One look at the massive lizard-like creature told me it was beyond us. Its arms were ethereal as if made of glowing blue water energy, its body glowing orange-black like recently cooled molten lava.
It stayed in the middle of the massive cavern, at least three times the size of the previous ones we were in, staring right at us with heterochromatic eyes made of the two colors I just talked about.
"Anik, don't even think about hoarding my arrows. Release everything you have during the fight. I'll make them for you again when we go back. Given enough time." I turned halfway around, responding to Dhruva's suggestion with a nod. His last sentence struck a bad feeling in my mind, but I decided to ignore it for now.
"Same with you, Jhanvi." He also made sure to let her know.
Vihaan stood at the front with his shield close to his chest, his shoulders trembling slightly.
"Let's just get out of this stuffy tunnel first." Laksh was stammering a bit, but his teeth showed a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
"Me and Dhruva will distribute all the medicines we have made till now. Just in case. Make sure to prioritize the medicines with your favourite numbers for easier access from the dimensional pockets." Trisha and Dhruva both started laying out their reserves in front of us, only a couple of feet away from the exit of the tunnel that brought us to this final level.
We were subconsciously trying not to go too far from the tunnel, fearing that we might aggro the Boss unknowingly.
This guy... I stared at Dhruva as he brought out vial after vial of green, brown, and purple medicines numbering somewhere around eighties from his own dimensional pocket.
I felt like something was bothering him for a while, but for some reason, I also knew that he wouldn't tell us anything regarding that.
We three had often discussed about him when he was busy learning from Trisha for the last two days.
Saiyan suspects him of having ties to Satya just like him. Having that amount of Kundalini as a fifth-standard student is simply not possible. He might have already awakened one or more chakras before joining the school.
No other theory made sense. But even this one had plot holes. Him having only a single element, how it is not possible for someone to awaken chakras before the synchronisation ritual with Kalpa, and those weird skills that people usually learn when they are in higher standards... Nothing made sense about him.
The dark eyebags he had didn't make it better either. He talked about how Lord Ashwatthama had cursed him with minor curses to help him train his resistance. Apparently, he sees weird visions and dreams from time to time.
For the first time, I realized I was genuinely worried about someone of my age group.
The idiots of Alik never kindled such emotions inside me. Maybe I was unknowingly reserving these feelings for the people I would consider close after coming to Ashrama. It felt good to have found someone like that already.
Dweep was becoming a close second with his genuinely kind nature. Other than that outburst with Saiyan back in the mountain jungle at Sutala, I've never found him losing his cool.
Saiyan always made me a bit unsettled. I never understood what he was thinking. I know he has some lofty goals, even higher than mine, but unless he speaks his mind, it will take time for me to trust him as I do with the other two.
Dhruva also has his own enigmatic parts, but the parts he has shown to me are clear enough to help me understand some aspects of his character. I was fine with that.
The medicines were classified according to their quality, and we took some from each group.
The tankers took more high-quality medicines, while we took the low-quality and poisonous ones. It didn't look like the poisons would work on a monstrosity like that, but it's still better than nothing.
Vihaan suddenly turned and placed his hand on Dhruva's shoulder.
"I know I said things about us not wanting to depend on your skills for the remainder of the crawl, but things are not looking good. If it can increase our chances of survival, I won't mind bowing down to you for your help. So please, be on standby." Vihaan politely asked Dhruva for his favor, going back on his own words.
It felt weird, but the fact that he was thinking in this manner, putting his pride aside for the sake of our safety, gave him extra points in the respect department.
Dhruva must be giving his smug expression right now.
I got an awful feeling deep in my stomach as I inspected Dhruva's face. It was dark. His expressions twisted weirdly, as if he wanted to say a lot of things but was holding himself back.
Did sitting around doing nothing for the last three levels make him mad? Was he thinking that we didn't need him or something? Shit, I need to properly tell him that after we saw him profusely bleeding from his eyes and nostrils while being unconscious after the fight with Charulata and Devantak, it made us rethink about how we were putting too much burden on him.
We were trying to act cool so that he could leave things to us, but it would be bad if he started to distrust us.
The others looked concerned, too.
