Bo, Sera and Iris ran for their lives, heading away from the mass of fog sprites that were honing on to their location, without a preferred direction or a destination to head to.

They ended up going deeper into this forest section they found themselves in, dodging the massive trees that would suddenly appear before their face as the fog obstructed their vision.

It wasn't good enough though as the sounds of giggling got louder and the vibrations of hundreds of wings crawled deep into their chests.

“What do we do? They're catching up to us!” Bo yelled.

“I-I think if I can ruin their sense of smell we could escape.” Iris shouted between heavy breaths.

“You better not be suggesting what I think.” Sera said and looked at Iris’s new satchel hanging on her chest that held a few of her potions.

“It might be the only way.”

“I'd really rather not stink for a week again, we can use it as a last resort.” Sera suggested.

“Agree, but we're running out of time.” Iris said.

“Got any ideas Bo?” Sera turned to him.

“Can those things hear?” Bo questioned Iris to which she smiled and nodded.

A minute later, the plan was set and they ground to halt. It didn’t take long at all before a giggling swarm of fog sprites circled them. They could see faint silhouettes of the creatures but most of the time they could only see the fog move as they flew through it.

“They're checking us out to see if we are dangerous, the scouts will attack first but we gotta wait until they all attack and get close.” Iris explained again with a slight blush because Bo was currently standing directly behind her, his front to her back. His arms were reached out in front of her to swat away any fog sprites that approach.

They did this because Iris was the only one who could use the potions properly since they were her ember and they didn't want her to get hurt or distracted while using them. Bo’s skin was pretty resilient so he could protect most of Iris’s body from getting attacked.

Sera could also heal herself using her ember so she didn't care if she was bitten or scratched.

The scouts began their probing attacks. Bo felt something land on his shoulder and bite into his skin, surprisingly its teeth made a small indent.

He swatted the sprite off his shoulder and stayed vigilant for any more that attacked.

Iris had to use her free hand to slap away one that bit her leg, something Bo couldn't really protect all that well— the Bo protection plan wasn't all that perfect.

Sera was getting attacked the most as three of four fog sprites circled her and took little nips at her from all sides. Blood was dripping down all over her body but she didn't mind and instead smiled.

“Come on you little twerps! Is that all you can do?” Sera insulted them but Bo wasn't sure they would understand her.

Maybe they did because immediately afterwards the swirling mass that was circling them, converged onto them.

Iris focused and yelled, “Now!

She threw a screaming potion right at her feet and an ear destroying scream rang throughout the forest. The fog sprites stopped giggling and began to shriek as they plopped to the ground one by one in agony.

They were doing better because they had ear plugs in but the sound was still painful to listen to.

Then came the next part of the plan.

Badge Weapon

[ Machete ]

Embers

[ Formless into Form — Access the formless items of living beings and turn them into form. ]

[ Restrictions: Use the souls of beings you've slain to power the ember. ]

[ Soul Power: 87 ]

Stored Forms

[ Intense Fury: 10g | Iris Faith ]

[ Pain: 23g ]

He had 23g of pain saved up from the month of training and he was ready to use it. He summoned two balls, each with 10g's of pain and rolled them onto the floor right next the screaming fog sprites.

“Let's go!” Bo yelled and the three took off. He didn't wait long to activate the pain balls in case the screaming potion had already diminished.

BOOM!

A large explosion lit up the dark and foggy forest behind them.

[ Soul Power: 87 → 151 ]

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

‘Holy shit that's a lot of Soul Power!’ Bo remarked at the sharp increase after blowing up those fog sprites.

The three didn’t stop running in case some of the fog sprites lived through the explosion and started to chase after them again. Hopefully they'd be far enough away from the fog sprites for them to be able to track them down.

Suddenly they stopped seeing trees and the dirt floor that this section of the maze had and instead they were standing on fresh cut grass. They slowed their pace down and eventually a giant wooden mansion appeared in front of them.

The mansion's size was unknown due to the fog, but it looked to be a slightly older house going purely off the architecture. They walked closer to the mansion and found a double door as the front entrance to the mansion.

Do they walk in? It was a little creepy to find a mansion out here by itself.

“Should we go in and see what's inside?” Bo suggested.

“Let's take a peek around the mansion to see if we can find out more.” Sera said. “I would go by myself but I think that's a bad idea.”

“Sure, it's always good to gather more information.” Iris replied.

They started walking left, sticking close to the mansion wall so as to not get lost. After a full minute of walking, the mansion didn't seem to end.

Then Bo spotted the front entrance coming up in front of them. “Huh, we're back where we started?”

“It seems so.” Iris paced back and forth in thought before saying. “This is most likely the challenge of this section, there's probably no way around it. ”

“So we just go in and hope for the best?”

