The sunlight was seeping through the tree branches, warming up the sparrows perched on their nests in search of heat. The birds were chatting in a string of twitters that flew from one branch to another. The sun shone unclouded in the clear morning sky.

One of the sparrows took a leap and left its safe home to fly about, and then winged its way down to the soft dewy grass. He frisked in the green as he looked about himself. He caught glimpse of a cave in the distance. It was exuding a bleak Aura. No ray of sunshine could pierce its shadow and no vegetation adorned its entryway. No animal dared step too close. The same went for the sparrow, who gazed at it fearfully from afar.

It looked as if every life form avoided that cave purposely.

Suddenly, five silhouettes peeped out from the ghastly lair. The sparrow jumped in bafflement and took flight to its comfortable nest. His eyes though followed the bold group as they fearlessly walked outside. Ahead of them was a guy covered in wounds that looked in quite a bad shape. His wounds had no regular shape and were still pouring blood, giving him the most ghoulish look. And yet, none of his wounds seemed to be caused by a weapon. It kind of looked like his skin had burst apart due to some internal pressure that had torn it up from within.

“Okay, this place is fine, let’s settle here,” a silvery-haired girl whispered in the guy’s ear. She helped him sit on the grass and lean his shoulders on a trunk, and then sat down next to him. The others imitated her and sat down, all worn-out.

The guy gazed down at his hands and gave a sigh. His index fingertips had turned black.

The index was a fundamental finger to wield a weapon. Judging from the looks of his indexes though, and from what he noticed while examining his Mana, he wouldn’t be able to clutch his sword naturally before a week. The guy instinctively brought his hand up to the hilt of the black Longsword, that now hung from his back.

Curse of the Demon.

Obviously enough, the guy was Helial.

***

Twelve hours before

Snowflake violently furrowed his eyebrows.

A terrifying roar had just boomed out through the cave. It raised a dust cloud that blocked their view. They had no idea on what was happening inside the Titan’s Shield. Judging from the energy rippling the air, Snowflake concluded that if that attack had been delivered to Lumia’s barrier…

The huge white cat shook his head, pushing away the idea that swirled around in it. The barrier didn’t seem damaged. He wondered how was it even possible for Helial to have delivered a blow like that one. Despite the dust, the shadow of Curse of the Demon was still neatly distinguishable on the edge of the shield. The attack delivered by Helial was a bare-hand one.

Could he really pull that off without his weapon?

Frankenstein, Snowflake and Lulu, as well as Lumia, were all thinking the same thing.

The dust cloud slowly dissolved, letting them see what had happened inside the shield. Everything came into focus.

What they saw left them speechless.

Helial had fainted. He was lying on the ground unconscious. Before him opened up a crater several meters deep. Its V shape suggested that the impact had been generated by the attacks of the Boss and Helial. There was no trace of the Queen of Spiders.

Lumia’s face, already pale for the extreme Mana consumption, turned even paler. Behind her, the Devil put his hand off her shoulder and clapped in overjoy. Thanks to the kid’s help, Lumia was exhausted but not hurt. The Titan’s Shield slowly disappeared.

For several second none of them could move. They were all petrified by shock and worry.

The first one to take a step forward was Lumia. As soon as she saw Helial’s chest raise and fall feebly, she walked towards him. She glanced at Helial’s life bar to check if he had any Bleed Malus or any damaged internal organ.

(T/N: Malus is a Latin word that means “evil”. It indicates an Anti-Bonus.)

Helial had barely 500 HP left. They kept going up and down. “This regenerative power is terrifying,” Lumia whispered to himself as she knelt down in front of her brother. “Lulu, cast all of your Heals on Helial. Start by those with a lowest Cast Time. This damage will need a couple of days to recover. Judging by the nature of these wounds, he must be able to walk in a matter of hours. We don’t know if the monsters’ Phase increases once they regenerate at the end of the 24 hours, so we’d better get out of here in half a day at most.”

Lumia seemed to have taken over.

Snowflake thought to himself: Where does this confidence come from? She’s become a complete different person after training with the little freak, really…

Lulu obeyed and Frankenstein immediately rushed to check the area out and made sure the noise hadn’t attracted too many monsters.

A strange atmosphere filled the Dungeon. It was enigmatic.

They all realized that the Queen of Spiders had been pulverized by Helial’s last attack. Many questions whirled around in their head though. They could hardly come to an answer.

What did Helial do exactly? How did he defeat the Queen of Spiders? What power peak did the boy reach? How much of his potential was yet to be uncovered? How stronger could he turn out to be?

Snowflake caught sight of a gleam out of the corner of his eye. Something was glistening from down the crater.

“The drops!” the cat said, cursing at himself for not having thought about this.

Snowflake jumped inside the crater right away and saw three items.

You obtained Solomon’s Ancient Scroll! You obtained the Guide to the Corrosive Palm! You obtained the Shell of the Queen of Spiders

Snowflake picked up the items and brought it near Helial under Lumia’s attentive eyes.

The girl nodded at him. The cat looked unusually silent. There were times where even Snowflake could keep his mouth shut, even if they only occurred every once in a blue moon.

Outside the cave

“WHEN-THE-FUCK-ARE-WE-HAVING-DINNER?” Snowflake cried on top of his lungs. He immediately woke everyone up from their trance state.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Frankenstein cursed. He had been deep in highly difficult calculations about the use of his Skill. Now that Snowflake distracted him, he lost count.

“ARE YOU CHALLENGING THIS EMPEROR CAT HERE? I GOTTA BITE YOUR HEAD OFF YOU PIECE OF SHIT. I GOT NO TIME TO WASTE WITH PLEBS,” Snowflake’s bad mood worsened drastically whenever he wouldn’t eat for several days in a row.

Frankenstein didn’t even bother answering. Lulu approached Snowflake and started caressing his fur, in an attempt to calm him down. The little girl gazed at Helial with fearful eyes and asked with the sweetest voice: “Can we sit here for a bit to grab a bite of something, Helial?” The cat wasn’t the only one feeling hungry for sure.

Helial smiled calmly as he nodded.

They chopped off some trees and sat down on the stumps. They used the wood to light a fire, by which they started warming some quality meat. It soon began to sizzle. The smell was so nice it made all of their mouths water immediately.

Lumia jumped right in Helial’s arms, stealing away cuddles and some kisses on her cheek. Lulu and Frankenstein turned away, embarrassed and uncertain on what to do. Snowflake didn’t take his eyes off them instead. He kept staring at them with a disgusted expression on his face.

“Gross,” the cat remarked as he chewed a piece of meat.

Neither Helial nor Lumia paid attention to their friends though. Lumia sat on one of Helial’s legs. Suddenly, she noticed that he was gazing at something in midair. She fixed her eyes on that direction too, leaving her brother’s shoulder. Her eyes lay on Helial’s Stat window.

Without even her noticing, Lumia’s mouth opened wide as she froze. Her eyes were glimmering. Despite her sudden growing wiser and mature, Lumia didn't lose her ability to be amazed by things. Well, actually nobody could have been but amazed by what she was looking at.

Primary Class: Runic Overlord (Unique Class)