[You have ac…

I ignored the notification that popped up.

'He doesn't know what the bastion is?'

How could he not know?

Transmigrator or not, anyone coming to this realm through the veil from the Lumierian empire, or any of the empires, should know what a bastion is.

If he doesn't know what a bastion is, then does that mean he has never been to any of the empires?

Wait…

Does that mean he has always been in the First Ring and has never been to the other world?

Suddenly, I remembered the warning on the wall regarding the strange people and how they were not from any of the known empires.

'This must be them!'

I then asked, "Since I've answered your question, who are you and why do you want to kill us?"

The man chucked, then replied. "You do not need to know who we are. As for why we want to kill you?" His smile widened. "Well, that's because you other-worlders, dominants, or whatever you call yourselves, grant a lot of EXP. Just killing one of you bastards can grant experience points in the thousands, if not more."

Hearing that reply, my confusion spiked. If a dominant killed a fellow dominant, they would gain the same EXP as they would if they killed a monster of the same grade. For instance, if I were to kill a grade two dominant that was at level 12, I'd only gain two hundred EXP.

But then this guy was saying that if he killed one of us, he'd gain EXP in the thousands?

What was going on?

There was just so much to think about. However, my confusion quickly dissolved into cold fear as I realized that no matter what, this people would end up killing us for exp.

I looked to Aika. 'If we were to end up fighting them, what are the chances of us surviving?'~

Aika immediately replied. 'We are not surviving, Ced. We'll die before the fight even begins.'~~

I shuddered at that reply.

Just then, the man spoke again, his tone shifting from predatory to puzzled. "But I'm curious, kid. How is it that when I use my Search Skill, I can see everything about every other person in here, except you, and this... woman with the katana? Is that also because of a skill you both possess?"

He had barely asked that when the lady who stood by him frowned. She turned to him. "What do you mean by that, Tae-hyun? Search didn't work on him?"

"Yes. For some reason, when I use it on both of them, it fails. I don't see anything."

Suddenly, a palpable killing intent erupted from the woman, Soo-Min. So much so that it was not just me, but even Celeste and Dion tensed even further.

Aika took a cautious step back and braced herself, raising her katana toward the woman who looked ready to lunge at any moment.

"Whoa, Soo-Min," Tae-Hyun said, arching a brow. "What's making you so tense? That's not like you."

"Have you forgotten the prophecy that Hyung told us a few days ago?"

Tae-Hyun frowned. "Mmm? You mean the one about the antagonists we need to watch out for?"

Soo-min nodded and lowered her voice. "Yes. According to Hyung, there are two of them. But he says that no matter how hard he tried, he could never see the face of the second man due to some sort of barrier, and that the only thing he could remember about him was that, he used a woman whose face couldn't also be read, as a weapon." She snapped her gaze from Tae-hyun to me. "If you used search on him, and it didn't work, could it be that…"

Tae-hyun's eyes suddenly widened and a wary look crossed his face. He snapped his gaze from Soo-min to me and the grip on his sword tightened.

Then he took a deliberate step forward, then another.

Everyone instantly raised their weapons and braced themselves, preparing for a fight. But when Tae-Hyun took that third step, he vanished and suddenly, a longsword pierced me from behind, erupting from my chest and sending blood splattering onto Aika.

The cavern instantly exploded into chaos as Celeste screamed, a high, panicked sound that ripped through the silence left by the blow.

Dion's eyes widened; then he roared and instantly spun his spear, bringing the haft down toward the attacker. This sudden counterattack forced Tae-Hyun to yank his longsword free of my body and use it to deflect the descending spear. Tae-Hyun then snapped a swift kick into Dion's chest, sending him crashing and sprawling against the cavern wall.

At the same time, Aika, frozen for a heartbeat by the shock and the spray of my blood, spun in a blind panic and instinctively reached out as my body began to fall.

Grabbing me, she pulled my collapsing body to her chest and dropped us both to the cavern floor.

The shock was a blinding, pulsing agony that consumed my vision. I couldn't even process what the hell had just happened.

My mind instantly clouded with pain, and despite knowing I would come back to life, I couldn't help but feel terrified of death.

'It hurts…' I thought, as I tightened my hand weakly on Aika's shoulder.

'It hurts so much…'

So much so that my body began to tremble in tiny spasms. Then… right as my light was fading, I heard Aika muttering as she squeezed me gently, pressing her cheek against my temple and ignoring the blood soaking into her clothing. "It's alright. It's alright…"

I gurgled blood, but then she gently ran her fingers through my hair. "I know it hurts, but it's alright. You'll be back soon. Until then, I'm right here... I'm not leaving you..."

A few more seconds passed in utter agony.

The blackness swallowed the last light, the pain vanished in a wave of nothingness, and finally, my consciousness dissolved.

[You Died]

***

Not long after Cedric died, Aika's form began to dissolve, fading into wisps of black smoke. In less than a few seconds, she had retreated back into a tattoo under Cedric's sleeve as his blood pooled across the cavern floor.

Then Soo-Min clicked her tongue and spoke, "Bummer. So the lady really was connected to him. Tch. There goes my EXP." She turned toward Celeste, who was frozen, kneeling in Cedric's blood and staring at his body with skin pale as chalk.

As Soo-Min began to approach Celeste, Tae-Hyun spoke, his voice tight. "I'm not sure he is the antagonist."

Soo-Min stopped and looked sharply at him.

He then added with a hesitant frown on his face. "He looked too weak to be him. He went down too easily for one of the men Hyung warned all of us about."

Soo-Min shrugged, spinning her short-sword. "It doesn't matter. The good thing is that he's dead. If he is the one, then you've killed one of the antagonists. If not, then you still win, since you must have gotten a ton of EXP from that kill, right?"

Tae-Hyun smiled. "Right…"

He was about to turn toward Dion when suddenly, something caught his attention, causing him to whip his head back to Cedric's dead body. His smile instantly froze, and a deep frown creased his face. "Wait… something's not right."

Soo-Min frowned. "What is it?"

"He is dead, right?" Tae-Hyun replied, his gaze fixed on the corpse. "So why am I not getting any EXP?"

"Huh? What do you m—"

Soo-Min was still speaking when suddenly, a high-pitched scream tore through the cavern:

"I'LL KILL BOTH OF YOU!"

Both Soo-Min and Tae-Hyun immediately whipped their heads to Celeste. She was pointing a small knife at her heart, her eyes bloodshot and filled with tears, while radiating a suffocating surge of killing intent.

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