Ascenders Rift

As the battle ended, Evan quickly aided Fatty Joe with a DH Tube. The moment he gave him a few sips, the wounds on Joe's chest had started to heal, seeing that his situation was a bit stable Evan smirked and spoke, "Fatty, you've got to be tougher than that, after all, you're the hero."

Joe seemed to be feeling much better after drinking the liquid, he looked at Evan with an exhausted face and cursed, "Evan, you bastard, you could have at least help out you know!"

"Me? And spoil all your fun, I'm sorry, but I can't do that..." Evan said with a matter of fact tone, he then ignored the glaring look from Joe and went over to Emilia's side.

Emilia seemed to be feeling better; she was now trying to ease her mind with meditation. As she noticed Evan before her, she looked at him with a slightly embarrassed look as she spoke, "B-Brother Evan, I... I didn't do well, did I?"

Evan, hearing this, shook his head and replied, "You weren't bad, but you were still far from good. Power is only as good as its controller, while you had the power, you still lack the necessary training to wield it properly. Your most fatal mistake was when you conjured two arrows with your complete Spiritual Power. Had you not done that; you wouldn't have fallen into a state of weakness. If this were a battle where I wasn't around, even if you had defeated the foe by luck, any leftover enemies would have been able to finish you off."

Emilia lowered her head at this words, Evan seeing this sighed, he tapped her shoulder and spoke in a gentler tone, "Still, as you are still getting used to it, you did a splendid job so far with your current experience. I am sure that you won't make such a mistake again from here on out. Come now, we can't stay here for too long, there might be more in the vicinity, let's loot the corpse of that guy and get moving."

Emilia felt better after hearing this; she slightly blushed when Evan tapped her shoulder and nodded, "Okay."

Evan helped her up to her feet and moved towards the corpse of Balraz; as he walked, Emilia followed behind, and Fatty Joe, who had only picked himself up from the ground, had started to walk over.

Evan shifted his sights from them onto Layla, she was a bit distant from the corpse and seemed to be in a bit of a daze. Evan looked at Emilia, and the nearing Joe as he spoke, "Fatty, Emmy, you guys take care of looting, see if Balraz dropped anything good. I'll go see what's up with Layla..."

"Heh, leave it to me," Fatty Joe said as his eyes shone with a hint of gold, he no longer seemed like a wounded man, but a greedy merchant prepared to sort out his goods.

"Hehe..." Emilia giggled when she saw her brother's look; she knew he would always get like this when it comes to anything that might have value.

Evan shook his head at this sight, not long after he had arrived by Layla's side. He looked at her noticing that she was staring at the depths of these ruins, peering towards an old temple in the distance that carried a unique aura.

Judging by the fact that they could even see it, one could imagine that it must be quite massive in size. It was covered in dark-colored flora and dead vines as if it was no different from the trees rooted in this ancient but desolate earth.

Evan knew this temple based on the rumors, but he was curious about her thoughts, he asked, "Layla, what's wrong?"

Layla shifted her eyes from the temple onto Evan as she spoke, "I don't know, I just have an odd feeling from that temple, much like that time with the portal."

Evan's eyes narrowed at this; he thought to himself, "Is she sensing beings of a divine nature? How troubling, come to think of it, there were no details on the hidden bosses of this Raid Space, only the bits about that Goblin Sorcerer and that Crocodile Man. If I were to recall correctly, the ones who cleared this space were that core team from RADA, the Heaven Eyes..."

As Evan recalled the team, his eyes flashed with images of a few mighty looking figures, especially one who sported a catchy looking mohawk. However, he quickly cleared his distracting thoughts and stared at the temple far off with a more in-depth look on his face.

"If the hidden bosses here are indeed of a divine nature, then they are most certainly only a tinge inferior to Aperehs, and that is in the case of them being sealed. This battle might not be as easy as I thought, it seems that I'll have to make a slight adjustment to our plans..." Evan pondered with a calculative look on his face.

Layla looked at Evan's face while taking in his silence with a hint of shyness on her face. She thought to herself, "He looks so handsome when he thinks, I wonder what he's evaluating this time?"

She stared at him for a while and found herself unable to bear it, she turned and looked around noticing that Emilia and Fatty Joe were sorting out some equipment which had unknowingly appeared out of nowhere by Balraz's corpse.

