Transmigrated with my corruption system

Chapter 200: Chapter 197: Ghost wraith

Remembering Alaric’s words, Ulric grinned slightly before continuing.

"As the name suggests, the Misty Lands is... ugh... a natural training ground."

At his words, the girls’ expressions flickered slightly. If anyone who had heard about the Misty Lands had been present, they would have immediately spat out a mouthful of blood upon hearing that last part.

What nonsense about it being a natural training ground. Most people didn’t even dare get close to this place, let alone consider it a training ground, and with good reason. There were just too many horror stories associated with it.

As if that wasn’t enough, the beasts that had been relentlessly pursuing them scurried away the moment they realized where they were heading. It seemed even mindless beasts knew better than to venture into this place, let alone consider it a training ground.

But Ulric didn’t care about any of that.

"A pale white mist shrouds the land for as far as one can see. The mist limits one’s senses according to one’s strength, which according to you should be about..."

Pausing briefly, Ulric veered off for a moment. His eyes grew distant as if calculating something before shifting his gaze back to them.

"About a radius of ten meters," he said with a note of certainty as he mumbled beneath his breath. "Hmm, that should be about right."

Reverting his gaze to the girls, his eyes suddenly lit up as if he had remembered something.

"Oh yeah, your objective is to survive within the Misty Lands for a few hours."

As Ulric’s words echoed into their ears, their expressions eased visibly. That didn’t sound very hard. If anything, they could already imagine steamrolling through the challenge without much effort. Were the danger zones really this easy?

Their fantasies of comfort and ease were short-lived as Ulric’s next words echoed into their ears while he watched them saunter confidently toward the Misty Lands.

"I’ll refrain from stepping in unless you have a close brush with death."

"Huh... death?" the girls muttered simultaneously, their eyes widening as though they had just been doused with cold water.

Seeing their strange reactions, Ulric clarified as he watched their expressions fall slightly.

"If I were you, I’d watch out for the Ghost Wraiths."

Their brows furrowed even further as the name of an unfamiliar creature echoed into their ears. Their lips couldn’t help but twitch slightly.

"Ghost Wraiths... of course there would be Ghost Wraiths," Lyra mumbled beneath her breath. She didn’t know what kind of creatures they were, but she was willing to bet they couldn’t be anything good.

At the side, the rest smiled wryly. What kind of danger zone would the Misty Lands be if it didn’t have any measure of danger?

Turning slightly, they contemplated waiting for a little while so they could come up with a battle plan of sorts, given they didn’t know what kind of danger or what level of enemies they would be facing.

But seeing the grin on Ulric’s face, all such thoughts were cut short as they slowly walked forward.

Before finally stepping into the Misty Lands, their figures vanished entirely.

Staring at their retreating figures, Ulric hummed slightly as he scratched the back of his head.

"I guess I should have told them the mist also distorts their perception of time. But I doubt that’ll matter much... right?"

***

As they stepped forward, an eerie sensation spread across Amber and the others’ bodies.

Almost as though they had stepped into another plane, much like when entering dungeons.

The first thing they noticed was the surroundings.

It was just as Ulric had described, a seemingly endless sea of white mist.

The second was the changes and restrictions imposed upon their bodies.

A faint pressure pressed down on them, limiting both their elemental and natural senses to a radius of ten meters.

As if that weren’t enough, the Misty Lands heavily restricted their combat prowess by introducing one small but noticeable change.

"I can’t feel the fire particles in the air," Tara, who had previously been quiet, suddenly spoke, a hint of panic surfacing on her face.

"Me too," Amber muttered strangely. Despite sharing a close connection with the earth, its energy didn’t flow through this place, severing that connection.

Everyone else’s natural elemental affinity seemed to be blocked as well, except for Aelira, who, as a warrior, seemed to be doing just fine.

Before they could form a plan to counter the situation, Aelira’s voice echoed with grave urgency.

"Quick, everyone! Form a circle!"

Given their unfamiliarity with the surroundings, they had no idea where the monsters might attack from.

But with this formation, they covered one another’s blind spots while giving themselves more room to attack and maneuver.

Quickly falling into formation, Amber and the rest heeded Aelira’s words. Although she had previously been the weakest of the group, her vast combat experience more than made up for it, and it was already showing.

While this formation was effective against enemies charging from the outside, it had one fatal flaw.

It failed to account for the possibility that the enemy was already among them.

As if to prove that point, Aelira’s eyes suddenly narrowed as she sensed the slightest disturbance behind her.

The mist churned gently.

Then a grotesque Ghost Wraith emerged from it, instantly launching an attack at the nearest figure beside it.

Amber, whose back was left completely exposed.

Not wasting a moment, Aelira swung her hammer downward, now coated in golden energy, smashing it toward the floating creature.

The sudden movement startled the others as they turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the Ghost Wraith.

The sight alone nearly froze them in place.

The Ghost Wraith was a distorted humanoid creature that seemed to exist almost entirely within the mist.

From the waist down, its body simply faded into the fog, as though it had never been whole to begin with.

It possessed elongated arms ending in razor-sharp claws and an unnaturally wide mouth lined with jagged teeth dripping with blood.

Where its face should have been lay a twisted imitation of a human expression, enough to unsettle anyone who caught even the briefest glimpse of it.

What unsettled them most was that the Ghost Wraith didn’t seem to move through the mist. It simply emerged from it.

Its body faded in and out until the very instant it struck.

Silent and nearly impossible to distinguish from the surrounding fog.

What frightened them even more was the realization that had the Ghost Wraith not attacked, they wouldn’t have sensed its presence at all.

Fortunately, Aelira reacted just in time.

Her hammer smashed through the Ghost Wraith.

Its body shattered, dissipating into wisps of white energy that drifted back into the mist.

Even then, the wraith managed to rake one of its claws across Amber’s back, leaving behind a deep flesh wound.

But what worried everyone most were the black veins spreading rapidly from it.

They even had toxins?

The others watched, growing even more cautious.

Just as the black veins were about to spread through her body, the earth and vitality energy within Amber suppressed them before slowly overwhelming them.

It wouldn’t be long before the Ghost Wraith’s poison was purged and the wound healed.

That caused everyone to sigh in relief.

But the encounter with the Ghost Wraith had taught them an important lesson.

They couldn’t continue like this.

Looking back, their formation had worked more against them than against the wraith.

This was an entirely different kind of creature, and if they wanted to deal with it effectively, they would have to employ different tactics.

Eventually, they decided it would be best to split up and explore individually.

Doing so would give each of them more room to react and detect the slightest disturbance within their surroundings while also maximizing their gains.

While the Ghost Wraiths were difficult to eliminate, every one they killed released a portion of its energy back into them, slowly strengthening their bodies and sharpening their senses.

Initially, the Ghost Wraiths were extremely difficult to deal with. Given there was no elemental energy in the air, they could only launch elemental attacks using their own natural reserves.

If those reserves were depleted, it wouldn’t bode well for them. Fortunately, physical attacks proved surprisingly effective.

But even with that advantage, it didn’t make things any easier.

Even if they could sense the Ghost Wraiths before they attacked, it didn’t mean they could react in time.

Thus, almost all of them suffered several claw wounds. The pain was excruciating, yet it seemed to push them beyond their limits.

Since they could no longer place complete trust in their senses, they gradually began developing danger instincts.

At first, they could only sense the Ghost Wraiths as they attacked.

Then, they began sensing them moments before they struck.

Eventually, some could even faintly perceive their presence concealed within the mist itself.

The improvement was gradual, yet with every step, their chances of surviving the Misty Lands grew ever greater.