Chapter 29: Exploring the inheritance
Arriving at the cave, they first searched for any potential threats.
After carefully checking the surroundings three times and finding nothing unusual, they finally decided to enter inside.
"I’ll go first. Follow behind me."
Samminah muttered softly as she cautiously stepped into the cave.
Ryven nodded and signaled for Fred to follow behind her. It was only natural for her to take the lead. Among the three of them, she was unquestionably the strongest.
As they continued walking deeper inside, the cave was eerily silent.
It was so quiet that they could hear their breaths and even the beating of their hearts.
Of course, Fred was the only exception, since skeletons didn’t have hearts or lungs to begin with.
"This place is stranger than I expected. The last time we came here, I didn’t feel this tense."
Ryven muttered softly, hoping to ease the tension.
Samminah didn’t respond, her gaze remaining fixed on the path ahead.
Ahead of them was the same darkness, that seemed capable of swallowing any trace of light.
It blanketed the passage like an endless abyss.
Just as Ryven was about to activate Night Perception, he suddenly sensed a change in his surroundings.
The moment Samminah stepped into the darkness, countless torches lining the walls suddenly ignited one after another.
The flames spread deeper into the cave, illuminating a path that had previously been hidden within deep darkness.
"T-this...?"
Ryven’s eyes widened in astonishment.
Before them stretched a massive passageway.
The cave was far larger than they had imagined.
"This is very interesting, isn’t it?"
Samminah muttered, sounding somewhat amused.
"Uhm... Should we keep going?"
Ryven asked anxiously. Noticing no threat only made him even more uneasy.
"If you don’t want to, then go back."
Samminah replied without even turning around.
Ryven’s mouth twitched slightly.
In the end, he silently walked ahead of Fred and made sure to stay as close to Samminah as possible.
As they continued forward, the atmosphere gradually became tense. After several minutes of walking, the scenery ahead barely changed.
The passage continued endlessly forward as though there was no end to the cave.
For a brief moment, Ryven couldn’t help but wonder if they had entered some kind of loop.
However, he quickly shook the thought away.
Making conclusions with so few clues would most likely lead to mistakes.
An entire hour then passed.
Yet the cave still stretched endlessly into the distance.
The rows of torches continued to ignite one after another as they advanced, illuminating the path ahead before darkness swallowed everything in front of them once more.
Their footsteps echoed repeatedly throughout the cavern.
"Let’s take a rest..."
Ryven said while catching his breath.
Although his stamina had increased considerably, he still felt exhausted.
After all, they had been traveling almost nonstop for quite some time.
Samminah nodded without any expression.
Though she wasn’t tired yet, she decided to be considerate of Ryven’s comparatively weaker body.
Just as they were about to sit down and rest—
They suddenly heard strange footsteps.
Subconsciously, they turned toward the source of the sound.
Immediately, countless shadowy figures began emerging from the darkness.
Ryven’s eyes widened in shock as he recognized those abominations.
The Black Guardian!
Every abomination possessed the same crimson eyes and silver armor, each holding an identical longsword. There didn’t seem to be any body beneath the armor; as expected, the inside was filled entirely with darkness.
"This is seriously unfair. They decide to show up the moment we’re about to rest?"
Ryven muttered in annoyance. "This cave is more treacherous than I thought."
Meanwhile, Samminah remained calm.
But, her expression gradually turned serious as more and more Black Guardians continued pouring out from the darkness ahead.
Eventually, fifty Second-Stage Black Guardians stood before them.
Yet, the endless darkness ahead of them, still wasn’t over.
Five Third-Stage abominations soon emerged from the corners ahead of them.
"Dark Wardens...?"
Samminah frowned.
The Dark Wardens looked almost identical to the Black Guardians.
However, they were nearly twice their size and wielded massive greatswords instead of longswords.
But, they were two times the size of the black guardians and the sword they held was a greatsword.
Just when she thought the summoning would stop—
More Black Guardians and Dark Wardens continued emerging endlessly from the darkness.
Seeing their numbers increase further, Samminah’s expression turned cold.
Without hesitation she took the initiative and attack with her moonlight blades. Now that she had reached Level Twenty, she could summon up to twelve Moonlight Blades.
However, to conserve Mana, she only summoned five.
Even so, each blade was now over two meters long, shaped like a crescent moon.
Combined with the stronger Moon Luminsce, each moonlight blade’s aura became even more imposing.
The moment the Moonlight Blades shot forward, the Black Guardians immediately reacted and charged toward them.
Fortunately, the distance between both sides was still considerable due to the enormous size of the cavern.
This allowed Ryven and Samminah to attack safely from afar.
The Moonlight Blades swept across the battlefield, within a few seconds, at least fifteen Black Guardians instantly lost their heads.