Dweep poked me in the ribcage and signaled me to alleviate the tense situation.
I walked forward without thinking twice, wrapped my arm around his shoulder, and pulled him into the tunnel a bit forcefully.
"Dhruva," I said softly, making sure he realized whatever I was saying was coming from a profound perspective. "Your body needs to rest. You might be feeling well from the outside, but Trisha found weird knots in your chakra vessels. It might be the result of you taking control of Charulata's massive Kundalini network when you clearly weren't ready. Those knots will probably heal on their own; otherwise, we'll need to go to the sages after we come out from the dungeon. Until then, let's not excite your vessels by using Kundalini. They might burst inside."
His face was a mixture of surprise, suspicion, and confusion after hearing what I said.
"We don't want things to get worse inside you, so just trust us. We'll be able to take care of that by ourselves. Vihaan asking you that, despite knowing your condition, shows how much he trusts you. So please, don't take it otherwise." I added, making sure he got my point.
"If Vihaan is asking for my help, despite knowing my condition, it only means that he knows this raid will not go well." He said gloomily, "I can't help even if I wanted to. I'm really sorry."
He might also be getting some feedback within his body whenever he's trying to use Kundalini. Things might be getting worse. Should we just send him back right now?
Knowing him, he won't like it, considering we journeyed together till here.
"Just relax with Trisha here. Ask Yashvi for some snacks and popcorn. Enjoy our fight from here. Okay? We'll try to end this as soon as possible." I said and saw his face filled with regret.
"Do you want to say something? It's been like that for a while. I know it hasn't been that long knowing you, but we can pick up things like that. Especially Saiyan, since he has his trait. We are still waiting for you to come by yourself, and trust us enough to tell us what's bothering you. There is no rush, though. We are patient enough." I gave him a smile and patted his shoulder.
"I think it won't be long before I let you know. Since it doesn't matter anymore..." He whispered in a voice so low that it made me wonder whether he even wanted me to hear that.
"That's a monster truly deserving to be the final boss of this whole dungeon. At the start of this fifth day, let's fully conquer this dungeon and put our names on the fastest first dungeon clear record." Vihaan announced, looking back at us with his back towards the monster.
"In case you're curious, the fastest any dungeon clear is one and a half days. A team made of eleventh and twelfth standard Rakshaks created this record some nine years ago." Laksh threw out a sudden random trivia out of the blue. A good target to keep, I guess? It felt more like a personal goal for him. Glad to see him show enthusiasm for one more thing.
"Let's take care of this dinosaur fast. I want to see the sun for once." Shreya twirled the handle of her curved sword in her fingers effortlessly.
"In case you forgot, we rarely see the sun, even at the Ashrama, with the sky being overcast all the time." Saiyan shook his head as he responded to Shreya.
"And I don't want to see another eclipse either. The sun can stay hidden if it wants, I won't mind." Jhanvi added. "I will never be as excited about space as before. Still gives me shivers."
"How come we didn't see anything? It would have been cool to see the shadow planets gobble up Surya and Chandra. Even if it was for a while." Laksh said with a hint of longing.
This guy is beyond saving.
"So you mean that the skies of different sections of Ashrama are different?" Dweep didn't fail to pick it up.
"Might be localized magic of Rahu. Only the people affected by his magic could see those scenes. I'm not sure, just a guess." Yashvi tried to give an explanation.
I glanced back at the monster that was still scowling at us. It was surely wondering what we were discussing here for this long.
Yep, we are strategizing how to take you out. Beware of the strategies Vihaan and Laksh had come up with.
I went through the instructions specific to me that were sent by Vihaan through the KalpaYaal messaging system.
The overall strategy was also written like a detailed blog in the message group for our team.
"Everybody, double-check your items. Let's focus now. Enough talk. On a count of three, take positions as discussed." Vihaan instructed and strapped his shield belt to his arm tightly.
It reminded me of Captain America. Everything's fine and well, but let's not do this raid all day.
"Three. Go go, go!!!!" Laksh suddenly shouted as we started running. "Be spontaneous and light on your feet. Countdowns only make you more tensed!!!" His voice trailed off as he and Dweep went in front to tackle the beast head-on.
