Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

"Ugh, this feels awful, ten times worse than before... no, a hundred times worse!"

Before the sound of the clattering sound could finish, the fungal carpet beneath the four people's feet suddenly collapsed.

The entire ground contracted and cracked inward as if it were alive, revealing the bottomless darkness below.

An overwhelming suction force came from below.

At the same time, a mental shock so sharp it almost tore apart their souls struck the consciousness of the four people like an invisible giant hammer!

"Hmph!" Hector's body was violently agitated by the gray-black death aura, and the ghostly flames in the skull eye sockets at the tip of his bone staff surged, barely managing to withstand the impact.

Legolas grunted, his emerald green natural shield flickering, and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Ugh!" tide groaned, her pale blue skin turning instantly white, and the gill-like structures behind her ears opening and closing violently.

Ian's vision went black, and countless sharp screeching sounds filled his ears, as if a million needles were piercing his consciousness.

Even with his liquefied spiritual power, it was violently shaken at this moment.

Within the mental sea, a familiar cool sensation emanated from the panel, triggering the [Spirit Devouring] trait.

A very faint dark red filter forms on the surface of consciousness, devouring, transforming, and weakening the terrifying mental impact.

【Ring of Layers】An automatically activated shield with limited protection against mental attacks.

In the instant the four were momentarily stunned, countless translucent tentacles burst forth from the cave wall at the edge of the collapse.

These tentacles are not physical entities, but rather a pure condensation of spiritual energy.

Dark purple contamination runes flowed across the surface, moving so fast that only a blurry afterimage could be seen.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh…!

The tentacles precisely wrapped around the four people's ankles, wrists, and waists.

It was cold, slippery, and had a strong, corrosive effect, like a venomous snake burrowing into the skin.

"Get out of my way!" Hector roared in fury, unleashing a burst of death energy that caused gray-black ripples to explode, corroding and breaking the tentacles.

But the broken tentacles immediately regenerated, and even more poured out from the cave walls.

Legolas drew his bow and fired a volley of emerald arrows, each one striking precisely at the base of a tentacle and exploding into a purifying halo.

Tide's twin blades danced like a curtain of azure light, severing the tentacles that approached.

Ian activated his [Soul Devourer] ability at full power, and the tentacles that wrapped around his body were frantically drained of energy as soon as they came into contact with the invisible vortex around him, quickly drying up and dissipating.

There are too many whiskers, and the regeneration speed is too fast.

Even more terrifying, the suction force grew stronger and stronger, as if something at the bottom of the cave was frantically devouring everything.

"No... I can't hold on!"

tide gritted his teeth. His affinity for water element was severely suppressed here, and he had nowhere to put his footing.

Legolas looked at Ian: "Let's break through these tentacles together!"

Ian nodded, about to unleash [Frost Ray] to clear the area.

Boom!

The entire collapsed area expanded again, the fungal carpet and rocks at the edge completely crumbled, and the foothold under the four people's feet completely disappeared.

"Damn it!" Hector cursed as his body began to fall uncontrollably.

The same applies to Legolas and Tide.

Ian tried to fly, but the spiritual tentacles clung tightly to him, and the terrifying suction from the bottom of the cave prevented him from breaking free for a time.

The four of them were like stones falling into an abyss, dragged along by countless tentacles, plummeting straight into the depths of darkness.

The process of falling seemed to be stretched out.

The wind whistled past my ears, mixed with the sticky sound of tentacles wriggling.

And the countless subtle and venomous "gazes" emanating from the cave walls.

It's unclear how long the fall lasted; perhaps only a dozen breaths, perhaps several minutes. The sense of time becomes blurred here.

Finally, a faint light appeared below, along with an even more intense, almost tangible, malice.

boom!boom!boom!boom!

The four of them crashed heavily onto the hard, cold ground. (The professional novel website, Cola Novels, provides the most comfortable reading experience.) Their protective shields flashed intensely.

The entangled tentacles receded into the darkness like a tide the moment they landed, as if they had completed their mission.

Looking up, the entrance above was completely sealed off by countless wildly growing, intertwined, and writhing giant tree roots, so thick that not a ray of sunlight could be seen.

The cave was not completely dark.

The cave walls are densely covered with countless tiny, fleshy eyeballs, each only the size of a fingernail.

Their pupils glowed with an eerie green, dark red, or deathly white light, staring intently at the intruder.

The feeling of being watched by thousands of eyes at the same time is terrifying.

"Playing tricks." Hector spat and slammed his bone staff on the ground.

A ring of gray-black ripples spread out, and the eyeballs that were close by burst open, oozing foul-smelling pus, but the eyeballs further away immediately filled in, their gazes even more venomous.

Legolas was pale, not only from his injuries, but also from the intense death and resentment that permeated the place, which clashed sharply with his naturally gentle nature.

"We must leave as soon as possible... or destroy the source."

tide knelt on the ground, pressing his hands to the ground, and the pale blue water rippled outwards, but his expression quickly changed.

"The underground... is full of this stuff! We... are inside it!"

Ian remained silent; the effect of [Warning Eye] was greatly reduced in such a strong negative energy field.

However, his powerful senses and [Soul Devourer]'s sensitivity to energy flow had already detected the terrifyingly large presence in the darkness ahead.

The four had no choice but to move forward.

The passage sloped downwards, and the eyeballs on the cave walls moved with their movements, silently "seeing them off."

After descending nearly a hundred meters, the terrain suddenly opened up.

A huge underground cavern came into view.

In the center of the cave, a colossal, indescribable creature lay sprawled.

It resembles a mountain of flesh made up of countless eyes of varying sizes, constantly opening and closing and rotating.

The colors of their eyes varied: some were scarlet like blood, some were eerie green like will-o'-the-wisps, some were cloudy like pus, and some shimmered with a cold, metallic luster.

Numerous thick, translucent tentacles extended from beneath the mountain of flesh, digging deep into the ground and cave walls, slowly wriggling.

A nauseating stench permeated the entire space.

Even more terrifying was the distorted and chaotic mental fluctuations that emanated constantly, as if countless ghosts were shrieking, whispering, and weeping in one's ear.

"Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon..."

Hector's voice was extremely dry, with a tremor he himself was unaware of.

"True abyssal monsters are not transformed familiars... How can such things still exist? After the ancient war, all abyssal passages should have been sealed or monitored..."

"You know it?"

Legolas gripped his longbow tightly, his fingertips turning white from the force.

"It was mentioned in the forbidden knowledge of the Withering Council," Hector stared intently at the mountain of flesh.

"When the ancient abyss invaded, this monster was one of the vanguards of the abyss's will."

They feed by devouring souls and parasitizing the world; each eye represents a devoured soul, and the more eyes they have, the stronger they are.

He paused, his voice dry: "The Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon at its peak... was a peak third-tier being, even touching the threshold of the fourth tier."

It was as if to confirm Hector's words.

In the center of the Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon, dozens of the largest eyes turned towards the four people simultaneously, their pupils reflecting their horrified figures.

There was no shouting, no protesting.

The next moment, all the eyeballs lit up simultaneously.

It wasn't a single color of light, but a colorful torrent of spirits mixed with madness, pain, hatred, greed, and despair, sweeping in like a tsunami!

At the same time, more translucent tentacles extended from the ground, cave walls, and even the air, launching a comprehensive strangulation attack in conjunction with the mental torrent!