From the ruins of sand and stone, after an unknown amount of time—perhaps an hour or even longer—Riven struggled to crawl out.
His body was filthy and stained.
Wounds covered his entire frame, but strangely, his legs were intact.
Riven had bet on two things, and both had come true.
It was a gamble; if either one had failed, everything would have ended.
According to Riven's observations, everything here adjusted to the scale of the "challenger's" power.
If the gatekeeper golem was like that, the traps should be too.
He was right.
When the Undead Wyvern triggered them, the traps scaled to its power and killed it.
The second bet was Canis's earring.
It could save Canis in that state, but the traps triggered by the Wyvern had nearly ground Riven into dust.
He could only hope the earring truly worked.
As a result, he had been closer to death than ever and felt the [death force].
After two or three hours, the pure white earring turned pitch black, shattered, and Riven woke up.
Crawling out from the rocks, he looked inside with satisfaction.
"Brainless creature. Having power without brains is truly too easy to deal with."
But suddenly, the pile of rocks shook violently.
A small roar emitted through the crevices, growing louder and louder.
"What the fuck?!"
Riven immediately ran at full speed.
He had been unconscious long enough for the others to escape.
He wasn't sure if the thing moving the rocks was the Undead Wyvern or not.
But it was better to be safe than sorry.
Since Riven himself had survived, there was no guarantee that creature was dead.
[quest: help Baz, Sylvie, and Lan leave safely. reward: 50 RPG Coins, 2 skill points, 1 fixed skill slot. penalty: death.] [completed]
So they really had escaped. Perhaps they would call for help.
Regardless, trusting others wasn't as good as trusting himself.
Riven rushed off like a gust of wind.
He had many skill points now, but nothing felt immediately useful.
Suddenly, rocks and soil flew everywhere from behind.
From the ruins, the Undead Wyvern emerged, spreading its wings, though it seemed unable to fly. Its body was riddled with holes.
Riven speculated it hadn't searched for him earlier because it was too heavily injured.
Coincidentally, they both recovered at the same time.
This filled Riven with despair.
If even that destructive trap didn't kill it, what could?
Despite his panic, his legs kept moving.
Behind him, the Undead Wyvern roared and crawled like a lizard.
Since it lost its flight and Riven had a head start, it couldn't catch him instantly.
"You damn lizard!"
Riven wished he could speak Wyvern or Undead just to curse at its face and ask why it was targeting him.
But he couldn't.
Suddenly, a pitch-black metal gate appeared ahead. The exit.
They were only 3km away, but it was the furthest 3km of Riven's life.
A flash of insight sparked in the youth's mind.
The gate. The necklace. Kamis's vague words.
Riven suddenly burst out laughing like a madman.
"Hahaha! The key has always been in my hands!"
Though gasping for air from running at full capacity, his speed didn't falter.
He was forcing his body to operate at an extreme level.
Pretending to forget the fatigue—he had vaguely learned this after experiencing that one "perfect minute."
The Wyvern's two wings seemed to have recovered.
It gradually took flight and quickly caught up with Riven again.
Only 100m left. Sword auras from its claws fired out once more.
Riven's face was flushed red, his lungs nearly exploding.
He pushed for a few more seconds until the distance was only 60m.
He used Shadow Shift to teleport backward.
His body couldn't handle even one more second of running. Losing mana was better than losing his life.
Losing another 30% of his remaining 70% mana left him with 49% of his original mana.
In an instant, he teleported to the other side of the gate.
He ripped the cube necklace off his neck and focused intensely.
Everything happened in a heartbeat, but this heartbeat was the boundary of life and death.
The moment the Undead Wyvern got close enough, Riven jammed the cube necklace into the pedestal.
He poured mana into the stone, forcing the gate to close faster.
The two doors slammed together like a crusher, pulping the Undead Wyvern into a mess of flesh.
Its head flew toward Riven and stopped at his feet.
The head seemed to try and restructure its cells, but a mystical power from the metal gate stopped it.
It seemed to completely counter its regeneration.
The creature struggled to squirm, then finally stopped.
The light faded from its eyes.
[received 354 exp. you have leveled up.]
[name: ????]
[class: thief lv 30 | priest lv 30]
[received 6 additional skill points.]
[stats increased significantly.]
Riven stared at the Wyvern's head at his feet.
His heart throbbed as if it wanted to burst through his chest.
His blood boiled with excitement and... relief.
He panted, his hands trembling as he took the cube necklace out of the pedestal.
As he tucked it away, a familiar voice suddenly rang out.
'Riven, you've done it.'
He opened his eyes and found himself back in the Sacred Tree Forest, which shocked him.
Kamis stood there, seemingly enjoying his expression.
"Old man, didn't you say you were only omnipotent in that place?"
Feeling that Kamis had no ill intent—and even admired him—Riven's confidence returned.
"I have a link with the karma bearer I've touched, so i can interact with you specifically."
"Setting that aside, you have passed the test and proven yourself worthy. It is time."
Kamis's body glowed, the space shook, and Riven felt a terrible dizziness.
When he closed and opened his eyes, everything looked the same, but something had changed.
The mysterious purple light had vanished.
The precious magic stones growing everywhere were gone.
But the Sacred Tree Forest within the barrier remained.
Kamis stood there, staring at Riven.
Suddenly, a system notification appeared.
[trial quest: survive the Cave of Creation and find a Primal Aspect to unlock the unsealed functions of the cave.] [completed]