章 64: The Pain of Death

"I know that I was the first in showing killing intent towards them, but you were too rash charging forward without previously checking if there were any traps."

Yale spoke with a cold tone of voice while sat beside a pile of rocks. Hyrk's impulsiveness had almost killed them all. In fact, they died, but it was nullified by Absolute Protection.

At that time, Yale had difficulties in calculating the area of Absolute Protection to save all his teammates without affecting the trap.

The pile of rocks had covered the passage between Heruk's area and the area which led to the island.

Thus, no one of Heruk's group had seen how all the members of Yale's group reappeared without a scratch after the trap effects ended, nor Yale's group had heard the other group's words after the trap crushed them.

Both ways were completely separated after the trap activated, it should be more correct to say that it was impossible from the start to go from one part to the other.

Heruk and the others didn't reach the cave from a passage in the water zone, they found it in the Forest Zone.

The passage in Yale's area was a dead end. There was no way to reach anywhere, the whole passage could be considered a trap. However, with the group's usual checks, they would have just turned back after detecting it.

Heruk's group's methods were vicious. They knew that there was a trap between both groups, and they wanted to use it to kill everyone on Yale's group without needing to battle.

Although all of them were uninjured thanks to Yale making the plans of the other group to fail, the intention alone showed the other party wicked personalities.

At that moment, excluding Yale, all the others had pale faces.

They had never felt the shadow of death so near of them. They had struggled with other nobles of their generation and even killed some people who offended their clans, but they had never been in such a deathly situation like moments before.

Even though the clans tried to reinforce their mentalities by making them execute the offenders or by the strict competition within the noble clans, they didn't put them in real mortal danger.

When they battled the eagle or when Yale discovered the illusion trap, they were also in mortal danger, but they didn't feel the pain of death, so the situation was different.

When the trap activated, they had died once, but Yale's skill had changed that fact. They were still alive as if that trap never caught them, but they were able to remember the situation perfectly and how it felt.

The pain of having died crushed by the ceiling's fall was an immense trauma for them, but if that didn't break their minds, their resolution would grow stronger in the future, which would be a benefit for their future training.

Yale was already used to that kind of pain, and he had Pain Tolerance, so he was alright. However, Pain Tolerance had leveled up due to Yale being crushed by the rocks, showing that he received a lot of pain regardless of the Passive Skill.

Yale waited some hours until the others recovered the color of their faces before someone else spoke.

"I am sorry, that was all my fault."

Hyrk kneeled before his teammates. He felt shame about his previous rash act that killed once all of them.

"That isn't all your fault. I spoke more than I should and worsened the situation..."

Serka was crying, feeling guilty about her acts. She had told Yale not to reveal his identity to others, but in the end, she explained it to the worst possible person in the whole Special Realm.

After a while, Kermu spoke. His mental resolution was the strongest among everyone in the group of nobles.

"Stop being depressed. If you acted wrong, just don't do it again. Learn from your errors. However, we can't do anything to change the past, so don't waste your time thinking about what would have happened if you didn't act in that way. It was enough that Yale had managed to avoid our deaths giving us another chance."

Kermu didn't want to let the depression destroy the team, that would be the worst outcome in their situation.

Hyrk and Serka had acted wrong, but it was like he had said, the best thing they could do was learning from their mistakes to prevent that it would happen again.

After that scene, Yale had decided to speak again.

"Nurvey, thank you for defending me before. Moreover, my grudge with Heruk also complicated the situation."

Their companions angered Yale with their reckless acts, but Nurvey had stepped on to defend him before. If he could be angry with the others for acting wrong, he should also be thankful to her for speaking on his behalf even with her difficulties to express herself.

Moreover, Yale felt that it was his grudge against Heruk the start of the whole problem despite Yale himself hadn't spoken at all in the conflict until he tried to stop Hyrk.

"If you die... Wyba dies... You must be alive."

Nurvey didn't speak clearly because she had difficulty expressing herself, but Yale understood it quickly.

If Yale died, Wyba would also die due to their contract, and that was something Nurvey didn't want to happen because she liked Wyba a lot.

Of course, Nurvey also felt thankful to Yale and wanted him alive, but with her personality, that thing was difficult to admit.

The group didn't talk more for another hour.

At that moment, Yale spoke again. They couldn't remain sitting in the cave without doing anything.

"We should return to the island and continue walking until leaving the area. There isn't any way to continue advancing from this passage."

"We won't pursue them?"

Hyrk wanted to beat the other group to vent his anger and restore his honor due to his past reckless actions.

"It is impossible to pursue them due to the state of the passage. Furthermore, they know this area better than our group. We would end in another trap. Fortunately, they should think that we are dead, so we didn't need to worry about them pursuing us."

"Don't you want revenge?"

Kermu also wanted to kill Kreg and the other members of his clan, who helped Kreg to do such a shameless act. Of course, he also wanted revenge for the pain the group had suffered due to the shameless behavior of the other party.

"I want revenge, but not now. If my theory is correct, we will meet with them later. At that moment, we will exterminate all of them without exceptions."

The coldness in Yale's voice made their minds clearer. Rushing things were indeed bad, the best way was to wait until the next opportunity.

"What is that theory you are speaking of? You didn't mention anything about that before."

Kermu was curious after hearing Yale speaking about a theory that would make that they reunite with the other party in the future.

"Heruk had started at the same point as us, but the others had come from different areas. Most of the ones we found in the forest were the same. I think that this Special Realm has a circular form, and no matter where we started, we will reach the center at the end. In each new area, we should encounter more people than before. Of course, only if they managed to reach those areas alive."

The others nodded because Yale's theory made sense even if they weren't sure that the theory was true or not.

"If we reach the center, we should be able to reunite with their group. That is if they also manage to reach it alive. Probably the best legacy is also there."

The others seemed to have regained their vitality after hearing Yale's words. The objective of finding the best legacy and the chance to beat those bastards who tricked them were enough reasons for them.

Yale had only thought about that theory casually, but he also felt that it would be a good thing to let his teammates hear because they were still depressed.

After that, the group returned to the island and continued advancing by the ice path Yale created while they walked.

Yale learned to swim with Serka's help, and both explored the waters, trying to find some legacy. They were the only ones who could breathe under the water, so they needed to do it alone.

Sadly, they left with their hands empty.

The group spent a lot of time traveling above the water, using Yale's ice path to advance.

When they finally reached the next area, a whole month had passed since they entered the Special Realm. At that moment, those who wanted to leave could go back to their original positions to return to the Imperial City.

Of course, Yale's group didn't plan to abandon, they wanted to revenge, and they knew that the others would also remain until the end.

While traveling, Yale's Origin Points reached thirty, and he also mastered Ice Spear.

Thirty Origin points were the limit at the 3-star Mortal Rank. Until Yale advanced to the 4-star, he wouldn't be able to increase them more.

However, Yale still lacked the stats requirement to advance, and the Special Realm was restricted to the 3-star Mortal Rank, so he wouldn't dare to make a breakthrough even if he could.

By mastering Ice Spear, Yale managed to complete his current sub-quest in the Main Chain Quest.

[Intelligence points increased to 30 thanks to the sub-quest reward.]

[Wisdom points increased to 30 thanks to the sub-quest reward.]

The rewards were good, but the new sub-quest was the one that called Yale's attention.

[Kill an evil human. Reward: Origin Points Recovery Speed increase.]

Yale was delighted with such a reward. He was always worried about his slow recovery speed, which hadn't improved since he started practicing.

As for killing an evil human, Yale already had someone in mind. He already planned to complete the requirement of that sub-quest, even if the system hadn't popped out a sub-quest asking him to do it for a reward.