Chapter 343 Volume V - Chapter 61: A Miraculaus Way to Survive
I just stared at the notification in front of me. I couldn't think of anything, I just stared at it.
After a while... my lips involuntarily curled upward. My eye twitched slightly and I tried hard not to laugh.
If this had happened before, I would have gotten angry and begged the stat to stop rising all the time. Now that I knew I would have even more problems, I would have hated it even more, isolated myself even more.
Not that I didn't feel them, of course. I would have preferred my other stats to go up. Charm was still the last thing I wanted to rise up.
But... it wasn't actually such a bad thing. Especially here, in this very dungeon.
Because the new way I found to get stronger didn't just raise the charm statistic, it also strengthened my body. And in doing so, it was benefiting from the effect of the charm in the first place. And a higher statistic meant I could do it more effectively.
In fact, now that I will have a stronger connection with mana, my efficiency and the purity of the mana I can use will also increase.
I took a deep breath in and out as I turned my eyes to the green sky. I took off my mask. Even if only for a short time, I wanted the wind to blow directly on my face, even though it didn't make much difference.
I smiled and stayed like that for a while.
This dungeon... is a first for me for many things. I never thought in my whole life that I would be happy that my charm stat had risen up. And that I would feel powerless, useless like this.
I kept smiling as I looked at the point where the mountain range met the green sky. Then... a single thought crossed my mind.
We... I hope we can survive. I want that now even more than before.
My eyes involuntarily shifted to Adrian, who was sleeping on the hard and cold ground. I saw that his eyebrows were slightly furrowed, his muscles were contracted, as if... in pain.
The smile on my face dropped slightly.
What am I going to do about it, then?
Should I really trust him, or should I just... watch, knowing that he's killing himself step by step?
Can't we just run away now that it's morning and look for a new hiding place? We spent the first night, all three of us, sleeping in the pit of that cave, and neither of the creatures did find us.
Wouldn't it be better if we could find something like that again and wait for Adrian to really recover?
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and thought about a lot of things. I went through every single thing that could be done in this situation.
But then I realized... there wasn't.
It was literally impossible to get out of this plain unless we found a place that could truly hide us from the wolves. That's why I chose to trust Adrian in the first place. I knew that was the case in the very beginning.
Adrian had so much confidence in himself that I believed his plan had the best chance of success. But now... nothing had changed. The moment we decided to leave, our chances of survival were lower than ever.
Because we had to 'find' a shelter. The three of us didn't have earth magic, which is a necessity in normal dungeon teams for this very reason. We couldn't create our own shelter, and on top of that, unless we got rid of the wolves or Adrian was fully recovered, it was absurd to even consider other possibilities.
And that means... I had to trust him again. I had to watch him walk to his death on purpose again. Again... I could do nothing but hide behind him while hoping that he won't die.
My eyes squinted, my face twitched.
I don't want to be in a situation like this again, to see a friend of mine lay down his life so that we can survive... I don't want that.
So... I have to start taking this 'getting stronger' thing seriously while I have a chance. I have to start living up to the name Lucia Quie, the genius that everyone talks about as 'one of the most talented children of her generation'.
*******
My eyes widened, dazzled by the bright green of the sky.
But it didn't last long. I got used to the light quickly. What I couldn't get used to was... suddenly my whole body contracted violently. I ached everywhere, this time... really badly.
I didn't moan though, I didn't make any noise, I just... looked silently at the sky, trying to ignore my body that felt like it was going to fall apart.
I wasn't very good at it, though. It really hurt. Just waking up, just standing where I was, made my limbs feel like they were going to fall off. But I kept quiet, even though I couldn't ignore the pain.
Trust me, I told Lucia. But... I didn't think my body would rebound so violently. My body had taken more damage than I thought. And so, I realized a truth again.
I... if I continue, I'm really going to die. At best, I'll be crippled, which also means dying in this dungeon.
If I have five or six hours, maybe I can fight tonight. But even if I win... my body may never recover.
No, not maybe. It simply won't be able to recover again. With my body the way it is, even if I finish the duel in one move again, there is simply no chance that I will survive afterward.
The only reason I survived the night before is because the wolves have only one duel each night. Only one duel, they don't directly allow more.
But this rule they have set among themselves will not save me again.
I have to find a way to heal, not completely, just a little bit. I just have to find a way to heal even if slightly.
But we don't have any potions. I can't use Guardian Radiance either because I can't use mana directly. And I don't think there is a way to use Lucia's passive… probably regeneration skill on others.
A smile appeared on my face. Not one of excitement or happiness, but the opposite...
My hand is really empty, isn't it? Lithoa still hasn't shown up too. I... at this point, I'm just waiting for the moment when I die, helpless, unable to do anything.
I wanted to clench my teeth, my fist, but my muscles contracted with such pain that for a moment I thought they would tear apart.
After a short while, I closed my eyes and started to think again.
Would the wolves understand if I pretended to be asleep? Or if I was really go to sleep and pretend to still hadn't woken up from my unconsciousness...?
I doubt they would understand... It's not like they can track us in the daytime. They literally disappear from the face of the dungeon, they really 'hide'.
That's why all our problems would be solved if we could find a good shelter. But we can't do that either. I can't even stand up... If we want to move anywhere, I'm simply a burden. And without me, Lucia and Sue can't survive here.
There must be a way... there absolutely must be. From what Lithoa told me, the disk couldn't have dragged me to a place where I would die no matter what. There must be a way for me to survive, I just can't find it.
So... I kept thinking, for minutes, maybe even for more than an hour. Most of the time, I ended up back where I started, I wasn't a very intelligent person, but I kept going, pushing the limits of my mind as far as I could.
And after a while... I opened my eyes again. I looked up at the green sky again, this time with an involuntary smile on my face.
There is a way. Maybe it won't work out the way I thought it would, maybe I might even fail.
But there really is something that can work. It's just a possibility, but... I'm willing to cling to this tiny possibility when I have nothing else.
At least I'm going to try.
And so, the first thing I did was to call out to my mind.
'Lithoa, wake up. There's something I need to ask you.'
He just said 'don't awake me'. But when it's a matter of life and death... I don't think he'll say anything.
I have simply no choice.
'Lithoa, I know you're there, I know you told me not to call you, but I need your help, otherwise... I'll simply die.'
And after these words... Lithoa did indeed appear. With a voice in my mind, of course.
'So what, you can't even survive fo-'
He paused… as if he had seen something wrong.
'You idiot... What the fuck did you do when I was trying to find a way for you to get out of the dungeon?!'
His voice was really high, I could tell he was angry.
But I didn't care.
'I had no choice, I'm sorry. Let me tell you what happened first.'
Even though he was extremely angry, he didn't say anything. And so I told him what had happened from day one. It was short because I knew I didn't have much time.
And after I was done explaining the situation… he was even more angry than before.
'Well done, well done! What's the miraculous thing that could get you out of this situation 'with a small chance', huh?
I answered quickly, without waiting a second.
'Ordea.'
And after that answer... Lithoa fell silent as if he had forgotten all his anger in an instant.
Five seconds passed, then some more...
But eventually, he opened his mouth, which he had kept closed.
'So you can really make your brain work sometimes, huh?'
A wide smile appeared on my face that I couldn't hold back no matter how much it hurt. Because Lithoa's reaction... showed that there really was hope.
Maybe… Maybe we really could get out of this situation alive.
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