The tall figure stared up at the samurai clad man above him.
"This is Eternal Flame territory-"
"Shut up. Come at me already."
Sachi closed his eyes. If the previous time was just a fluke, then surely he'd die here, but if he could master it, he'd be untouchable.
"You seal your own fate with that tongue, boy!"
Sachi felt the shift, the looming presence moving from below him to behind.
Seizing the opportunity, Sachi drew his blade and swung directly behind him.
"Agh!"
The man recoiled as Sachi's sword drew blood. In a scream of anger, he charged at Sachi.
Sachi kept a steady breath, focusing intently on the pulsating presence in front of him.
A dagger strikes and is deflected by Sachi's blade. Once, then twice, then a few more times all in a quick succession. The clashing of blades became consistent and never ending. If it was just the one man, Sachi might have been fine, but the rest of the lackeys followed to surround him.
"Come on, we need to help Captain Riven!"
Sachi's breathing slowed. 'A Captain. Someone important for sure, but I don't know how high of a rank that is.'
Each of the men swung at Sachi, his katana and Foresight were the only things keeping him in one piece.
[Skill activated: Haste]
[Speed of all actions increased by 20% until canceled]
'Doesn't have a time limit on it… that's helpful.'
He was able to keep up with the assassin even better now, the issue was juggling his attacks and the small fries all around him.
That's when Sachi noticed a new presence entering the cave.
The sound of arrows whizzing by his head was jarring, followed by the thunks of bodies against the rocky terrain.
'Damnit… why is she here!?"
He wasn't the only one who noticed her arrival however. The foresight presence of the assassin moved away from Sachi towards Lyra.
Lyra was an archer, and from what Sachi had seen, she had no close combat capability. Especially against an assassin as quick as him.
'Shit…'
[Skill Activated: Gale Slash]
A single slash directed at Lyra, a sweeping gale soaring through the air at her. The luminescent beam lit up the darkened hallway.
"Huh!?"
Lyra ducked to avoid the gale, but her efforts were in vain.
The assassin had already appeared in front of her, the gale colliding with his back.
"Ack!"
The assassin was recoiling, but he was still standing. Even that wasn't enough to take him down.
"Now, Lyra!"
Sachi didn't have time to save her, he had to fend off the other men first, and by the time he'd be at her side, it would be too late.
She grit her teeth and raised her bow, she had only a brief moment to attack. She wasn't the strongest, the pulling back the bowstring was harder than she'd like to admit, but that wasn't an excuse for her to falter.
She released the spectral arrow, flying upwards through the chin of the assassin. His lackeys stopped attacking, frozen at the scene before them.
The assassins body falls backwards onto the rocky floor.
"C-captain Rive-"
They stopped fighting, but Sachi didn't.
[You have slain a Champion!]
[You have slain a Champion!]
[You have slain a Champion!]
[You have slain a Champion!]
[All stats have increased by 10%]
[You leveled up!]
[Skill deactivated: Haste]
As Sachi canceled the skill, he was hit with a wave of exhaustion. The longer he used Haste, the more taxing it was.
"Why did you follow me in? I told you to wait outside."
Lyra pushed herself up and attempted to wipe the grime and dust off her. "I could hear the fight break out from the entrance, the cave carries the echo pretty far. And I wasn't just gonna stand by when you could've died."
Sachi found it hard to argue with her. There was no telling what would have happened if she didn't show up, but he still wished he could've handled it on his own.
He became distracted from the conversation after a text box appeared in front of Lyra.
[Phoenix Talon]
[Rare Dagger]
[+10 DEX]
[+10 INT]
A gleaming orange dagger where the corpse of the assassin had been. A dagger would fit nicely on Sachi's belt, plus he'd get the stat bonuses just by having it on him, even if he didn't use it. It would've been a good opportunity to understand what the INT stat did as well.
He gently tossed the dagger into Lyra's hands, who fumbled with it briefly due to its unexpected appearance.
"Take it. You'll need it incase something like that happens again."
"Are you sure? I mean, I barely know how to fight with this…"
To be honest, neither did Sachi. As much as he would have preferred the stats, it's better to give her the dagger.
"If you're gonna be tagging along, you need to be versatile. Your skills with a bow are good, but if someone gets in your face like that, you need to be able to handle it on your own."
Sachi began to walk away from her, further into the cave.
"O-oh…"
The corpses of grotesque monsters were scattered about, and of course everything that seemed important was gone. Not that it mattered, since they all disappeared along with the bodies of the Champions. It didn't help that none of the Champions he killed dropped any loot.
He reached the end of the cave, it seemed like the Eternal Flame's guild had cleared everything except this final room.
He prepared himself, and slowly breached the door. The deafening creaking echoed throughout the cave and made Sachi wince.
What he found on the other side was unexpected.
A single glass case bearing a pair of gloves.
[Space Weaver's Gauntlets]
[Legendary Gloves]
[Skill: Gravity Weave]
[The user can freely manipulate the gravity of a specified object. The size of the specified object scales with INT]
These were nice, but Sachi would've really preferred a pair of shoes. The bottoms of his feet hurt from all the walking he's done today.
Still, it made sense why the Eternal Flame wanted this for himself. This could make traveling extraordinarily easy, assuming his INT was high enough to use it…
[Equipped: Space Weaver's Gauntlets]
Now, he just needed to find his limit. He only had 5 INT, 10 including the percentage bonuses, so he wasn't expecting much.
First, he placed the Kazekiri on the ground.
[Not enough INT!]
'Not even the sword…'
He placed the katana back on his hip and glanced to the minuscule rocks around him.
[Skill Activated: Gravity Weave]
'I can really only grab something as small as this..?'
The rock was barely visible to Sachi, but even something as small as that was straining. The force from the gloves felt like they were going to crush Sachi's hand, bone and all.
He dropped the pebble back to the ground with a quiet thud.
Lyra poked her head into the room. "Find anything good, Sachi?"
He let out a deep breath. "Maybe. Let's get back and find some place to stay for the night, I'm exhausted."
His brief nap from earlier wasn't enough to keep him going beyond this point, and the new skill from his gloves was the breaking point.
His speech became slowed.
"Let's… get…"
With a single, jarring slam, Sachi collapsed onto the cracked surface beneath him.
Lyra let out a small shriek at the sudden noise. After the impact, she let out a sigh.
"He's never easy, is he…"
She cleared her throat and prepared to shout.
"Serendelle! You're around here somewhere aren't you? Can you help me move Sachi out of here?"
A familiar green bird landed on her shoulder. Lyra's face lit up. "Aww, aren't you cute."
The bird seemed to chuckle. "Yes, I can help."
In a puff of green smoke, Serendelle's heels gently touched the ground.
Lyra tiled her head slightly. "I don't mean to be rude to a goddess, but will we be able to move him on our own? The armor looks really heavy… let me call Zephyr over."
Serendelle displayed a sheepish smile. "I don't think Zephyr will be able to help much. Like how you weren't able to touch him back at the prison, gods cannot directly touch another god's champion."
Lyra drooped down in despair. "Can't we just leave him here?"