Chapter 459
After all, Yog was a being that was created from a game mod. It wasn’t exactly rare for mods to cause system conflicts or generate bugs. The way they had escaped the rift with its help likely wasn’t part of the original game’s design to begin with.
So that's why no quests popped up for any of that...
But in the end, that wasn’t what mattered. What mattered now, as always, was solving the problem in front of them and finding a way to survive. Whether this mess had started because the altar’s chaos had drawn something to it, or because the skull and this temple had some kind of preexisting connection, or simply because they had run into a string of terrible luck—he couldn’t say.
Either way, what was done was done. And unlike in the game, there was no save point to reload from. Even so, Ian, usually composed, now stood with a faint furrow in his brow.
Just then, the faint, dry scent of herbs tickled his nose. Diana, having pulled her mask down to hang around her neck, had a soggy cigarette clamped between her lips, trying to light it using one of the candlestick flames.
Despite her efforts, she only managed a faint wisp of smoke. The cigarette, like her clothes, must have gotten soaked. Paying no mind to Ian and Lucia’s gazes, she kept sucking on it, her cheeks puffing with effort.
"Ha... Fuck...." Diana finally let her arm holding the candlestick drop with a thump. She transferred the damp cigarette to her right hand and threw her head back, a laugh of utter, weary resignation playing on her lips.
"This is just absurd. After all that crazy shit we went through, we barely made it back alive, and now it looks like we're going to starve to death down here. Can't even enjoy a damn cigarette properly—"
"Put that cigarette back carefully," Ian's voice cut in. As he spoke, a small flame flickered into being in the air between them. Diana turned to him.
Ian, who had taken out a fresh cigarette of his own, now held a small, steady flame at his fingertip, using it to light his smoke.
He then casually flicked his finger, extinguishing the magical spark, and added, “It’s not like we’re out of options.”