CHAPTER 71.

She had been saved.

Riya couldn’t believe it⁠— no, she couldn’t even understand it. Why was there a woman wielding a gigantic sword? Why was the gigantic sword glowing with blue lines and wrapped by fire? Why did it look so majestic? There was so much she couldn’t understand. They were at such a depth that lone adventurers were unheard of, and yet⁠—

The woman swung her sword and a wave of energy hit a Crimson Allitoris, slashing through its snout and drawing a shriek from it. Then, with a dash she stabbed through it with a burst of crimson flames that cooked the monster alive.

⁠— yet, here she was, fighting to save them.

The woman turned, only to see six Crimson Allitoris heading towards, Nistal, the other remaining scout. But⁠— he was cornered. And the woman was… staring with her hand raised? Riya froze at the sight.

Aren’t you going to do anything, are you just going to watch?!

And the woman swung.

A flash of light passed through the room and towards Nistal, the lunging Crimson Allitoris was cleanly beheaded, and the slash struck two more Crimson Allitoris, cutting deeply into it. Nistal at that, used the chance to dash and land near Riya, however instead of turning towards her companion to ensure he was safe, she…

Stared.

She stared at the head of the Crimson Allitoris and couldn’t understand what she had just seen.

Wasn’t she a warrior…? Riya raised her head to see the woman swat away two more monsters. Since when can warriors use such strong magic…?

Since when could warriors⁠—

Burn monsters!?

Riya freaked out as the woman torched the remaining Crimson Allitoris with her sword⁠— that most certainly had to be a Relic Grade weapon, but surely the mana consumption was⁠—

And the crimson flames continued, much to Riya’s shock, and when they cleared. The monsters remained burning. They turned towards her but she sent another flash of light their way and it⁠ exploded. It exploded in the exact same way that the attack that saved Riya did.

The sight made her stare in awe⁠— of course, she had understood that the woman that had saved her was capable of it. But seeing it in action again was something else.

It didn’t take long before the woman finished off the rest of the monsters or the others ran away. And finally they were safe. Nistal, her companion, had long taken a health potion to end the bleeding, so they weren’t in any danger.

Though…

Riya looked at a single arm across the room.

The same couldn’t be said about Farlis. While she had just been an acquaintance at best, any death while venturing into the Grand Dungeon weighed on her heavily.

“Hey, are you okay?”

And Riya jolted, she looked at her savior who had a gentle expression. Finally, after a moment of silence, Riya nodded.

“I… am…”

Her heart was drumming, she had been saved by a great warrior, someone that must have been at the very least level 150, something that was a rare sight in general⁠— No⁠, she remembered the idenfitifcaiton result, and checking once more, she had leveled up once.

[Berserker . Lvl. 141]

Riya now felt even more confused than ever, but she tried not to show it. That strength did not match the level at all. Instead, she moved to stand up and⁠— flinched.

She looked down at her broken leg, and the warrior also took notice of it. But Riya quickly spoke.

“We have a healer with us, I’m sure he can fix that,” she spoke in a hurry.

“A healer?” the warrior tilted her head.

“Yeah, we are part of an expedition to explore and bring rare resources from the deeper parts of the Grand Dungeon. And of course, we’re also here to get levels…” Riya trailed off.

The woman nodded understandingly at her explanation. “Oh, I see.”

“Yeah, um, I have to go report all this that happened… it’s my job as a scout and all…” Riya hesitated before turning to Nistal, her companion which was resting. “I think I’ll ask Nistal to… help me get back.”

“Right.” The warrior gave the now one-arm man a look.

“But would you like to come with us? I’m sure we can compensate you for this help somehow, miss…”

“Amber,” she said. “And as for compensation, I’ll think about it, but I’ll come along for now.”

Riya had to suppress her excitement at that, but in truth she was beaming inside. Though, she did feel like she had heard the name Amber before, even if it had been just in passing⁠— and an echoing male voice broke her out of her stupor.

“Is it safe now?”

“Yeah it is!” Amber replied.

A moment later, Riya heard footsteps and she tensed. Of course Amber wouldn’t be traveling alone, in fact, she probably had a full team along with her. That said, if she was that amazing, what kind of amazing people were accompanying her?

Riya waited with baited breath and soon enough, she saw a figure⁠— a single figure.

He looked sickly, almost ill, close to no muscles in his bones and wore ill-fitting clothes all while wielding a staff that didn’t match his stature.

And his level was…

[Mage. Lvl. 125]

Nothing amazing.

For a moment she was puzzled, but she caught sight of the man’s ears which were sticking out of his incredibly long hair, and she couldn’t help but pause.

It was an elf.

A species rarely if ever seen outside of Sacred Forest. And he seemed to be close friends with Amber.

And Riya couldn’t help but wonder.

Who is she?

* * *

[You have defeated a [Crimson Allitoris. Lvl. 141].]

[You have defeated a [Crimson Allitoris. Lvl. 145].]

