As they walked along, Snow and Nitish began talking to each other.
"Can I ask you something? Why are you always so quiet?" Nitish asked Snow.
"Everyone has their own personality. I just prefer staying calm. People who talk too much often end up revealing their weaknesses," Snow replied, slightly surprised by his question.
"Oh! Interesting… I liked that answer. So, what's your goal?" Nitish asked her another question.
"I have only one goal — to become powerful. Powerful enough that no one can touch me. Powerful enough to live up to my family's expectations," Snow said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Well, enough with the questions now," she said as she walked ahead of him.
"Hm…" Nitish smiled.
As soon as they reached the others, Snow's entire party gathered around her, while Nitish's group was just relaxing and eating sandwiches. Nitish joined his friends and pulled out something to eat from his inventory.
"Aha! Apples," he said, taking a bite.
"Boss, why are you eating apples? Don't you have any sandwiches? If you don't, come take some from me," Jade said, glancing at Nitish.
"I do have them. But who knows how long we'll be stuck here? We should save our food supply," Nitish said with a grin.
Hearing this, everyone chewing on sandwiches suddenly paused, their food caught in their throats. After all, what if Nitish was right?
"Can you ever think positively?" Blue Gem complained, frustrated with his boss.
Nitish and his friends were in the middle of a conversation when he saw Blazy walking toward him. Following behind her were Brown and the rest of Snow's party members. Nitish was already bracing himself, thinking, Now what sarcastic comment are they going to throw at me this time?
But before he could dwell on it any further, Blazy said something that left Nitish's entire team stunned—mid-bite, their food practically stuck in their throats.
"S-S-Sorry, Smight. Please forgive me for being rude to you earlier. I misjudged you. But the truth is… if it weren't for you, we probably wouldn't have survived those monsters. Snow was right… you're not as bad as I thought," Blazy said, blushing as she apologized. It was obvious the words weren't easy for her to say—and deep down, she probably wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole.
"Hehe, you really don't need to stress about it. I didn't take anything you said to heart. I get it—must be tough for girls to deal with someone who's more attractive and talented than they are. So it's fine, Blazy," Nitish replied dramatically, running a hand through his hair with exaggerated flair.
Blazy's expression turned sour in an instant.
"ARGHHH! I must be out of my mind to come apologize to you! Your shamelessness knows no limits!" she snapped, her voice laced with irritation. Her reaction had everyone around bursting into laughter.
"Forgive me too, Smight," said Forest Brown, followed by the rest of Snow's team, all stepping forward to apologize to him as well.
With that, the tension between them finally began to melt, and the two groups started to bond.
Blazy, personality-wise, had quite a short temper. However, if someone spoke to her gently, she would often soften up quickly. Forest Brown was the oldest member of the team, and naturally, he preferred to remain calm and composed. In fact, it was his idea for the team to apologize.
As for Paradise, Hemant, and Night Ranger—they were best friends. The three of them were always together, closely bonded and inseparable.
But if anyone stood out from the group, it was Snow. She rarely spoke unless absolutely necessary. And even when she did, it was usually only to Blazy—and always with a faint smile.
"We should get moving now. We've rested enough," Snow said, instructing the team to continue onward.
During this time, Nitish had gathered the loot dropped by the Lizarms—and he couldn't help but be impressed.
"The loot from these corrupted creatures is amazing," Nitish said, unable to contain his excitement.
He had received several rare ores and, more importantly, high-value forging materials. But what truly shocked him was the fact that he had obtained sixteen weapons and pieces of equipment—and not a single one of them was below Iron Rank. Iron Rank!
Nitish distributed the equipment based on who needed what the most. Out of the sixteen items, twelve went to Snow's team—they were best suited for them, after all. From the remaining four items, Nitish kept two for himself. These two were skill books: one he kept for his own use, and the other he gave to White Jade. The remaining two were weapons—one went to White Jade, the other to Bear.
[Skill: LOTUS CUT (Sword Skill)]
Requirement: Sword
Description: The user can mark up to 3 targets. If any of the marked targets receive damage, the same damage will be mirrored onto the other marked targets.
Duration: 3 seconds
Cooldown: 32 seconds
Nitish was particularly impressed by this skill named Lotus Cut. In fact, he already knew it would be incredibly useful inside this dungeon.
Nitish and the rest of the group continued moving forward. After walking for around twenty minutes, they began to hear the sound of flowing water. Following the sound, they eventually came upon a waterfall.
But this wasn't just any ordinary waterfall.
It was massive—far larger than any they had seen before. And where they were standing was at the very top, where the water cascaded down into the abyss below. But what made this waterfall truly terrifying was the water itself.
It was pitch black.
Completely and unnaturally dark. Something about it felt wrong—deeply wrong. There was an eerie presence in the air, and everyone could feel it. Just looking at it made them uneasy, as if something malevolent was watching them from below.
"Ocean of Souls..." The phrase flashed in Nitish's mind the moment he laid eyes on it. He immediately understood what this was.
The Ocean of Souls—an accursed sea where the spirits of corrupted creatures wandered eternally. It was said that any ordinary human who dared to enter it would face unspeakable consequences. No one knew how deep it ran… or what horrors lurked within.
Legends spoke of how even Tier 8 and Tier 9 individuals had perished within its depths.
This waterfall was connected to that very ocean. And waterfalls like this had a name—Dark Soul Waterfalls.
Suddenly, Snow spoke up."There's definitely a boss room down there. Why don't we go down and check it out?" she suggested.
