Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

Within Am_I_Me's thoughts, the desire of greed grew at an alarming rate. It was normal for adventurers to harbour greedy desires even after enduring life-threatening battles. But the greed that was gestating within Am_I_Me was of the catastrophic type.

Along the levels the adventurers cleared, Wanyama made sure that excesses of the Exp stones reached every member of the crew, despite their individual contributions. Hence, a member like Sarah_Ze_Beauty, who couldn't contribute much to the team, wasn't left out of the joy of having an abundance of resources.

Am_I_Me desired to have most of the loot items to herself. She thought of peeling away during the heat of the battle to go and pick up loot drops. She would assimilate as much Exp as she could and then return to the battle before anyone would notice.

This outrageous desire for greed was not of Am_I_Me's own doing. Dark energy lingering around the team was responsible. It was the same specific type of dark energy – devil energy – that plagued the team. She was unfortunate enough to be a victim of the 'seed of sin'. This was a devil's ability to plant a 'seed of desire' within a person's mind. The devil could trigger the seed to 'grow forth', and this 'growth' would consequentially lead to strong, sinful desires to abound within the victim.

As the adventurers made their way to Level 10 through the stairs, a tiny vortex of profound darkness manifested on Level 10 itself. Dark energy pulsed out of the vortex, enriching the undead skeletons on this level with power. The reanimated creatures improved from mere base-rank creatures to bronze-rank power, almost on the verge of breaking into honoured bronze-rank power.

No reaction came from the Lords of the Vate Realm to this alarming anomaly. This was not the conventional way the undead skeletons grew their power; they grew in strength merely by existing in this realm. But now an anomaly had appeared, breaking this conventional method. The vortex pulsed for ten seconds and then vanished.

Also, there was no reaction from the overseer of the Liberation Force who was watching over the raid. The fact that these powers—the overseer from the Liberation Force and the Lords of the Vate Realm—were unable to notice this interference was a testament to the immense power at play. It hinted that a lord devil had a hand in this matter.

This development begged the question: was a lord devil responsible for the devil energy lingering over Ivan and his teammates? Was the lord devil responsible for SheCyclones' appearance in the grey devil's abyss? Unfortunately, the adventurers were oblivious to the development on Level 10 and the interference blocking the overseers from noticing the anomaly. Without knowing about the anomaly, they couldn't even conceive of those questions.

The adventurers arrived at the summit of the stairwell that led to Level 10. The stairwell vanished, and the environment warped into the expansive landscape of Level 10.

'Something is not right!' Onelight realised instantly upon perceiving the atmosphere of Level 10 on her skin.

But before she could sound a warning, an undead skeleton rushed in on the adventurers, singling out Alita_72 to attack. The undead skeleton moved at such high speed that the adventurers couldn't track it. All they could perceive was a dark blur. They didn't even see the reanimated creature grab Alita_72 by the head, lifting her and throwing her into the distance, subsequently going after her. What they perceived was Alita_72 suddenly vanishing from their side.

Am_I_Me couldn't fully process what was happening. Her instincts urged her to act quickly. She imbued her voice with the power of deceit. With a swift movement, she looked up at the sky and pointed at it.

At the top of her voice, Am_I_Me said, "Look at the sky, an aeroplane!"

The undead skeleton that was locked onto Alita_72 halted and gazed at the sky. It expected to see something immediately, but it didn't. However, its hope to see the 'aeroplane' didn't fade out. It maintained its gaze on the sky.

Alita_72 helplessly lay on the ground, unconscious. Thanks to a sturdy helmet she had obtained on Level 6, she survived the head-smashing attack by the undead skeleton. However, the helmet was damaged to pieces.

The undead skeleton that was locked on Alita_72 was not the only undead creature entranced by Am_I_Me's power. The entire reanimated horde on Level 10 was entranced. The criminal-class special character expended a great deal of power to pull off this feat. She was the only adventurer in the team to unlock mana use; hence, her power wasn't very limited; it was solely limited by the available mana in her dantian.

Ivan snapped out of the deceit. His eyes darted around his team, and he discovered that someone was missing: Alita_72. Without relaxing, he attempted to quickly locate the missing teammate while everyone was still entranced. Even Am_I_Me herself fell for her own deceit.