[You have defeated a [Crimson Allitoris. Lvl. 142].]

…

[You have reached level 141. 5 stat points awarded.]

+5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]

Asil whistled at the room.

“Impressive.”

“Not any less impressive than the bear you killed,” Amber said.

The elf shook his head. “Not something I can do anymore, at least not without your help.”

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“Fair enough.”

The two of them shared a smile. Truth be told, Amber had grown quite close to Asil in the past few days. The elf was nice, and a good company; also a good teacher, even if she didn’t quite want to admit it.

Though, Amber didn’t stay in the moment too much, instead she turned to the woman she had just met and helped her up. Given her leg was broken and all, the other person was also up. One of them was a warrior, who was a scout, and the other was an archer⁠— who was also probably a scout.

[Archer. Lvl. 141]

[Warrior. Lvl. 143]

Both were around her level as well.

Once the warrior was up, she bowed. “Thank you, and I’m sorry for not saying it earlier, but my name is Riya.”

Amber nodded and the other man grunted, holding his missing arm.

“Can we just get back already?”

Riya lightly tensed before turning to her. “Sorry, about that he’s…”

“It’s fine,” Amber reassured. “You should just hurry with him, we’ll follow behind.”

Riya nodded and hopped over to her companion. While Amber could perfectly carry the stranger, she didn’t want to. The argument of it being unsafe was there, but the main reason she didn’t want to was because Asil had a look⁠— one that indicated he wanted to speak to her.

So, they let the scouts go ahead and followed far behind. But Asil made sure to use some kind of sound isolation spell for good measure.

“What is it?” Amber asked.

“They are a group of humans⁠—”

“You want to leave,” Amber interrupted.

And at that the elf paused but hurriedly nodded. It only made sense, even if the fact that he wasn’t truly done teaching her irritated her slightly.

“I’ve been trapped here for a long time, and I see the opportunity,” he said simply. “Truth be told, you are close to learning Essence, and my teachings can only do so much, so⁠—”

“Before that, what happens after I form my core? How do I ascend it, do I just gather Essence and it grows bigger?”

After a pause, Asil shook his head. “No, you form another membrane and⁠— shatter the previous one by simply gathering and accumulating Essence. The shattering only happens when someone does something difficult. However, after a certain point, you will also have to do a much bigger shattering in the form of an advancement that will require you to sit down and do it manually⁠— but it’s not a process I have to explain.”

Amber raised her brow at that and he continued.

“It is instinctual to all creatures with a core after all, you, me, even the Primordial Spirits. It’s a desire to be stronger. Ascending one’s core is slower than leveling in general.”

“Right.”

Amber mulled over his words for a minute. If she wanted to, she could force the elf to stay with her until he was truly done teaching her. But given she knew the elf had spent over two hundred years here, she didn’t⁠— plus she wasn’t one to force people against their will to begin with. So instead, she asked for something else.

“Tell me where to find you after you return, should I need to seek you out for whatever reason, then you can leave.”

The elf smiled at that.

“Just look for the Dazdril family, I will inform my family about you. You have my word.”

And Amber nodded, noting the name down in her mind.

* * *

They caught up with the two scouts and not long after, they arrived at an encampment of people. One that was situated at the center of an incredibly large cavity, allowing for ample vision to all the surroundings. Though⁠—

“Are you guys okay?!”

They rushed to the aid of the scouts immediately, leaving Amber and Asil to just watch. The first one to be treated was Riya, the scout with the broken leg. Whereas the male scout⁠— well, from what she heard the only way to recover his limb was through some lengthy processes, and it most certainly wouldn’t happen here.

Amber in the meantime, finally got around to acquiring a new Legacy Branch Skill, deciding to not try replacing Cursed Cleave just yet⁠— even though she had an Essence based one now.

[New Legacy Branch Skill! You have learned Crimson ⁠Break — level 1.]

You’ve grown used to blood, and now you can manipulate your own to a level that you didn’t think about before. By pushing your blood, you can enhance your physical attributes at the cost of your health. Increasing your stats by 120%. The higher the skill level the higher the stat increase is.

This skill takes twice the time in comparison to normal skills to level.]

The new skill was great.

After smiling with excitement, Amber turned to look at how many people were in the encampment. And not including the two scouts, it seemed to be about twelve adventurers. All of them about similar level except for a burly man with a long beard.

He was about six levels higher than the average.

[Warrior. Lvl. 148]

And he approached them.

“Would you two care to join our camp for a chat?” he asked with a friendly tone.

Amber nodded, and Asil tagged along as both of them sat across from a bonfire. Most of the members of the camp were present, looking at both of them. But mainly at Asil.

“First, I’ll do introductions, I’m Kas, and you are?”

“Amber.”

And then he turned to the elf.

“Asil.”

“First time I’ve seen one of your kind,” he commented before turning to Amber. “Where did you meet him?”

“She saved me from an underground cell that I’ve been trapped for in two-hundred years,” Asil explained simply.

