As she slowly wiped the dried blood and mud from her face with the back of her hand, that winter cold in her eyes gave way to a silent acceptance.
She gripped the hilt of her sword tighter.
"So be it. After all, you saved my life. Lilith Grey never forgets her debt."
As if hearing these words relieved him, Aren took a deep, seemingly painful breath, as if leaning on an invisible sword.
"Will you be able to walk?" Aren asked, his voice still raspy.
Lilith pulled her broken sword out of the mud in a single smooth motion.
The poison in her body had been completely cleansed thanks to the antidote, but the physical wounds from the monster's blows and that inner feeling of emptiness brought by mana depletion were still there.
Her muscles ached.
Despite this, she lifted her chin; she had no intention of showing weakness.
"Yes." Lilith said resolutely. With her ice-blue eyes, she scanned the dark surroundings where danger could spring out at any moment.
"Let's go before we attract the attention of other creatures around. There is a safe place I know. I found it by chance when I first entered this region. Follow me."
Without breaking the tired expression on his face, Aren nodded slightly.
The duo quickly moved away through the black sludge, swamp pits, and shapeless, gray trees.
After about forty minutes of a silent, tense, and cautious walk, the texture of the forest began to change.
Before long, they found an ancient tree trunk that was massive, completely hollowed out, and had turned to stone over time, rising almost like a monument.
The massive roots of the tree had formed a natural, spacious hollow underground.
"Here it is." Lilith said, carefully pushing the vines aside with her sword and entering the dark hollow.
Aren silently slipped inside after her.
The inside was dark, filled with a dryness given by petrified wood, and surprisingly clean compared to that acidic, rotten air outside. The floor was covered with soft moss.
Using the last crumbs of mana remaining in her mana pool, Lilith drew an exceedingly durable layer of ice.
Not only would this prevent anyone from entering, but it would also give them early warning with the loud cracking sound it would make if something approached and tried to break the ice.
Aren leaned his back against the rough inner surface of the petrified tree and slowly slumped to the floor.
He stretched his legs and closed his eyes.
His breathing was irregular.
Lilith sat a little away from him, in the other corner of the cave, securing her back.
She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. That heavy silence in the cold cave covered both their tired minds like a thick quilt.
Time flowed away meaninglessly under the constantly swirling, stormy crimson clouds outside. About seven hours had passed.
Lilith was awake.
In the pitch-black darkness of the cave, her ice-blue eyes shone with a faint mana gleam and carefully watched Aren. Seeing Aren stir and his breathing return to normal, she straightened her posture.
She felt she had to prove her worth as an ally and balance that delicate scale of 'equality' between them in her favor.
Information was the most valuable currency in history.
"Are you feeling better?" Lilith asked. Compared to the previous days and the moment they first met, her voice was more neutral, her walls lowered, and much more human.
"I'm a little better. I've recovered some of my strength." Aren said, brushing off the skirts of his muddy robe.
Lilith took a deep breath, the cold air in the environment filling her lungs. "There are some things I need to tell you. If we are allies, we must share what we know and the resources we have. Only this way can we survive this hell."
Aren fixed his hazel eyes, glowing in the darkness, on her. His full attention was on her. "I'm listening."
"Before I found you fighting that monster... I met someone. Just like you, he also offered me an alliance." Lilith began.
Squinting, she remembered that moment.
"But this wasn't a normal encounter. The person across from me... was a kid. Maybe fifteen, sixteen years old. Whispering to himself and suddenly letting out hysterical bursts of laughter. His movements were completely unpredictable."
Lilith summarized the boy's unstable behavior and how he attacked her suddenly without any provocation in short, clear, and analytical sentences.
"He said he wanted to give me a 'gift' to earn my trust. Of course, I didn't trust his sickly smile or the gift he gave."
"And I rejected him."
"We fought. He was exceedingly strong. He had a wild fighting style. After I injured him, he decided to flee."
As Lilith continued to explain the details, she reached for the spatial pouch at her waist. After a brief mana fluctuation, a rolled-up piece of paper appeared in her hand.
As Aren took the paper from between Lilith's fingers, he instantly noticed that familiar strangeness in its texture.
The thing at his fingertips was a rough page torn from an ordinary, wire-bound sketchbook.
In fact, the jagged paper tears formed when it was ripped from the spiral wires still remained on one edge of the page.
"It looks like a page torn from a sketchbook." Aren muttered, pretending to have a slight tone of surprise in his voice.
Lilith nodded.
"Yes. That's the first thing that caught my attention too. He seems to have drawn the map himself."
The drawing style was chaotic.
It was as if the person drawing had trembling hands, pressing the pen to the paper with anger one moment, and scribbling carelessly the next.
However, beneath this psychopathic drawing style lay a terrifyingly flawless sense of mathematics and direction.
The map consisted of four massive rings intertwined.
Each ring narrowed toward the center and encompassed the previous one. It almost resembled a dartboard.
"The first ring." Aren said, placing his finger on the outermost, widest circle. It was filled with red stains and pointy-tipped tree drawings.
"Where we started."
He slid his finger to an inner ring. This place was depicted in charcoal, painted in gray and black, with twisted dead tree figures and sludge puddles. "The Second Ring. Where we are right now."