------------------------------------------------------
"This... This is beyond me, Anik. The organ regeneration potion healed your stomach but the rest is still in shambles." I heard the faint voice of someone on my left as I felt the sensation of a cold vial being pressed onto my lips.
The healing fluid felt warm while it flowed down my esophagus, but I knew it was useless. The gaping hole in my stomach wasn't helping at all.
I knew Dhruva didn't have the regeneration skills to create organs out of nothing. It will take time for him to get those skills if he joins the Sushruta Vidya classes back at Ashrama.
"Vihaan. Vihaaaannn!!!!" Trisha's voice stung my ears, but her calls got no response in return.
"Dhruva, we have to at least bring back Vihaan's consciousness. Only he can eject us all from this dungeon. I should have anticipated this. Missing all that experience from the two levels that we had to skip because of the intruders from Satya was too much of a loss." Trisha was clearly panicking.
The brown-orange energy blast from the elephant-like trunk of the Makara still flashed over my closed eyes as if it was burned into my retina.
What makes it worse is the fact that it hasn't even been ten minutes since we started the raid.
"I've located him. Take care of Anik. I'll try bringing as many people back safely as possible." I heard Dhruva's reassuring voice going further away.
Trisha fed me two more vials of medicine from her emergency reserves. Activating my dimensional pocket, I spilled out all the medications that I had stored within to make it easier for her.
This time, a blue energy arc passed overhead, forcing Trisha to lie on her stomach. Concentrated rays of orange Kundalini spread out like the floodlights of a concert, gouging out streaks of destruction across the walls of the cavern.
"Stay alive somehow. If we can eject in time, we can prevent losing lives. This monster just doesn't stop attacking!!!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me away in some direction as I heard the ground blasting at my previous location, raining down gravel and sand over us.
"Shit!! The hole got bigger." She panicked and emptied the potions over my open wound.
I could feel my legs and arms slowly turning numb and stiff. I had already lost my sense of smell and touch. I'll only have a single life left after this... And it hasn't even been one day. I still have eight more years to go. If I hide away without fighting, I won't get stronger either...
My heart clenched as a dreadful sensation wrapped itself around my chest. My dreams of living in Satya, becoming an essential member of some kingdom... Everything seemed to be moving out of my grasp.
I felt Trisha's finger wiping away my tears.
"Stay conscious. If you lose consciousness now, it will be over..." She encouraged me.
I still had some sensations left around my face, it seems.
Opening my eyes after straining a bit, I saw Trisha gulping down a vial of potion. Her right hand had blown off, leaving pieces of skin and flesh dangling from her shoulder. Small stones had also embedded themselves into the right side of her face, ruining her smooth skin.
"It's fine. I'm still in a condition where I won't die even if I tried to." she fed me another potion and smiled back at me. It didn't last long until her smile twisted back into a grim look.
"What's up with the others?" My weak voice asked about the conditions of others.
I remembered Dweep getting blasted off right at the very beginning of the raid. The Kundalini burst from the Boss was too much for the Surakshaks to handle.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Me and Jhanvi had released all the blossoming arrows at the beginning of the fight to deal considerable damage, which sent the boss into rage mode.
Within five minutes, we were this close to winning after we had destroyed the monster's right hand and left side of the face. Saiyan and Shreya had also chipped off his tail.
But little did we know that its trunk was the most dangerous weapon of all.
The previous ones shot out beams from their mouth after raising their trunks. This one also did that, blasting away Dweep with his blue energy blast from his mouth.
We must have missed some boss mechanics since we didn't fight the second and third-level bosses.
Yashvi was in charge of damaging its mouth. Which she even carried out successfully.
But the Makara's rage mode involved shooting orange Kundalini from its trunk. The blasts were concentrated and highly penetrative.
Dweep, who had somehow recovered after emptying his recovery medicine stash in his stomach, came back only to get a hole blasted in the right side of his waist. The blast had gone right through his shield and Armor.
Before Vihaan could learn from that and strengthen his Kundalini, his lower body got blown off.
With just a swing of its head, the Makara had changed the trajectory of the orange ray in an instant towards me and Jhanvi.
