The Author's POV

"Does anyone have potions? Quick!"

I panicked when I felt Smallsnake's body and his heartbeat weakening. Feeling his body which was extremely hot, I knew that the situation was extremely bad.

'Not today!'

Pressing my hands against his chest, I started to move my body up and down as I tried to get the blood running through his body.

I was currently waiting for someone to give me a potion. Only a potion could save Smallsnake.

"Quick!"

I shouted out loud as I noticed Smallsnake's condition worsening.

"Here."

Thankfully, Amanda was quick to react as she handed me what seemed to be a small potion.

As I was in a hurry, I didn't get a proper look at the potion, but feeling the texture of the bottle, I knew that it was a really expensive one. I was secretly thankful inside my heart.

Pressing my hand against Smallsnake's mouth and opening it up slightly, I gently poured the contents of the bottle into his mouth.

Watching as the liquid poured into his mouth, I could feel sweat trickling down from the side of my face.

"Please work..."

For the first time in my life, I felt genuine panic as I waited for the potion to take effect.

I wasn't the only one panicking, as Ryan shook Smallsnake's body and moved closer to him. Tears had started to gather from the corner of his eyes as he hugged Smallsnake's body tightly.

"Please don't die, please don't die, please don't die…"

His voice was rather frail, evident that he was also in a similar state to mine.

Behind him, the others were also showing similar reactions as they anxiously stared at Smallsnake's body on the ground.

"Done."

Throwing the now empty bottle away, I slumped back and gazed in Smallsnake's direction.

'Please work.'

I thought to myself as I suddenly felt something press against my forehead, wiping some of the sweat away.

"Thank you."

Upon noticing Amanda standing beside me, I thanked her for wiping away the sweat on my side of the face.

"…It'll be okay. You've already done everything you can for him. All you can do at this moment is hope that he recovers."

She quietly reassured me as I felt her soft hand grasp mine.

"Huuu…"

I wasn't sure whether it was because of her sudden actions, or her calm demenour, but I slowly also started to calm down as I gratefully looked at Amanda.

"Thank you."

I once again thanked her as I shifted my attention back to Smallsnake.

'She's right, I've already done whatever I could for Smallsnake. It will be up to him from this point forward.'

Given that the potion Amanda had given me was a highly ranked one, I expected its effects to be rather quick, but as minutes passed and Smallsnake's condition didn't improve, my complexion started to sour.

"Did it not work?"

I weakly mumbled out loud as my head lowered.

My hand grasped at my clothes as a familiar pain engulfed my chest.

I couldn't quite describe what I was feeling, but it felt as though all the energy had been taken away from my body.

"Shit…"

I cursed out loud, as I felt guilt creep up into my body.

'How could I have let this happen? I should've refused Kevin's offer once I realized that something wrong was going on with the system.'

Had I been more cautious, none of this would've happened.

If there was anyone to blame, it had to be me. Given all the experiences I had, I should've known better to be more prepared, but my sudden actions had prompted this mistake to happen.

I knew that I was being harsh on myself and that my faults lied elsewhere, but these thoughts never stopped appearing inside my mind. In fact, they were getting progressively worse as time passed.

"Smallsnake!"

But it was right then that Ryan's high-pitched voice rang in the room and my head snapped upwards.

"What happened?"

Immediately turning my attention toward Smallsnake, the first thing I noticed was his twitching eyelids.

"Move away."

Upon noticing this, I moved over to Smallsnake and placed my hand against his neck, and tried to feel his pulse.

"...It's working."

Noticing that his heartbeat was slowly becoming stronger by the second, all the previous pain that I had experienced dissipated and I felt a wave of relief enshroud my body as my shoulders relaxed and I slumped back on the ground.

"Thank god…thank god…"

I quietly mumbled to myself as the others also showed similar reactions to mine.

Especially Ryan who hugged his body and quietly wept.

Hugging onto his chest tightly, he murmured.

"Thank you..thank you…"

I felt a weird feeling as I stared at Ryan hugging Smallsnake's body.

'With everything that has happened, the two of them must have developed a really close bond.'

Just the look of utter pain on Ryan's face was an indication of how much he cared for Smallsnake.

It wasn't just him, but the others as well, and taking a moment to study the faces of everyone present did I finally realize just how much of an influence Smallsnake had on the lives of each and everyone in the mercenary group.

"Thank god…"

I mumbled again as I slowly stood up and headed out of the room.

"Where are you going?"

Kevin asked as he followed me from behind. Secretly wiping the corner of my eyes, I turned to look in his direction and beckoned Angelica to follow me.

"Although I want to spend more time with Smallsnake, I know that there isn't much time left. We should free the others now."

