Inside the shadowy dome created by the blank eyed man, Jason's protective golden dome still held strong while the thin layer of white flames that covered it continue to burn gently. The pitch darkness all around seemed to press against dome with all it's might, threatening to crack it and seep through.

Kaya turned to Jason and said, "You know what, honestly i'm really impressed we're still alive. I thought we were definitely going to die earlier from that absurd attack if not for your skill. I owe you one, Jason." Her voice was filled with relief.

Kaya then proceed to sat down beside Gabby and snuggled up to her tiredly. "By the way, how come I never saw you use this skill before?" She asked.

Seeing Kaya snuggling up to her cutely like a spoiled child, Gabby smiled gently and closed her eyes as she began to caress her head. "It's because this is the first time ever he used this skill, if I'm not wrong it's a skill called Binding Vow. Is my guess correct?" She then raised her head and looked at Jason, directing her questioning words to him.

Jason's face was still a bit pale, covered in sweat from the anxiousness and chilling fear on his back he felt when his protective dome got bombarded relentlessly with magic missiles earlier.

He replied, "Yeah, you're correct. This is my first time using Binding Vow" he then exhaled tiredly loudly, "At first, I'm going to be honest I wasn't confident whether my skill could hold up against an attack like that."

He slowly approached his golden dome and lightly touched it.

"Let alone confident, i don't even believe for a second it could withstand that absurdly enormous Magic Missile attack. But i'm glad, i'm really glad I've been proven wrong. This protective dome just spat on my brittle confidence, it kinda makes me tear up a bit not gonna lie haha." He chuckled a little, genuinely feeling relief wash over him and happy that he managed to protect his teammates.

Gabby said, "Well.. I mean, it's that weird if you think about it. There's not a single survivor I know that capable of blocking an attack like that. Even our most famous tanker Gwen might not be able to do what you did, Jason." She then let out a long tired sigh and continue, "We—no, i'm not expecting you to succeed anyway, it sounds harsh but it is what it is. If you failed, at worst we were just going to die either way. So, cheer up man."

Jason smiled weakly and said, "Thank you, Gabby."

And then Kaya chimed in and asked Jason, "So, how long can you keep this skill up?"

Jason thought for a bit and replied, "I don't know." He said nonchalantly and shrugged.

Shocked and surprised, both Gabby and Kaya said unison, "What-!?"

The Jason continued, Hold on now, I'm not finished. What I meant by that is I don't know how much longer this skill continue to be activated like this until just maybe suddenly vanishes into thin air." Jason tapped the dome and continued, "I don't know the time limit this thing has, but i'm sure I can dispell it anytime I want, I think?" His voice was a bit unsure.

Kaya frowned as her eyes narrowed, and she said, "That's problematic, we need to know how much time we have on our time at times like this. Damn it, how about your mana, is it decreasing continuously?"

Jason opened his status window, he then shook his head and replied, "Nope, it didn't decrease, not even a little bit."

Kaya muttered under her breath, "But how? It's really strange.."

"This protective dome is probably using my 'offering' as the fuel or energy." Jason said.

Hearing what Jason just said, Gabby seemed to be in deep thoughts. "That.. seems to be makes the most sense, but how does it work exactly?" She said, agreeing with Jason.

"My rough guess is probably like this: it's basically like a working fireplace. The 'fire' inside the fireplace is this protective dome and the 'kindling' that keeps the fire burning is my offering, aka my left arm. Though i'm the one who used the skill and intentionally use my arm as the trading chip, i really don't know how much energy my left arm provides in exchange for this skill, so yeah, I don't know how long this thing will stay on to protect us."

Curious, Gabby asked, "Come to think of it, I heard the part where your said something about your left arm when you chant the vow back then. Did you now feel anything out of place in your left arm?"

Jason looked over his shoulder at his left arm, he tried to move it as hard as he can but it failed, it just refused to move even a little bit. Even the pain he felt of having a broken and disfigured arm was completely gone like it's never been there in the first place. He tried to pinched it but the result is also the same, there's no reaction, and no sensation could be felt.

He then replied, "Uh.. yeah, it seems like I completely lost my left arm. I can't move it or even feel anything, now it's nothing more than a piece of meat for decoration." Jason said nonchalantly as he spin his left arm.

Gabby immediately frowned despite Jason attempt to play it off, she asked, "Is it permanent? If not, how can we fix your arm?"

Jason replied, "I'm afraid so, the skill is not called Binding Vow for nothing you know? Although that's the case, who knows maybe a healing potion or the system magic trick can bring my left arm back."

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He continued, "Well anyway, enough about that. Do you guys have any plan to get out of this shitty situation?" His voice was serious.

Silence fell as soon as Jason asked that question, the three of them began on thinking hard about what to do.

A few moments later, Kaya broke the silence. "Let's just focus on our recovery, we can't do much in our current state anyway.

In a way, Kaya was right. They weren't in a good shape to think up a proper solid plan, let alone a plan, the weren't going to be able to carry out whatever plan they had in mind.

Jason sat down and let out a long sigh. He said, "Man, I could use some of Sam's beef jerky right now, i'm hungry as hell."

Both Kaya and Gabby nodded silently in agreement, they were also hungry and tired from the constant fighting.

Meanwhile, Sam had now arrived right outside of the shadowy dome. He scratched his head as he look at the weird shadowy dome in front of him, he narrowed his eyes and said, "What the fuck happened here while I was gone? And what's the deal with this weird ass dome popping out of nowhere like a sore thumb?" He muttered as he tried to analyze it.

