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One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes.
"Are we there yet?" Yaeger asked, urgency creeping into her voice.
Rosalina, still cradled in Yaeger’s arms, snapped out of her daze and glanced ahead. "Master, we’re already halfway there!" she exclaid, clear astonishnt in her tone.
She had good reason to be shocked—Yaeger had been sprinting at full speed for the entire ti, navigating a passage riddled with traps. And yet, not a single trap had been set off. It was downright unbelievable.
Rosalina had no idea why this escape route was so heavily trapped. Perhaps the designers had set them up to delay pursuers during an escape.
"Hold on tighter." Yaeger bit her lip—and vanished. In the blink of an eye, she reappeared thirty ters ahead. This was the first ti she had used a teleportation ability while carrying soone else—yet, she had pulled it off.
‘There’s a slight deviation… but nothing too severe. It’s manageable!'
Without missing a beat, Yaeger kept sprinting at full speed.
A quick ntal calculation told her one thing—ti was slipping away fast. If she didn’t reach the exit soon, the consequences would be dire. Thankfully, she could shave off a few precious seconds by chaining all her movent abilities—[Shadow Skulk], [Phantom Step], and more.
‘Faster, faster, faster!’
Even as she gained ti, anxiety gnawed at her. She knew all too well—the ti she was saving wasn’t for herself. It was for Rosalina to unlock the final door.
But if sothing went wrong along the way… they’d be dood.
Just then, as she activated Flash again, a strange sensation rippled through her body. Instead of thirty ters, she reappeared sixty ters ahead—her Flash ability had expanded.
She barely had ti to register the change before her foot landed—right onto a trap. A wave of unease surged through her instincts.
A split second later, the walls groaned as chanisms activated—hundreds of tal arrows shot out in a deadly barrage.
‘They’re fast!’ The mont the sharp whistle of arrows cut through the air, they were already upon her. Even without testing them, she knew—these arrows were enchanted for extra penetration. They’d tear through steel like paper.
"Master, look out! Those are piercing arrows!" Rosalina shouted in alarm.
Yaeger already knew—taking these head-on was not an option. But dodging was out of the question—her Flash ability was still on cooldown…
‘Wait—there’s no cooldown? That’s it! My [Beginner Flash] must have leveled up to [Interdiate Flash]!’
No cooldown. Double the distance. The signs were unmistakable—this was definitely [Interdiate Flash]. Without a mont’s hesitation, Yaeger activated Flash once more.
The deadly barrage of arrows closed in on them in an instant! If she failed, they’d be skewered like pincushions—dead in an instant.
Rosalina squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable. ‘If I must die, at least it’s in my master’s embrace… No regrets!’ Despite the overwhelming despair, a strange sense of peace settled over her.
Suddenly, the sound of rapid footsteps echoed through the passage, snapping Rosalina out of her resignation. She hesitantly opened her eyes—only to find her master standing there, completely unhard.
Yaeger’s expression remained tense, filled with urgency—but not pain.
In that instant, Rosalina understood—her master’s spatial magic had evolved at the brink of danger.
‘Just as expected of my master!’ What Rosalina didn’t realize was that Yaeger’s skill hadn’t evolved in that mont of crisis—it had actually ranked up just before. That deviation was what led her to step on the trap.
‘That was way too close… I almost died back there!’
For a single terrifying mont, every fiber of Yaeger’s being had been stretched to the limit. The arrows had been a breath away from impaling both her and Rosalina. If her [Interdiate Flash] hadn’t activated in ti, they’d have been nothing more than corpses riddled with arrows.
Exhaling a quiet breath of relief, Yaeger quickly recalculated her Flash distance—then activated it again.
Once. Twice. Three tis. Four. Each successive Flash carved away precious seconds. But the cost was steep.
‘Damn it! My mana’s nearly drained!’
She quickly pulled up the quest panel—
Ti remaining: 5 minutes, 17 seconds.
‘Not bad. Enough ti for a quick mana refill!’
Without hesitation, she skidded to a halt, set Rosalina down, and pulled a High-Grade Mana Potion from her storage ring—then downed it in one gulp.
anwhile, in the palace… Richard stood before a mirror, his golden hair now ssily unkempt. A pitch-black mask concealed most of his face, and he was clad in a form-fitting stealth jumpsuit, a dark cape billowing behind him.
Dressed like this, he looked less like an emperor and more like the shadowy mastermind of an underground syndicate.
"You’ve forced to go this far… You damned outsider—I’ll make you suffer a fate worse than death!" His voice was distorted through the mask, cold and rciless. Only his piercing eyes remained visible, gleaming ominously under the dim palace light.
With those words, he strode out of the main chamber, his steps asured and deliberate. His destination—the outer city district.
Elsewhere… "Finally!" Yaeger erged at the end of the secret passage, excitent flashing across her face. She gently set Rosalina down, quickly suppressing her elation. "Rosalina, it’s your turn now."
"Yes, Master!" Without wasting a second, Rosalina rushed to the stone wall, her hands gliding over its surface as she ticulously searched for the trigger chanism. She had a rough idea of where the chanism was hidden. But lurking beneath it were deadly traps—one wrong move, and things could go catastrophically wrong.
‘Really, ancestor? Traps around the door? Was that necessary?’ Rosalina grumbled inwardly, but her hands never stopped working. After thirty tense seconds, her fingers finally brushed against the first chanism.
To unlock this door, she had to activate five chanisms in precise sequence. Whoever designed this was either a genius or a s****t—it was absurdly overcomplicated! Now that she had a feel for the chanism’s placent, she worked faster, locating the second switch in record ti.
Beside her, Yaeger kept a close eye on the tir, glancing between Rosalina and the dwindling countdown. There was no room for error—not with the ti she had left.
With just one minute left, Rosalina activated the final chanism. A sharp click echoed from the stone wall. Stone ground against stone as the wall rumbled downward, revealing the passage beyond.
"Master, follow this path to the very end—you’ll find a large switch," Rosalina instructed.
"Just flip it, and that’s it?" Yaeger asked briskly.
"Yes. It controls the connection to the city moat," Rosalina confird with a nod.
"Got it. Thanks for everything!" Without warning, Yaeger pulled Rosalina into a quick embrace before swiftly letting go and diving into the passage below.
Rosalina froze, her mind going completely blank at the unexpected hug. By the ti she snapped back to reality, the stone wall had already slid back into place, sealing the passage as if it had never been opened.
"…Did I forget sothing?" She stared at the stone wall in a daze, a strange sense of loss lingering in her chest.
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