The Dreamer's POV

The city gave the impression of an unwelcoming place once I stepped foot on it.

I was tempted to deactivate <Immersion> for the cold was too distracting, it was like it was anchoring my mind to it, taking my focus elsewhere when it was nothing but a strange coldness.

I could hear the sounds of my steps echo through my immediate surrounding, the floor dissipating every sound my feet made upon contact.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Hearing my heels made the place feel even more empty. I had frozen when it first happened, worried that the spirits could be attracted to the sound.

However, it turned out that my worry was needless, and the spirits really fancied the mindless zooming they did.

'I wonder though, can I fight and defeat something that doesn't have a physical form?' I thought, feeling quite obstinate about not speaking lest my voice echoed.

[System Notification]

[You have reached the hidden city]

[You have fulfilled the first requirement]

"Yes, I have." I mumbled as I cautiously walked. My eyes darted here and there, I was cautious of this place, and of the seemingly mindless spirits. One of them drifted in front of me, going to the side and then went into a building.

However, before it went in, I caught sight of it under the <Absolute Appraisal> skill.

[Ghostwave]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Status Information]

Name: Ghostwave

Level: ?

Life Force: ??

Energy Level:??

Combat Ability:??

[Titles]

<The deserter>, <Sunken>

[Skills]

<Intangibility>

Current Status: Active

[Additional Information]

Ghostwaves are birthed from the solitude of a city, marking it as a ghost town. Their presence causes a number of phenomenons that aren't particularly known. Study of them is little to none, and they are best to be left alone. They do cause the environment to which they dwell to be exceedingly cold.

[End Of Information]

'Explains the strange coldness.' I took a look at the new sun wondering why it only shimmered light and not heat.

After taking a few more steps, I decided to ditch walking and continue on levitating.

Experience tales at empire

A system requirement was for me to defeat Suphas within this city so that meant that there was at least one living creature capable of being a foe, and possibly defeating me.

I recalled my battle with the gorilla earlier. Suphas was definitely going to be stronger since defeating it was a requirement, and chances were that it was the floor's boss.

I sighed, feeling slightly apprehensive. My Immersion and Dragon Eyes weren't picking anything new, this was getting exhausting.

'Suphas, show yourself wherever you are. Let's dance.'

Of course Suphas didn't appear just because I wanted them to. Just like the city, I would have to search for them, and hope that I run them, and ultimately defeat them so that I could get the fuck out of this white concrete desert.

The city in itself spanned for kilometers. From the looks of the infrastructure, of the buildings, if the builders were any like humans in size and form, this city would inhabit over a million of them comfortably, that was how large it was.

It was strange how I was rather stoic and uninterested in the foreign architecture. The buildings, the plastered roads, the bridges that went into buildings, and strange shapes moulded into statues.

'All this would have me at awe if I had seen them a month ago, now, nothing fazes me, nothing amazes me, except maybe… her." I felt my lips curved into a smile as I thought of Lucy Fer. It has been almost a month since we last met, and I felt certain that she had cleared this floor already.

'She is someone like that. Unstoppable and unrelenting.'

I shook my head, sending away the fantasies that crept up in my mind. Yes, this terrain was so boring that it had me fantasizing about a woman that I barely knew.

As I drifted however, a large Ghostwave peered right my side, just inches away. Up close, these things were massive, so massive that this one was about a quarter of the gargantuan trees that filled this place, about two hundred meters give or take.

I froze, and watched as it flew by. My eyes were glued to the tendrils that beat and propelled it forward.

It seemed like the danger would pass when the creature suddenly turned. And the way it did was one of the most eccentric, grotesque things I have ever seen.

It was like its head sprouted at the side and it turned inside out just to fix its umbrella head my way. It was so fast that I didn't catch the action.

Thanks to my mental fortitude and the resistances that warded my mind and body, I didn't flinch once the thing got close.

I had no idea where its eyes were, or if it had any at all, but the ghostwave creature was curious about the thing that levitated in its front.

I remained unmoving, stoic and I observed the behavior of the creature. No hostility was detected and once its curiousity was sated, it turned away and left.

I let out a long exhale.

'I didn't expect that.' However, it got registered in my mind that the spirits, the ghostwaves were not hostile creatures, they were not my enemies, at least for now.

'Still nothing huh?' Nothing but ghostwaves and boring buildings, my fiery slitted dragon eyes peered everywhere, and <Immersion> granted me eyes for thousands of meters.

I stopped, a thought came to mind.

'Hmmm… The system never really mentioned that Suphas was in the hidden city. What if Suphas is somewhere farther into the jungle?'

A frown came on my face, frustration setting it. I hadn't thought of it, but nothing told me that Suphas was meant to be here, I had just assumed that it would be because the requirement came right beneath finding the city.

"Tch!" I clicked my tongue in frustration. It was time to do what everyone did when an action didn't bear fruit, it was time for me to leave.