But Nitish immediately shook his head.
"We can't swim in this water—not even a little. There's only one thing we can do," Nitish said firmly. "I'll go down first. If it seems safe, then the rest of you can follow me, one by one. Alright?"
"But Boss!" Bear suddenly growled through clenched teeth. He clearly didn't like the idea of his leader diving into danger alone.
"Don't worry, Bear. I'll be fine. If anything goes wrong, I'll come straight back up. Besides, Blue Gem can assist me—he has the Eagle Spirit, remember?" Nitish reassured him with a calm voice.
"Absolutely not!" Bear barked back. He was in no mood to accept it.
"Bear… trust me," Nitish said, one last time.
Reluctantly, Bear nodded, grinding his teeth in frustration.
"Alright then. Gem—Eagle Spirit!" Nitish commanded.
Blue Gem nodded and quickly summoned his Eagle Spirit, sending it soaring toward Nitish. In the next instant, a pair of shimmering white wings formed behind Nitish's back—crafted entirely from wind.
Without wasting another moment, Nitish flapped his wings and launched himself downward, diving swiftly into the dark abyss below. After all, Blue Gem's spirit skill came with a cooldown—he had to make the most of it.
Nitish continued flying down for what felt like a long time, but still… the ground was nowhere in sight.
"Hmm… what even is this place?" Nitish grew increasingly curious.
Moments later, the Eagle Spirit's duration was nearing its end—and now, Nitish started to panic.
"Am I seriously just gonna fall to my death!?" he shouted in alarm, the wind rushing past his face. He was beginning to lose control.
But just then—he spotted the ground below. Relief washed over him.
Unfortunately, before he could fully land… the skill wore off—roughly five meters above the ground.
"AAARGH!!" Nitish yelled as he plummeted the final distance, crashing hard into the ground below.
BAM!
"Ouch!" Nitish landed hard on his back, letting out a sharp yelp of pain.
He quickly got up and began scanning the surroundings.
Darkness. Absolute and suffocating. Beyond ten meters, he could barely see a thing. The sound of water echoed from all directions, and Nitish squinted, trying to make out what lay ahead.
As he followed the path of the black water, he began to get a sense of where it might be leading. Somewhere deep inside, he felt a hunch—This is the direction the boss might be in. Though he wasn't entirely sure yet.
"No monsters in sight… Maybe I should just call the others down here," he muttered to himself, then quickly sent a message to Snow.
"Hey, bring everyone down here." Nitish typed and sent the message.
"Are you okay? Your summoner told us the eagle's cooldown ended," Snow replied, a hint of concern in her words.
"Yeah, I'm fine. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be messaging you right now," Nitish reassured her calmly.
One by one, the rest of the group began descending using Gem's Eagle Spirit. However, since the skill had a long cooldown, the process took quite a bit of time.
It wasn't until nearly six hours later that everyone finally reached the bottom.
"Smight, tell us—where do we go next?" Snow asked without wasting a moment, already focused on planning the next move.
"Hm. We need to head northwest. The stream of this black water is flowing in that direction, so it only makes sense that we follow it," Nitish explained to the group, motioning them forward.
They all began moving swiftly. Along the way, Blazy turned to Blue Gem and asked him something rather curious.
"Hey, Gem. This Eagle Spirit of yours... it looks like a pretty high-level elemental spirit. Which monster—or boss—did you defeat to get it?" she asked, her tone genuinely inquisitive.
Blue Gem flushed with embarrassment the moment he realized Blazy was taking such an interest in his spirit. He was a skinny, unassuming guy—someone girls didn't often talk to in real life. So the fact that Blazy, of all people, was engaging with him felt like a huge moment.
"U-Umm… Blazy ma'am, this isn't an external skill. I got it from my basic Summoner ability," he replied, blushing slightly.
The moment he said that, everyone in Snow's party—including Snow herself—looked at him in shock.
The Summoner class was known to be highly unpredictable. One of the core skills every Summoner received was called Spirit Summon. According to its mechanics, Summoners could attempt to call forth a random spirit from the Spirit World to serve them permanently. The strength of the summoned spirit depended entirely on two factors: the Summoner's talent and their luck.
Which is why it was absolutely astonishing that Blue Gem had managed to summon such a powerful spirit. There were only two possible explanations:—Either Blue Gem was exceptionally talented,—Or incredibly lucky.—or perhaps… both.
When Blue Gem realized everyone was staring at him like that, he began to panic. Nervously, he hurried over and stood next to Nitish—almost hiding behind him. His reaction instantly made everyone burst into laughter.
"Gem, you can't keep hiding behind me every time people are impressed by you," Nitish said with a chuckle.
"But Boss… I'm just not used to this kind of attention," Gem mumbled in protest.
Nitish's entire team started laughing even harder. And somewhere, even Snow and her party—watching the easy camaraderie and lightheartedness of Nitish's group—found themselves smiling. Their energy was infectious.
"Shhh."Suddenly, Nitish raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop.
He quietly listened to a sound coming from ahead—faint, but steady.
"…Bells?"Nitish wasn't the only one to recognize it—everyone else began to hear it too. The soft ringing echoed faintly through the dark tunnel.
As they carefully walked forward to investigate, what they saw left everyone wide-eyed in disbelief.
They had no idea what they were looking at—no one, that is, except Nitish.
And in Nitish's eyes, there was a spark—a mix of excitement and shock.