Speak!

At first, the System where Yuuta would be on the vanguard and Miki on the rearguard worked pretty well— that is, it was effective at first. But as they ventured deeper into the Forest, the density of the forest increased along with the density of the Evil Spirit. Yuuta was forced to aggressively brandished the Black Grsrzy Scarf around while Miki used the Holy Sword of Light and Truth to cut down any Evil Spirit that would wander too near towards them. Since Yuuta couldn't really see where the Evil Spirits were since he hasn't activated his Third-Eye Skill, he was just blindly waving the Black Grsrzy Scarf, much to Miki and Yua's disappointment.

Due to this, they came at a point where they weren't moving at all, and the Evil Spirits were slowly coming up to them, pressuring them to get out of the Forest. Had it not been for the Holy Sword of Light and Truth and the Black Grsrzy Scarf, they would've been killed by the Evil Spirits by now.

"Yuuta, aren't you going to do something about this? At this rate we'll die and rank down, you know." Miki worriedly asked. She was beginning to feel exhausted after using the Holy Sword of Light and Truth for an hour now.

"This much is fine, but I can't really escape right now. The Evil Spirits already blocked all of our escape routes." Compared to Miki, Yua was already genuinely scared. Of course, she only had one life. If everything goes south and they'd have to die, it wouldn't be as problematic to both Miki and Yuuta, but as for her, she only has one life— that's how it normally is, right?

To Yua, she couldn't understand how someone could die and revive just like that. But after seeing it happen to a lot of Dreamers, she knew that it must've been normal for them. And when Kazunari explained how all of these were essentially just dreams that happen in all the Dreamers' minds, she couldn't believe it. And yet, here they are, on the brink of death, yet Yuuta and Miki didn't even feel scared at all.

"Fine, fine, I'll do something, don't be surprised." Yuuta scratched his head as he put the Black Grsrzy Scarf on his pockets, allowing the Black Spirit to be able to approach them. But just before they did, he activated the skill that he resolutely didn't want to activate.

<Would you like to activate a skill?>

<Please choose a skill you like to activate>

<You have selected the Skill: Third-Eye>

<Would you like to activate the Skill?>

<Yes/No>

<You have activated the Skill: Third Eye>

Flash! An intense white light suddenly encompassed the whole area for a split second. When it was gone, a third eye could be seen on Yuuta's forehead, with veins branching off of it. The eyes had the same color as Yuuta's but it moved differently compared to Yuuta's eyes. A few seconds later, it was gone, but Yuuta could tell that it was still activated. The skill probably didn't want to show the eyes for too long since it looked more creepy the longer time passes. It was a relief for Yuuta since he didn't want to go around the place with a third eye on his forehead.

Compared to before, everything in the Forest became a lot clearer as if his eyes became an upgraded camera. And there were additional entities in the forest as well— the Evil Spirits that Yuuta dreaded to see.

But upon looking at them, they weren't that scary at all. They looked like formless black smoke with one to three small red orbs as their eyes. Every Evil Spirit looked different but they have a lot in common. Some of them were as small as a mouse while some of them were taller than the trees. Their oppressive aura varies from one Evil Spirit to another as well, and their strength didn't really match their size that much. To Yuuta, he could tell that these guys were only scary because there was little to no information known about them. And it could be argued that the Evil Spirits looked scary, but to Yuuta's perspective, they weren't. He wasn't fazed at all after seeing hundreds of them all at once.

"I thought they'd look scarier than this, honestly." Yuuta scratched his head for a second time before approaching an Evil Spirit in front of him. The Evil Spirit had three small red orbs as its eyes and it was as tall as Yuuta. "You!" Yuuta screamed as he pointed at the Evil Spirit.

From what he could remember, the Third-Eye Skill gives him the ability to talk to the Evil Spirits so he was confident that the Evil Spirit would understand him once he talked to it. But as soon as he did that, the Evil Spirit was shocked. It was a first for it to meet a human that could speak their language. In a panic, the Evil Spirit fled from the scene, shrieking in an indistinct manner as it went.

On one side, the Evil Spirits were bewildered. How could a mere human speak their own language? And how could he speak it fluently and without difficulty at all?

And on the other hand, there were Miki and Yua, who stared at Yuuta as if they just saw an alien. When he shouted the single word 'You!' to the Evil Spirit and it fled, they thought that the word he used to effortlessly ward off Evil Spirits. However, they couldn't make sense of it. When Yuuta spoke, it sounded as if he wasn't the one speaking, his accent, his voice, and the single word he voiced out all sounded so unnatural as if he were summoning a demon.

"Yuuta, what was that?" Miki asked as all the Evil Spirits froze in place.

"Can you speak to them, Yuuta?" Yua joined in. She was just as confused as Miki.

Surprised, Yuuta normally stared at them and said. "No, I just spoke like I normally would. I called out to the Evil Spirit, wanting to speak to it, but it ran off somewhere."

Suddenly, the Evil Spirits started murmuring amongst themselves. They couldn't believe what was happening at all, and so, they decided to inquire amongst each other. As for Yua and Miki, however, they couldn't understand what the Evil Spirits were saying since all they could hear were indistinct murmurs that sounded so ominous.

But to Yuuta, he could understand them pretty well.

"He could speak to us!"

"Is he human?"

"No, we just came here a week or two ago, there's no way a human could learn our language that fast."

"But he was speaking our language! Didn't you see him call out to Vrsx just now?"

"No, it must've been an accident! Besides! It's just a single word!"

"Yeah, maybe he just said that without knowing what it meant."

"I know right, there's no way he could understand us nor speak to us, right?"

"I could hear you, you know." Yuuta approached the trembling Evil Spirits, speaking their language as clear as day. "Who's your leader? I'd like to talk to him."