Seeing that they were distracted, Layla swallowed and stretched her finger towards Evan's cheek to poke it. However, right when she was about to make contact. Evan snapped out of his thoughts and stared at her while he teasingly spoke, "Oh, what's this? Layla, are you trying to take liberties of me openly?"

"I... I did no such thing!" Layla shouted as her face turned crimson, she quickly pulled back her arm and turned around.

Evan looked at her sexy figure from behind and licked lips, his arm tremble slightly but as he knew where this was, he quickly cleared his thoughts and spoke, "Haha, okay-okay, I will tease you no further, princess. Come, let's help them and get out of here. I also have something to address you all about before we leave."

As Evan said this, he walked before her towards Fatty Joe and Emilia. Layla snorted as she saw this, her eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment she thought to herself, "Coward."

Soon, both Evan and Layla had arrived by Balraz's corpse. Fatty Joe was now holding a large metal shield with green scales in his hand with excitement as he spoke, "Haha, this guy sure dropped a lot, Evan take a look at this thing,"

Evan looked at the shield before him with a hint of surprise when he commanded in his mind, "Inspect."

[Croco Shield - Rank 1: Mid-Grade]

[Defense - 5]

[Durability - 3]

"Well now, it seems all of our luck came down to this guy. Maybe the system was piling up our merits to give us this blessing," Evan said with a smile.

"You're certainly right about that, at first I thought it was just a stingy thing that didn't want to reward anyone for their effort," Joe said with a look that had a trace of anger as he recalled how many monsters they killed in the past days.

Evan soon swept his eyes across the ground, seeing that there were only four more low-grade gear, a knife, two simple armors, and a boot. He nodded and looked at everyone and spoke, "Alright, you guys can sort out what you need from the rest, we'll be leaving here now, but before we go, I should make something clear to you all."

As Layla, Joe, and Emilia heard Evan's words, they stopped what they were doing and looked at him curiously.

Evan spoke again while pointing towards the temple in the far-off distance, "You see that temple over there in the background, that's where we'll be facing the twin bosses. Before we head there, however, you'll need to do two things. The first is to master your skills and how to use energies properly, and the second is to level up one more time. I've already taught you the foundations, the rest from now on is up to you all to learn and grasp for yourselves."

As they heard these words, the group nodded with understanding, but they couldn't help but feel a bit uncertain with Evan's words.

Fatty Joe looked at Evan curiously and spoke, "Evan, I can understand what you're saying, but your tone is a bit strange. It's as if you're trying to say that you're not going to accompany us anymore, am I mistaking things?"

Emilia and Layla's face changed as they heard this; they looked at Evan deeply. Evan smiled and replied, "Fatty, you're smarter than I thought, you're right, I won't be following you all from now on. I have to train too, you know, and it's harder for me to level up on weaker monsters."

"B-But Evan..." said Emilia and Layla as they wanted to try and convince him to follow them.

When Evan saw the looks on their faces, he couldn't help but feel a bit softer. However, Evan hardened his heart and spoke coldly, "No buts, I cannot follow you any further, remember your training. We will meet at the location I pointed out before at precisely thirteen days from now. You must each strive to grow stronger and fully equip yourself from any drops you can get. Remember, what we're facing isn't only two monsters, but an army..."

The moment Evan said this, his figure blurred and vanished, leaving behind the trio, which dumbly stared at his previous location.

Emilia started to tremble slightly, as Layla grew a bit uncertain, Fatty Joe, on the other hand, sighed as he closed his eyes and opened them, he looked at the two and spoke, "Okay, Emmy, Layla, we can't stay here brooding. It's far too dangerous, remember we aren't here to play games when we leave here who knows what our world will soon become. If we don't want to stay hindrances, the best thing we can do is strive to grow stronger; even without Evan's help with our training, we can survive and advance."

Both Emilia and Layla were silent for a while, but soon, their eyes shone with determination as they replied.

"T-That's right, I won't let big brother Evan down," Emilia said while gripping her slender fists.

"Mm, thank you for helping to get my head out of the gutter, Joe. Let's clean up and move forward..." Layla said with a new look in her eyes.

Fatty Joe nodded as he gathered his new shield and a few things, Layla and Emilia equipped one of the armors which had mysteriously shaped itself to their sizes and slender curves.

After sorting out the rest of the equipment, they each looked towards the dark woods listening to the various cries from beasts and the shuffling sounds of the grasses as they took a bold step forward, fading into the unknown.