The fighting continued to get tougher, with some spikes of truly hard fights, mostly because of the environment. We truly shined when we had enough room to fight, but not every ruin afforded us this.

The current one was especially brutal as we were fighting ghouls who came in packs of ten or more. My sword was still able to handle them, but not being able to properly swing it limited its effectiveness quite a lot. Then there was the problem of my party members barely being able to help as the corridors we were walking were so narrow.

The ghouls were resilient, their claws could do some serious damage. Worst of all, they had some sort of a mental suppression field that they generated, which slowly sapped your mental strength, making you want to give up.

While brief contact didn't affect any of us, the long walk through these halls and fighting endless monsters started to even affect me, not to mention my party members who had to stay quite far away to avoid a mental break.

I was glad to see that I could still solo even this far down against unfavorable conditions, but I certainly wanted to get out of this area. The place was dark and damp, and the stones were awkwardly uneven, so even fighting and walking was annoying. Whoever designed this place certainly made sure that anyone here alive would feel unwelcome. Occasionally, I could feel Adam casting rejuvenate spells on me, which did help with mental fatigue, but it was a losing battle.

After another corner, I heard the telltale sign of scraping claws and once again readied my blade for battle. From behind another corner emerged a ghoul, and I charged forward and cut it almost in half, making sure I destroyed the brain which killed it in an instant.

Immediately, I felt that this was somehow different, but my attention went elsewhere as I was hit with a strong mental attack which wanted to force me to my knees and make me give up. It was the same feeling that every ghoul gave me, but this time it was amplified many times over.

I immediately felt a spell hit me that helped me regain some strength, and I was able to defend myself and kill two other ghouls. But every time one of them died, it felt like someone was hammering my brain.

Over the course of having my mental abilities, my defenses have grown quite strong, and for the first time, I felt an active attack instead of the passive mental influence I felt before. It was incredibly difficult trying to focus on two different things as I still needed to defend myself against the ghouls who were attacking me, but I also needed to try and figure out what was going on inside my mental palace.

Inside my mental palace, I already had a castle and one of the walls I planned to build. I could see every few seconds as the wall shook from the impacts and I could see the stones crumbling. This shocking scene allowed one of the ghouls to land an attack, but my armor was strong enough to protect me. However, that also helped whoever was trying to break into my mind as a large chunk of the upper wall broke and fell to the ground.

I focused and tried to see what was attacking me, but a few of my abilities interacted at the same time and only a momentary glance at my interactive map showed me a direction and the general location where the monster was currently attacking me mentally.

It was at this moment I ran back through the fight and figured out that I had already killed over 20 ghouls, but the hallway wasn’t filled with bodies. These ones were disappearing shortly after their deaths and way faster than other monsters disappeared after they were killed.

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"There’s someone making these ghouls! That undead monster is also responsible for the mental attacks," I yelled out to inform everyone what was going on. I didn’t need to actually yell as I had linked my commander ability to the party which allowed us to communicate without any problems, but currently, it just felt right to yell. This was a truly dangerous situation.

It took a few moments, but I got a command from Horus. "Rich, Adam is going to cast a larger spell on all of us, and you need to hold out for a little while longer so he can cast it. As soon as it activates, you need to rush through to the ghouls and find the monster’s location. We will be right behind you, killing everything that you rush past. The spell won't last long, so go as fast as possible. We will keep up."

I gave an affirmative back and continued defending myself on all fronts. On the physical side, I was able to easily handle it, although the mental strain was starting to affect my body. The mental side was a lot worse as I simply didn’t have any active defenses, or if I did, I didn’t know how to activate them.

I had killed yet another ten ghouls when I finally felt the spell activate, and I immediately rushed forward following the red line that was supposed to lead to the monster responsible for this. My sword cut all that was in front of me, and my body did the rest as I rushed forward.

I felt flame and heat behind me. It seems that Luana was barbecuing everything behind me, and it seems her control was as good as ever since none of the flames reached me. Rushing forward, it didn’t take long until I reached a room which showed signs of it being a staircase room that leads downwards, and in the middle, sitting inside a circle, was a child-sized ghoul that opened its eyes as soon as it saw me, making me fall to my knees from the sheer pressure it was able to put on my mind.

I heard voices telling me to lay down, that fighting was pointless, that nothing can aid me. I struggled against it and used my sword to help me get back up. But even before I was able to get up, I saw the small ghoul being hit by arrows that seemed to be melting the very flesh of the monster. Its screams were horrible and ear-piercing, but the pressure on my mind was almost gone, and I didn’t hesitate for a single moment as I charged forward and delivered a strong attack against it.

To my surprise, even my blade wasn't able to cut through its head completely, but it was able to deliver a devastating wound, and two more strikes finally ended the monster, and I just sagged as my body screamed for rest.

"I need to sleep," I was able to get out before darkness started to claim me, but I did hear Horus speak. "Dude, you deserve it. Take as much time as you need. I was too overconfident. We shouldn't have continued down this way when we found out about the mental aspect."

POV: Luana

I watched as Rich fell asleep, completely exhausted. Although I also felt quite tired, I was still capable enough to help the others clean up this room and fortify it, just in case. The flashes of those monsters trying to get past Rich, how their limbs were cut off, and how they screamed when I burned them, rattled around my brain while we were setting up camp. I had been close to death before, but not like this. This seemed so much more brutal, and as soon as I thought that, I remembered how Rich often said how brutal real combat can be.

I noticed that I was given a bowl of stew that was made from dried vegetables and jerky. Usually, I barely ate, but I found myself with an empty bowl. "Do we still have enough for refills?" I asked and noticed how Adam looked at me, quite worried. But I could see his eyes and what was in them, and if I had a mirror, I believed mine would have been worse.

This truly was a trial, but not the kind I was expecting. Horus and Arabella were doing a lot better than Adam and me, but of course, Rich was doing fine. Sometimes, I could even picture that he was enjoying this, and that scared me. Someday, was I going to be like him?

That idea terrified me, and I quickly decided that this silence around the campfire was unacceptable. "Did we get any loot from the boss?" I asked, and Arabella was the one who spoke up. "Yeah, we got quite an ordinary-looking ring, but I’m quite certain it’s not. This system doesn’t give me a name for it, and whatever requirement it has, I do not meet them."

We processed that for a few moments, and Adam was the one who next spoke. "Well, throw it to me then. I’ll try it." He tried the ring on, and it was definitely something as it resized itself, but once again, nothing seemed to have happened. Adam, even without being asked, threw the ring to Horus.

"Nope, can’t seem to get it working. Let's see if it works for you, Luana." And I had to scramble to catch the ring when Horus threw it at me. I didn’t feel anything from it. It looked like a silver ring, and its ability to refit so fast was quite interesting, but once again, it didn't seem to be doing anything to me.

"I guess we will need to wait until Rich wakes up and hope it will work for him. Otherwise, I hope that we can find a trustworthy appraiser who wouldn’t fuck us." As soon as I finished saying that, I realized that I had cursed and covered my mouth with my hands as quickly as I could.

I looked around to see amusement on everyone’s face. "It seems that Rich's language is starting to rub off on you," Arabella remarked while holding back laughter. I need to be careful as I saw what the teachers could do when students curse in front of them, and I did not want anything to do with that.

I’m probably just tired, and that’s why it happened. Things got quiet again as everyone was just inside their own minds, but eventually, it was time to go to sleep, and Arabella was the one who would be keeping watch.