SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will - Chapter 254 Mysterious Mist

Chapter 254  Mysterious Mist

Moon appeared back in the main chamber, expecting to find Mara and Nina waiting as they’d planned.

Instead, he found himself completely alone.

His gaze swept toward the area where the gates were positioned. But none of them were present, indicating ongoing battles within.

None had closed yet. Everyone was still fighting.

“Jonah must have died, and they entered his gate after realizing he wasn’t coming back.”

Another S-Ranker had died alongside the twins. It wasn’t particularly surprising—in fact, it had been expected given the extreme difficulty—but it was still problematic.

This gate was proving more difficult than even Moon had anticipated. Moon strongly believed this wasn’t the trial’s final challenge. The ten gates before them couldn’t be the end goal of this entire complex.

The way it operated reminded him uncomfortably of the hidden realm where he’d faced the Winter Beast.

Remembering the escalating challenges he had faced in that previous ordeal, Moon realized that perhaps even more of his current teammates were going to die before this was over.

‘I can’t let them all die. At least a few must survive and return with me.’

His reasoning was pragmatic rather than sentimental.

Once he emerged from this gate successfully, the powerful individuals and organizations backing these fallen S-Rankers were going to demand explanations about their deaths. Some might even attempt to kill Moon out of grief-fueled rage, suspecting he’d had a hand in their demise, or simply because they needed someone to lash out against.

Having multiple surviving witnesses who could corroborate his account of events would be useful for deflecting blame and potential retaliation. Their testimony would help push away those vengeful family members and powerful backers.

Additionally, survivors from this operation would potentially become useful future connections. People who’d fought alongside him through impossible odds and lived to tell about it—those relationships had value that shouldn’t be underestimated.

With significant free time on his hands while waiting for his teammates to complete their battles, Moon decided to make productive use of his time.

He pulled rune inscription materials from his storage ring and began creating additional runes. He had the supplies, the skill, and nothing better to do after all.

Hours passed as Moon got to work.

Finally, gates began manifesting as his teammates completed their battles.

When Grant and Kael’s portal appeared first, Moon immediately stopped his rune inscription, storing his materials and focusing his attention on their emergence.

The two men stumbled through looking exhausted but alive. Their eyes immediately scanned the empty chamber.

A few minutes later, Reid and Caleb’s gate appeared and they emerged with similar injuries and exhaustion.

They asked the identical question as Grant: “Where are Nina and Mara?”

Moon gave the same response, explaining his theory.

Their question was definitively answered approximately five minutes after Caleb’s return, when the final gate manifested and both Nina and Mara stepped through together.

“What happened?” Grant asked immediately.

Nina explained in a tired voice, “Jonah’s gate appeared in the chamber while we waited. After several minutes passed with no emergence, we realized he must have died inside. We decided to enter rather than risk another penalty. We followed the plan.”

Mara continued the account, “When we crossed through, we found Jonah’s body being eaten by the beast slowly. We fought the beast, killed it, and stored both corpses in our storage rings for proper handling once we leave this place.”

Caleb and Grant both nodded solemnly. They’d performed the same duty, having stored the twins’ mutilated bodies inside their own storage rings during their gate clears.

Grant looked around at the six surviving members of what had been a ten-person team.

“We’ve cleared all ten gates, now we find out if that was enough, or if this nightmare has more waiting for us.”

Moon remained silent, his instincts screaming that the trial was far from over.

The real challenge was about to begin.

He could feel it.

A few minutes had barely passed since everyone had gathered after clearing all ten gates, the team taking stock of their losses and injuries, when the rumbling started once more.

The entire chamber began shaking violently, tremors running through the stone floor with increasing intensity.

“Get ready! This isn’t over!” Grant shouted, raising his shield.

The rumbling grew so powerful that visible cracks began spreading across the walls and ceiling like spiderwebs. Chunks of stone started breaking loose, falling from above with threatening crashes.

Then something manifested before them that made the blood of those present run cold.

Another gate appeared in the center of the chamber, but unlike all the previous blue portals they’d encountered, this one blazed crimson—the exact same ominous red color as the original rift they’d entered to access this nightmare realm in the first place.

The group exchanged quick glances in the precious few seconds they had before the entire cavern collapsed on their heads.

“Let’s enter! Move!” Grant shouted.

The six surviving awakeners rushed toward the crimson portal together, their bodies disappearing into its rippling surface one after another.

The moment the last person crossed through, the entire chamber system collapsed catastrophically. Thousands of tons of stone crashed down, filling the space they’d just occupied, burying everything beneath an avalanche of rubble.

And the red gate vanished, as if it had never existed.

♢♢♢♢

Moon found himself standing alone, surrounded by fog so thick it seemed almost solid .

The mist lay across the entire space like a cloud had physically descended to ground level, reducing visibility to near nothing. He could barely see a few feet in front of his own face, everything beyond that distance disappearing into impenetrable white-gray.

Moon immediately activated his lighting rune, hoping the illumination would cut through the fog and reveal his surroundings.

But it didn’t help.

The light scattered chaotically within the dense mist, spreading outward in every direction without actually penetrating through the fog itself. Instead of creating visibility, the rune simply produced a dim, diffuse glow that remained trapped within the immediate area around him, actually making it harder to see by creating glare.

Moon deactivated the rune, returning to natural lighting. At least that way his eyes could adjust properly.

“Kael! Grant! Anyone here?!” Moon shouted, projecting his voice as loudly as possible.

But his shout felt weirdly muted, shortened inside the phenomenon. As if the vibrations of his voice lost strength and momentum almost immediately upon leaving his mouth, absorbed by the fog before they could carry any significant distance.

No response reached him from any direction. Only silence and the blank wall of mist.

Moon frowned with growing concern and immediately summoned wind element, channeling it outward in a powerful gust designed to push away the endless fog surrounding him.

But that didn’t work either.

The wind moved through the fog without dispersing it, as if the mist wasn’t actually composed of normal water vapor that could be blown away by air currents. It was something else entirely, something supernatural that ignored conventional physics.

The fog remained exactly as thick and impenetrable as before, completely unaffected by Moon’s attempt to clear it.

‘This isn’t natural mist, no mist would remain against such powerful winds.”

Before Moon could determine the cause behind the Wind, a notification blazed before his eyes—

[You have died!]

[You have lost 2000 Lives.]