Aren took his sword in his hand. After brushing off the ashes on his robe, he stepped out of the narrow entrance of the cave.
The Crimson Forest welcomed him with its usual gloominess. The volcanic clouds in the sky were swirling, and wild roars were rising from the depths of the forest.
Drawing strength from the ground, Aren dashed forward. His steps were light and fast.
Aren chose a random direction and plunged into the depths of the forest.
About twenty minutes later, he sensed a strange movement among the dense vegetation on his left side.
The leaves weren't moving, but his instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong.
Aren stopped and activated his 'Basic Vision' skill.
As the world turned gray, three bright, orange auras appeared. They were waiting for the right moment to attack.
Aren continued walking, pretending not to notice.
It was a Panther. Or rather, a creature that resembled a panther. Its pitch-black fur made it almost invisible in this forest.
But Aren was prepared.
The moment the Panther swung its claw in the air, Aren ducked slightly. Drawing his sword and swinging it happened in the same instant.
The golden gleam on the black sword cleaved through the darkness.
The bisected body of the Panther fell on either side of Aren.
Experience gained.
Seeing their friend fall, the other two panthers attacked simultaneously without hesitation. One from the front, the other from behind.
Aren spun around where he stood. Thanks to being a 'Child of Fire', he could inject fire energy into his mana as he pleased. As his sword vibrated in the air, it created a scorching wave of heat around him.
The sound of slicing and the stench of burnt meat filled the air.
Within seconds, the ambushers had turned into the prey.
Experience gained.
Experience gained.
'Too weak.' he thought.
Aren stepped over the panther corpses and proceeded toward the deeper, darker parts of the forest.
Aren was silently advancing within the increasingly rotting texture of the Crimson Forest.
As he progressed, that sulfurous, suffocating heat in the air gradually broke; it was replaced by a sickly and damp coolness that penetrated his skin.
The dry, cracked volcanic soil beneath his feet softened a little more with each step, turning into a black and sticky quagmire that seemingly wanted to swallow him.
The crimson leaves had given way to gray, diseased branches, and the hot volcanic soil to a sticky, black mud.
'Very strange. We are in a volcanic biome, such a place shouldn't exist here.'
He stopped suddenly.
Ahead, from that dead zone where the trees thinned out, sounds of conflict were coming. The sound of metal clashing against metal, the sound of ice breaking, and muffled, angry snarls.
Using 'Phantom Step', Aren soundlessly glided into the shadow of a tree. He positioned himself where he could see the scene and activated his 'Basic Vision' skill.
Golden gleams appeared in his eyes.
What he saw was a five-meter-tall nightmare made of pitch-black obsidian. One of its arms was in the shape of a massive scythe, and with every movement, it spread a purple, toxic gas from its ribcage into the surroundings.
The creature had no elemental affinity, but its strength overshadowed all the creatures Aren had encountered.
And facing the creature was a familiar, ice-cold figure.
Lilith.
There was no trace of her clean, flawless state in the hotel lobby. Her blue armor was shattered, and the blood flowing from her forehead covered her left eye.
She was fighting desperately with the white sword in her hand, which looked as if it were made of ice. Every time she swung her sword, a freezing wave of cold spread around, freezing the black sludge beneath her.
But to no avail.
When Lilith's ice attacks struck the creature's obsidian skin, they shattered like glass. The creature didn't even flinch.
Aren watched without moving from his spot.
His mind began to work like a cold computer.
'I will wait a little longer and join the battle at the most critical moment. This way, it will be more efficient to impress her. At the same time, by observing the creature, I can measure its attack and defense power. Thus, I will minimize the risk while fighting.'
The battle continued.
Despite its massive size, the creature was frighteningly fast.
When it swung its scythe arm, it made a sound as if the air was being torn apart.
Lilith had to dodge these attacks instead of blocking them. Once, when she tried to block, her ice sword cracked and she was thrown meters back.
'The creature's physical strength might be higher than mine. Clashing head-on is risky.'
With a final effort, Lilith gathered her mana.
She summoned massive ice spears from the ground and hurled them at the creature's chest. The spears struck the creature but shattered, leaving only superficial scratches on the surface.
'Its magic resistance is very high. Or at least it is resistant to ice. Its skin acts as natural armor.'
Lilith's movements were gradually slowing down.
