Chương 55: Chapter 54: Every Time He Asked

Through the haze, Rayne thought he heard something. His body felt unbearably heavy. His limbs might as well have been filled with lead, leaving him almost completely unable to move. The sounds around him slowly sharpened, only to drift away again. It took a long while before he finally broke free from the fog clouding his mind and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the old, rotting ceiling of the almshouse. Rayne realized he was lying on a sickbed.

He slowly turned his head and looked toward the other side of the room. Asar and Serin were speaking quietly. Tyren sat nearby with one hand pressed to his forehead, looking as though someone had taught him another painful lesson. Rayne could not help chuckling. A violent fit of coughing immediately followed. The noise caught everyone's attention. Asar and the others hurried over to the bed.

"Rayne, how are you feeling?" Asar asked, his face filled with guilt.

"Don't make that face..." Rayne tried to sit up, only for a burst of agony to tear through his waist. Serin quickly stepped forward and supported his shoulders and back. Once Rayne had barely managed to sit upright, she placed a hand over the wound at his waist. A soft emerald glow gathered beneath her palm.

"Captain, you need to move more carefully. I don't have much mana left." Only then did Rayne notice how exhausted she looked. Even her normally rosy lips had turned deathly pale.

"Don't push yourself. You too, Asar." Suppressing the pain in his waist, Rayne forced a grin and slowly raised one arm, giving Asar a thumbs-up. Only then did some of the tension leave Asar's face. Tyren chose that moment to lean closer. Although a thick bandage was wrapped around his chest, he still looked far too energetic for an injured man.

"Greyhound! What about me? I did pretty well too, right?" Asar and Serin were just about to scold him when Rayne raised a hand to stop them. Then he gently rested it on top of Tyren's head.

"You did well, Tyren. That was some quick thinking." After hearing Rayne's praise, Tyren looked embarrassed. He scratched the back of his head and grinned with his eyes narrowed. Seeing such a rare expression on his face, Rayne could not help laughing as well.

"By the way, is Huck all right?" Asar nodded.

"He said he'd be dead if you hadn't reacted so quickly." As he spoke, Asar pointed toward the doorway.

"He and the other two guards went to keep watch at the almshouse entrance, in case any other monsters tried to slip inside."

"I see. Come to think of it, I wonder how Barton is doing."

"He's probably resting back at the temporary camp by now. It isn't as though he could return to Graywood Town on his own." As Tyren spoke, he pulled over a small round stool and sat down.

"What a pain. It would be so much easier if we could just revive on the spot." Rayne could not help imagining the scene. An adventurer would struggle desperately through a hopeless battle, only to die at the boss's hands. Then, the instant they revived, they would find themselves facing the same boss again before they could even catch their breath. Rayne cut that thought short and shot Tyren a dark look.

"G-Greyhound... What's wrong?"

"Idiot. Think about what would happen if you died in a situation you couldn't possibly escape." Tyren blinked. In less than a second, all the color drained from his face. The others burst out laughing. Rayne laughed along, only for a tearing pain to suddenly rip through his waist.

"Ugh..." His expression froze, and he clutched his side.

"Fuck... It's bleeding again..." The room fell silent. After Serin finished bandaging Rayne's wound again, she glared at the other three. All three glared right back. She had clearly been one of the people laughing the loudest. Serin looked a little embarrassed and scratched her cheek. Just then, someone lightly knocked on the wall before slowly entering the room. It was Huck. He carried a basket of bread in one hand, apparently taken from the food still stored in the basement.

The moment he saw Rayne and the others, he raised a hand in greeting.

"Hey! Looks like you're recovering pretty well." Before any of them could respond, Huck carried the basket over and handed each person a piece of bread.

"You've all been through a lot. Without you, who knows how much longer we would have been trapped in this cursed place?"

"The food isn't much, but it should fill your stomachs for now." They thanked him. Huck did not linger. After exchanging a few words, he left the room again. The bread he had brought was a little wrinkled and misshapen, but at least it was not too hard. As for the taste, this was hardly the time to be picky. They were lucky to have anything to eat at all. Rayne finished his bread in only a few bites.

Afterward, he sat quietly on the edge of the bed, his right hand slowly closing around the necklace hanging against his chest. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Asar noticed the gesture. After hesitating for a moment, he finally asked,"Rayne... During the battle, were you talking to that necklace?" Rayne did not immediately understand what Asar meant. He stared at him blankly for a moment before the memory suddenly returned.

"Oh... You mean back then..." That was right. At the time, the Bellringer's Scion and the shadows had surrounded him, while every possible escape route had been sealed. In his panic, he had clutched the necklace and asked aloud what he should do, just as he had so many times in the past. Rayne gave a quiet laugh. His weary eyes softened, and so did his voice.

