Chapter 69: Widow’s Crypt V (1/2)

"Can I keep this?" I asked before realizing thatthe shard of the horn too hard

The elven woman, despite her condition, let out a hoarse chuckle afteran eyebrow, I couldn't help but wonder as going through her h considering her situation

"You're looking at led to turn her head toward the sound of ," I replied

"You're a weird one too, asking a dying soldier if you can keep so like that Keep it It won't hold any value to h and suddenly, her face looked as if it had aged twenty years by the grave expression she wore

"I don't even know your na to die soon There's no need to try and be sensitive about that fact" The elven warrior let out a ragged breath but her expression remained firm

"My name is Arthur, and yeah Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way for me to save you" I put the black shard inside uess it just wasn't meant to be then Since I don't have a lot of time, I'll tell you as much as I know" My chest felt heavy as she so easily casted aside her hopes and accepted her fate

"My naured out I am one of the of the six lances and the corpses that you probably spotted upon your arrival were e of a battalion coh, and for once, I was glad she wasn't able to witness the gruesorave of led corpses

"After the coo, I had been training theeons and other unknown areas The six lances rarely go on eon or above," she continued after pausing for a gulp of air

"From the direction of your footsteps earlier, it seemed you came in from a different entrance This place is actually connected to three dungeons Which dungeon did you co to prop herself up against the wall

"I came with my classmates and professor from the Widow's Crypt Everyone else was able to uess I wasn't so lucky" I took a seat against the wall next to Alea as I surveyed the carnage displayed before ine what'd happened by how the bodies were positioned and where they had sustained their fatal injuries

"I'm not sure how old you are, Arthur, but no one should have to see so like this," Alea whispered, her voice laced with ree probably won't correlate too well in regards to situations like this, but you are right No one, regardless of age, should have to see soed and sporadic but she held on

"My troops and I caeon naeon after getting reports of inconsistent sightings inside The adventurers that had coeon for training The ones that made it back were barely alive and they all spoke about how the beasts residing within suddenly becaeon you ca out slower than before

"Yes Just on the first floor, an army of minion snarlers welcomed us The minions weren't bad but two queen snarlers showed up One of the queens, after eating the other queen, turned froth jumped a few fold I suspected this was the cause"

"What do youyou've seen that de up as her head turned back toward me, shock evident in her voice

"I'm not sure if it's the same one, but yes," I responded frankly

"The same one? You think there's more than one?" Alea's already pale face drained to an even whiter color

"I don't have definite proof, but I suspect that the one you saw, Vritra, is just one of the horned deht where I had gotten separated fro doards said so them trouble It was just speculation, but I suspected that there were probably an to spin as I pondered over the different possibilities and reasons as to why they were doing this Was this all for Sylvie or soiven the stone to me that I had to protect it at all costs That "stone" turned out to be an egg, and of a dragon no less Was Sylvie such an io this far for?

"What… are you thinking of, Arthur?" Alea let out a strained cough as fresh blood escaped from the sealed wound where herthat, while beast cores were capable of being harvested and used as tools to enhance e died, their mana core shattered and the athered mana from the atmosphere that this happened?

There seeht of how humans didn't need their mana cores in order to survive, while ouralive This world seee or not, and if you were, how strong you were I couldn't help but think that the God of this world wanted to tell us that life was ic, which should be an obvious statement, but a stateotten

Before I lost ed coughing snapped me back to reality

"Are you okay?" That was a dumb question Of course she isn't okay

"When my tea off about it; the mana beasts were the same ones that were recorded It e reached the final floor where the eon made its den The Hades Serpent, which was an AA classI could've beatenor overconfidence in her tone It was just a fact to her

"The Hades Serpent, which was known for the blue fire spouting along its long spine, looked different At first, ere confused because it didn't look like it had any flames at all, but e looked closer, the reason we couldn't see the flaainst the black walls of the cave was because the flames themselves were black

"It looked like thick s the spine of the hundred-foot serpent That particular Hades Serpent also had a black horn jutting out of its forehead while its scales, which were recorded as being aa deep breath, I noticed Alea shi+vering

"The fight was gruesoht took several hours but I was able to kill it When we tried to retrieve the beast core though, it wasn't there" She broke into another fit of coughs so I ran toward the pond and soaked as left ofit, I allowed the fabric to absorb asback to Alea

"Open your mouth," I instructed

She hesitated for a ently squeezed my soaked uniform over her mouth, the water trickled into her mouth

She let out a san fiercely gulping down the water She whispered a s on with her story

"Although ere teure anything out, so we started searching for clues inside One of my men used a spell and found that there was a hidden tunnel underneath a thin layer of earth After crossing the tunnel, we arrived here" As Alea's voice trembled at her last words, tears mixed with blood streamed down the closed eyelids where her eyes used to be

"H-He was here…e reached this cavern I still remember the way he looked at us Those scarlet eyes…" After letting out a tre breath, she continued