Chương 131: Reaper

The dust began swirling again as it waited for Mippo's words, as though it too had held its breath before the next part of the story, while the lamp between them seemed to quiet for a moment, dimming its steady, warm light and casting slightly fainter, blurred shadows that slid across the worn wooden floorboards and the crooked door of the old wardrobe.

The faint smell of old wood and dust still lingered in the air, while muffled sounds from the nighttime building occasionally came through the walls — someone's footsteps in the corridor, the creak of an old floorboard, and then silence once again. — Reaper. Extremely dangerous creatures that occupy the fourth rank in the hierarchy of monsters. They can appear as bosses in yellow dungeons. Their phantasm volume is colossal — an ordinary person would not even be able to stand near them.

Also, if even a couple of such specimens appear in one of the regions of the Oblivion, the density of phantasm there becomes so high that even a Player of at least level four simply cannot withstand it. He will be crushed like a bug.

A lump formed in Lloyd's throat, while the dust chaotically attempted to gather into some kind of silhouette, an imitation of a monster, but it could not — all its attempts were unsuccessful, the particles scattering and gathering again, as though it itself did not want to give it form, afraid to grant this creature even the slightest tangible shape, while the air in the room seemed to grow denser, heavier, clinging to the skin with an unpleasant, sticky heat that made him want to shiver.

Lloyd instinctively tensed his shoulders and slowly swallowed. An image of a creature he had never seen almost immediately appeared before his eyes, yet for some reason he could already imagine it too clearly. A huge figure surrounded by such dense phantasm that merely being near it would be enough to destroy an ordinary person. And the longer he tried to imagine such a monster, the less meaning he found in his own current strength. He had only just begun getting used to the Oblivion.

And now he had learned that somewhere in this world there were creatures beside which even fourth-level Players could find themselves completely helpless. — As far as I know, creatures like that do not inhabit the Vortex of Oblivion, so you're lucky. But I'll be honest with you, Lloyd. If you encounter one, death will be inevitable for you.

Lloyd froze, feeling a chill run down his spine, while the dust finally gathered into the shape of a skull, almost mockingly, its empty eye sockets staring directly at him, — although to him it seemed more like another attempt to intensify an already unsettling situation. Mippo continued, a coldness in his voice, while his green eyes narrowed even further, casting two thin, elongated strips of light onto the wall. The skull hovered motionlessly in the air for several seconds, slowly rotating around its own axis.

Its outline constantly trembled, individual particles falling away only to return immediately, maintaining its shape. The dim light of the lamp reflected in its empty eye sockets, making it seem as though something was actually burning inside. Lloyd silently stared at it, unsure whether Mippo was joking even a little. His voice made the answer clear — no. — To kill even a single Reaper, you need an eighth-level Player.

And such Players are worth their weight in gold — their strength is comparable to an entire army, if not more. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Mippo chuckled quietly, and the bell hidden within the folds of his clothing gave a short, muffled ring that echoed somewhere beneath the ceiling, among the thick, stagnant shadows. Lloyd said nothing for several seconds. Eighth level. The number itself somehow sounded impossibly distant.

Until now, levels had been something like steps that could gradually be climbed. Level zero, level one, level two — everything had seemed simple and understandable. He needed to become stronger, fight, gain experience, and keep moving forward. But now an enormous chasm had suddenly appeared between him and the eighth level. Lloyd did not even know how long it would take to cross it. — Well, I hope that until you reach at least the seventh level, you never encounter one.

He cleared his throat while Lloyd considered everything he had heard, his gaze absently sliding over the skull made of dust as it slowly dissolved in the air, losing its clear outlines and turning back into a shapeless, shimmering cloud, as though reluctantly releasing the image it had created only a second earlier.

"So they don't live here. Eighth level... I heard that a single Player of that level is capable of wiping entire cities off the map, and even he might not be enough to defeat a Reaper. Amazing." Lloyd lowered his gaze to his palms for a moment. They looked completely ordinary. There was no trace of the power Mippo had described, no hint that one day he might come close to such a level.

All he had right now was the experience he had gained, several battles he had survived, and the Player status that still seemed like something completely foreign to him.

He shivered, feeling how the sagging mattress behind his back suddenly seemed especially hard, while the wooden floor beneath him felt especially cold, as though the room itself had responded to what he had heard with an uncomfortable chill creeping in from somewhere beneath the poorly closed door, and an almost imperceptible draft, like someone's invisible gaze, brushed across the back of his head. Lloyd stared at the door for several seconds. It remained motionless.

There were no footsteps behind it, only a faint wind occasionally stirring something in the corridor. He slowly exhaled and turned back toward Mippo, deciding not to attach any importance to it. The dust began gathering again, swirling around the two of them in dense, rapid spirals — a sign that they were moving on to the next, even more frightening rank.

The lamp's light dimmed for a moment, as though it too was preparing for something important, while the shadows in the corners of the room grew noticeably thicker, creeping over the battered wardrobe and crooked nightstand, as though the darkness itself wanted to move closer so it could listen as well. The golden particles rose higher and higher, slowly revolving around an invisible point in the center of the room.

Some collided with one another and scattered into tiny sparks, while others stretched into thin lines before returning to the general flow. Soon the dust became so dense that Lloyd could barely see the walls through it. — So, we have gradually reached the most dangerous monsters one could possibly encounter in the Oblivion.

The magical dust formed the number five, suspended in the air in an even, shimmering light, slowly rotating around its own axis as though admiring its own perfection, casting a tiny, trembling reflection on the floor in the shape of the same number. Mippo, without taking his eyes off Lloyd, continued, his voice becoming noticeably quieter, almost solemn, as though he were speaking of something sacred, unworthy of loud words. Lloyd felt an unpleasant tightness inside his chest.

Until now, Mippo had spoken about each successive rank calmly, sometimes even with his usual teasing tone. But now there was something different in his voice. Caution. Lloyd did not even notice that he had held his breath. — Overlord... Suddenly everything fell silent at the mere mention of the name — even the rustling of the trees outside the window, along with the neighbor's usual snoring, stopped at once, as though the world outside had held its breath.

Everything sank into a dead silence, so dense that Lloyd could clearly hear his own quickened heartbeat, its dull pounding echoing somewhere in his throat. Even the yellow dust around them froze, suspended motionless in the air as glowing particles, as though it too had gone still in anticipation of what would come next, while the yellow crystal inside the lamp stopped shimmering for a moment, frozen in a motionless glow, as though the very air in the room had stopped moving.