“Isn't that what we've been doing the whole time?” Iris wiped away her anxiety and gave a cheerful smile to Bo and Sera.

They smiled back. “You're right! Let's do this!”

Like always Sera opened the front doors and they all stepped inside.

The first thing they did once they got inside was cautiously tour around the mansion, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

“Sera you're bleeding again!” Iris finally noticed her best friend bleeding out.

“So are you, we can deal with it afterward.” Sera remarked looking at the blood dripping down Iris’s leg.

“No no no lets quickly patch ourselves, we don't want to get into another fight with half the blood left in our bodies.” Iris dragged Sera over to a lovely cushioned couch and sat her down.

She followed the same steps as before; cleaning the wound with alcohol, then bandaging it nice and tight. She still had the ones from earlier and was starting to look like a mummy with all the bandages.

“Okay you're all patched up.” Iris wiped a drop of sweat off her face. “Now we can continue looking around the mansion.”

“... Thanks.” Sera mumbled to Iris.

“I'm glad you appreciate it, just please try not to enjoy getting injured so much.”

“Haha sorry I can't help getting excited during battle.” Sera chuckled and Iris couldn't help but sigh in response.

“Let's finish scouting out the mansion first, then we can decide what to do after.” Iris suggested.

They spent the next hour or so going through every room and there were a lot of them. There were 10 bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, living room, dining room, office room and library on the main floor and there didn't seem to be a basement.

The most surprising thing was that while the mansion had an olden time look, it had modern technology you’d find in Arcon like a refrigerator. It was exactly the same type of refrigerator too, it used steam energy and frost ore to cool the food inside.

Then came the part that creeped them out and that was the fact the refrigerator was full of fresh foods.

“There's no way we're touching that food right?” Sera said with a worried look and got nods in return.

After going through the rooms, they plopped down on the couch tired from the long day they had but still stayed vigilant enough to make sure nothing unexpected jumped out at them.

“Do we stay here for the night or should we sleep outside and come back tomorrow to see if there's anything different.” Sera asked the two of them.

“I don't know if i'd feel great sleeping here even though they have nice beds.” Bo said.

“I'm on the same page.” Iris agreed. “If nothing is different tomorrow, we can keep trying new things until we find what the challenge is so we can move on.”

“Works for me, let's get out of here.” Sera stood up and walked over to the front door, the only entrance and exit they found during their tour.

She flung open the door with gusto and was met with a white wall. This white wall wasn't fog like they were expecting, but a pure white wall without any blemishes.

Sera put her hand out but the white wall acted like a solid and blocked her hand. She got angry and punched the wall but nothing happened.

“Oh shit, we're stuck here!” Sera shouted. “What the fuck is this witchcraft bullshit!”

Sera got a sudden idea and dashed over to a window which showed the normal foggy forest beyond its glass planes, but the second she opened the window the white wall was in front of her face once again.

“Fuck!” She closed the window and punched the glass pane. The shattered part of the window was the white wall while the rest still showed the normal background outside.

“Calm down Sera!” Bo pounced on Sera and hugged her arms tight to her body so she couldn't punch anymore.

Sera might've been able to break out but she obviously wouldn't do that. She calmed down and took a deep sigh.

“Sorry, It just freaked me out a little too much that I got angry. ” Sera apologized.

“Don't worry, we all get like that sometimes.” Bo let go of Sera and watched Iris pace around the fidgeting her fingers.

“Iris is the planner so let's just wait to see what she thinks.” Bo suggested and brought Sera over to the couch where they calmed down by watching Iris pace around.

After a few minutes of thinking, Iris stopped pacing and sat down next to them. “We're all tired so I think getting rest is important. Like normal we will have two people sleep while one person stays up as night watch.”

“If anything happens, the night watcher has to wake everyone up immediately. We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.” Iris finished saying and the two agreed with her.

They left the living room and went upstairs, choosing the largest bedroom to sleep for the night because why not choose the best. Bo would take the first night watch, then Sera would swap out with him and lastly Iris would swap for Sera.

Iris and Sera got comfy in bed together, Iris herself drank a relaxant potion to help her fall asleep while Sera didn't need anything of the sort to. They quickly dozed off under the watch of Bo who sat in a chair beside the bed with a book he brought along in hand.

The night breezed by without a hitch.

Bo woke up beside Sera. He stretched his arms and got up, followed by Sera who woke up and rubbed her tired eyes. Iris sat on the chair yawning, still tired because she hadn’t had a full night's rest like she was used to at the sanctuary.

They had a quick breakfast using their own rations, definitely not touching the stuff in the refrigerator here. The meal helped wake them up and they were ready for round 2 of exploring the mansion to see if they could find any clues.