The adventurers took deep breaths. Uramant and Voro, who were the least exhausted hastily positioned themselves in opposite directions. Their fight just now caused a lot of noise, possibly attracting other beasts. Therefore, the team didn’t dare to drop their caution now.
Lilly and Iain left the shack as they also positioned themselves as lookouts. Voro secretly raised an eyebrow when he noticed this. He nodded in appreciation.
Groob and Forgoz luckily knew the situation. They hurried up as they stored the Bisera’s body in Groob’s special storage. There was no time left to dissect it. Only once they returned to the checkpoint could they truly be save.
Suddenly Uramant whispered:
“I think I hear steps. 3 o’clock. Let’s go!”
Groob frowned but fortunately they were already done with storing the corpse. The team leader echoed the ice mage’s words.
“Let’s go!”
With this signal everyone gathered around Groob as they left the mines.
The team kept a higher pace than when they arrived. They still had to pay attention towards all directions, but to everyone’s annoyance the steps behind them didn’t disappear.
It felt as if a dark shadow was breathing down the team’s neck. Turning around and finding out which beast was hunting them would also be too dangerous.
As the EFM team 5 neared the monolith the chasing steps seemed to grow louder and louder. Groob’s forehead frowned but the bald mercenary soon came to a decision.
“On my signal, Lilly and Iain, run as fast as you can!”
The siblings had a bad feeling. Not knowing what to expect, they steeled their nerves and prepared.
Suddenly voices appeared in their heads.
[We will adjust your skills.]
Their eyes lighting up, the siblings felt blessed when they realized they could count on their parent’s support.
Over the last few weeks of training the siblings had gained a lot of strength. The vault’s stat rewards boosted their entire beings, letting their capabilities vaguely reach the expert warrior level.
However, Lilly soon found this strange. She quickly understood that the siblings were a bit stronger than they should be. As she contemplated this issue, her mother revealed a secret.
Their parent’s had the ability to boost a single stat for them. In fact, they helped to double the vault’s reward. Sadly, Lilly’s mother didn’t leak any more information. The young woman could only form her own guesses why their parents had such capabilities.
Nevertheless, the siblings would never complain about their parent’s help. A sudden stat boost could prove useful in many situations. Unfortunately doing this also put a lot of stress on their parent’s souls, so this trick could only be performed about once per hour.
Otherwise, Lilly would have already thought of endless possibilities to abuse this cheat.
Since the siblings had to change form fighting to running away, their parents naturally helped them to elevate their agility.
A slight tremor ran through the siblings’ bodies.
Lilly immediately felt the change as her swordsmanship was boosted in favor of her healing magic.
An unnerving feeling hit her mind. Suddenly she had difficulties recalling things she should remember instinctively. She realized her intelligence had taken a big dip. The young woman felt like throwing up. The fact that her body suddenly moved agile like a swift cat couldn’t make up for it.
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Lilly instantly came to detest that feeling. It was as if she swapped her life with someone else’s. She hated it.
Gritting her teeth the clever woman swore to never let her stats be changed this drastically again. She would rather come up with some solution to a problem using her intelligence than living through such a nightmarish feeling again.
Iain on the contrary didn’t have such huge problems. He almost stumbled as he had to abruptly get used to this change in his body, but his slightly higher agility helped him to adjust within seconds.
As he inspected his body he realized that swapping basic smithing with (Ex) hammer wielding almost proved to be an all-around nerf to his abilities. It was only worth to do so right now, because it boosted his agility.
Perceiving their children’s thoughts the old Rottals silently promised to change their stats back later. Silvia Rottal was even contemplating if she had made the right decision for her daughter this time.
However, there was no turning back for now. The situation also didn’t leave time for much contemplation. Since the sibling’s change happened in an instant, Groob didn’t notice anything.
The team of adventurers was focused on the approaching steps. They constantly drew nearer. A low snarling accompanied them.
Relying on his experience, Groob listened carefully. His concentration rose to the peak. His perception sought for the smallest signs.
Suddenly the team leader sprung to action. His head quickly turned to Voro. He didn’t say anything out loud, but the lightning mage knew what to do.
Voro took a small disc hanging on his chest. In one smooth motion he inserted a tiny bit of mana before throwing it to the left.
The device sailed through the air. To the sibling’s surprise it let out multiple sounds of steps. In the perpetual darkness those sounded terrifyingly real.
Scattered noise would confuse the beast behind them. At the same time Groob suddenly patted the sibling’s shoulders.
Lilly and Iain understood. Following the direction Groob pointed at, the siblings gave it their all as they sprinted into the darkness.
Naturally the team didn’t do so much only to face the beast behind them now.
They abruptly sped up and left in different directions. Immediately the desired effect could be noticed. The beast slowed down in confusion. Obviously, it wasn’t close enough to perceive the adventurers with something other than its sense of hearing.
For the next hour the team didn’t slow down. They turned right and left, left and right, constantly confusing the beast. Voro also released two more discs, adding even more confusing noises everywhere.
Naturally the adventurers also had to turn off their SMTs. Meanwhile Voro’s discs copied the SMT’s sounds, which finally led the beast towards a wrong direction.
Unfortunately, the siblings didn’t know this yet. Their attention was at their limits and their nerves tightened like a rubber band before snapping.
They ran through the darkness, only aided by their perception to traverse the rough ground. Without each other’s company it would have been hard to endure.
Even for them differentiating the adventurer’s steps from fake ones turned out to be difficult. Once again, the siblings lost all feelings of time. Their minds grasped for all the support they could get.
An already unbreakable bond between the family members strengthened even more. It was almost as if the siblings could feel their parent’s souls resting in their minds, accompanying them through hardship.
After a while the gloomy environment almost faded to be a simple background. The sibling’s steps became lighter. Confidence engulfed them. It was a feeling of being able to overcome everything together. Smiles even appeared on their faces.
If the dark environment and cold winds were acid which tried to corrode the sibling’s minds than their familial bonds were an indestructible shield.
Lilly’s and Iain’s minds felt elated. Suddenly unaffected by the darkness the siblings easily powered through the sprint.
This situation lasted for an hour. Finally, steps reached the sibling’s ears again. They could instantly tell that those were human.
“Don’t be frightened! It’s Groob. You can turn on your SMTs again. We should be good now.”
Some relief still appeared in the sibling’s minds when they heard the familiar voice. As they turned on their SMTs again, they quickly noticed the approaching Groob.
The experienced adventurer had a slightly startled look on his face.
“You good kids? Why do you actually look to be in a great mood? Did you go insane in the darkness?”
Taken aback, the siblings turned towards each other. They couldn’t discover any fear in the other’s eyes.
Iain chuckled quietly as he answered:
“Of course not. We’re fine. What is this bit of darkness?”
Groob raised an eyebrow as he perceived the sibling’s confidence. While the other team members also steadily arrived, he only grumbled into his beard.
“Whatever.”
A happy mood suddenly spread in the overwhelming darkness when Voro and Uramant came near. Still high on adrenaline, the mercenaries cracked some jokes to calm themselves down. Even the usually taciturn Forgoz had to smile slightly.
Groob knew everyone had to adjust their moods and recover from their exhaustion. Thus he let them rest for a minute before he reminded:
“Don’t forget that we are still in the Frozen Hell guys. Let’s advance slowly and keep our caution up. We all want to reach the checkpoint safely.”
After the adventurers allowed themselves to relax for a minute, they now acknowledged Groob’s words. They couldn’t underestimate their environment.
Although the siblings were still out of breath, they also knew it wasn’t the time to rest now. Thus, their team of six continued their journey through the dark and cold.