Chapter 169: The Mistbone Specters

The Blacklake Bloodwoods’ Vine Entanglement had slowed Marcus by thirty percent, but it had not completely immobilized him. He could still move. That alone was the difference between life and death, because if he took another full volley from that group of monsters, he would not survive it.

He activated Wraith, and the sluggish drag on his limbs vanished at once. His speed returned to normal. In the distance, the misty white figures were already gathering themselves for another synchronized strike. Marcus quickly downed a large health potion, the warmth spreading through his chest as his vitality surged back, and then he sprang forward.

He signaled to his Temple Guardian, Pebble.

The expressionless knight lowered his lance and charged, spamming Taunt as he barreled straight into the clustered monsters. The moment he entered their range, the creatures that had been preparing to focus fire on Marcus shifted their attention toward the armored guardian instead.

Above them, the Shadow-Stained Gryphon King circled with heavy, deliberate beats of its wings. Marcus followed close behind Pebble, keeping pace and preparing to engage. As he closed the distance, the white shapes in the mist gradually sharpened into view.

They were skeletal in form, like stripped warriors long dead, yet their bones were unnaturally white and wrapped in swirling layers of vapor. The mist did not drift around them; it clung to them, as though the air itself belonged to their bodies. Marcus cast Insight on the nearest one.

—

Mistbone Specter

Level: 35

Health: 4000

The skeletal remains of a warrior devoured by the Blacklake Bloodwoods. Over time, the bones absorbed the immense residual energy left behind by the great battle of the Mist Veil Palace. Fused with the palace’s pure mist, they evolved into a new and extremely cunning form of monster.

Skills:

Mistwater Orb: Compresses the pure mist condensed on its bones into an orb and launches it at an opponent. The projectile is exceptionally fast.

Vanish into Mist: The Specter’s stealth ability. It can hide seamlessly within the white mist of the palace. Only intermediate-level stealth detection or higher can reveal it. If the Specter is not attacked, it may immediately reuse this skill after attacking.

Misty Veil: Cloaks itself in white mist, reducing physical damage taken by 10%.

—

No wonder Insight had failed to detect them earlier. Their stealth ability exceeded the limits of his basic detection. They had simply stood motionless in the haze, waiting for him to lower his guard before unleashing their ambush.

Still, the blame was partly his. He had been so eager to test his new equipment that he had not allowed Goldie to initiate combat. One wide-area sweep from the gryphon would have exposed every hidden Specter instantly.

Marcus let out a slow breath, irritation hardening into resolve.

They dared to provoke him. They dared to ambush him. Very well. If they wanted a hunt, he would show them what it meant to face a true predator.

The Mistbone Specters proved their intelligence almost immediately. Even with Pebble’s repeated Taunts drawing the attention of nearby Bloodwoods, several Specters ignored the guardian entirely and continued targeting Marcus from a distance. Fortunately, his health had nearly recovered by then, and he no longer felt the pressure that had nearly overwhelmed him moments earlier.

Their attacks were viciously fast.

Despite riding mounts with superior mobility, Marcus and Pebble could not close the gap before another volley streaked toward them. The mist-orbs flashed like white comets. Marcus endured the impact without serious harm, but Pebble, who absorbed the majority of the barrage, saw his health plummet to under eight hundred in a single breath.

Pebble was operating at only eighty percent of his full strength. Facing a coordinated group five levels above him was no trivial matter.

Marcus understood exactly how narrow that margin had been. Anyone else would have died. Even he would likely have been killed if he had taken both the initial ambush and this second volley without Pebble shielding him. It did not matter how high a player’s damage output was. If you died before striking back, your power meant nothing.

He would not have been surprised if some of the bones forming these Specters had once belonged to level thirty experts who had underestimated this forest and paid for it with their lives.

Frustration tightened in his chest. Then something even more aggravating occurred.

Just as he and Pebble were about to reach melee range, only the Specters successfully taunted by Pebble prepared to stand their ground. The rest scattered with eerie discipline. One by one, they dissolved into vapor, activating Vanish into Mist and disappearing before Marcus could bring his blade down.

’You have to be joking.’

They were retreating into stealth the instant he closed in. Fury surged through him.

