"Urgh..."
Falling to his knees with a pained grimace, Raven raised his hands only to watch as second later blood came gushing out of his mouth.
'Wh... What the hell?'
Raven scowled and tried to stand up, but failed to do so. His body, right now, was as stiff and heavy as a rock.
What was happening with his body? Why does he feel as if his whole body had been wrapped in thousands of weight? Why was he feeling pain all of a sudden? Could it be that...
Suddenly a thought popped up in Raven's head which quickly vanished.
No... He hadn't been poisoned. He knew that for sure.
Then the only plausible explanation for this was...
'My Rune Mark... So that's wh-, Cough!' coughing up large amounts of blood once again Raven painted the ground in the color of red.
It turns out that while he really gained an insanely powerful Rune Mark that granted him the ability to overpower anyone that came against him, it also had a huge drawback.
His body couldn't handle the sudden jump in strength, hence once it gets deactivated his body will suffer a massive backlash.
One so huge that during that time he will become almost completely vulnerable, allowing himself to get killed by even the weakest creature that tried to attack him!
"Raven!"
While Raven struggled on the ground not to suffocate in his own blood, a figure flashed to his side and supported his body.
"Alex! Heal him, now!" turning toward Alex who still stood in a daze, Luna shouted with a scarcely pale face.
"ALEX!"
"H-Huh? R-Roger!" snapping out of his shock, Alex quickly ran beside Raven, and after placing his palm atop his back a gentle white light quickly started to spread out of his hand.
"Cough! Thank you." Raven looked at Alex as he felt how the pain within his body slowly started to disappear.
Of course, he could have used his Healing Pill, however as it could heal even fatal wounds he didn't wish to waste it.
Meanwhile, Mia, Oliver, and especially John stood in the distance, both of them staring at Raven and the shredded carcass of the Mutated Nightshade Queen with stupified expressions.
"Did... Did he just slay two Alphas?" Oliver mumbled with disbelief flickering in his eyes.
Mia next to him swallowed nervously and nodded. As for John, his startled expression soon turned serious and after putting his Artifact away he approached Raven.
"How did you do it?"
When Raven heard the familiar voice he raised his head scarcely and showed a somewhat cocky smile.
"With skill."
John frowned upon hearing those words before he said coldly, "Those Mutated Nightshade Queens were at Rank 50 while your aura is barely above 40. So I will ask again, how did you do it?"
Raven, and also Luna beside him, frowned deeply before the former decided to stand up slowly and wipe the blood away from the corner of his mouth.
"I don't really think I need to explain everything to you, much less tell you all of my abilities."
After saying that Raven ignored John's piercing glare and glanced at Alex, "Thank you, I am fine now."
"You don't have to thank me. The one saying that should be me, not you. You have saved my and everyone's life." Alex said with a wry smile, his exhausted and pale face slowly regaining its natural colors.
"Anyways, we should take a rest and recover our strength before resuming our search." after making sure Raven was fine Luna stood up and looked at everyone one by one.
Looking at them now, although they did have any fatal wounds they still looked exhausted and had small wounds that needed to be healed, or else they could get infected.
Luckily, none of them were poisoned, but just in case to avoid the unexpected Luna gave several pills to everyone which were an antidote for lethal poison.
The group after that decided to rest for 2 hours before resuming their search for the Realm Core. However, even after 5 hours of searching through which they killed many creatures and even reached the border of the Realm Domain, they found nothing.
"This is weird. Even though we are inside a Territory-type Realm Domain that shouldn't mean the Realm Core should be completely hidden." Mia frowned as she looked around, "We have explored the whole Domain yet found nothing."
Raven also looked around, trying to spot the Realm Core. However, except for the tall cave wall before him, that spread both directions and the vast blue forest behind him, he saw nothing.
"The Realm Core is a floating orb, right?" Raven asked, making sure he was looking for the right thing. After all, although he once saw a Realm Core that didn't mean every Realm Core looked the same.
Especially not after that it turns out there are various types of Realm Domains, each varying from one another in several aspects such as layout, size, difficulty, and many more.
"Orb?" Mia raised a brow before she seemed to realize something and said, "Oh, you must be talking about Preliminary Realm Cores. No, the Realm Core we are looking for is having more of a crystal-like appearance."
"Yeah. It also emits a unique aura, so it is quite easy to spot even from far away." Alex added with a nod.
"Wait, what?" Raven suddenly stopped walking, forcing the rest to look at him with puzzled looks.
"You guys mean something like... this?" Raven asked, pulling out a piece of small, azure blue crystal from his pocket.
"What!?"
Everyone screamed out with shock and ran in front of him, their eyes glued to the small crystal as if it was an ancient treasure that was lost for centuries.
"This... This is the Realm Core! But... But where did you find it?" Mia asked with utter disbelief once she confirmed that it really was what they were looking for.
'So this is what a fully evolved Realm Core looks like, huh?' Raven thought to himself as he played with the small crystal in his palm.
"Believe it or not, I have found it outside the Realm Domain."
"You have what!?" Mia almost screamed and said, "That is just impossible. Realm Core is-,"
"No, it is not impossible." suddenly Alex began to speak, interrupting Mia and attracting everyone's gaze.
"My friends once told me that during their time clearing a Territory-type Realm Domain, they haven't found the Realm Core inside, but instead outside of it!"
"Huh? But how is that even possible? It is a known fact that Realm Cores can only exist within Realm Domains as they are the only source of energy that prevents Realms to collapse." Oliver asked with a deep scowl on his head.
"Don't ask me why it how, this is something my friends told me. In fact, if you want you can ask about it within the Realm Association. It is in the official report." Alex shrugged casually.
Mia and Oliver looked at each other with both shock and confusion while Luna and John kept frowning in silence as they gazed at the crystal in Raven's hand.
'Weird... Maybe I should ask Dinas about it once I will have the chance.' Raven thought to himself before he handed the Realm Core to Luna.
"Then I think we can get going, right?"
"If you would have told us sooner you had the Realm Core, we would have finished here a long time ago without risking our lives," John muttered with a hint of anger and without hesitation began to walk toward where the exit was.
'Like I would have known it was what we have been looking for.' Raven sneered coldly before he followed after the brat of the Waldell family.
And just like that, the group exited the Realm Domain.
"And what now? What will happen with the Realm Domain?" Raven asked when he saw nothing happened the moment they exited the Realm Domain with the Realm Core.
"Because this Realm Domain is a fully evolved one and now that we have the Realm Core, it will take a few days before it collapses completely," Luna explained calmly before adding, "We just have to report back to the Realm Association which will prohibit anyone entering the Realm Domain."
"What if one remains inside the Realm Domain when it collapses?" Raven asked curiously but in a tone of voice that only Luna heard.
After all, if the others would hear he didn't even know about such basic knowledge they would either think he was a retard or spent his previous three years under a rock.
Or even worse, suspect something which was the least he needed at the moment.
Luna looked at Raven from the corner of his eyes and after pondering for a while she said, "No one knows really, but it is very likely they all die."
'Or they are transported to another world.' Raven thought calmly, the words Dinas once told him about Realm Cores resurfacing in his mind.
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