Ryven didn’t remain idle either.
One Sword Slash after another shot forward, killing five more Black Guardians.
However, just as they killed about twenty of them, ten more Black Guardians manifested.
What’s even more absurd was that another two Dark Wardens emerged as well.
At this rate, if they merely waited for a minute, the twenty Black Guardians they had slain would be replenished.
Why are there so many of them?
Ryven thought as a sense of crisis rose within him.
Although Samminah could defeat Fourth-Stage abominations—and even Fifth-Stage abominations. The sheer number of Second-Stage and Third-Stage enemies was an even greater threat right now.
"Don’t think too much. Just kill as many as you can."
Samminah instructed while continuously controlling her Moonlight Blades, cutting down Black Guardians one after another.
Fred, meanwhile, could only charge forward.
Without any long-range attacks, the skeleton could only contribute on the front lines.
It didn’t take long before several Black Guardians closed the distance.
However, those who approached were struck down by Fred’s Ravenous Strike.
The battle continued as they relentlessly cut down the abominations.
But when the Third-Stage Dark Wardens joined the fight, Samminah had no choice but to adjust her approach.
She now had to reinforce two Moonlight Blades with Moon Luminescence just to instantly behead them.
Their armor was far thicker and sturdier than that of the Second-Stage Black Guardians.
To maintain the same pace as before, she could only summon all twelve Moonlight Blades to keep up with the endless wave of abominations.
The consequences of using her abilities in its limits, her Mana consumption increased severalfold.
In the front line, Ryven fought alongside Fred.
Activating Iron Body, he swung his sword directly at the Black Guardians’s weak points and blind spots.
By now, he had already adapted to fighting them. Fred had long since discovered their weaknesses—the neck and the gaps between their armor.
F*ck, if we hadn’t leveled up a few times, this would’ve been even more troublesome.
Ryven thought as adrenaline surged through his body. Even though he was tired and exhausted, the rush allowed him to move efficiently.
As the fight continued, he kicked a group of approaching Black Guardians away. Relying purely on instinct, he followed up with a sword slash aimed precisely at the gaps in their armor.
The blade swept through them cleanly, killing four on the spot.
Yet as soon as they fell, the darkness ahead produced four more Black Guardians.
Haaa...
Ryven breathed heavily, his face turning pale as his grip on the sword tightened.
Unlike the other two, he was reaching his limit. Fred and Samminah were still close to their peak condition.
At this rate, he would be the first one unable to hold the line.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, he had no choice but to use the accumulated experience points.
[Would you like to transfer the experience points to ??? Or take it all to yourself?]
[Would you like to transfer the experience points to Fred Or take it all to yourself?]
Without hesitation, he claimed half of the experience points.
[+2100 Experience Points]
[Host, Level increased +3]
Upon hearing the notification, he immediately checked his status.
[Gacha System] [Arcane Points:6]
[Name: Ryven Calestair] [Level: 17] [EXP: 300/800]
[Strength: 15] [Agility: 16] [Durability: 14]
[Reflex: 10] [Speed: 16] [Endurance: 15]
[Stamina: 18] [Mana: 18]
[Class:Gacha Summoning] [Rank:SSS]
[Tickets: 5 Bronze Ticket, 3 Iron Ticket, 1 Silver Ticket, 0 Golden Ticket, 0 Diamond Ticket, 0 Ruby Ticket, 0 Platinum Ticket, 0 Primordial Ticket]
[Race: Human]
[Bloodline: None]
[Skills: Night perception, Iron Body]
[Ability: Gacha Hunter, Gacha wheel, ???]
[Inventory]
He froze when he saw the tickets.
Ryven was genuinely surprised. He had finally obtained his first Silver Ticket.
Of course, he hadn’t noticed it before. Most of the system notifications he received were experience points, so he had been ignoring them.
Realizing that he had also been accumulating tickets, he felt a surge of satisfaction.
He didn’t immediately rejoiced and first checked his stats.
Looking at them, he noticed that several attributes had increased even without using Arcane Points, making him even more delighted.
Without hesitation, he distributed two points each into Stamina, Strength, and Mana.
[Host, Stamina increased +2]
[Host, Strength increased +2]
[Host, Mana increased +2]
The effects were immediate.
Although the increase wasn’t huge, it was enough for him to feel the changes in his weakened body.
Ryven rushed forward once again.
His sword no longer felt as heavy as before thanks to the boost in Stamina.
When he swung it, the blade carried noticeably greater force, allowing him to cut through the Black Guardians more easily.
Swoosh!
Another Black Guardian lost its head.
But before its body could fully collapse on the ground, two more emerged from the darkness ahead.