She lost her right leg while jumping away, saving the majority parts of her body, while I had safely dodged away the first time.
Scooping Jhanvi up after the Kundalini ray had passed us, trying to bring her where Dhruva and Trisha were, I got blasted away as the Makara targetted us again, making me land close to my destination with a gaping hole in my stomach.
"Jhanvi is crawling her way to the tunnel slowly and is Cloaking her Kundalini. Dhruva has pulled Vihaan out of the swamp and is treating him in the tunnel. Yashvi and Laksh are somehow still holding on, having the highest agility stats, and dealing some damage alternatively to get the attention of the Makara cyclically." Her words were registering in my ears, but somehow, I couldn't make sense of them all.
I realized that my nervous system was slowly shutting off.
"Saiyan? Dweep?" I weakly muttered. The shadows in my peripheral vision were spreading to the center of my focus.
I kept trying to open my eyes wider, but it was useless. Darkness and a weird chill were slowly settling in.
My first death by fall damage was instant, but this one... I'll be having nightmares of this.
"It's okay, Anik. They're also fine... You can stop now." Trisha's gentle voice was cracking, but it still managed to warm up my frozen heart. "I'll meet you back at the Ashrama. I'm sorry... Take some rest."
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Vihaan was beyond help. Only after I brought him back to the tunnel did I realize that he was long gone. His body was in a hideous condition. His snapped-in-half bare femurs stuck out like stubs from his waist, having no muscle or skin. Nothing existed below his thighs.
Dweep, Saiyan, Anik... Shit, I'm not in a position to help them. If I had realized earlier that Vihaan had already gone beyond recovery, I wouldn't have wasted my Kundalini unnecessarily. Until we find a Rekha, I no longer have the means to replenish my energy reserves mid-fight.
Think. What do I have in my arsenal right now? That will deal considerable damage to the monster. I have about 5 points of Kundalini left in me. It is nowhere close to healing up Anik's stomach or Dweep's legs. Anik is with Trisha, so hopefully, she can do something.
Dweep had already exhausted his medicines from the first time he got blasted away. It was still recoverable. But the second one seemed fatal. Everyone has one organ regeneration potion, so I hope they use it properly. Since both me and Trisha will be unable to regenerate organs or body parts from scratch. If it comes down to it, I can share mine.
I would have used it on Vihaan, but I was too late. The only way we can leave this dungeon is by dying or clearing it.
I inspected Vihaan's body and felt his pulse. It was unresponsive. If only I had a vast amount of Kundalini right now, I could make an arrow with huge spike options to take out that God-forsaken trunk.
Kundalini. It comes from Shakti. Filtered by the Chakras and stored there... How much Kundalini did Vihaan have before he died? Can I use that externally?
Shit, what am I even thinking?? Desecrating his corpse like that...
Fuck it, Panna already labeled me as a murderer and a chaotic existence. One more sin over that is nothing. If I can save the others with the help of his remains, I would like to try it.
"Vihaan. If you're alive, I apologize for what I'm about to do. If you're dead, I hope your body has been copied properly already." I said my prayers and started cutting open his body from the front.
This guy... He imagined his vessels like the circuit wires of a motherboard. The vessels were uniformly distributed in straight parallel lines and ended at different points, making sure they covered all the essential muscles of his body.
His priority was to strengthen his muscles. My priority was smooth exit and entry Kundalini and Shakti respectively. People do like to imagine things differently depending on their needs, wants, and experiences.
I heard a sudden gasp from behind. I snapped my head towards the tunnel exit, which was about a dozen feet away from my current position within the tunnel, and found no one there. Shit, is the dead now whispering in my ears? Or was it my curses acting up?
I don't have much time. I need to make a mega arrow. If Yashvi can use her space-based Kundalini along with it, the damage will be enormous.
I released my thread-like Tethers and inserted them into the vessels of Vihaan's corpse, sucking up whatever Kundalini he had. To ensure it didn't get wasted by overflowing, since my body could only contain 8 points, I started releasing the absorbed Kundalini to make the blossoming arrowheads using my Akshara skill.
Faster...
Combining the blossoming arrowheads into a flower-like shape, I joined it to the shaft using the pointers Anik and Jhanvi gave me during the development process.
