A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

At least to them it was, to any normal person it was extremely deadly. The array turned completely active and threw a miasma of condensed death-mana at the two. Enough to make even Tier 8 people fight for their very lives.

To these two, however, all it took to combat the corrosion was to actively move their mana. Though, it quickly started draining their mana pool.

Eldrian sighed and rushed forward, "Let's make this as quick as we can. If you start to feel tired, run outside!"

"What are we looking for?" Ceph asked, Eldrian having handed him the dimensional ring he had gotten way back at the start of things.

"Just throw anything that looks important into the ring!" Eldrian shouted, keeping mana sense active and rushing through the cave. There was plenty of rooms, most of which had absolutely nothing of importance.

However, every now and then he would find an old dusty book or a few pieces of equipment in the rooms.

"Remember, don't leave any books!" Eldrian shouted after coming out of a room with a particular number of them.

A few minutes quickly passed and the two began gasping for air, so they rushed outside and while the air was not fresh, it felt like the cleanest air they had ever breathed.

"That... That was very reckless." Eldrian said, coughing out black smoke as he did. Of course, he could only see it thanks to still having mana sense going on full power. He used this to also confirm that he and Ceph had no real damage done to them.

As the two were still trying to catch their breaths, the first group of adventurers made it to the cave entrance. They stopped in confusion looking at the two elves, one of which was a child.

"Who are you?" The leader of the group asked, warry as he used Observe and his confusion only grew more.

The leader ignored them after confirming how weak they were, and instead, he rushed into the cave with his men. Eldrian shouted after them to stop and be careful. They didn't listen, and they didn't return.

When the next group arrived, Eldrian pressed this from the start. "Don't go inside! There is some kind of array that releases a mass of death-mana."

This group didn't want to trust him fully either. It was obvious that people would try to hide their spoils. However, they did take heed and only sent in one of their members.

When she did not return, they turned their anger onto Eldrian and Cephaphyr.

"We warned you! Her death is on you, not us!" Eldrian shouted back after receiving an earful.

"You should have made the danger clearer!" The leader countered, and Eldrian just scoffed in reply.

"You little shit!" Throwing down his blade, the man charged.

Eldrian frowned as he saw the man's reaction, reading his attack with ease, Eldrian dodged it and delivered a nasty kick between the man's legs. When he fell, his friends became angered at Eldrian's lack of respect.

"Hah! Why should I fight fair? You are all stronger than me, are you shameless. I even warned you." Saying so, Eldrian confirmed that Ceph's mana was back to full. It had taken twice as long as normal thanks to the corruption being everywhere and elemental mana being quite sparse.

"Come, let's see what else we can get."

Nodding, Ceph followed him inside. They found the woman and the first group just a few meters inside. Already turning into undead. Not wishing to deal with that later, Eldrian carried them outside under the shocked gazes of the angry group before continuing their search.

When they exited this time, there were around thirty people waiting outside.

"How can you go in but we can't?" The leader who Eldrian had kicked in the groin asked.

"Because we can do this." Eldrian said, casting Frost Needle and having the icicle turning into a disk before everyone. The sight shocked them all to their core as they had never even heard of magic like that.

Leaving them to their own devices, Eldrian again confirmed that he and Ceph were alright. He also found that his ability Scourge of Undeath had finally unlocked a new function.

[Scourge of Undeath: Gives you a unique perspective into undeath.]

[Death-aspect Resistance: Through constant exposure to death-mana, and actively resisting this corrosive aspect, you have started to grow a harder skin to it.]

[Death-aspect Resistance - 25% (This affects spells such as: energy drain/life drain/vampiric touch/aura of death and even a ghoul's venom.)]

'Ah, that is quite a nice thing to have.'  Eldrian smiled as he recalled just how deadly a ghoul's venom was. If the 25% was as effective on it as on the rest, then this was a massive bonus.

Seeing Eldrian's smile, the group of waiting people all became pissed. And one particular centaur even dared to charge into the cave again. Believing that they were trying to trick them.

Eldrian sighed seeing this, but he didn't bother himself too much about it. He had long since come to accept that he couldn't make people believe him, nor could he save everyone. He certainly wasn't going to feel bad for someone who was so reckless.

'Though, I am kind of like that.'  Eldrian shook his head side to side, and after a few more minutes he and Ceph headed in again. Pulling out the centaur's corpse together, as he was far heavier than the beastkins and humans from before.

Seeing the already decaying corpse, the people still outside all felt chills flow through them as they realized they could have ended up just like that guy. Of course, mana was invisible unless one used Mana-Examination or something similar.

By now there was even someone capable of divine magic, but she couldn't save him and could only purify him to ensure he would not turn undead.

When Eldrian and Ceph came out again, they were greeted by the players from Phoenix this time along with another twenty strangers.

"I was wondering when you all would make it here." Eldrian smile and hugged Elizabeth and quickly greeted the rest.

"We felt we wouldn't stand a chance going for the core, so we prioritized making some money. Right, you still owe me our part of the deal." Elizabeth said jokingly.

"Of course, I haven't forgotten. I actually spent most of my time this past week just relaxing. So I haven't turned in my achievements for any rewards thus far." Eldrian said.

He knew that Elizabeth actually really wanted the reward. It was no small amount, so it made sense. He also didn't plan to keep any of it from them.

"Can you fill me in on what is going on here?" She asked after they joked a bit more and discussed what had happened since the entire event.

"Of course, there was some kind of array, and entering we tripped it. Now it is filling the cave with death-mana, which is deadly to anyone who can't control their mana to stop it."

"What about purifying it?"

"You are the second divine caster here, you are welcome to try."

"No, we would stand no chance, but... What is the fuel source for this?"

"Oh!" Eldrian's eyes flew wide open as looting the smaller rooms suddenly turned into a waste of time. Indeed, thus far the only source of undeath he knew of was the undead.

An array however needed something to sustain it. Normal arrays required mana crystals, or the larger arrays/formations required Mov/Magic Crystals. But an undead array, what was that sustained by?

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support this novel on WN.