"I was asking my teammates." Rayne lifted the pendant between his fingers. The pendant was a small oval locket with a tiny button on one side. He pressed it. Click. The lid sprang open. Rayne held the open locket out to Asar. Inside was a small, faded portrait of five people. The young man standing in the center was Rayne himself. Back then, he had no beard, and he looked far younger and much less experienced than he did now. The other four crowded around him as he smiled somewhat awkwardly.

"They were my teammates before anyone started calling me Greyhound." Rayne slowly raised his head.

"Those were good times. Back then, I still wasn't very good at giving clear orders. Whenever a fight turned chaotic, I would ask them what to do, just like I did that day."

"And they always answered me."

"Every time I asked." Yes. Every time. Rayne slowly closed his eyes. Four figures lay in pools of blood, surrounded by the scattered remains of countless monsters. He, too, had been covered in wounds as he stood beside them, murmuring the same question in a daze.

"Don't go quiet on me... Tell me... What am I supposed to do now?" No one could answer him. Rayne crouched and draped one companion's arm over his shoulder. Even if he was the only one left, he refused to leave any of his companions behind. But just as he started to drag them away, the sound of another monster moving came from somewhere nearby. At that same moment, the body slumped against his shoulder gave the faintest murmur. Rayne could not make out the words. And yet, somehow, he heard them clearly.

"Live." Seeing Rayne remain silent for so long, Asar drew a deep breath.

"Rayne?" He raised his voice slightly.

"Would you tell us their story?" Rayne slowly opened his eyes and looked at the three worried faces beside him. He could not help grinning.

"Stories are better when everyone gets to hear them. I'll tell you after we meet up with Barton again."

"I'll tell you the story of a foolish adventurer named White Wolf and his equally foolish teammates." Silence settled over the room. Asar lowered his gaze to the faded portrait inside the locket. He did not press Rayne any further. Instead, he handed the pendant back to him. Rayne took the necklace back, gently closed the lid, and let the locket fall against his chest once more. The faint sound of guards speaking came from outside, accompanied by the occasional thud of crates, tables, and chairs being moved.

Only then did everyone realize that the battle inside the almshouse had ended. A moment later, Asar rose and walked over to the corner of the room. He picked up a small bundle before returning to sit beside the bed.

"Right. These are the things that monster left behind when it disappeared. We only had time to pick them up earlier, so we haven't examined them yet." Tyren immediately dragged a small round table up to the bed. Asar placed the bundle on the table and unfolded it. The first things that caught their eyes were a slightly translucent, teardrop-shaped gemstone glowing with azure light and a pure magic crystal the size of a fist. The moment they saw the magic crystal, Tyren's and Serin's eyes lit up at the same time.

A pure magic crystal of that size was already a valuable find. Compared with the familiar magic crystal, however, the other two objects drew far more attention. What drew Rayne's attention most was the small bell resting in the middle of the bundle. It bore some resemblance to the handbell once held by the small hand on the Bellringer's Scion's back. Everyone was already familiar with magic crystals, so their gazes soon shifted toward the teardrop-shaped gemstone. As for the bell...

Honestly, after the battle they had just survived, Rayne had no desire to touch it. He knew it was probably a reward granted by Blackstone Dungeon. But it looked far too similar to the bell the monster had used to draw out souls. Merely looking at it made his skin crawl. Asar carefully lifted the teardrop-shaped gemstone. A pale blue screen appeared. [Edra Essence] [It is said to be a tear left behind in the mortal world by a god. The blacksmiths of the Kingdom of Freyland discovered a method of infusing equipment with its power, granting the finished item special properties. It may also serve as a core material for certain rare pieces of equipment.]"A tear left behind in the mortal world by a god? Isn't that a little too dramatic?" Tyren could not help exclaiming. Serin took the Edra Essence and examined it before shaking her head.

"It is probably just an exaggerated description. Still, the energy inside it is extraordinarily pure and very gentle."

"But we can't use this ourselves, can we? We'd still need to find a blacksmith." Tyren's excitement deflated.

"Come on, we haven't seen a single blacksmith this entire time. Where are we supposed to find one?" Asar rubbed his chin.

"This thing has to be worth a lot. Captain, wasn't your ring made using this and Gulan orchid essence?"