So, a pair of opposite petals made a single arrowhead. The flower had eight petals, meaning four arrowheads.
They have been designed to blast away from the impact point, opposite to the direction they came from, and then, after a second, blossom like they are supposed to.
It will give a long-range shotgun-like characteristic to the missile.
How much does he have left?
My Tethers entered his two awakened chakras following the vessels. And it gave me a weird gut-wrenching sensation.
As if I was connecting to some higher being.
Kalpa... I knew at once.
I found myself in front of that huge tower-like structure again. Her presence was suffocating, as usual. Did she really have to bring me here? When I'm so busy trying to keep us alive??
"You truly are rotten to the core." Her voice vibrated inside my brain. "To use such techniques without a second thought. How refreshing." Her voice chuckled. "I'll overlook it this time. But I'll keep my eye on you from now on. You're interesting."
"Guess we no longer need to meet when I reach level 100." I gritted my teeth and answered back.
"That was you... I remember." She laughed, "What an interesting turn of events. Something was blocking my connection to you till now, but now you're like an open highway. So much potential. Let's see, how about I give you 5 points per level instead of 2? I need to train some backups, considering the future I have seen. What do you say?"
"Give one each to my three friends instead. I'm done dealing with beings like you." I stared up at the spherical top of the tower and shouted my answer without hesitation. "I will become much stronger than the others even with all the handicaps."
"Hahaha.... Okay then. I won't bother you for now. Once the Rakshaks start dropping like flies, I might be forced to call upon you. So give your all to keep them safe."
My vision changed again as I found myself back inside the tunnel. Was my body here? Or did it travel back and forth? Or was it only my subconscious?
The insides of his two chakras were bursting with energy for some reason, I realized.
Kalpa, she must be using her vessels in Vihaan's body to transfer energy from her side remotely.
What a way to make me feel indebted.
Modify.
Make the spikes bigger. Increase the number of spikes.
Faster. Make another missile like this.
How much time did I spend?
Faster.
Are my friends still alive?
Faster...
The energy inside the two chakras finally depleted. I somehow knew that if these four arrows hit their mark, the monster is sure to come down like a sack of potatoes.
Grabbing all four arrows, I ran out of the tunnel only to find the monster looking around, trying to find more opponents to fight.
The fight had already long ended.
How much time did I waste in Kalpa's dimension? She knew I was in a hurry. She knew... And yet, she sabotaged everything like this.
Yashvi's body was bent from the middle of her spine at a 45-degree angle. Her lower part smashed to a pulp. Laksh's body had three holes and was sticking out of a collapsed cavern side wall. Saiyan... Shreya... Where the hell are they? They... Did they die long ago? I didn't call out for Trisha, knowing that the sound might grab the monster's attention.
Jhanvi... Where is she? I tried to look carefully across the swamp but found nothing. No sign of my three friends...
Then I heard it, the beats of a heart pumping so hard that it was banging against someone's chest.
There was Jhanvi, only a couple of feet to my left.
Her expression was... I couldn't describe it.
Fear, confusion, disgust, helplessness, despair... I knew that she had seen what I was doing inside the tunnel.
"I won't ask you to forget what you saw. But we need to make it out of here alive. I don't think Vihaan will get an eject option after being revived outside the dungeon. And he was already dead by the time I reached him. I don't care if you believe me or not. But please, use these arrows to blast that monster into pieces." I said in a monotonic low tone to drive home my seriousness.
She took the arrows from my hand without a single question. But I clearly saw how she was trembling.
She was fine for a few seconds, but before she could put the arrow against her bowstring, she started vomiting bile, grabbing the attention of the monster.
"My arrows won't reach it. Please!!! Shoot!!!!" I ordered her in a state of panic.
She groaned after wiping her lips and closed her eyes for a few seconds.
Her Kundalini spilled out of her hands and coated the bow and its string. Her eyes turned sharp and entirely focused in just a few seconds.
"Use the smaller one first to expose the inner muscles. Try taking out it's brain." I instructed and only got a nod in response. Knowing her skills, she might be able to pull it off, even if she was shooting while sitting.
