I stared at the notification, frozen in a mix of pure shock and disbelief.

I can bring her back to life?!

'…Of course!' The thought slammed into me, and I suddenly remembered the description of the Bonded Ability Chrysalis:

[The Bonded Ability Chrysalis grants complete and total revival from every form of mortal death at midnight in exchange for 500 karma points.]

It didn't specify that the revival was limited to me. In fact, it didn't specify at all, meaning it could bring back anyone, not just myself. Why had I ever assumed it was restricted only to me?

I rubbed my face. Then I quickly put aside the emotional ache I was feeling and forced myself to think clearly.

Though I was not glad at the fact that Evelyn died. I could not just immediately say yes to the revival notification.

Why couldn't I just immediately accept the notification and bring her back?

Well, the reasons were purely practical.

For one, bringing Evelyn back required five hundred karma points. That… was a lot of karma points, and meant that I would have to give up one of the five lives that I currently had. Was it really wise to sacrifice one of my lives this early for someone I didn't even know?

Secondly, Evelyn's bond had died. If I were to bring her back to life, she would just be defenseless and end up being killed again. And so, that would just be a waste of the karma points Aika and I worked hard to gather.

Lastly, my life did not just belong to me alone, and as I mentioned, I wasn't the only one who gathered those Karma points. So… there was someone else who needed to give her consent before I could even consider using my bonded ability on anyone else besides myself.

I sighed, and after a long moment of heavy hesitation, I asked.

'Aika? What do you say? Should we bring her back to life?'~

Aika did not reply immediately. Eventually, she called out, 'Gamer Privileges?'~~

[Activating Gamer Privileges…]

'Evelyn's bond was dead at the time of her death. Would she be able to get her bond back, somehow, if she were to be brought back to life?'~~

[…]

[Chrysalis grants absolute revival to a person. Since a bond is a fundamental part of the dominant, it shall be brought back to life alongside the dominant.]

Woah… I was utterly taken aback reading that.

Having the ability to grant absolute revival to both a dominant and its bond? That felt less like a bonded ability and more like divine intervention. Wasn't that an ability meant to be exclusive to the gods themselves?

Aika exhaled, then said after a brief pause. 'Fine… if we can bring both of them back, then… do it.'~~

I nodded and looked to the revival screen.

'Activate the bonded ability… Chrysalis.'

[Activating the bonded ability: Chrysalis...]

[…]

I waited, hopeful for a notification saying something like "she would be raised up by midnight" or something similar.

However, the next notification that popped up made me arch a brow in confusion.

[The cost for the bonded ability Chrysalis has not been paid due to insufficient Karma Points. As a result, Chrysalis cannot be activated.]

'What?'

But I do have enough Karma points.

I quickly flicked my gaze to the side where a small screen appeared upon command.

[Available Karma points: N 2,360 / P 200]

'There's enough here so wh—'

Wait…

That was when I noticed that the part of the positive karma points was blinking red.

Oh… it needs positive karma points for others?

That was when I understood: Negative Karma points were the cost I had to pay for my own revival, but Positive Karma points were the cost required to revive someone else besides me.

'Bummer…'

I ran a hand through my hair and exhaled.

That also meant that I never actually had five lives as I earlier thought, but rather four.

At that point, Aika's voice echoed.

'So… what now?'~~

I thought for a moment. Then I replied somberly. 'I'll bring her body with me. It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth to leave her body here for monsters to feed on. I'd like to give her a proper burial. However, I will wait some time before I do so and see if I can accumulate enough positive Karma points to bring her back.'~

A few seconds passed before Aika replied, '…I understand.'~~

I took a deep breath and exhaled. I then raised my open palm to Evelyn's head while simultaneously activating my inventory. As I moved my hand slowly down from her head to her feet, her body shimmered, dissolving slowly before it completely vanished into the inventory.

Just as the last particles faded, I flinched violently at a male voice right behind me, which startled me: "Huh? Wh-what did you do to her body?"

Whipping my head around, I saw Dion standing. He leaned heavily on Ino, with one arm draped across her shoulder while the other clutched his injured side. I realized that both of them, and Celeste, had been silently observing the entire process.

Standing up, I brushed the dirt off my clothes and replied. "We can't leave her body here. So I've put it in a safe place."

Honestly, I thought he would press the matter, but he didn't and simply nodded in agreement.

I looked away and said firmly: "We need to keep moving."

Both Ino and Dion nodded in agreement and turned, while Celeste walked and came close to my side as we all began walking north.

Despite the scores of ghouls we killed, those were only the weaker, resident ghouls who hadn't gone hunting. With the sun already on the horizon, the stronger hunters would be returning soon. Therefore, it was critical that we left this territory as soon as possible.

However…

With each brisk step we took, a nagging feeling began to gnaw at me. It felt like there was something very important I was missing. I frowned and grew lost in thought.

'What could it be?'

My eyes darted to my map which showed everything in just a mile around me.

I couldn't see any monsters in front of us, behind us or beside.

So… what could it be?

A few minutes later of deep thought, the realization finally hit me:

The Sages!

From my knowledge of the game, the goat-headed ghouls had only ten Sages in all of the territory. However, these Sages were not part of the hunters, so they should have been here in the territory. But the thing is, they were not also melee fighters but rather specialized in traps and magic, due to them being wiser and more cunning than the other ghouls.

Which meant… we were yet to meet any of the Sages.

Where were they?

Suddenly, I had a very bad premonition…

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.