Elane watched from the half-open door as Rohan darted over to the lava hellebore and witnessed as his body went limp from shock.
’Rohan!’
At first, she thought sothing had happened to him, like the heat finally breaking him or the flower doing sothing to him, but she held herself back from running inside after him after seeing him stand back up on his own.
Even from over 500 tres away, Elane could see the look on his face.
It was not fear, nor was it excitent.
It was the kind of look that only ca when experiencing sothing far beyond what you prepared for. Elane’s grip tightened around the fra of the half-open door.
’What did he see?’
The heat pouring out of the chamber was enough of a deterrent stopping her from making her way back inside to help him. Even now after recovering slightly, just the residual heat was savage enough that she had no intention of stepping fully back inside unless she absolutely had to, but seeing Rohan stand there like a statue with his hand still on the flower did not do anything pleasant for her nerves.
"Rohan!" She hissed, shouting loud enough to cover the large distance between them.
"Quick! We still don’t know where the boss is!"
But he didn’t answer her. He didn’t even show any gesture of acknowledgent of even hearing her.
That was never a good sign.
However, he finally did move from his statue-like state, and when he turned back to look at her, his face still looked vacant.
Then he spoke. And the mont the words left his mouth, she understood why he looked like that.
"It’s commander tier..."
"..."
Silence.
Elane’s brain, very helpfully, refused to process that sentence.
Commander tier? Noooo... That just couldn’t be right.
Perhaps the heat was getting to her, clouding her thoughts and judgent.
’I’ll consult him when we actually make it out of this place.’ She thought, bringing her attention back to the environnt that still surrounded them.
Not only did they have no clue where the E rank Elite Ant was, but there could still be hundreds of normal ants still crawling all over the beast nest. That was never a good sign, as their experiences in the Spike Beast gate had taught them so valuable a lesson.
If there’s no beast in sight, then prepare for the worst!
In the distance, Rohan clumsily pulled the Lava Hellebore and its roots out from the cracked ground and heaved it over his shoulder. Despite it being the sa size as him, it was surprisingly lighter than he thought.
’I still can’t believe it...’ His thoughts continued to churn on what his status just told him even while he ran over to the door Elane was still holding open for him.
He could hear his pulse hamring in his ears, and not just because of the intense heat surrounding him.
’The boss wouldn’t just leave sothing so precious unguarded like that. What is going on here?’
Rohan’s concern naturally grew as he beca more clearheaded. Not once during his encounter with the boss on his previous run in the Origin Realm did it ever leave the side of the Lave Hellebore. He suspected that it never did even long before that. That terrifying E rank Elite clearly planned on cultivating and protecting it for a reason.
Whatever this almost too-good-to-believe treasure did, Rohan had no clue, but it was so precious that an E rank Elite tier beast stood guarding it at all tis.
’Rudith and her team probably know more about it, since they ca here with the intention to steal it from the beginning. It’s a sha we couldn’t get the answer out of them before being forced out of the Origin Realm...’
After a dozen seconds of sprinting from one side of the boss’ lair to the other, Rohan reached Elane and the salvation that stood on the other side.
"Ha... Ha... finally I can get out of this abominable heat!"
Rohan gently placed the Lava Hellebore on the ground and then imdiately collapsed to his knees right next to it.
With how they had absolutely no knowledge or intel about the current situation of the beast nest, even though the boss’ chamber was empty, making a full sprint for the exit was the best choice despite knowing it would take so much energy out of him.
"At least we’re finally out of it..." Elane spoke, feeling just as relieved as Rohan.
She was about to continue speaking, but Rohan cut her off.
"Place your hand on that." He pointed at the Lava Hellebore.
Elane looked confused. "What? We don’t have ti for this, just—"
Rohan cut her off again.
"Just do it."
Elane looked a bit annoyed by his sudden attitude, but she complied regardless and did as he told.
[E rank (Commander) Lava Hellebore.]
...She fell to her knees in shock.
"No way..."
It took her a few monts to co through, longer than Rohan. And she quickly ca to the sa conclusion he did.
"We’re in so much danger."
It didn’t take much for her to understand how bad it was for a beast of the E rank Elite Ant’s level to not be present and protecting the very treasure it usually guarded with its life.
For sothing like that to be drawn away and missing from the boss chamber entirely, sothing extrely serious must have happened.
And they just happened to spawn right back into the middle of it with their re-entry into the Origin Realm.
"Maybe we shouldn’t have taken this..." Elane muttered, wondering if they made the right choice.
"No!"
But Rohan shouted with conviction, causing her to turn her gaze over to him in surprise. It’d been a while since she saw this side of him — the last ti being when they had a disagreent over whether to face off against the Elite Soldier Ant or not.
This ti she understood him better though, as well as their current situation.
"We ca back here knowing fully well there’s a high chance we wouldn’t make it back alive! We were lucky enough to snatch this thing from right under their nose, so why should we throw such a god sent opportunity away just because of a little caution? It’s not like we are completely defenceless against the boss anymore either!"
Rohan quickly used his words to convince her.
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