"...You're right."

Kevin nodded his head as his face turned resolute.

Pointing towards three particular rooms, I looked at Angelica.

"That's the room where Jin is located, that one is where Emma is located, and that's where Han Yufei is located. Do me a favor and open them up for me."

Shifting her gaze to face me, Angelica didn't say anything for a couple of seconds. Just as I was about to say something, she nodded her head.

"Okay."

After that, she headed toward Emma's room. The reason for this was Kevin who was standing next to it, waiting for Angelica to come to him. On the outside, he appeared to be patiently waiting for her, but as I noticed the hurried taps of his foot and his shifting eyes, I knew that he was anything but patient.

"As expected of him."

I shook my head as I imprinted the scene inside of my mind.

"…He never changes."

***

Drip—! Drip—!

"Huuu…1035…huuuu…1036…"

While sweat dripped down her face, Emma performed a series of push-ups.

Her auburn-colored hair, which now reached all the way toward her back, gently fell in front of her face, covering her eyes. Nonetheless, this did not stop her as she continued doing push-ups on the floor.

"1037…1038…"

Ever since she had appeared in this strange environment, Emma never once found herself out of place.

Rather, she felt a lot more relaxed than back when she was inside her family dungeon.

Compared to that place, this place was like heaven.

…and even though her mana was currently sealed, it didn't stop Emma from continuing to train her body.

'As dad said, the stronger one's body, the quicker their strength will rise.'

The principle was rather simple. The stronger and more well-trained a body was, the more mana it could withstand, hence the faster the rank up.

It was something that was quite well known, and even taught at the Lock.

In spite of that, no one really paid a lot of attention to this as a lot of time was also required to train the body, and the little improvement they would receive from a better body would easily be surpassed by those that only focused on ranking up normally.

That was also what Emma did in the past.

Just like most people around the world, Emma also believed that training the body was a waste of time, but as she continued to do push-ups and she felt her muscles contracting, Emma realized how naive her previous view was.

'It's like building a foundation for a building. The stronger the structure at the bottom is, the safer and more durable the building will be…'

Thinking this far, she lowered her body and continued her routine.

"Huu…1045…1046…hm?"

Kriii—!

Halfway through her push-up, Emma heard a familiar rock grating sound and stopped doing whatever she was doing.

"Isn't it a bit too early for them to open the door?"

Last she recalled, the door would open every day at a specific time. She had only just returned to her room, and now the door was opening up again?

What exactly was going on?

"Ugh…"

Slowly, light began to spill in, and Emma felt a wave of warm and humid air enter the room.

Not used to the light, Emma was forced to close her eyes.

"Emma!"

But it was right at that moment that she heard a familiar voice coming from the opposite end of the room.

She instantly recognized the voice. It was Kevin's. The person that she had been longing to see for a very long time.

'How long has it been since I last saw him?'

A year? Half a year?

Her single-minded focus on her strength had made her lose track of time.

The thought of how she had held back others in the past angered her beyond words, as she pushed herself every day in order to not be weak again.

Therefore, after finally hearing Kevin's voice once again after so long, her emotions were in a state of disarray.

But…

Rather than immediately jumping up with joy, her brows furrowed.

"Kevin?"

She spoke out loud.

"…It's me."

Kevin's voice echoed out once again.

Hearing the sound of footsteps heading her way, Melissa moved back a bit.

"Don't come near me."

"Eh?"

Kevin's surprised, and borderline hurt voice rang out as his feet came to a pause.

"What's wrong?"

Kevin asked with concern.

"Do you not want to see me?"

"No, not that."

Emma shook her head and massaged her eyes, trying to adjust them to the light.

In the end, in spite of her efforts, she was still forced to close them.

She needed more time.

"The reason why I'm telling you to back off is because I can't trust anything. Who can tell that you're an impostor and this is some sort of dream spell placed on me by one of the demons?"

"Ah."

Realization soon dawned upon Kevin, and he emitted a sound. He finally understood why Emma was behaving the way that she was.

"Alright, ask me anything that you want, I'll answer you and prove to you that I'm really Kevin."

"Okay

Emma nodded her head she lowered her head and thought to herself.

For the next couple of seconds, she didn't say anything as she carefully thought of her question.

'Something that only Kevin and a few people would know…'

"Ah!"

It didn't take long for her to finally come up with a question as her head snapped up.

"Figure it out?"

"Yes."

Emma nodded her head.

"Alright, ask away."

"Sure."

Taking a deep breath, she asked.

"What is the nickname that—"

"Oh for fucks sake!"

Her sentence was cut off by Kevin's loud curse.