The monster had already found us and was taking small steps toward us. Did it get too overconfident after demolishing us?
Wait, no... It's charging up its trunk again.
"Take out the trunk first!!" Before I finished shouting, Jhanvi let her arrow loose.
The arrow sailing through the air let out a weird scream. Like that one time, when a colossal cyclone made landfall in my area. The whistling throughout the night was unbearable.
The impact was much more destructive than I thought. The arrow lodged itself into the flesh trunk and burst out, showering down an ungodly amount of blood. The energy accumulating in its trunk started spilling out in all directions like disco lights.
I grabbed Jhanvi and retreated into the tunnel for a few seconds until the destruction ended. The cries of pain the monster let out kept sending tremors across the ground and up our spines.
"Go. End this." I gently placed her down on the ground outside the tunnel and watched the monster crawling towards us like a Komodo Dragon, with blood spilling constantly from its gouged-out trunk.
She let out the three arrows one after another without regard for the monster.
The first struck its forehead, the second its neck, and the last one entered its left eye. The damage on the left side of its face gave a hassle-free entry point to the last arrow.
The regular Kundalini arrows they've been using till now and the ones made from the energy supplied by Kalpa were so different in power that it felt unfair.
No wonder when Prana is sacrificed to the Gods, people get divine missiles in return.
These missiles had about 17 points of Kundalini each.
When sacrificed, Prana might convert to more than 60 points worth of Kundalini. Just imagining a missile of that energy level makes me wonder how long until I can make such items myself.
The three arrows blossomed in quick succession, and destruction ensued.
Earth element spikes burst out at different parts of its head, jutting out like the spikes of a porcupine. Blood and brain juice started gushing out through its eyes and forehead as the spikes obliterated the brains of the monster. It tilted, losing balance like a common drunk in the roadside drain during the weekend, trying its best to get up using all four limbs.
Its cries this time were guttural, sending waves and waves of sonic blasts crashing into the cavern walls and our bodies.
Both of us retreated into the tunnel to save ourselves, but it still managed to damage our ears.
Tinnitus kept affecting my ears even after everything had gone quiet. Or did I go deaf?
"Jhanvi, can you hear me?" I said, but I didn't hear myself saying anything.
Shit. I made sure not to say it out loud.
She was crying, looking back at Vihaan's body, and kneeling on the ground.
"I'm sorry, but I had to do this. Otherwise, both of us would have also lost our lives. I don't know if you can even hear me or not. I'm sorry." I kept repeating it for some reason.
Would I have regretted it this much if she hadn't caught me in the act?
There is no time to waste. Let's go and check out the conditions of others.
I touched Jhanvi's shoulder and gestured for her to come outside. She didn't budge.
Sighing, I came out by myself and watched the Makara on its last legs until whatever life it had within got snuffed away.
An arrow made of 16 Kundalini. It can only be made when someone has four chakras. That is if someone is in the eighth standard.
That's why this is called Beginner Dungeon. Any eight-standard guy would have wiped the floor with a monster of this caliber. And here it took, like what, eight lives?
We are fucking weak. Without Kalpa's help, me and Jhanvi wouldn't have made it out alive.
Kalpa's status window suddenly popped up in front of me.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Congratulations on successful completion of your first dungeon.
Record has been made on first ever dungeon clear book.
Time taken: 5 days, 8 hours, 34 minutes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So, there are different types of dungeon clears. This record is for the first dungeon clears. Some take one or two crawls before fully clearing, that too in their sixth or seventh standard. I think for the seniors in our team, this too, is their first full clear. Well, whatever.
It's also crazy how all this happened in only 30 something minutes. The first 8 hours of the fifth day was utilised for sleeping, resting, and strategizing.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rewards: Full recovery of anybody still alive and within the dungeon.
Uniform level-ups for all members from the monster experience +5 as a bonus.
Selective Skill Strengthening by two levels.
1 Random Artifact manufactured by Vishwakarma's 8th direct disciple, Ardhaguna.
For the record: Vessel Strengthening.
1 Skill Evolution.
*Think about my offer. I'm being generous enough.*
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The pop-up message ended here and opened another terminal, where the rewards were listed. Rewards... They always come with some caveats. These levels, skills... Everything is determined by Kalpa. One decision from her can rob me of everything I have gained till now, just like what Panna did.