Lilith leaned toward him. The slight click coming from her armor broke the silence.
Her finger touched the third ring.
This circle was painted entirely in red and orange. Wave figures were drawn, but these weren't water waves.
By drawing small, melting skeleton figures on the edges, the person who drew it wanted to indicate how deadly this place was.
"The Third Ring... A Sea of Lava."
As Aren said this, deep within his mind, the Golden Phoenix in his Mana Pool flapped its wings in excitement.
Finally, his finger slid to the fourth and smallest ring right in the center of the map. A pitch-black triangle. Crimson flames exploding toward the sky were drawn from its peak. "The Fourth Ring. The volcano itself. The center."
However, what truly caught Aren's attention wasn't the rings. It was the ten small, red skull marks scattered hastily and savagely across the Second, Third, and Fourth rings of the map.
"Lilith." Aren said, taking his hazel eyes off the map and fixing them on the girl. His voice carried a seriousness that weighed down the silence inside the hollow.
"You remember the 'Grand Finale' quest the system gave us, right? Obtain the 'Escape Token' by killing one of the 10 Great Warriors in the Crimson Forest."
"Of course." Lilith said. Her ice-blue eyes shifted to the ten skull marks on the map. "These marks must represent them."
"Yes most likely." Aren confirmed. He felt the silence of that sleeping, noble entity deep within his mind. Seraphina was in a deep sleep. He was on his own now and had to use what he knew strategically.
"While clearing the dungeon, I obtained some information about the functioning and power hierarchy of this system. Those entities aren't just called 'Warriors' for nothing."
Lilith was listening to him carefully.
"Warrior." Aren continued, emphasizing the words. "It's not just a word, it's a title. And this title is only given to entities that have reached Level 100."
Lilith's ice-blue pupils trembled with a momentary shock. That cold, noble mask on her face faltered. Her breath hitched in her throat for a moment, but thanks to her superior will, she immediately composed herself.
"Level 100?"
Aren continued to throw the brutal truth in her face.
"There's more. When a person or creature reaches Level 100, they surpass their ordinary biological limits and awaken their innate, unique 'Divine' ability."
A deadly silence descended inside the hollow. Lilith was looking blankly at the map while trying to digest what she heard.
Aren's voice harbored an icy rationality.
Aren's voice harbored an ice-cold rationality. He traced his finger over the map. "But that kid who drew this map, didn't just mark the skulls."
Aren's finger locked onto a different symbol located at the inner border of the region they were in, close to the Volcano.
A massive, black 'Scythe' mark. Right next to it, there were also sharp teeth, claws, and wing figures drawn in other regions.
There were even various other figures, like trees, large rocks, and caves. The massive tree they were currently in was also on this map.
"I think it wasn't a coincidence that you encountered that creature and found this safe zone. Were you checking the accuracy of the map?" Aren asked.
Lilith nodded in confirmation. "Yes. Because I didn't want to blindly trust the map, I was doing some research. As a result of my research, I think the map is 'real'. Still, it wouldn't be logical to trust it blindly."
"You're right. Although very rare, some can awaken their 'Divine Abilities' early. Perhaps this map is related to that kid's 'divine ability'." Aren confirmed.
"Still, by checking these points, we must hunt all the creatures we can hunt and raise our level. This is our only chance."
Aren rolled up the map again and gave it to Lilith.
"What level are you right now?" Aren asked.
"Thanks to the last creature you killed, I jumped 2 levels at once and reached level 26. Even though you killed it, I also gained 'Experience'." she said.
Calmly, Aren said, "I also jumped 5 levels at once and reached level 24. I guess the 'experience' is automatically divided between us according to the damage we dealt or our participation rate in the battle."
"Wait." she said, that usual cold-bloodedness in her voice slightly shaken.
"Did you... just reach the twenty-fourth level? So when you faced that obsidian creature and saved my life, you were only level nineteen, is that it?"
Aren nodded relaxedly and expressionlessly, as if talking about how the weather was a little hot today. "Yes. What's the problem?"
Lilith's lips parted slightly, but the words caught in her throat. She averted her eyes from Aren's piercing gaze and fixed them on the mossy, dark floor of the cave.
"Nothing..." she finally said. She was trying to keep her voice flat and cold, but her mind was churning like a storm.
'How? My level was higher than his, but I was helpless against that monster.'
Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at Aren's relaxed demeanor, that massive, tired silhouette covered in blood and mud.
'If he wanted to harm me, he would have left me to die. He could have even done it directly with his own hands. If I'm alive right now, it's entirely his choice. I have to trust him. After all, he put his life on the line to save me and prove his sincerity. Still, I must be cautious and not lower my guard completely until the veil of secrecy around him is lifted.'
Inside the dim hollow, Aren instantly caught that momentary wave of doubt, admiration, and caution passing over Lilith's porcelain face.
"I can see you're surprised." Aren said.
His voice cut through the heavy silence of the cave like a knife. "You're thinking about how I defeated that creature despite my low level. Leveling up isn't the only way to increase stats, you know."
Lilith raised her head and looked directly into his hazel eyes with golden rings. She didn't deny it.
"Yes, I'm aware." Lilith said, her old cold-blooded and analytical tone returning.
"Most of my stats are roughly twice my level. If even I couldn't defeat that monster..."