"That's right!" Rayne paused and looked down at the simple ring on his finger, a gift from the traveling merchant Owen. He nodded. Asar's reminder made Rayne realize anew just how much the Gulan Orchid Ring had helped him. Without it steadily restoring his stamina, he might not have been able to keep the Bellringer's Scion occupied for so long. That left the bell. Everyone stared at it for quite some time, but no one volunteered to reach for it. Their earlier excitement seemed to vanish without a trace.

Tyren muttered,"What if touching it pulls your soul out?"

"How do you think I picked it up and brought it here?" Tyren laughed awkwardly. Rayne swallowed and slowly reached out. The instant his fingertip touched the bell, a bone-chilling cold raced up his arm. He almost flung it away on instinct. But Rayne suppressed the urge and looked at the screen that appeared before him. [Soul-Guiding Bell] [Gently ring the bell to call forth remnant souls and Death Shades that wander the world, compelling them to obey the wielder's commands for a short time. It may possess other uses that have yet to be discovered.] Rayne frowned. What a sinister use. He had no idea why something like this would appear inside Blackstone Dungeon. The moment Serin saw the bell's function, her brow furrowed. But she did not speak immediately. Instead, she looked toward Rayne.

"I don't think we should use it lightly. Just looking at it makes me uneasy."

"Toying with the souls of the dead... Hah." Rayne gave a cold laugh and placed the Soul-Guiding Bell back on the table.

"No one uses it until we know exactly what it does." Asar spoke up.

"Perhaps we could ask the other priest. She might know something about it." Rayne nodded.

"Good idea. Let's keep that in mind." Seeing that Rayne had no intention of recklessly using the Soul-Guiding Bell, Serin breathed a sigh of relief. They discussed it briefly before deciding to store the bell away and ask Adeline about it the next time they met. Asar wrapped the three pieces of loot in the cloth again and placed the bundle in the corner. For some time afterward, no one spoke. Serin leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, trying to replenish her depleted mana.

Tyren slumped over the table and soon fell fast asleep. Several hours later, once the wound at Rayne's waist had finally stopped bleeding, the group prepared to leave. Huck and the other two guards had already gathered the residents from the basement. Each of the five surviving civilians carried a simple pack. Unease still lingered on their faces, but they visibly relaxed when Rayne and the others emerged from the room.

"Is everyone ready?" One hand pressed to his injured side, Rayne approached the group. Huck nodded.

"We can leave whenever you are." Almost all the shadows inside the almshouse had disappeared. After they left the building, however, dark figures could still be seen slowly wandering through the dense fog in the distance. The Bellringer's Scion's death had only ended the strange phenomenon inside the almshouse. Graywood Town itself remained under the bell tower's control. Rayne took no unnecessary risks. They carefully retraced their steps, avoiding the wandering Death Shades whenever possible.

◆ ◆ ◆ Inside the Core Chamber, Owen was glowing almost as brightly as a small sun. But when he remembered how battered Rayne and the others had looked, his light dimmed for a brief moment. Fortunately, everyone was now out of danger. Despite several close calls, the challenge had ended safely. Once he was sure of that, Owen's light brightened again.

"Now that was an exhilarating battle!" Owen shouted as he made a celebratory lap around the Core Chamber.

"Looks like the Bellringer's Scion is exactly the right difficulty for Rayne's party. No need to adjust it again." It was challenging without being impossible to clear. That was exactly the kind of design Owen wanted. Every member of the party besides Rayne was still only at High Black Iron. If all of them advanced to Bronze rank, Barton might not even need to sacrifice himself to draw the Bellringer's Scion away from the others.

Owen remembered the moment Barton had turned without hesitation and charged straight toward the Bellringer's Scion. The sight had made even Owen's nonexistent blood boil. The only thing Owen found somewhat disappointing was that Rayne and the others did not seem to like the Soul-Guiding Bell.

"Hmm... I forgot Rayne and the others aren't gamers. I thought they'd be thrilled to get a special item like that." Instead, it seemed to have done the exact opposite. That made sense. To the people of this world, an item capable of controlling Death Shades probably did not feel like much of a reward at all.

"Right. Looks like I'll need to keep things like that in mind when designing rewards next time." With that thought, Owen turned his attention back to Rayne's party on the screen.

"Come to think of it, the story of White Wolf and his companions..." He suddenly dropped back onto the stone platform and flopped down sideways.

"I want to hear the story too!" Owen rolled back and forth across the stone platform.

"Too bad they'll probably wait until they leave the dungeon before telling it... Looks like I won't get to hear Rayne's story." After sulking for a while, Owen finally perked up again and floated off the platform. Now he could get back to preparing Graywood Town's expansion! At that thought, he shifted his gaze toward Sinner's Canyon.

"I wonder if there's some way to bring in more low-rank adventurers?"