ALL NOVEL B3 | Chapter 79 - Aftermath
Alexia
The first thing I feel when I wake up is pain. A stinging and burning pain that radiates all throughout the front of my torso, particularly down the wound I gave myself through the reflective power of the heart.
But I quickly find myself shooting forwards to a sitting position regardless, making the pain immediately flare even worse as I feel more than a few things tearing from my torso. I ignore them too while looking around at the heart chamber, only to frown when I realize it’s changed completely.
Then I spot the chest standing directly beneath a bisected heart with red blood splattered around it on the floor of the chamber and I immediately relax a bit.
Not entirely, though. Because who knows if the wolf parasite died along…
My thoughts trail off when I see the husk not far from the chest. A husk of that very wolf parasite. Almost like everything inside it just evaporated or something, leaving behind just its outer layer.
Which is gross and kinda creepy.
I ignore that too as I search for Luna, only to hear flapping sounds coming from the veins.
Veins I just realized are empty of fluid. A realization that also brings my mind back to the changes in the chamber.
The chamber is now completely dry, and the walls have a lot of black running across them. With clear instances of rot.
Like I’m inside a corpse.
I focus on the vein where the flapping is coming from before seeing Luna rushing into the chamber from wherever she was, making a beeline straight towards me.
Guess she sensed that I was awake and returned from wherever she was at. Although I’m not sure what she was doing in a corpse.
I let out a grunt and grit my teeth ever so slightly when she turns into her humanoid form and quite literally tackles me while falling out of the air, shouting, “Mommy! You’re finally awake!!!”
Ouch.
“Luna, some words of advice,” I mutter while trying to adjust her so that she is not hugging me over my wound and therefore hurting it and getting blood all over herself in the process. “Try not to tackle injured people. Unless they’re your enemy.”
Luna is a little busy crying to respond to me, but she does help adjust her position before burying her face into my shoulder. My uninjured one.
I let out a sigh while wrapping one arm around her and glancing down at my wound, reaching to wipe some of the blood away to get a clearer look. Which hurts, but is necessary.
Then I spot some stitches. Ripped apart stitches, but stitches nonetheless.
Wait, what?
I raise my head to look at Luna as I ask, “Did you stitch my wound?”
She nods her head while still crying.
A faint smile stretches across my face and I reach up to hold the back of her head to my shoulder.
“Thank you,” I tell her, feeling warmth spread through me despite the pain.
She cries for a bit longer before finally lifting her head a little and glancing at the wound, only for her eyes to widen and the girl to jump up. Then she rushes to pull a box out of her storage ring. One holding a bunch of medical stuff.
And without hesitation, she gets down to work stitching my wound.
A wound that I most definitely did not reopen on accident.
Yeah.
Wasn’t me.
We sit in silence for several seconds before she begins to speak again while still stitching up my wound, “You’ve been asleep for three days now, Mommy…”
My eyes widen a little at that.
Three days, huh? And yet, my wound is still there…
I glance at my soul to find it ticking down faster than it’s regenerating. Which confuses me more than a little considering the fact that it’s over three-quarters of my capacity right now.
How am I even still alive?
I blink as a possibility comes to mind. Then I turn to look at Luna as I ask, “Sweetie, did you share your soul with me while I was out?”
She nods her head, surprising me by the fact that she can give me her soul without me using the skill to take it.
My smile grows a little before I reach towards her in order to pat her head again, only for her to frown at me and say, “Don’t move.”
Oh. Right.
The stitches.
I have to admit though, seeing her little thirteen-year-old face that looks just like how I looked at that age, except with the quantum reaper aspects of my appearance added in, looking right at me with a frown looks rather bizarre. Like I’m looking at a younger double of me frowning at me.
Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I saw Astrid frowning at me.
She’s frowned at plenty of other people around me, but almost never me. Even if she can look slightly irritated sometimes. Which is normal even between twins.
Well, there’s something more important than that right now.
These System Messages to be specific.
So I let them flow free.
[Level 1000 Lord of Chaos, The Horror, Defeated – EXP withheld due to the user being at the level cap.]
[Level 1010 Lupin Parasite of Cataclysm Defeated – EXP withheld due to the user being at the level cap.]
{Congratulations! You have cleared the Dungeon known as The Horror! Touch the loot box to claim your reward!}
Then there are two Legendary Feats that I apparently got for this as well. Which is rather surprising.
Starting with one that isn’t even the first clear of a Tier 4 dungeon Legendary Feat I was expecting.
Legendary Feat – The Nightmare
For slaying the Tier 4 Boss monster known as The Horror and therefore also its protector, the Tier 5 Lupin Parasite of Cataclysm, with no assistance and while at Tier 4 yourself, you will now deal true damage so long as you are not directly attacking the exterior of a being’s physical body.
I blink at that.
Huh?
I don’t get to think much about it though due to the next one that appears.
Legendary Feat – The Dungeon Hunter
For becoming the first user within the System to clear a Tier 4 Dungeon, you will now gain a permanent 10% boost to all of your stats while you are inside of a dungeon.
That has my jaw dropping open for a second before I close it again.
That’s nice.