S resumed his mad sprint immediately after appearing arge distance away from Bek, his collection of skills bolstering his movement speed as he dashed across.


    The mes around him as well as the [Null Life Aura] had died down following his shuttling speed as he didn’t need them anymore. For now he could depend on [Jump].


    Naturally, he was well aware of the limited amount of [Jumps] he had left.


    The Elimparidis Stone Staff didn’t grant unrestrained teleportation after all, instead gathering the energy within Dimensions, or magical structures that were stored within its gem to power [Jolt Ray] and [Jump].


    Unfortunately for Skullius, he had only managed to attain the staff after the Galemonger had spammed these two limited skills quite a bit.


    S kept his eyes forward as he searched for a trace of the individual or individuals he was searching for.


    Unfortunately, he couldn’t track the memories of Skullius in his Projected form and as a result, he wasn’t sure exactly what the younger soul had seen.


    Behind him, a luminous golden streak was already beginning to show, Bek being relentless in his goal.


    S scoffed and used another [Jump], his figure vanishing and appearing dozens of meters away.


    This time, upon focusing his sights ahead, he finally saw it!


    ‘There we go!’ S thought.


    Quite a distance away, a nd-looking carriage, barely decorated with anything that showed any kind of love for woodcraft could be seen behind a certain woman who donned a red and green cloak with a hood over her head.


    Her face was hard to identify from the distance and also, there seemed to be something shrouding her figure, obscuring certain details while others remained vivid.


    S’s eyes honed in on this woman and he delightedly prepared to use another [Jump] when…


    ‘Oh, I’ve used up all of them…’ he thought.


    [Jump]’s charges were finished.


    Instead of dwelling on this however, S raced ahead eagerly.


    The woman he saw before him seemed to look in his direction without a change of expression and pulled out… a knife from her cloak.


    The object was small but intimately decorated with strange marks that were simr to simplistic waves of water or rather wind on its silvery de while the handle was of an off-white colour.


    There didn’t seem to be anything special about this knife at first nce, but it was more than special.


    The woman seemed to feel the air with her dark and slender hand, rustling over a small space before she suddenly stabbed the knife forward!


    She stabbed the air?!


    The knife she held sank into the world before her and the woman carved with it downwards, a crooked skit being relieved on the dark spot of the air that mirrored the night!


    She had opened a tear in space and immediately after she carved it out, it started to lengthen upwards on its own, its figure bing a crack in space that stood tall and slightly wide!


    A blue hue flooded around the crack, brimming with micro streaks of white that highlighted the edges of the cracks in the space.


    A blue Cluster was casually formed!


    The woman then pulled on therge carriage behind her with the bars attached to both its sides and sank into the Cluster!


    S who had watched all this merely narrowed his eyes and halted when he reached the crack to the Cluster.


    ‘The ability to open premature Clusters with tools. Ferrying around bodies both dead and alive. Men and women without the slightest traces of magic within their bodies. It is indeed them,’ S thought with a serious expression.


    He touched his chest and breathed out a sigh while feeling his growing soul.


    ‘I’ll stack it all on them,’ he thought before entering the Cluster.


    Bek showed fifteen secondster, his brightly lit figure hesitating only for a bit before he leapt in as well.


    ***


    Skullius and Ferex followed in the direction that the Hound felt its link to Skullius originate from.


    They had travelled a great distance when suddenly, Ferex sent Skullius intent through their mental link.


    “Huh? My body just disappeared somewhere?” Skullius asked with a hint of panic.


    The only reason he didn’t flip out entirely was because he felt that his soul was still intact but beyond that, he was afraid that perhaps Bek had done something.


    In all truth, he was rooting for S to somehow escape so he could at least clear the chances of obliteration but even if that happened, he still didn’t know how to deal with regaining control of his body.


    For now, he had his orbs of [Evil Darkness] flying around him to ensure he had the means to fight off both S and Bek.


    It was his best shot.


    After what felt like a minute and then some, Skullius and Ferex finally saw a Cluster in the distance much to their shock.