He tried to touch the shadowy dome with his finger and lo and behold it just went through effortlessly, it's similar like dipping his finger in water really, the only difference is that it's not wet and obviously not made out of water.

'Alright, it's not a solid thing eh? Got it.' Sam thought.

He then thought for a few minutes about whether he should go inside this shadowy dome or not, Sam has a strong gut feeling that whatever this thing was related to the explosion he heard from Kaya's location back then. The thing is, he didn't know what kind of danger lay inside, it can be anything.

He then shook his head and shrugged. "Oh well, what's the worst that could happen anyway? I mean i've almost died like countless of times already today, I don't think it can get any worse than that." He then proceed to walked inside the shadowy dome nonchalantly like walking in a park.

Inside, there was just darkness everywhere no matter which direction he tried to see. The only thing he could see clearly was himself covered with his glowing blue aura.

"Holy fucking shit, I really am a damn human candle huh?" Sam muttered under his breath. The then chuckled in disbelief and he recalled Jason's ridiculous remark about his blue aura.

With no way of knowing which or what direction he needed to go, he decided to just go straight towards the center of this thing where there's seemed to be a flickering white dot. He then walked forward while munching on his beef jerky, and not long after he finished eating one beef jerky he saw a golden dome covered in white flames. He squinted his eyes, trying to see what's inside the golden dome. Surprisingly, there were Gabby, Kaya, and Jason inside it, they seemed to be chatting as they sat down.

Sam raised one of his eyebrows as he took a bite of the beef jerky. He said, "What the hell are they doing inside there? Are they on a picnic or something? Man, there's way too many things happening in just a single day. Give me a break goddamn it! Oh well, let's just asked them directly." He sigh tiredly and shook his head.

When Gabby, Kaya, and Jason were chatting to pass the time while recovering their energy, the sort of relaxing atmosphere they were in suddenly break apart as a hoarse voice straight out of a horror movie interrupted their banter, "What the hell are you guys doing?"

The three of them, especially Gabby and Kaya nearly jumped out of their skins as they screamed in unison and whirled around to see the source of the chilling hoarse voice. Standing just outside the golden dome was a man covered in dried blood, he was munching on a beef jerky as if nothing was amiss. It was some they knew very well, it's none other than Sam.

"Seriously?" Kaya gasped, clutching her chest as if to keep her heart from leaping out. "Do you really have to sneak up on us like that huh?!" She snapped at Sam.

Unfazed by Kaya outburst, Sam just raised an eyebrow and said, "So uh.. are you guys going to to explain what's going on here or are you just going to keep staring daggers at me like that?"

Gabby still catching her breath, glared at Sam. "Why do you think we stared daggers at you huh? You could've just appeared normally and said hello or something like a normal person."

Sam smirk mischievously and shrugged. "I'm definitely not sorry for that."

When it was confirmed it was Sam, Jason immediately sprang up and approach him. "Sam! Thank goodness, you're alive!" He exclaimed.

Sam wave at Jason and said, "Yo Jason, what's up man?"

Before they could continue with their reunion, Gabby cut in sharply with a worried and anxious voice. "Wait-! Sam, you need to get inside here quickly!"

Surprised, Sam looked at Gabby a bit puzzled for a bit, but then he decided to just followed her request. However, when he tried to get in the golden barrier stopped him and white flames burned him a bit when he gets in contact.

He sighed when he saw he got burned again for the umpteenth time today. "Seems like I can't enter it though? Even though I can heal my injuries, i'm not going to force my way in there to just get burned again, Shit still hurt like a bitch. He said.

Gabby turned to Jason and shook him. "Jason, what are you doing?! Allow him to enter your dome, hurry up!" She said urgently.

Confused and not knowing what to do, Jason frantically go through his skills and thought for a bit as he tried everything he can to allow Sam to get in. He said, "I-I'm sorry Gabby I don't think I can! The skill—"

"What?!" Gabby cut in, exclaiming in frustration and shock.

Gabby immediately turned to Sam, her expression grim as she said urgently, "Sam, listen to me. You need to get out of here right now, the thing you're inside right now is the skill of the blank eyed man I told you about back in the cave."

Sam thought for a bit as he tried to recall his memory. Then, his eyes went wide open when he remembered it, he quickly tried to calmed himself down. He shook his head and said, "I won't go anywhere, I can't just leave you guys to die here."

Gabby's expression turned into anger. "You don't understand! His power is too powerful! Even if you somehow can fight against him, If you linger in here any longer you will—"

Before she could finish, a cold voice cut in and continued her sentence, "Get turned by me, correct."

Then a figure descended from the pitch black sky, it was the blank eyed man. He turned to Sam and looking at him with his completely white eyes. He frowned and said, "You... How did you get into my domain undetected?" His cold voice asked in a demanding voice.

Unfazed, Sam just scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well, I just kinda... Walked inside? It's not that hard, honestly. And what do you mean how I get in here undetected? What the hell do you want me to do when I entered here, yell out my name or something? Man, you're weird." Sam replied as he squinted his eyes looking at the blank eyed man, seemingly in the middle of figuring out something.

The blank eyed man frowned, his voice hinting at anger. "Impudence, how dare you talk to me like that. I changed my mind, I don't need to head your answer. Now, peri—"

Before he could finish his sentence Sam clapped his hands loudly, startling everyone. "Aha! Now I remember, you're that gloomy guy back then!" He pointed at the blank eyed man as if he just solved a great mystery.

Just like that the area fell into a stunned silence, everyone too shocked and bewildered by Sam's bizarre behavior out of nowhere.