Chapter 63: Relic & Change of Plans
The moment Damon took out the relic from the treasure chest, Kitsune’s voice cut through his head.
"My dear, you wouldn’t mind if I took it, would you?"
"You know what this is?"
"Hmm, I have a pretty good idea."
Intrigued by her desire for the relic, Damon opened his inventory and took a quick look at the description.
[Relic: Chalice of Restoration]
[Description: A golden chalice imbued with restorative magic. When filled and consumed, it has the ability to restore anything that was lost. Single use only.]
The name already gave him an idea of what the item might do, but the anything part was what surprised him the most.
’Could it be...’
Damon quickly realised the girl’s intentions. She wanted to use it to recover her tails.
But before he could promise to give her the relic, there was something else he needed to confirm.
"You guys don’t mind if I keep this, do you?" Damon suddenly asked out loud as he turned toward his group.
Although he was the one to defeat the chimera, Damon wasn’t alone, so it felt like common courtesy to at least ask his group if he could keep the item. Luckily, neither of them seemed interested in the golden chalice.
"No, no."
"Of course not."
Replies came quickly, and as they did, Damon dismissed the item to his inventory, leaving it for later.
He could tell how much Kitsune wanted to get her paws onto the relic straight away through their connection, but this wasn’t the place to do so, after all they were still inside the rift.
Damon turned to his group, who seemed to grow eager to leave this vile place, but as Damon took his last glance around, he couldn’t help but frown as he looked upon the cocoon hanging down from the dome-like ceiling.
Then, he suddenly sent a shard of black ice straight at one of them, and when the ability struck, his suspicion was confirmed true.
[You have slain a Level 15 Mimic Larve]
[New Monster Index bonus: +3 Mana, +3 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +3 Stamina]
The moment notifications came, Damon’s lips curved up slightly.
Although a +3 bonus to four stats was a nice touch, that wasn’t what Damon was after. It was the kill itself. A Level 15 monster wouldn’t get him any experience points as the gap between levels was too vast, but for his team? It was a perfect farming group.
Within the next moments, Damon sent two dozen shards, letting the cocoons drop to the ground without killing them.
Then, he turned to his group.
"Kill them if you wanna level up"
The group didn’t hesitate. The words level up pushed everyone to action, and within no more than two minutes, they were already done.
After confirming they were done with everything inside, Damon leapt into the air and imbued mana into the rift core, shattering it in an instant and bringing them back on earth.
"Ahh, it feels good!" Nyla exclaimed as she took a deep breath.
The others quickly agreed.
Damon, although he, too, was happy to be out of the rift, couldn’t share their happiness.
’It’s the first day, and we’ve already lost one person...’
The thought was tough.
It was far from his fault, the man died fighting his own clone, yet it still weighed on him.
"Did Axel have any family?" Damon suddenly asked, wiping smiles from everyone’s faces.
"He has a sister. She’s in the central station." Elias replied with a sour look on his face.
Damon nodded.
His initial plan was to stay active around the city, move from rift to rift and sleep in nearby abandoned buildings. His only plan to return to the central station was two days before they would siege the citadel, but now he felt different.
He was the leader of the group, so it only felt natural that he should inform Axel’s sister of his passing.
"Let’s get going. We’ll return to the station before our next rift."
***
Central Station.
Victor limped as he entered the main area of the central station. His group’s first rift was tougher than he expected it to be, and despite his high level, the F-Rank rift left his mana on fumes, having to heal everyone over and over again until he had no more mana left to heal his own leg, which bled pretty badly.
He wanted to follow the same strategy as Damon, move around the city and sleep anywhere they found themselves in, but with his injuries, he decided against it. If anything strong came their way, he wasn’t certain he could face it in his current state.
Suddenly, his grimace vanished as he noticed Ivy walk several meters ahead of him.
"Ivy!" he called out, and the girl quickly turned around.
"Victor? What are you-"
The girl’s question died mid-sentence as she noticed his injured leg.
"Don’t worry, once my mana recovers, I’ll be able to heal it."
As he said it, Victor turned to his group, giving commands and telling them to rest as they would leave first thing in the morning.
Then him and Ivy decided to talk in the leadership meeting room.
"How was your group’s first rift?" Victor asked.
"Terrible," she let out a disappointing sigh, "What about yours?"
Victor chuckled nervously as he glanced at his injured leg. "It wasn’t much better, but at least everyone’s alright."
He opened his mouth to add something else, but at that moment, a loud knock hit the wooden door of the room.
A man wearing steel armour walked in. "Ivy, there is someone eager to speak with the leader of our group."
Ivy raised a brow.
Those things happened.
People who heard of their group often wanted to join, so it wasn’t unusual for someone to make such a request.
Normally, she would brush it off and tell someone else to deal with it while she kept herself busy managing more important things like supplies, but right now, she already had someone assigned to do that, so she made an exception.
"Sure, let them in," she replied.
After a few seconds of waiting, a woman walked into the room, and immediately the atmosphere shifted.
Her tall black leather boots clicked softly against the floor with deliberate confidence, while her hips swayed just the right amount. Short black hair brushed gently against the top of her neck as she moved
Ivy’s gaze immediately dropped to the revolver holstered at the woman’s hip, a weapon that looked oddly ordinary in this new world full of swords and magic.
"So," Eve suddenly spoke, "Which one of you is the leader?"