“Goldie, attack. Tear them apart.”

The gryphon answered with a piercing cry, wings spreading wide before slamming downward. A massive Wing Storm erupted across the battlefield. The ground convulsed beneath the gale as dust, shattered stone, and torn vegetation spiraled into the air. Within the churning vortex, faint outlines flickered.

The invisible Specters were forced back into view.

“Hundred Phantom Strike!”

Marcus surged forward behind Pebble and unleashed his area attack into the mass of Bloodwoods the guardian had gathered. Phantasmal blades rippled outward, carving through twisted trunks and snapping vines. The treacherous plants fell in rapid succession. Pebble, no longer needing to Taunt, turned his full attention to the exposed Mistbone Specters and began cutting them down one after another.

With Goldie’s wide-area assaults repeatedly stripping away their stealth, the tide shifted completely.

Once deprived of their ambush and concealment, the Specters lost their greatest advantage. Exposed in open combat, they had little left to threaten him with. Their Mistwater Orbs hit slightly harder than the Bloodwoods’ attacks, but against Marcus’s high defense, the damage felt almost trivial, like cold rain tapping against armor.

Ground and sky moved in ruthless coordination. Pebble anchored the battlefield. Marcus cut down anything that entered his reach. Above them, Goldie’s storms swept across the courtyard in relentless waves.

It did not take long before the entire outer perimeter of the Mist Veil Palace fell silent. The Blacklake Bloodwoods and the Mistbone Specters alike were reduced to nothing more than experience points.

Marcus dismounted to gather the loot. As expected, the drop rate for monsters above level thirty was noticeably lower. Most of the equipment was white-tier, with only a handful of blue pieces among them. This scarcity would make high-quality gear far more valuable and ensure that the market remained competitive. Luck and persistence would matter as much as skill from here on out.

After finishing, he walked forward through the cleared outer grounds and glanced back over his shoulder. The monsters had not yet respawned.

For a brief moment, he considered circling back for another sweep. But recalling the flawless coordination between the Bloodwoods and the Specters, he dismissed the thought. He doubted many of the level thirty experts who had ventured here had managed to push past that carnivorous forest.

The individual monsters were not overwhelmingly powerful. That was not the danger. It was their cunning, their layered attack patterns, the way they forced a player into mistakes. A single lapse in attention was enough to end everything. Many who had died here probably had not even understood how it happened.

Ahead, the mist gradually thinned, revealing more of the Mist Veil Palace proper.

Marcus reminded himself quietly that strength alone was insufficient. He needed vigilance, precision, and patience. To fall here, before truly beginning, would be both humiliating and pointless.

The Mist Veil Palace was not merely a battlefield of force. It was a test of judgment.

Crossing the outer grounds, he advanced a short distance and arrived at the palace courtyard.

The courtyard walls had long since crumbled. Broken stone slabs lay scattered across the earth, carved through by deep gullies and fractures that told of violent clashes long past. Wild grass had reclaimed much of the ground, weaving through cracks in the stone as though attempting to bury the scars of history. Even so, the devastation remained unmistakable.

At the far end of the courtyard stood a pair of towering iron doors, weathered but intact. Beyond them lay the main hall of the Mist Veil Palace.

Marcus searched the surrounding area carefully. Aside from a few intermediate-level herbs known as Mist-Tears and several veins of Cloud-Mist Stone, he found nothing that resembled a clue. It appeared that the only path forward was straight through the courtyard and into the palace itself.

Mist-Tear was an intermediate herb whose fruit resembled a single suspended teardrop. Nurtured by the palace’s pure mist, it contained a dense concentration of water-aligned energy and could not be found anywhere else.

Cloud-Mist Stone was an intermediate ore formed through constant exposure to the catalyzing mists. Durable yet remarkably light, it was prized for crafting light armor. According to the description, the most famous archer armor set on the Dreamland Continent, the divine Rainbow Cloud Set, had been forged from Cloud-Mist Stones born beneath a seven-colored rainbow.

An archer’s divine set.

The name alone carried weight. Divine equipment in Dominion was both rare and unique. No two identical pieces existed. Completing an entire set would require extraordinary luck, strength, and opportunity.

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