The person who rescued us was someone familiar.
She looked at us with her yellowish eyes as her futuristic-looking glasses glowed dimly, showing strings of data.
"Hurry up, I don't know how long the stun grenade will distract it."
She pulled our arms with surprising strength despite her slim build, while her squarish ears twitched slightly, listening to the sounds in our surroundings.
At the same time, a stream of mana flowed into her deer-like antlers as countless small nanobots arranged around us, creating some kind of barrier.
I was surprised by the unusual sight, but even more surprising was that she, a celer, risked her life to help us.
"This barrier should be able to help us to hide, but it will be useless if there are too many of them nearby," K'erta explained.
"I can help too," I spoke up and quickly activated Confidence, using it to mask our auras.
K'erta was surprised when she saw my technique before letting out a smirk.
"So you had something like that, huh? I guess saving you was the right choice."
I forced out a smile and continued running.
Five minutes later, the three of us were finally far enough and stopped to rest.
K'erta leaned her body against a tree and exhaled tiredly.
"Damn, that was dangerous."
I looked at her and took a deep breath.
"Thank you for helping us."
"Mm." Hela nodded as well.
"Don't mention it." K'erta waved her hand nonchalantly. "I was also helping myself. If we want to have a chance to survive in this hellish place, we need to gather as much help as possible."
I nodded while inwardly admiring her.
Humans and celers have been at war for several years. The fact that she could easily let go of any prejudice to help us says a lot about her character.
At the very least, I'm not sure if I can do the same.
"How did you find us?" I asked while we were resting.
"I used these cuties," K'erta smirked while waving her hand. Immediately, several nanobots gathered over her hand and took the shape of a small beetle.
The small beetle then opened its wings and flew away.
"These cuties have reconnaissance abilities. I asked them to fly as far as they could and locate any sign of living beings, but you two are the firsts I find."
Hela and I were surprised.
At the same time, I was excited.
With these, it should be easier to find Ley.
I looked at K'erta and put on a hesitant expression.
Noticing it, she smirked.
"What? Do you need my help to find your sister?"
I smiled in embarrassment.
After all, she just helped me, and I barely knew her.
Moreover, we can be considered enemies rather than friends.
Asking her for help was rather shameless.
Even so, I thickened my face and nodded.
"Can you? Please?"
K'erta looked straight into my eyes before smiling.
"Of course I can. I told you, if we want to survive inside this hell, we need as much help as possible. However, I'm not confident I can find her. I can only do my best."
"Thank you," I said sincerely.
After a while, we rested enough and K'erta urged us to move.
"This place is very dangerous, and staying in the same place for long could easily wake up the specters sleeping in the forest. Follow me, I know the way out."
Hela and I nodded.
During the way, the atmosphere between us was a bit awkward, after all, celers and humans had a hostile relationship.
In fact, Hela had not spoken a word since K'erta appeared and just held my hand while keeping a distance from her.
I hesitated briefly and decided to start a conversation.
After all, now that we are working together, it's better to learn more about each other.
"You seem to know a lot about this place."
K'erta nodded.
"Yeah, we should be on the planet you humans call ghostland, right?"
I was surprised.
"Why the surprise?" K'erta asked with an amused smile. "We studied the worlds connected to Earth as soon as we discovered them. I'm sure we know more about this place than you humans."
"Really?"
"Yeah. According to our investigations, this planet flourished with life in the past, with a great variety of wildlife and even its own civilization. However, a thousand years ago, a disaster struck this planet, destroying most lifeforms inhabiting this planet. Only plants and microorganisms survived."
"The specters, huh."
K'erta nodded.
"We are not sure about their origin. They could have been the result of an experiment gone wrong, or perhaps some of them fell into this world inside a meteorite. There is also the chance that they just appeared out of nothing and afterward obliterated the life on this planet. We don't really know, and it's very difficult to investigate due to how dangerous this planet is."
"Then, do you know a way to leave this place?" I asked hopefully.
K'erta hesitated briefly and shook her head.
"I activated my emergence signal when I realized we fell here, but I don't know how effective it will be. If we are lucky, my people will send a rescue team in a few days. We are unlucky, they will arrive after several months, or perhaps not arrive at all."
My expression became grave.
K'erta's expression was just as grave.
"Actually, the chances of help never arriving are very high. This planet was classified with a danger of five in our database, the second highest danger level. It means that anyone below Irregular is guaranteed to die after falling here. Do you know what an Irregular is?"
I nodded shocked.
The demon has explained to me how powerful Irregulars are. According to him, they are people who have surpassed the limits imposed by the world.
In tiers, their minimum would be tier eleven.
But that tier is just the lowest prerequisite to survive in this place.
Does it mean that we, with strength around tier six and seven at most, are doomed?
Even the demon in my mind put on a solemn expression.
[It seems that the problem this time is very serious. Boy, you must be prepared.]
Why?
[Because if this world is really that dangerous, then even I could be unable to help you.]
My expression sank.
It seems like we are really in deep shit.