Light trickled in from behind the curtains of the room, ushering in a new dawn, yet the sole inhabitant of the room remained asleep even still.
The blaring sound of the alarm was met with a violent reaction as the sleeping figure shot awake, alert and ready to react. For Lucius, this was ingrained into him, for in the wilderness sleep was a luxury, and deep sleep meant death. One had to be ready to react to the smallest of sounds, to the slightest change in the winds, to any unfamiliar scents; any anomalies were signs of danger, and over the past near-century, Lucius had learned his lesson.
As he awoke, he realized the blaring was not to the growls of demon beasts or the sounds of something he expected to meet in the wild, but rather a simple alarm clock near him. He saw a room he had not seen for nearly a century, yet everything was just as he remembered. The bed, the closet, the posters, the desk and the assortment of odds and ends that littered the room. Not only was this beyond strange, but for one such as he who had taken up a self-appointed mission of exploring one of the few extremely dangerous Secret Regions, this was as much a sign of danger as having the open jaws of a rank 6 Basilisk staring at you.
It was not unknown that there were countless types of demon and magical beasts roaming the world, especially since after the Great Cataclysm when the reproduction speed of animals affected shot through the roof and hunting them became a dangerous task. Mutations were commonplace, common cattle alone mutated into 5 known types: the Ice bull, the Fire bull, the Dark bull, the Fierce Bull and the Water bull. "Bull" was what they were referred to now at least, even if they were only cows before, for the rippling muscles and powerful strength in each of them did not allow one to make the connection of such a beast with mere cows.
Just as there were countless types of beasts, a few categorizations had been made. The first was the split between Fierce beasts, Magic beasts, and Demon Beasts. That was for beasts alone, the other type being Plant type creatures, who were only separated into two types: the Magic and Demon type.
And under such a vast category lied an uncountable number of species, many of which possessed the power of illusions, typically amongst the plant type monsters who used toxins and hallucinogens to attack their prey. After falling unconscious in the Secret Region, it is likely he had been affected by the toxin of a Plant monster.
The only grace in this is the fact that these types of monsters are usually weak physically to balance out their advantage, and for a cultivator of his level, as long as he could deduce where the physical body of beast was he could stop it and use his cultivation base to push out the toxins that were affecting his body.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
As Lucius quickly tried to focus on where the monster might be, he closed his eyes once more, eliminating distractions and trying to circulate his cultivation base to flush out the toxins while using divine sense to check his surroundings. Yet what was surprising was he couldn’t feel anything! No matter what he tried, his cultivation seemed not to respond to him, as if it wasn’t there. He couldn’t even use the power of Internal Vision that all cultivators above Foundation Establishment possessed!
As these shocks settled in, Lucius discovered to his horror that it was not only his cultivation base that was not responding, but his physical state was abysmal! The countless hours he had put into body cultivation, to harden his skin, strengthen his muscles and reinforce his bones, all gone! A regular hallucination would not be able to cause this, to stop him from using his cultivation base and restrict his entire body, this type of power belonged to the realm of rank 8 beasts!
Such a frightening thought sent fear coursing through him, if that was true, there was no way for him to survive. His power may allow him to survive most ordinary situations, and could even be said to be above the norm somewhat, but against a rank 8 beast, he was the same as an ant. And it was only his guess that it was a rank 8 beast targeting him, if it was something more powerful…. He dare not even think about it!
Back drenched in sweat, Lucius tried his all to feel his cultivation and determine how to escape this hallucination, trying to find the truth in this world of lies. He often dreamt of the past, the pleasant days when everything was normal and when he and his family passed the days in happiness and joy even with the regular arguments and fights between siblings and family. Yet this was not a dream, the room was too lifelike to be a dream, only a hallucination or drug could cause this effect.
Finding nothing out of the norm no matter how hard he looked, Lucius was pushed into the depths of despair. ‘If only I didn’t come to this accursed place alone…’
With the feeling of certain death closing in, his mind thought back to the problems it would cause his loved ones. “Maria, Marcus, Samuel, it seems we will not be seeing each other again, after all, I’m sorr-“
“Lucius honey its time to wake up. You have school today remember, come down for breakfast, Marry made pancakes!” A sudden yell from the right put an abrupt stop to his internal monologue.
This was a hallucination for god's sake! How could it be possible to hear voices that sounded so real! It just wasn’t possible, no matter how powerful the Plant monster may be, it could not look into his mind and take the memory of sounds and voices from him, at most, it could make him relive a scene/image from the past!
As the shock settled in, the opening of the door was the only warning he got before a feminine figure stepped into the room.
“I-Impossible…” For right in front of his very eyes seemed to be a living breathing girl, no, a young woman. A woman he had not seen for nearly a century, a woman who amongst many others had been a part of his dreams since day one. His one and only sister, the one who had perished in the First Wave.