"Straight Path Boomerang!" Ivan unleashed the powerful attack, cleaving down the undead skeleton locked onto his teammate. Cleaving down the target caused the target to spontaneously explode—an anomalous development.

The explosion's shockwave freed every victim from the entrancement.

The other adventurers were slowly recovering from the entrancement while Ivan was sprinting over to Alita_72.

"Onelight! Alita is down! She needs help!" Ivan shouted as he raced over to his unconscious teammate.

Onelight recovered almost instantly after hearing Ivan's voice. Everything happened fast, and she struggled to process the information Ivan yelled to her. It was when she saw the hulking figures of undead skeletons looming in the distance that her senses fully returned.

She raised her staff, unleashing a defensive spell, Healing Dome. The sphere enveloped her and the adventurers close to her. Then, she and the adventurers quickly advanced to Ivan's position. On reaching Ivan and the unconscious Alita_72, the Healing Dome enveloped the duo.

Inside the dome, the injuries on Alita_72 rapidly healed.

"I'm sorry to be the wet blanket, but what the hell are those things?" BlueBlack asked, pointing at the mutated undead skeletons looming menacingly in the distance.

The undead skeletons had mutated into hulking creatures courtesy of the dark energy-spewing vortex that appeared moments before the adventurers arrived. Previously, the undead skeletons appeared as bleached white reanimated skeletons that had hollow eye sockets. Currently, their eye sockets were no longer empty; there were tongues of fire burning within them. The creatures now possessed an increased average height of two hundred metres. Their bones were dark in complexion and had sinister runes etched across their whole being, giving off an intimidating flair.

Alita_72 awoke, everything appearing blurry to her at first. "What is happening? Where am I?"

"You are still in the Vate Prison Realm with your teammates," Onelight said to her gently.

"What?"

"Yeah. You got attacked. The undead skeletons appear to have mutated, and now they seem to pack strength that we can't possibly match," Am_I_Me chimed in, her fear palpable from her expression.

Her strong apprehension and statement attracted soft glares from her other teammates.

"What do you mean by the undead skeletons 'appear to have mutated'? How can they mutate? Is this not supposed to be a base-rank gate?" Alita_72 ranted, panic evident in her tone.

"Maybe the overseers set us up to die," Am_I_Me said to no one in particular, her voice filled with despair.

Her pessimistic speech enraged Wanyama the most.

"Shut your damn mouth for once! Try to cool down and think this through," Wanyama barked at the criminal-class special character.

Am_I_Me threw away her face, not interested in considering Wanyama's words.

Onelight turned around to join her other teammates to observe the swarm of undead skeletons rapidly approaching. She felt a familiar energy exuding from the adversaries. It felt like the dark energy she had sensed at the grand dining hall and Lhilac's abyss. But this time, it felt stronger, as if the source of power had brewed within the undead skeletons themselves.

"Indeed, the skeletons have mutated. I can perceive the same dark energy that was present in Lhilac's abyss emanating off the undead skeletons. Although they are far from us, the power seems concentrated," Onelight revealed her thoughts to her teammates.

Ivan listened carefully. He reflected on what the healer had said and the team's past experiences in this realm. His lips parted, saying, "That means the skeleton that just attacked Alita_72 didn't do so out of its own volition. A force drew it to stand close to the entry in order to attack us, wiping us out within seconds. It seems the force was not strong enough to maintain its control over the skeleton; hence, the skeleton didn't spread its attack, concentrating on Alita_72 based on instinct."

"This confirms that our team is being targeted by a devilish force. The force cannot act when we are in the direct presence of the overseer that is Brainboss. Secondly, it can act here in the Vate Prison Realm but can't act for too long, rightfully fearing to come face to face with the wrath of the Lords of the Vate Realm. But the fact that the skeletons haven't been eliminated begs the question: has the overseer or the Lords of the Vate Realm discovered this anomaly?"

The question sent chilling shivers down the spine of the adventurers. It made no sense for the mutated skeletons to still be up and running unless the overseer deemed it not to be a threat. But with the sheer strength the skeleton that attacked Alita_72 demonstrated, it showed that the adventurers were clearly not a match for the incoming horde.

This means that the devil force was still at work. It was interfering with the Overseer's intervention.