The Dreamer's POV

I went higher, intending to leave this damning boring place.

What was I thinking, spending my time here? The system didn't say Suphas was within the hidden city, for all I know, it could be at the center of the jungle,or the edge.

I furrowed my brows, I didn't like this, wasting time on floors wasn't something I wanted to make a habit. Though Mage'Earth was boring and needlessly complicated, it had people that I cared about, and I needed to be certain that they were alright.

Had it taken a minute later, chances were that I would have missed it. However, I was just in range, <Immersion> had picked a sound up, a ringing sound kilometers away. It was resounding and once I pinpointed it, it felt like it was hitting my eardrums.

I looked to the trees' canopies, and then to the desolate city, feeling slightly conflicted about whether I should check whatever it was. The thing could very well be a ghostwave, and that would be incredibly disappointing. But, it could be something else, something interesting, it could be…

"Suphas?"

I utilized <Grand Flight> and zoomed to the scene, crossing thousands of meters in a second. And there I was, outside a building that looked to be built after a slightly crumpled bottle. The building bent slightly to the side, it was cylindrical like most bottles, and its width shrank from the bottom to up.

The ringing sound was much louder now, I felt tension coming from it, and it was unstopping and uniform.

I got to the eccentric white house, and just by the door, I stood, hesitating and confused. This was someone's house, what if an actual person was in there, a person of the original builders?

"No, I shook my head." And I stopped myself from knocking, instead I took the knob and I got in. Surprisingly, the door was opened.

A warm dim light hit me soon as I entered. My eyes widened in surprise. Before me, just meters away was a hammer beating on a piece of metal. Yes, just a hammer in mid air, repeatedly striking an ingot that didn't bend nor change shape.

'What is this?' This was incredibly strange to me, a floating hammer, and an unchanging ingot. What did it mean?

The sparks that came from each strike sent little light across the room until they went out, there were no windows, and I would be blind in here if not for my abilities.

'<Absolute Appraisal>'

My black eyes radiated a warm glow, and more was revealed to me.

[System Notification]

[Status Information]

Name: Ghostwave hybrid ??? Continue your adventure at empire

Level: ??

Life Force: ??

Energy Level:???

Combat Ability:???

[Titles]

<The Forger>n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Skills]

<Rings of Creation>, <Intangibility>, <Telepathy>

Current Status: Occupied, mind-drunk

[Additional Information]

Ghostwaves are birthed from the solitude of a city, marking it as a ghost town. Their presence causes a number of phenomenons that aren't particularly known. Study of them is little to none, and they are best to be left alone. They do cause the environment to which they dwell to be exceedingly cold.

The Forge?????????????

????????????

[End Of Information]

That wasn't right, never had a creature had so many question marks on its status information, this was unprecedented.

The hammer that struck was gigantic, almost the size of my body, and the metal was like a boulder, all these were captivating, but I was a lot more interested in the mechanics of the hammer hitting the ingot with no arm behind it.

'A magical hammer or a contraption?'

The interior of the abode was a lot larger than what I would have guessed seeing it from outside, this had to be the work of some magic, it just didn't make sense, and nothing made less sense than magic.

The interior was large, almost like it was made for parties and not some ugly shaped metal sitting on a table being relentlessly struck by a hammer that was equally as massive.

I took a step, and then began walking to it. I had decided that I was going to check what this was about.

I had <Haven> active just in case anything out of my control happened, and it pays to be cautious.

The metal and hammer zoomed in size as I got close, and I was by the metallic platform on which the hammer struck. It was even more fantastic seeing it up close.

'Amazing.' Watching it strike, dense metal against dense metal, invoked a sense of awe within me, and without thinking, I stretched my arm and felt the ingot.

"Ah!" I quickly withdrew it, backstepping and then arching in pain. The ingot was indescribably hot, just how didn't it burn up the place with its heat? How did I only notice when I felt it? My palm had burnt away, and I could see my searing flesh fighting to regenerate from the lingering heat. I withdrew my hand immediately I touched it, much less than a second and it had done so much damage to my hand already.

I looked up, and saw the hammer in midair, paused and not hitting the ingot any longer. I didn't realize that it had stopped until I took a look once again.

I don't know what it was, how it got there, whether it had been there since I entered, but something slowly materialized into form, and the first feature I saw was a hateful frown.

I was shocked.

Holding the hammer appeared to be a ghostwave thing in the shape of a man but still distinct, jutting out from a half tree torso from the side and then forming up to be an ethereal ghost thing, with long thin arms–of which one held the massive hammer. Its head was strangely round, like that or an octopus or squid and in place of a mouth were tentacles.

"A ghostwave hybrid." I muttered, slowly backstepped.

And then it slowly opened its mouth. Words escaped,

"All ye who enter here shall join the ingot and shall be ground to nothing." It said with a deep voice that was complemented by a strange humming sound underneath.