Her face had turned pale as chalk. As she inhaled that purple gas emitted by the creature, her mana depleted and her muscles weakened.
'Poison. I will be constantly exposed to it in close combat. Dangerous.'
The creature was strong, durable, and poisonous. But it wasn't invincible. Its movements were slightly clumsy.
At that moment, the situation reached a critical point.
Lilith staggered under the effect of the poison. Her foot caught in the black sludge and she fell to her knees. She tried to raise her sword, but her arms were trembling. Her mana was depleted.
Seeing its prey fall, the creature let out a creaky, satisfied sound.
With its massive five-meter body, it walked over Lilith.
It raised its massive scythe arm into the air. Its shadow fell upon the helpless girl on the ground.
Lilith raised her head. There was no fear in her ice-blue eyes, only the acceptance of approaching death.
Aren took a deep breath in the shadow of the tree.
The best way to make someone an ally was to give them a debt they could never repay. And there is no greater debt than one's life.
'Now.'
The creature's scythe began to descend, tracing a deadly arc.
Aren shot out of his hiding place with explosive power.
He channeled all the mana in his body into his legs and his sword.
The black sword was coated in a blinding golden flame.
Aren advanced like a golden lightning bolt over the black sludge.
When the scythe was only centimeters away from Lilith's neck, Aren intervened.
The sound of metal and obsidian colliding echoed in the forest.
Holding his sword with both hands, Aren had stopped the scythe.
Under the creature's immense strength, his knees trembled, the mud beneath his feet caved in, but he didn't take a step back.
The golden flames and the creature's dark nothingness rubbed against each other.
Lilith, waiting for death on the ground, opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was the black-robed figure standing in front of her, his back turned to her. The golden light radiating from his sword illuminated the dark forest, making him look almost like a savior descended from the sky.
This scene was heroic enough to have jumped out of any fairy tale book.
Of course, no one could see that ice-cold, calm expression on Aren's face.
Aren resisted the creature's pressure. He turned his head slightly over his shoulder and looked at the shocked Lilith.
"Are you okay?" Aren said, his voice calm but equally cold.
With an astonished expression on her bloody face, Lilith said, "You..."
With a sudden burst of power, Aren pushed his sword and parried the creature's scythe.
As the creature lost its balance and took a step back, Aren grabbed Lilith by the collar of her armor with his free hand and pulled her to her feet.
"Go."
Aren roughly threw the girl backward, toward a safe distance. Lilith fell to the ground like a sack, but at least she was out of attack range.
Aren turned back to the creature. He held his black sword at his side, the golden flames licking the soil.
Enraged that its prey had been snatched from its grasp, the creature roared and began to spray the purple gas more densely.
To avoid inhaling more of the purple gas, Aren took a few steps backward and held his breath.
The moment the creature saw Aren distancing himself, it raised its massive scythe toward the sky, wanting to make a vertical cut and cleave him in two.
'Its combat intelligence is exceedingly low.' Aren thought.
With Aren's speed, closing the distance between him and the creature and exploiting the opening the creature had created as if saying 'come and cut me' was child's play.
'I won't kill it immediately. If I destroy this creature in seconds without breaking a sweat, Lilith will feel more fear than gratitude toward me and will see me as an unpredictable threat. However, if I risk my own life and save her by the skin of my teeth, her irrational emotions will come into play and she will feel an unshakable life debt to me. I will need reliable and capable pawns to apply Rule 1 and survive in the future. This little theatrical performance is a good investment for my future.'
As the creature's massive scythe descended upon Aren, tearing through the air with a disgusting whistling sound, Aren gripped his black sword tightly with both hands and raised it upwards.
The shockwave born from the collision of obsidian and metal pushed the black sludge around them outward like a crater.
'Strong. The me from 7 days ago wouldn't have stood a chance against this creature.'
As Aren thought this, he purposely bent his knees. He grimaced, gritted his teeth, and let out a muffled groan to create the impression that he was being crushed under the creature's immense power. He deliberately made his hands holding the sword tremble.
The ice-blue eyes of Lilith, lying helplessly on the ground, were wide open. Her mind couldn't comprehend how Aren blocked that blow, but she could see that 'desperate' resistance in the man's eyes.
As if wanting to break its victim's resistance, the creature put more weight on its scythe. At the same time, the purple, toxic gas erupting from the gaps in its ribcage intensified and enveloped Aren like a cloud of fog.
