"No you’re not," Levon said quietly.
"Co on, get up. We have work to do," Levon said gently as he helped Aria to her feet.
The truth was that Levon wasn’t sure Aria fully understood how strong she was going to beco in the future.
She was never going to be a burden. And besides, she wasn’t really a burden to him at all. She had a genuinely good heart and would do the exact sa for him without a second thought, so there was really nothing for him to worry about.
On top of that, she had helped in a lot of ways.
She had held down the vampire bats. She had killed one mutated bear vampire. She had done plenty already.
"How many poison hibiscus have you been able to gather so far?" Levon asked lightly as his mind shifted into planning mode.
"Twelve," Aria replied, still feeling slightly low from not having been able to contribute as much as she had wanted to in the dungeon.
Twelve was not a bad number at all. Levon himself had gathered about 21, aning between the two of them they held roughly 32 percent of all the poison hibiscus the system had distributed.
Levon imdiately checked his system space for the competition leaderboard.
[Shadow Monarch: 10,567
Silver: 7,890
Aria: 7,885
Draven: 6,789]
"Aria, could you take a look at the event leaderboard?" Levon said calmly.
Aria nodded and imdiately pulled up her system space.
"Wow, I’m in third place!" Aria exclaid, moving to embrace Levon in her excitent before catching herself and pulling back just as quickly.
"We need to keep going. Maybe I can do it, maybe I can pass Silver. I’m only five points behind, please let’s keep going please," she said with a shy smile, tugging lightly at the hem of Levon’s sleeve, her happiness barely containable.
’How cute. Wasn’t she just feeling down a mont ago?’ Levon thought with a faint smile.
Levon quickly checked the clock.
[12:34]
Just twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds left before the competition ended.
There was definitely no way to find more poison hibiscus in this area and make it back with any aningful amount of ti remaining. It simply wasn’t worth it.
"We can’t keep going. There’s no point. We’ve already gotten everything we ca for, so walking another twelve minutes to find a new location makes no sense.
As for your position, don’t worry. You’re solidly in third and Draven is far behind you, so that’s nothing to stress over."
"Okay, I think third place is fine. So what do we do now?" Aria said, her composure returning even though she didn’t fully agree with the decision. Still, she couldn’t argue with his logic. Finding more poison hibiscus at this point would take too much effort, and the number they had already gathered was more than decent. There likely weren’t many left in the forest anyway.
"Third place is still very solid. But we still have a lot to take care of. First we need to open our treasure chests, and hopefully you get a new weapon out of yours because that is genuinely a problem right now. And don’t worry about the broken sword either. The battle was intense and the blade breaking was clearly not your fault, so don’t even think about it."
Aria looked at Levon quietly. She still couldn’t fully understand why he was treating her so kindly.
At first she had assud she would need to earn his trust and prove herself to him through hard work and being proactive. She had half expected that his accepting her as a friend wasn’t fully settled yet, like he might drop her the mont he decided she was no longer useful to him.
Because after all, he was the Shadow Monarch. He didn’t really need anyone by his side. He was already number one in everything and a highly respected figure in the village.
Levon and Aria finally opened their treasure chests.
[EPIC TREASURE CHEST OPENED]
[Items Obtained]
Bloodthorn Gauntlets ×1
Epic grade armor.
Increases Constitution significantly.
Passive: Amplifies poison damage output by 15%.
Shadow Step Scroll ×1
Teaches a movent skill upon reading.
Grants a brief invisibility burst during combat.
Requires bloodline awakening to retain permanently.
Beast Core ×3
High grade crafting material.
Used in epic grade weapon and armor forging.
chanical Stones ×40
Copper Coins ×1,200
System Stones ×300
[MUTATION TRIGGERED]
Bloodthorn Gauntlets
Venomfist Gauntlets (Rare Mutation)
Effect: Poison is injected directly on every punch or physical contact.
Constitution boost increased.
Shadow Step Scroll
Mutation Failed.
Beast Core ×3
Abyssal Core (Uncommon Mutation)
Effect: Significantly enhances epic grade forging success rate.
Mutation Cycle Complete.
Inventory Updated.
Levon looked over his drops and nodded in quiet satisfaction.
He turned to Aria.
"Any luck on the weapon?"
Aria shook her head calmly, her eyes still fixed on the items in front of her.
[EPIC TREASURE CHEST OPENED]
[Items Obtained]
Hunter’s Leather Armor ×1
Rare grade armor.
Increases Agility moderately.
Passive: Reduces damage taken from creatures below Level 10.
Copper Coins ×800
System Stones ×150
Minor Healing Potion ×4
chanical Stones ×20
It was a bittersweet feeling for her. Despite not getting a new weapon, this was the most loot she had seen since entering the starter village.
"What about coins, any luck?" Levon said, genuine concern in his voice.
"Yeah, I got 800 copper coins," Aria replied, still staring at her drops like they might disappear the mont she looked away.
"That’s perfect then. I think we should start heading back to the village. We can always have a blacksmith forge you a sword from the materials we gathered, or at the very least pick one up when the online trading store officially opens," Levon said calmly as they began walking back.
Right now one thing was tugging at Levon’s mind.
The Staff of the Blood God.
There was more to it. He was sure of that.
Thanks you so much for reading I would love a power stone or two to help and my story grow thank you so much for the support so far
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