Chapter 50: It’s Time
In the open expanse covered in thick snow, sprawled across the white field, lay the broken body of a massive centipede, its corpse stretching nearly four meters long.
The creature’s icy blue blood had splattered across the snow in wide arcs, staining the ground in hues of frost and decay. Its thick, chitinous armor, once a near-impervious shell of dark, crystalline plates, was now split and torn, deep gashes running down its side like cleaved bark.
A gaping wound at its neck, jagged and raw, as if left behind by an internal explosion, marked the final blow, the one that had killed the monster.
Around it, four figures rested in silence, surrounded by the ghostly calm of the Frostveil Expanse.
Vlad sat atop the creature’s segmented back, resting with one leg drawn up, the other hanging casually over the curve of its armored spine.
On his shoulder, Vel sat, her green eyes gleaming with joy as she held up a glowing crystal, rich green, veined with strands of violet, pulsing softly in her hand like a living gem.
Fritz and Jade sat a few meters away, leaning back against a small ridge of ice, their breaths visible in the cold. Neither spoke, but both kept glancing toward Vlad.
They had been raiding the dungeon together for nearly eleven hours now, fighting nonstop, cutting through waves of Centipede, Frostfang Wolves, and other beasts.
This was their fourth Dungeon run, and they had yet to take a break even though night had descended in the outside world.
"Jade," Vlad said without looking up, his voice low but clear, "If you are worried, I will ask you guys to do another dungeon run tonight... don’t."
"We’ll rest properly and restart tomorrow," Vlad said, and Jade blinked, caught off guard.