Cast Out (Book 1 Done; Book 2 In-Progress)

Chapter 4: Part 3.1

Zhang POV

'What the HELL?!'

The things in front of me were just too unreal. No, they can't be real. These things weren't even here the last time we went through! This was the first time that I'd ever regretted leaving my [Observe] skill on, because if what I was seeing was true, then there was no way we could win.

Appearing above the floating, cloaked men were things that made me think that there was something wrong with my eyes, because it wasn't possible.

Druid of the Wilds: Guardian of the 2nd Layer

LEVEL: 290

???? ????

That alone was bad enough. But it wasn't just them that we had to worry about. Above the living trees were other boxes of information. The most average of them had this above their heads.

Dryad of the Boundary: Guardian of the 2nd Layer

LEVEL: 280

???? ????

'These things are more than 60 LEVELS ABOVE US!'

Just looking at it made my brain freeze. I could hear Misa screaming in my head for their stats as more and more of them appeared. Somehow, I managed to get past the shock long enough to tell her what I saw.

There was nothing else I could do afterwards. My vision turned black. The only thing I saw were the red notification boxes which popped up in front of my eyes.

STATUS AILMENT SELF-AFFLICTED!!

TOTAL MENTAL BREAKDOWN:

Much like how a deer may freeze at the sight of a carnivorous predator, your avatar's mind has completely shut down at the sight of an enemy whose terrifying strength you have refused to accept as part of reality.

• Loss of all 5 senses (Touch, Taste, Hearing, Smell and Sight)

• Total loss of body (Unable to control or predict what your body may do on its own)

• Status ailment will stay active until something shocks you out of it

I don't know how long I stayed like that. It was just me in that black space. I could have logged out at any time, which was obvious. Nothing stopped me from being able to actually think, even though I had a status ailment that would make you think I wouldn't be able to do something as basic as that. I could look through all of the player abilities like the MENU all I wanted, after all.

Logging out wasn't a problem for me, but what about Misa? No matter what, I couldn't just leave her to face that many enemies by herself. So I waited. It wasn't possible to be like this forever, after all. We were in battle, which meant that eventually something would snap me out of this.

I don't know how long I was like that, but what I do know was that the darkness that was around me started shaking, almost like it was metal that had been struck against something. After that it completely disappeared, and everything that was around me before, suddenly snapped back into place.

I drank in the scene before me in less than a second, which was barely enough time to realize 2 things.

1: The shock from the giant tree roots slamming down onto the ground was what had knocked me back out of that sh*tty status ailment.