Born in apocalypse

The moment the resistance had evolved, the snowfall ceased to exist. The sky became devoid of any sign of clouds. The extra layers of snow disappeared as well.

A smile appeared on his face as Dhruv confirmed that the Illusion had broken... for him at least.

"Let me take the lead now..." Saying these words, he quickly moved forward and began to follow the trail of mana.

The mana trail, which had increased in visibility during the second evolution, now seemed to have gone down.

It was getting thin as well, and this time it wasn’t the result of an illusion; the mana was naturally dissipating. If the duo were to be trapped in the resistance for a few more hours, there was no guarantee that the trail would be left.

Even though it was getting thinner, Dhruv wasn’t worried. He knew and had accepted that reaching the perimeter would be time-consuming without the trail’s help. But he was confident he would get there... with or without it.

As Dhruv continued to move forward, his gaze naturally landed on the snow. The ground, which looked undisturbed a moment ago, was now dirty... littered with numerous markings.

’There are so many footsteps...’

As far as Dhruv could see, there were numerous footsteps... some were going forward while others were coming back. Looking at the footsteps that were coming back, he once again became sure.

Due to the illusion, they had been going round and round.

Sigh!

’Huuuuh! So much time has been wasted here...’ Dhruv sighed, knowing there wasn’t anything that could have been done.

Even after all the time wasted, Dhruv considered himself lucky. After all, if it weren’t for the resistance, he could be trapped here for eternity without even knowing the cause.

Hoping for the best, Dhruv began to follow the mana trail with full vigilance. After walking for a while, he reached a point where the steps that were moving forward stopped, and it seemed they began to go backward.

Dhruv quickly understood what it was. This was the last point they had reached each cycle before being forced to turn back due to the illusion. Reaching the border of the point, he stopped.

"Azarex, I think we have reached the end of it," Dhruv mentioned.

Pausing to look around for a second, he grabbed Azarex’s hand. He understood that he was resistant to the illusion, but Azarex was not. He grabbed Azarex’s hand so there wouldn’t be any problem exiting the illusion.

"Huh!" Somewhat startled by Dhruv’s action, Azarex couldn’t speak for a moment. Before he could find any meaning to this action, he was forced to take a step forward along with his master.

Holding his guardian’s hand, Dhruv had taken the final step. The moment his foot entered the area beyond that point, he could hear some sort of sound surrounding him.

Although it was very quiet, Dhruv figured out the nature of the sound. It was the sound of something breaking. He was right, as the illusion had finally broken.

"Master, I can see it now... I can see the difference." As Azarex took a step forward, he finally began to see the difference. For him, the change was too sudden to miss.

From heavy snowfall to nothing. From seeing clear snow beneath to seeing it filled with steps. From clouds filling the sky to now it being clear. Seeing all the changes Azarex didn’t have any doubt.

Hearing Azarex’s reply, Dhruv thought, ’Huh! So it really was the end of the illusion. I mean, there is no guarantee that we aren’t entering a new illusion zone... but who cares at this point? If it’s just an illusion, I’m sure I can clear it with enough time.’

With some satisfaction and a lot of paranoia, Dhruv began to move forward. This time, he intentionally slowed his pace to fill his core with as much mana as possible.

Although there wasn’t much to do in the snow, he had to continuously keep a fire pillar around him to avoid catching cold. This action proved to be beneficial, as his fire manipulation had evolved twice since entering the dungeon.

Expecting nothing but an all-out war ahead, Dhruv checked his inventory and began to keep track of all the resources he had with him.

’Hmmm! First of all, I’m wearing a rare rank of tier 3 armor [Leather Tunic of Unholy Souls]. That’s it for defense.’

’For offense, I have an uncommon spear [Blood Rage] along with a few common staves that I bought from the Cosmic Store. As for supportive items, I have a few mana and health potions. There are many cores as well.’

After going through the materialistic items, Dhruv began to take note of his skills and abilities. With all the skills available he was trying to come up with the best way to tackle the situation. It would be great if everything went well. If not, he had one or two trump cards.

As he pondered over his skills, his speed automatically picked up, and before even reaching the half-hour mark, he noticed something in the realm devoid of any color.

Far away in the distance, Dhruv finally noticed something that wasn’t white. He could see the silhouette of a wall standing proud. The wall looked much more magnificent when he was seeing it through his own eyes.

Calming his rapidly increasing heartbeat, Dhruv moved while activating his mana sense.

’Huh! So many of them...’ Dhruv thought as he noticed there were tens of guards walking on top of the wall.

He didn’t know whether this much security was normal or if they had expected him to pass the illusion and were there to welcome him.

One thing Dhruv found assuring was that most of the guards were tier 2, with some tier 3 mixed in between.

’I guess this is it then...’ Activating his invisibility, Dhruv began to move toward the wall.

He didn’t take the direct route and instead went to the far side where, as expected, there were fewer guards compared to the front. Standing as close to the wall as he could get without being noticed by the guards, he stopped moving.

As he looked at the wall, numerous thoughts overlapped in his mind, forcing him to question everything once again. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn’t get them out of his mind.

Not wanting to be betrayed by his own thoughts, Dhruv took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Releasing the breath a second later, he finally began to manipulate his mana...