Chapter 141 Volume III - Chapter 62: True Identity
I pulled the dagger down.
Adrian Caleo would die here today by my hands. My mission would end here and then I would be free, at least for a little while, until I took on a new one.
At least that's what I thought. The reality, however, had other plans, for it was only a matter of time before I stopped the dagger. My eyes focused on Adrian, or rather his neck. There, visible through his clothes, was a chain. A chain the color of gold but shining silver, a familiar chain.
My hand holding the dagger suddenly stopped. My curiosity and astonishment overpowered me so much that my hands practically weakened of their own accord. Trembling, I reached for the chain, pulled it up, and revealed the necklace hidden under the cloth.
It was a very simple necklace, but as beautiful as it was simple. In the center was a jewel, a green-colored one. It looked like an emerald, but it wasn't, I knew it wasn't. It was much more special, I knew it... because I had the same jewel in my necklace.
The dagger fell from my hand, it made a metallic sound for a split second and my eyes widened.
I quickly untied the necklace and took it off. Mana gathered around me, condensed, and entered Adrian's body. Then it spread back the way it came, pushing me back, but I stayed where I was and looked at Adrian.
His skin color lightened, then his facial features sharpened. He began to exude a strange aura around him as if his charm statistic had gone through the roof, attracting living beings. Not only them but even mana. The most important change was in his ears, they became pointed. Just like what had just happened to me...
I tried senselessly to process, to think about the scene unfolding in front of me, but I couldn't. The idea that any other 'elf' than me could be here seemed so absurd, so impossible, that my brain stopped working.
Did... did my grandfather know this and therefore wanted to kill him?
Still, why would an elf be here? Especially at the risk of getting first place at the academy... Wouldn't that make it easier for him to be exposed?
Nonsense. It's ridiculous... it doesn't make sense. I... I don't understand.
My eyes shifted back to Adrian, then to his silver hair.
For a moment a crazy idea came to me, an idea that I never would have thought possible, and yet it sprouted in my mind.
Impossible.
I quickly pulled a dimensional button out of my pocket and broke it, revealing a small device, not even the size of my fingernail.
Transferring mana to the device, I quickly opened it, a holographic screen rose in front of me and I pressed the first button I saw.
A call sounded in the room. It rang once, twice, three times.
I became more and more nervous with each sound coming from the device, but I kept waiting. After a while, a woman's voice came from the device.
"Yes?"
"It- It's me, Alysia Laute."
I could almost see the other person's face crumpling as I gave my name.
"What happened? We told you not to call if you run out of your medicine, just text and go to the specified location."
"No! I still have my medicine. I just... want to report on my mission."
The other person's voice trailed off for a moment, and when she spoke again, she was a little more serious than before.
"Speak."
"I discovered that my target, Adrian Caleo, is an elf. I even found the necklace he used to disguise himself. He is unconscious in front of me, and the moment I removed the necklace, he became an elf. He has white hair and green eyes."
There was silence.
"Take a picture."
I quickly pulled the screen in front of me to the right, switched to the camera from a menu that appeared in front of me, and took a high-resolution photo of Adrian. Then sent it.
"Stay on the line, don't hang up."
There was no sound from the other side for a while. I waited, kept repeating to myself that the thought in my mind was impossible, and waited for the decision.
She will tell me to kill him, she will tell me that my thoughts are wrong. She will even get angry, saying that I am keeping her busy unnecessarily, maybe she will give me less than usual to make me suffer when I take my next stock of medicines.
Still, I want to know.
"Retreat. Your mission will be updated soon."
The holographic screen went blank as these two sentences suddenly cut through the silence... and I froze.
There was an intense silence. I couldn't make a sound and just waited. My hands were shaking and my eyes were focused on one spot. I couldn't focus anywhere else.
She can't be serious... can she?
*******
"Alex! Jump to the ground!"
An intense heat filled the air, and a howl echoed as if it would make our ears bleed. I realized I was being thrown backward, but I managed to activate my barrier.
Flames covered my barrier, I could feel it literally melting, but I had no choice but to trust it.