The invisible, searing mana radiating from Aren's skin burned the purple gas with a sizzle, rendering it completely harmless. Aren didn't feel a single speck of the poison.
But to an outside observer, this was a deadly moment. To keep up the act, Aren deliberately began to cough violently. He put on an expression as if his breath was cut off and he was suffocating from the poison.
Pretending to struggle as he slid his sword sideways, he deflected the direction of the scythe and took a few clumsy, desperate-looking steps backward to open the distance. He dropped and raised his shoulders as if he was out of breath.
Thinking its prey had weakened, the creature roared and lunged at him again with massive strides.
The creature swung its scythe horizontally once more. This time, Aren acted deliberately slow. Jumping to the ground at the last moment, he got covered in mud. The Royal Dragon Silk Robe was slathered in black sludge. From the outside, he looked like a man who had surpassed his limits and could barely stand.
Aren staggered as he got up from the ground. The creature did not forgive this 'opening' and rose into the air to crush Aren with its massive foot.
'This is enough. First, I will sever that arm.'
Just as the creature's foot was about to descend, that tired, exhausted posture of Aren was wiped away in an instant. The golden ring in his eyes reached a blinding brilliance.
Aren's body blurred for a moment. While the creature's foot only crushed the mud, Aren had already appeared on the creature's right side, right under its weak shoulder joint.
He pumped the energy in his Mana Pool into his sword. The black sword was covered in golden flames, almost turning into a miniature sun.
Aren swung his sword from bottom to top with immense power.
The sound of metal shattering hard rock deafened the forest.
The creature's massive scythe arm was cleanly severed at the shoulder and plunged into the mud with a loud crash.
Losing its balance with this sudden 'loss of limb' it felt, the creature staggered backward, letting out a painful, creaky screech. Its purple gas was uncontrollably scattering around.
Aren did not stop. With the explosive power in his legs, he leaped into the air. Defying gravity, he reached the level of the creature's chest. He raised his sword above his head with both hands and brought it down on the root of the creature's neck with all his might.
The golden flames cleaved through the creature's thick neck like paper.
The headless body of the creature stood in place for about a second, then fell to its knees and collapsed onto the volcanic ground.
Screens popped up one after another in front of him.
Level 19 > Level 20
Level 20 > Level 21
Level 21 > Level 22
Level 22 > Level 23
Level 23 > Level 24
'5 levels in a row.'
As Aren calmly read the notifications hovering in the air, he shook off the dark remnants on his sword. As the feeling of rejuvenation brought by leveling up spread through his body, he returned to his role.
He sent his sword to his ring.
He deliberately fell to his knees, rested one hand on the mud, and began to pant heavily as if he was exhausted.
After staying like that for a few seconds, he pretended to stand up with difficulty.
Then, dropping his shoulders and limping slightly as if every step brought pain, he walked toward Lilith.
Lilith was just sitting there in the mud. Her ice-blue eyes had shifted from the massive creature that was just destroyed to Aren. Her pride was in tatters, but she had seen with her own eyes how this man came face to face with death for her inside that poisonous gas. Her rational mind told her only one thing: she owed her life to this man.
Aren stood in front of Lilith.
Leaning on her broken ice sword, she stood up with difficulty. Despite her tall stature, she looked small next to Aren's 197 cm frame.
"Why?" Lilith asked. Her voice was still cold, but there was a tremor within that winter wind she couldn't hide.
"Because I need a reliable ally." he said, his voice breathless but equally clear.
Lilith was surprised by the answer she heard.
"Still... Risking your life this much for someone you don't know... It's not very smart, you know. You could have left me there to die and attacked when the creature was weakened." she said.
With a serious voice, Aren said, "Sometimes actions prove more than words ever could."
He took out two small vials filled with green liquid from his ring. It was the antidote he took from Rick's corpse.
He tossed the vial into the mud at Lilith's feet.
"Antidote." Aren said. His voice was tired and raspy.
Without waiting, Aren drank one.
'A dispensable resource.'
Lilith looked at the vial in the mud, then at Aren's eyes. With her hands trembling from the poison, she picked up the vial, unhesitatingly opened the cap, and finished it in one gulp.
The effect of the potion quickly showed itself; the purple color coursing through her veins faded, and her breathing returned to normal.