“Huh…”

That was all the man said, then a moment later he gathered himself and nodded.

“Thank you both, for rescuing our scouts. While I’m not clear about the process, I am grateful nonetheless. Otherwise everyone would have died.”

After a moment of silence, Amber replied. “You are welcome.”

And a second later, Riya spoke, “We should compensate them. Not only did they save us⁠— or rather, not only did Amber save us, but she also killed over a dozen Crimson Allitoris. She has the abilities of a mage too!”

At that some susurrations broke out, even the leader seemed impressed. It took a second of so, for Kas to digest Riya’s claims before he looked Amber up and down.

“You must have a Legacy Branch,” he said simply.

Amber didn’t confirm or deny the fact⁠— in fact, denying it would make her look quite weird, and she couldn't exactly deny what happened. So, instead, she let the man continue.

“But that’s odd… a Legacy Branch has to fit you,” he thought for a moment. “Do you perhaps have a Spellsword?”

She didn’t even fully understand what the term encompassed, but Amber just nodded to be left alone. And at that, there was more surprise.

“Well, if there is anything we can do for you, just ask⁠—”

“Two things,” Amber immediately pounced at the opportunity. “One, there is information that urgently needs to go back to the surface.”

At that, the present people seemingly tensed.

“What could she be talking about?”

“Did she discover a new dangerous species of monsters?”

“No, it must be urgent. Is the plague back?”

Amber listened to their whispers, but she continued ignoring what they had just said.

“There are mages from Ofril down here, and they are gathering monsters to attack the Grand City of Torl. And that is probably not the full extent of their plan, but they want to take down the city,” Amber said simply.

“What… can you confirm those claims?!” Kas was shocked.

“Impossible,” one person said.

And he wasn’t the only one shocked. There were some discussions amongst the other adventurers, but Amber continued.

“The clothes that Asil is wearing belonged to one of the mages, as well as the staff,” she explained. “Have none of you stumbled across their corpses?”

At that there was some hesitation, before Kas finally replied. “No, but… the monster activity has been unusual…”

Amber nodded. “I suppose that’s enough proof for now, just make sure to inform the city.”

“Right, we’ll do,” he said. “What are the levels of the mages? And the monsters? How many groups have you seen?”

That’s a lot of questions.

“High 130, from what I’ve seen,” Amber said. “And the monsters, low 130. Groups… two in a week I think?”

And she got a nod in return before continuing the conversation.

“What is your second request.”

Amber took a deep breath before gesturing towards the elf, her short-term companion.

“Please take him to the Grand City of Torl. Maybe help him with supplies and get him a worm-horse too.”

At that Kaz blinked. “That we cannot do.”

“Wait, why?” Asil asked, shocked. “She isn’t even asking for much!”

“She isn’t,” the leader agreed.

Asil pressed, “Then why?”

“Because we will only send our scouts to report that to the surface,” Kaz said. “Our scouts cannot take care of you and make it back alive, for that we would need to send adventurers.”

“That makes no sense, you just learned the city is in danger, that you are in danger, and yet you decide to stay down here⁠?”

Amber saw how agitated the elf was getting and thought about intervening, but Kaz replied unbothered by his tone.

“A lot of us are here to clear our debts, to level, or to find important resources that our employers asked us for,” he said, shaking his head. “We can’t just leave, especially when the mages don’t seem to be any direct threat to us. In fact, our group is so large they are probably avoiding us. Why do you think we haven’t seen them?”

At that Asil frowned but said nothing, evidently taking the answer as reasonable.

“Anyway, we are indeed in debt of your friend Amber,” he continued. “So we’ll bring you to the surface when we head back up, get you your worm-horse and supplies to leave the Great Desert.”

The elf quietly nodded in response, and Amber, seeing the end of the conversation, decided to ask about something she heard about earlier.

“Is the plague gone?”

“No new cases have been registered,” he said. “At least from what we’ve heard from the surface, we have been here for more than two weeks.”

Amber nodded at that.

Kaz thought for a moment before nodding to himself.

“Now with all that difficult talk out of the way, I’d like to make you a proposal, Amber.”

She blinked. “A proposal⁠—”

“There she is!”

A voice bellowed through the cave, and all of the present adventurers tensed and turned seeing the voice. Amber did too only to see a robed mage pointing at her.

Did they follow me?

Then, moments later, more mages emerged, dozens of them, all of them from Ofril and none of them were weak⁠— no, in fact. A lot of them were her level or higher. And then, the monsters arrived, dozens of them, and every single enemy present was higher level than Amber, and almost all of the adventurers.

[Warrior. Lvl. 150]

[Mage. Lvl. 148]

[Warrior. Lvl. 161]

[Mage. Lvl. 153]

…

[Venomous Mantid. Lvl. 148]

[Great Crystalwelf. Lvl. 149]

[Metamorphic Bear. Lvl. 152]

…

And the sight, made Amber and the rest of the adventurers tense.

“Attack!” the mage shouted.