It seems that the passive skills are the only things I can put my trust in.
"Dhruva. How did you kill it?"
I turned around to find Dweep looking at me.
"You fucker. I thought I lost you to that monster. You were somehow alive all along. Less gooo." I pulled his big body into a hug. Bro has gone through some shit this past hour.
"Let's talk later. We have to find out where the other members are. I didn't see Saiyan or Shreya for half the fight. I didn't see them going down like me or Anik." Dweep mentioned with a worried tone.
I was getting a bad feeling. If what I suspect comes out to be true, it might cause problems in the future.
"Guys." I heard Trisha from somewhere. Looking around, we found her in a totally different direction from where I had left her, waving at us.
"Anik?" Was the first thing I asked. Her expression in response reaffirmed my doubts. If he were still alive, he would have been the first one to come out running and start calling our names.
"Shit. He now has only a single life left." Dweep mumbled with a pained expression.
"Jhanvi is fine. She was the one who took down the monster." I let them know.
We turned to the tunnel and saw her coming out of it. She stayed there with the same pained expression on her face.
"Vihaan didn't make it. By the time I reached him, he was already gone." I said, the guilt creeping slowly up my throat.
"It doesn't make sense. I suffered a similar injury but managed to survive." Dweep wondered out loud.
"He went into shock from the damage. He couldn't use his medicines like you did." I tried to give him a possible explanation. Dweep pondered over it for a while and decided to drop the matter.
"Laksh and Yashvi also didn't make it." Trisha muttered, looking down. "Even if we were a makeshift team of seniors, they were quite accommodating. I'll try talking with them after going back."
I remembered Trisha and Yashvi came from a different team than the senior guys so that Shreya's team wouldn't get uncomfortable among us.
Everybody has now been accounted for.
"Let's stay here for a few hours. By now, your dimensional pockets must have evolved. Try to loot as much as you can. The best thing we can do right now is share materials with the others who fought alongside us." Trisha instructed, taking leadership.
"Jhanvi. Come down and help me pick up these Brahmi. You're not looking fine. I'll make some mentality-strengthening potions for you. There's no use getting depressed like that."
I looked back at Trisha when I heard about Brahmi.
She gave a weak smile and reassured me that she would teach me while making the medicines.
"Where did the two of them go?" Dweep asked after a while. We were busy tearing away leather and scales from the boss monster.
"Kalpa probably sent them back. It's for our own good, I think. After losing six lives, it would have been too much if they had taken lives from us too." I answered.
Dweep didn't say anything after that for a long time.
"Check how many stat points you got per level up this time." I asked, suddenly remembering about it.
"Wait... What the?? I got five points for each of the eight levelups." He was perplexed.
"I think that is the correct amount we should get after each level up. Kalpa has been stealing points from normal Rakshaks and giving them to the seven. She needs them to grow stronger much earlier than anticipated, I think. Something must be going on behind the scenes."
My speculation sent him into another deep-thought marathon.
It took a total of 8 more hours to wrap everything up.
We had a considerable amount of loot by now. It also included the items our deceased members were using, which will be returned to them.
And now I had lots of Brahmi, both in raw and medicine form, along with its recipe.
Throughout this whole time, neither Dweep nor Shreya came to talk with me once.
Panna's words kept echoing in my mind. No matter how hard I tried to block it away.
Fine, I'll be alone. I have at least saved four lives using my demonic methods. It's fine as long as I'm happy.
"Let's take the skill orb. The path outside must open after removing it from the structure." Trisha mumbled, looking at us. A spiral-like structure had born out of the ground after vanquishing the boss at the opposite end wall of our entry point into the cavern. It contained a removable orb like the ones we found within the bodies of previous level bosses.
We touched it one by one, getting a random skill level up. The selective Skill level-up must be a bonus reward, then.
After removing the orb and storing it for our team members outside, a dimensional crack appeared over the thin air.
Without even taking a single look back, we entered the portal quietly. One after another.
Unbeknownst to us, a storm had already rolled over in the Ashrama by the time we returned.