Chapter 126 – Resting before the return.

The Bladed Volcanic Xornotaurus lay down on the ground, its large body missing a head that had rolled over to the side. The battle was over and Roland could hear the system giving him a message.

…

Roland dropped down onto his posterior and started panting. He soon collapsed onto his back while having a hard time breathing. His eyes started to close but before he could pass out he felt something slippery touch his face.

It was Agni that had limped over from the side, his tamed beast had been knocked away and suffered some injuries after being clawed. He was bleeding and his side had a large gash.

“Good boy…”

Agni received a weak pat on the head before Roland raised himself into a sitting position. The injured wolf’s legs started giving out but Roland was quick in catching his injured beast.

With shaky hands, Roland reached into his satchel. During the hectic fight, he didn’t even have time to drink one of these potions, now they were needed to save Agni.

He quickly brought out one of the healing potions and started pouring it over Agni’s large wound. It started sizzling and slowly closing. Thanks to their connection he could see Agni’s status screen, after checking it he could see the bleeding status slowly being grayed out before disappearing.

Roland gave out a sigh of relief, his tamed beast would make it out alive while also gaining a couple of levels. He was next in line to drink some recovery potions, mana, health, and stamina potions quickly made it into his mouth as he recovered.

He was preoccupied with his party members but he could hear the system mention that he had gained multiple levels from gaining so much experience.

Robert was holding onto his broken shoulder while also collapsing onto his back. He could tell that his older brother was quite tired. Lucille at this time was face down on the ground as well, she had probably passed out from using up all of her mana during that last spell.

The experience in this world was somewhat shared and depending on who did the most damage they would receive most of it. Even though the two contributed less than him, they would also be receiving quite a lot. Robert would most likely be handsomely rewarded due to him landing the finishing blow.

The title gave a flat boost to damage, he had also gained some levels after this fight. This one dead monster gave him the equivalent of fighting hundreds of those ruby salamanders. If he had to choose, he would rather fight hundreds of those smaller monsters one by one than face this thing alone again.

“Ugh…wish these potions worked faster… where is a priest when you need one.”

Priests and clerics like the woman that they brought along had various buffing magics. They would allow the party members to recover their mana and stamina at a quicker pace. It would have been nice if that healer they had taken along had fallen down here with them, but luckily he didn’t lose any limbs.

His right hand was in a world of hurt. He received a full hit from that monster that destroyed both his sword and rod. The pieces were still scattered around this large open cavern.

‘This thing needs a rework…’

Roland looked at his right hand on it was the melted attachment that he placed on his wrist. It had somewhat fused with his gauntlet at this point and rendered it nothing more than junk.

With this he had lost both of his hand protectors and would be unable to discharge spells through them. His armor was also barely holding together, the only lucky thing about this was that his helmet had stayed on his head for the entire battle. Thus Robert could not see his face even after all of this had happened.

‘I need to give them the healing potions.’

Finally, Roland moved his tired and beat-up body in motion. Robert had a whole broken shoulder after holding steady and protecting Lucille as a proper knight. He had to give it to his older brother, he had some balls.

He prioritized the woman’s life over his own even though he could have easily just abandoned her. Roland wasn’t sure how deep of a relationship these two had but he hoped that the girl would appreciate the gesture when she woke up.

“Are you awake?”

“B-barely…”

Robert gave Roland a weak smile while looking pale.

“Your shoulder… I’ll have to…”

“I know… get it over with…”

Robert knew that the broken bone needed to be aligned before the healing potion was drunk. Roland was not a cleric but he knew first aid and would be able to push the bone into the right place.

“Argh….”

Robert gave out a grunt while pushing the fingers from his good arm into the rocky ground. After the bones were somewhat set in place, Roland poured the red healing potion on the injury. Then the rest was given for drinking.

These potions were high quality and would be even able to heal the broken bones within a few hours of being drunk. For faster healing, something like an elixir would be required or a powerful cleric spell.

“How do you feel?”

“I’m fine but Lady Lucille.”

“You should think about your own health before worrying about others…”

Roland stood up and moved towards the passed-out frost mage. She had a magnificent face planted on the ground while making a T pose. This was one of those times when he missed having a smartphone to document it for future generations.

Before Robert could shout at him from the distance he flipped the girl over. She was given a mana potion, healing potion, and a stamina potion. Lucille had the least amount of wounds besides a few scratches here and there. Robert had successfully managed to protect her life at his own expense.

There didn’t seem to be any monsters around for now, there was even a chest that popped up in the middle of this chamber. It was similar to the one at the boss room on the 10th level with the biggest difference being that it was made of silver.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“My Lady…”

Even before his arm could heal Robert had dragged his body over to the passed-out Lucille. The group of three and the wolf were now sitting all together and resting. Finally, after a few minutes Lucille awoke, the first thing she saw was Robert’s concerned face that was quite close to her own.

“Sir Robert?”

She quickly raised her head out of panic which made her forehead collide with Robert’s nose. The two started holding their faces while Roland stared at the comedic duo, a small chuckle even escaped from his mouth that he quickly hid away by moving his helmet-covered face to the side.

“What happened… Where is the monster? Is Sir Wayland alive?”

“I’m fine, thanks for your concern, Lady Lucille.”

“Sir Wayland! You are well!”

“Relax, breathe in, Sir Robert, can you explain to the lady and calm her down?”

Roland stood up after resting for a bit and let the knight talk to his lady. While he explained how the monster was defeated, Roland would go over to the treasure chest.

It was quite the well-built chest that was somewhat a carbon copy of the bronze one he saw in the Ruby Golem boss chamber. It didn’t seem to have any locks or traps on it but Roland was not willing to risk it. He would rather not get shot by some strange spells or arrows when he opened it.

He grabbed the bladed part of his broken arming sword that he finally found. With it, he slowly moved the chest lid open. Just like with the bronze chest there was nothing out of the ordinary. When looking inside he could see some items.

‘Deep silver huh?’

Just like deep steel, there were other alloys similar to it. Even though this one was called deep-silver it didn’t mean that it was less sturdy than steel. The silver counterpart was quite similar in that regard but it had some other properties like having added damaging effects against undead creatures.

Roland did not think the added price was worth the expenditure so he continued using deep steel. Both of these metals had the same resistance to runic erosion so it didn’t matter that much to him.

‘This will come in handy…’

Roland held the weapon out, it was a long two-handed weapon more in line with a halberd than an actual axe. He did not have his axe-related skills leveled up that much but this was better than not having a weapon at all. The added strength would also boost his attacking power for when they entered the corridor filled with those monsters.

Besides the weapon, there were three deep-silver bars along with some silver coins. These dungeon coins could be used along with the minted kingdom coins as everything was still being counted by this world’s system as the same.