the cave of creation.
suddenly, a mysterious purple light flashed. seeing the scene unfold before him, baz retreated in fear.
even a warrior unafraid to use life-gambling skills trembled at this sight.
canis's corpse abruptly regrew its limbs. the wounds healed completely, and he slowly stood up. realizing the grave danger, baz rushed forward, intending to finish him off.
at first, he might have spared canis, but they had just literally chopped him into pieces. according to baz, even the calmest person would find no possibility of reconciliation after such an event; the two sides were mortal enemies.
"stop. this is my skill."
riven spoke calmly. hearing this, baz looked at riven in confusion, trying to see through him. this defied his common sense. how could such massive wounds be healed?
moreover, isn't this basically resurrecting the dead? if so, why the hell are we looking for the heavenly heart wood? why not just bring riven back to save the patriarch? leaving that aside, isn't this a skill for high-level priests or necromancers? how can a low-level scout use it?
seeming to read baz's thoughts, this time riven calmly explained instead of ignoring him as usual. after all, having been on the same side in a life-and-death battle had fostered some camaraderie.
"he has become my slave. don't worry."
although baz still had many questions, since riven didn't volunteer more information, he understood that riven didn't want to talk, and asking would be useless.
in front of riven, his status board now displayed an additional class: thief lv 15 (active) | priest lv 15 [ultimate skill sub-skill: career management. swap the class you want to use. exp received will be split 5:5 for the 2 existing classes, or can be fully funneled into one class, or the ratio can be customized as you wish.]
'i see. so each of my classes has its own level. currently, exp is constantly increasing from that strange purple light, so let's just split it 5:5. no need to rush changing professions; being a thief still offers better survival than a priest.'
riven didn't even bother giving an order. canis's clone used [heal] on riven as if reading riven's mind.
he slowly approached the knight puppet and ordered canis to retrieve it.
"baz, you've seen too much."
hearing these words, baz looked at riven with anxiety. he was almost out of mana. riven was quite injured, but the variable was canis.
riven's killing intent radiated, filling the space and making it hard for baz to breathe.
"i've found you an eyesore for a long time. besides, your usefulness has run out."
baz shouted in anger.
"you bastard pretty boy! we fought side by side, and now you betray me just like that?"
baz had suspected riven of too many things. he had seen riven do so much that no matter how stupid he was, he realized riven was not simple.
"only the dead can keep secrets."
the aura exploded. both canis and riven stared at baz. but then everything stopped. riven just smiled, slowly approached baz, and patted his shoulder.
"just kidding. don't be so tense. i have to go back to protect sylvie. you still can't reveal yourself. be the sword in the shadows silently protecting her, and the time for vindication will come."
riven had read quite a few of these "chicken blood" speeches in stories. he understood that muscle-brained types like baz were easily swayed.
just as riven predicted, baz nodded repeatedly, complying. baz didn't understand why he trusted the person who had harmed him so many times in a row. riven had framed him, but he had also exposed the one plotting to harm the lady.
he seemed to possess a mysterious charm. baz nodded and obeyed the instructions, his mind constantly imagining scenes of a hero saving a beauty.
"when following us, only look at me. absolutely do not look at lan and farrdin. there is a high chance they have anti-reconnaissance skills."
riven had inserted the magic stone fragments into the neck ring golem he picked up. suddenly, he was teleported ten meters away. seeing this, baz seemed to remember that riven had disappeared when he touched that golem for the first time.
"pretty boy, what is that piece of scrap metal?"
"a toy i picked up."
the golem's eyes lit up. mana circuits glowed with white light and linked together. it raised its hands towards riven like a cute kitten asking for food, making riven wary.
riven actually loved cute animals like dogs and cats, but he didn't love robots at all. yet just now, he couldn't help but almost hug it.
'is this a mental attack?'
seeing the effect recorded on the dungeon log, riven realized he had indeed been hit by this effect.
'why didn't [steel mind] block it? is this not counted as a detrimental effect?'
seeing baz doting on the golem left riven speechless. he snatched the golem from baz's hands and stuffed a magic stone into its mouth roughly. although its appearance didn't change, its level was increasing steadily.
'this thing's teleportation mechanism might be useful.'
riven and canis walked side by side back to the gathering point. as they walked, canis healed riven. baz silently followed them from a distance like a lone wolf.
baz had ascended to level 11 after the battle, and his combat skills were not to be underestimated.
after a while, they finally returned. seeing canis and riven, who had left looking a bit unhappy but returned with arms around each other's shoulders like best friends who hadn't met in a long time, made sylvie smile brightly and boast to lan.
"see? i told you i wasn't wrong. look at them."
but then everyone seemed to realize something was strange, just not clear where. finally, farrdin spoke up.
"canis, did your arm just grow back?"
at the same time, both riven and sylvie collapsed, forcing farrdin to put this matter aside.
"how is the lady? is she okay?"
canis's face looked extremely grim. worrying for his original body made his voice choke up a bit.
"the current situation is extremely bad. we have at most 5 hours left."
"why only 5 hours? didn't you say 20 hours last time? it hasn't even been 15 hours since then."
farrdin asked impatiently.
"that was under normal conditions. during the fight with the golem, movement and excessive stress caused the poison to spread faster."
"then let's go."
farrdin didn't blame canis for not saying it sooner. he was currently the team leader, and when a problem arose, the leader's job wasn't to assign blame but to find a solution.
the two had fallen into a deep coma, making it very difficult to wake up. riven had transferred his consciousness into canis's clone.
currently, he was truly panicked, worried for both sylvie and himself.
farrdin tried to appear calm as he hoisted riven onto his shoulder.
"canis, carry the lady. we have explored everything here; only the deep inner part remains unexplored. we must hurry; time is as precious as gold."
canis, or currently riven, nodded. he had to save himself and sylvie at all costs. he carried sylvie on his back. her firm and elastic chest pressed against his back, making riven jealous of his own clone.
'actually, that should be me... wait, both are me. this is so weird.'
the stream of thoughts was washed away like the tide by time.
the mini-map in front of him displayed all the areas here; only the final dark zone deep inside remained. the group stood before the tunnel the golem had guarded.
the cave shook violently once again.
the roar of the undead wyvern was closer than ever. however, they had no time for this now; the top priority was saving sylvie.
with determination in their hearts, they walked forward. the deeper they went, the clearer the purple light became.