    ‘Could that be why S suddenly disappeared?’ Skullius thought. It made sense that if S was running away, he’d rush into a Cluster to muddy the conditions of his confrontation.


    It also seemed like his only option when Skullius considered that he didn’t have limitless mana to spend.


    Without wasting time, Skullius dashed into the Cluster, Ferex following afterwards.


    He didn’t have the time to think too deeply into the more cautious concerns he had.


    …


    What was revealed to Skullius upon entering into the Cluster was… a vast world with some peculiar oddities.


    First was…


    “KILL THEM! THEY ARE NOT SMARTER THAN US! WE ARE SMARTER THAN THEM! YOU HEAR?! WE ARE SMART! FLING YOUR HOLDERS!”


    A loud voice along with chaotic noises of violence sted into Skullius as he looked on.


    Second, the ground wasn’t a steady patch ofnd that wholeheartedly amodated two-legged creatures. Rather, it was a massiveyer of sludgy mud that flowed this way and that over a rather enormous, uneven tform that ended in falls at the edges where the semi-liquid dirt was spilled into the third strangest thing that Skullius could ever behold.


    A crazy mash of colours that constantly emitted a dangerous hum could be seen over the edge and beyond the tform as well as over some parts of the sky, creating abrupt changes to the design that this world was taking!


    It was like an unfinished painting as beyond this tform where semnces of shrubbery and trees were sprinkled in, too immature to even show themselves from the mud, weak looking structures could also be identified, likerge igloos made of mud!


    Skullius could only guess that they belonged to the strange…creatures that he was seeing battling against Bek and S ahead.


    These twos humanoid creatures.


    They had light blue skin with white natural tribal markings over their chests and arms.


    They were bald, with their physiques being eerily simr, except for a special group of three that Skullius coul see, but the main takeaway, as far as their forms were concerned, would be their lower halves.


    Below the abs and the chest pads that were indistinguishable from human sets, thick worm-like tails could be seen, having a pale and almost transparent tone that was…disgusting to say the least.


    Think veins, tubes and all sorts of fleshy organs could be seen without blockage, which was nauseating.


    ‘Urgh… hideous,’ Skullius had a side thought as he grimaced.


    Hundreds of these creatures were rushing around the far-from-level tform that mimicked hills and mountains in other areas as they battled the two individuals Skullius was here for!


    It seemed they were having some difficulties with mobility.


    One of the three creatures that Skullius had seen to have bigger builds and wiser looks suddenly turned his way and bellowed with gusto.


    “ANOTHER MINDLESS INTRUDER HAS SHOWN UP! HAFUMAN, KOTAMAN, SHOW HIM HOW SMART WE ARE!”


    The two creatures beside this one, a bulky blue humanoid with an especially long wormy tail and a seemingly feminine one that covered her chest with a dull cloth rushed towards Skullius while slithering through the mud at astonishingly fast speed!


    Both reached to their sides where… books appeared, attached to strips that wrapped around what seemed like belts around their waists which had also spontaneously appeared!


    Skullius frowned and looked behind him where the crack could be seen now closed, waiting for the Cluster General to be defeated to reopen.


    To his side, Ferex had disappeared, probably having gone into hiding for a surprise attack on the many creatures.


    ‘Argh… do I have to waste time with these?’ Skullius thought as he prepared his orbs while checking the status of the bulky creature which was yelling out orders left and right.


    ~~~


    [ Name : Bragmaster ]


    [ Tier : 6 ]


    [ Level : 78 ]


    [ ss : None ]


    [ Race : Bookworm ]


    [ Inv. Status : Feeling particrly smart ]


    ——-


    [ Stats ]


    [ Strength (I) : 760 ]


    [ Agility (I) : 320 ]


    [ Intelligence (I) : 905 ]


    [ Endurance (I) : 200 ]


    [ Luck : 76 ]


    —–


    [ Health : 34,470/34,470 ]


    ——


    [ Mana (I) : 1200/1200 ]


    ~~~