threads, the pain is quite unexpected.


    I thought my barrier would take the entirety of the force, but the immense amount of weight my body has paired with the speed of impact somehow pushes pressure through the barrier on the impact zone.


    Even Celia''s emotions ripple through our emotional link, showing confusion at this turn of events, as her skin-tight exo-suit should have absorbed the entire impact.


    Nevertheless, all around me, shards of dark ck rock fly upward as my body makes a crater in the floor beneath the green clouds.


    Surprisingly, not many rocks at all are upset by my impact either; I''ve only created a hole ten meters deep and double the distance wide at most.


    Most of the jet-ck shards are extremely heavy, and most aren''trger than the size of my palm.


    They appear to be devoid of all energy; even the divine threads around just flow by and not through the odd ck stones.


    As I let out a groan, sit up, then get to my feet to walk out of the crater I''ve made, in all directions as far as I can see, thendscape is made of these dark ck rocks.


    With the dense green clouds moving by even down here, and the rising and falling rock piles making hills and small valleys, I can hardly see more than 200 meters in any given direction.


    From having entires in my sights just hours ago to now being thrust into such a strange and limiting environment, I''m immediately put on edge.


    My gaze stays sharp as I slowly turn around in circles surveying the area and weighing my options, then start walking in the direction of the Citadel where I was travelingst.


    This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Every footstep I take crunches through these dark rocks, some of them as small as a marble, while others are as finely ground as dust.


    These crunches are the only bit of sound that echoes through these obsidian wastnds.


    While falling through the air, I felt safe enough to absorb threads; down here, it feels like I''m being watched. So I trust my instincts and put off training any further until I figure out what this ce really is...


    ---


    While I walk between tworge piles of ck stones, about a kilometer away, two small green creatures with pointed ears and poorly made stone weapons crafted from the ck stones we''re standing on hide behind a small pile of rocks, watching me wander through the barrennds.


    They both watched me fall from the sky and have been whispering to each other for minutes as I unknowingly walk in their direction.


    "Troy, it''s a human..." whispers the small creature with roughly fitted brass knuckles made of ck rock around both his clenched fists.


    The other, with a short sword about half a meter long, replies, "Yeah, Rain, and look at his palm. He''s still a Lord..."


    Rain looks down at his own palm to see a lightly glowing [0], then gazes over to Troy, seeing the same marking, before staring up into the endless green sky of clouds above.


    A third, even smaller creature pokes his head in between the two with an innocent, curious look.


    "Where did hee from...? -And what a weird avatar..."


    As I walk forward, unaware of where or what eyes are truly watching me, Rain whispers to the little one between them.


    "We''ll hold him off. Go run and get the leader from the mines, fast."


    The tiny green creature nods, still wide-eyed with innocence, and skips away into the green fog.


    ---


    I hear other footsteps trailing away in front of me and think about retrieving my Soul Weapon, but upon visualizing what opening my storage and taking the time exposed to this pressure would do to me, preparing without it is the better option right now.


    I pause my steps and put up my hands to fight, still scanning the endless ck wastnd, unsure what that sound was or if it was even an enemy.


    Whatever it was, it was running away. Even if this is a trap, whatever was lurking in the fog has certainly already seen me. Giving it any more information won''t hurt...


    "Hello...? Ie in peace, as long as you do..."


    My footsteps forward continue, but I hold my breath in order to use my other senses to the best of their ability, even without using excess energy outside my barrier.


    No more footsteps can be heard, and I walk forward for another few minutes, right past another massive mound of ck rocks. However, this one catches my attention.


    For some reason, in the back of my mind, a warm pressure leans toward a small isted area on the mound.


    I give in to the feeling, simr to when I felt that small white pill of low-quality Ether rush into my body during the trials.


    I shove my hands into the pile of rocks and begin throwing dozens of them behind me until I find the one that drew my senses in.


    It feels warm in my hands, and there are small fractures on its surface that glow with a faint white light.


    My eyes widen at the discovery, but simultaneously, I feel two more of these warm pressures moving toward me from the opposite direction, from behind anotherrge rockpile stacking tens of meters high.


    I don''t bother trying to keep the glowing stone; whatever ising my way is more of a threat. So I get back into a fighting stance and turn their way just as they jump out from behind the adjacent rock structure.


    My eyes fall on two goblins no more than half my height, gripping ck stone weapons like their lives depend on it.


    One, with obsidian colored brass knuckles, matches my stance, grits his teeth, and yells out in a scratchy high-pitched tone.


    "We''ll both die before we let you take our mine!"


    The other, with a jagged self-made short sword, points it my way.


    "Surrender now, or—or—"


    I can see his hands shaking as he stutters, but the goblin stays staring me in the eyes while finishing.


    "Or I''ll stab you! So—leave before we have to!"


    My mouth is left wide open, and all of my worries of having to fight mysterious powerful green cored beings leave.


    I want to let out augh, but I decide to just y along and take a step back, putting my hands up.


    "Fine, fine. I''ll go the other way. My bad."


    Then I grin while leaning down to pick up the interesting rock I dropped before.


    Both of the goblins look equally relieved at my decision not to be hostile, but their eyes widen at the rock I grab from the ground.


    I hear gulps from each of them and watch their eyes track the stone, but as I take a few steps back, it''s clear they''re not going to risk their lives for it.


    However, an extremely loud and angry woman''s voicees echoing out from the endless green mist behind them.


    "Not so fast! Just because you can intimidate my underlings doesn''t mean I''ll let you rob us blind!"


    Out from the fog, apanied by heavy and fast footsteps, I see the figure of a creature about the same size as myself.


    There''s a faint warm pull from the Ether Sense in my mind that signals the approaching monster''s direction, but I can''t fully make it out until it jumps off a raised area of rocks over 30 meters away. Then I see a Hobgoblin gripping a massive ck hammer in both of her palms.


    She has a feminine figure but is covered in muscles, striations, veins, and a skin tight glossy ck armor near vital areas. With a bright green True Core glowing in her chest, this is clearly a dangerous monster.


    So much down here makes no sense at all...


    Her speeding down toward me is far faster than my unenhanced eyes can track, and without the mana skill boosts, I can''t dodge or jump away fast enough.


    The only thing to do is block, so that''s what I do, raising both my arms into a cross in front of my head. I feel the massive hammer smash down on me.


    The initial physical impact feels like nothing at all, as Celia''s barrier absorbs the force just like the gravity and pressure around me with no issue.


    However, when a warm white light flows through the Hobgoblin woman, into her hammer, and pulses into me, I feel it send me flying backward with a strange force that I have no idea how to block.


    The white energy ripples through me ignoring Celia''s barrier entirely. I''m sent flying back over 100 meters until hitting a pile of ck rocks, then the faint white light disperses out as quickly as it came.


    I could feel it even attack my mind as it washed through me, but the same warm pressure that was thoroughly trained inside the first round of the Mind trial in the tower easily protected me from its pressure.


    The only damage I''m feeling now is a little tingling all over, but it doesn''t hurt. I''m more so shocked at what I just witnessed.


    However, excitement fills my eyes as the enemyes running my way with her massive glowing hammer, as I''ll get to see that strange attack in action again.