This was the last struggles of the creature in front of me. It would die even if I didn't touch it. It just wanted to make one last move before it died and... it did.
The flames managed to break through my barrier and I felt the heat penetrate directly into my skin, even if only for a split second, it was enough to take my breath away. The momentary flames that covered my vision scared the hell out of me, for a moment I even thought that this was the end. It hurt. But the flames died as quickly as they came, and the heat was quickly retracted by the coldness of the dungeon.
For a moment I was stunned, not understanding what had happened, but then I came to my senses, quickly checked my body, and was relieved to see that I was not seriously burned.
"Are you okay?"
I let out a deep sigh as the voice came from not too far away, no more than six meters to my right. Alex was looking at me curiously, not a trace of worry on his face.
"Yes, I'm fine, the barrier held just barely. I only have minor burns. They will heal after I drink the potion."
<<------------------------------
Congratulations! You have killed the Flaming Ice Wolf, a mini-boss!
Your reward will be added to the rewards you will receive for completing the dungeon.
------------------------------>>
I sighed again as the notification appeared in front of me.
I thought the wolf would be much easier to defeat, but the stupid creature turned out to be much tougher than I thought.
"Anyway, that was the last creature we had to kill before the main boss."
I turned my eyes behind me and raised my head up toward the structure on top of the mountain, which literally had no top.
The wolf was the guardian of the structure. Or rather, the cave he lived in was next to the entrance to the structure, so he was sort of guarding it.
Normally we could have waited for him to fall asleep so we could get inside without messing with him, but... I simply wanted to kill him for the extra reward. And I succeeded. Or rather, we did. Still, I didn't think it would take this much effort.
"Are we going in?"
Alex pointed to the structure on the mountain.
It looked like a palace literally buried in the mountain. And where we were was the ruins of an ancient city. The ruins here were much better preserved than the first ones we had seen, most of the buildings were still standing, albeit partially destroyed.
The palace, on the other hand, was in even better condition than the buildings, except that it looked worn and a few of its columns had collapsed. Still, it had the feel of an ancient ruin really well.
"Yes, the last 'tough' creature we have to kill in the dungeon is waiting for us inside."
Alex clenched his fist and looked at the entrance to the building. There was a large door there, half closed and the other half collapsed on the ground.
"Don't worry, the plant you want is inside."
"Let's go."
Alex slowly made his way to the door. I took one last look at the corpse of the wolf we had killed, sighed a little, then quickly followed him.
When we walked through the door, the first thing that greeted us was a long, long corridor covered in ice with bones that looked almost fossilized.
The corridor was so big that a normal-sized apartment building could fit inside without touching the sides of the corridor.
"There won't be any creatures ahead of us, at least not for a while. Don't let your guard down, but you can relax a bit. There's a safe zone before the boss room, we'll rest there."
Alex nodded, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. Getting closer to his goal had made him focus on it much more intensely than usual.
I would normally distract him by doing something unnecessary, but since we were in a safe place, I didn't push it.
I'll take care of it before I fight the boss.
The corridor split left and right in some places, and in what looked like the main courtyard there were huge staircases that allowed us to go down instead of up, which was our goal, but since I know the whole palace by heart, I know that there were only creatures and useless things there.
It would be a waste of time to deal with them when we are so close to the end, we have to finish the job quickly.
As I walked up the huge stairs I couldn't help but admire the structure of this dungeon over and over again.
If all the dungeons I'm going to enter are going to be like this, I really want to go to them, despite the dangers inside. I know what each one looks like, but... this is something else.
With these thoughts, we finally reached the end of the stairs, so my focus shifted back in front of me. There was a corridor in front of us again, similar to the one downstairs, but this time with the end in sight. There was a door there too, almost identical to the one below. The only difference was that this door was completely closed, whereas the one downstairs was half broken open.
"Is this it?"
"Yes, the main boss is behind this door, but we'll rest on the edge for a couple of hours first. No creatures will come here, the boss scares them, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. Keep looking around."
"Okay."
Alex took one more look at the door, then took a deep breath and we let ourselves down. We drank our potions and started eating our food.
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