Leon looked at Aurora with a skeptical face and had to check if he was hearing correctly.
"Aurora, who is your father again?"
Aurora still looked proud at the mention of her father.
"Papa is Grand Duke Ferdinand of course. One of the two Grand Dukes of Silce and unlike the other one. He isn't a snake who tries to kill relatives."
Leon hadn't heard explicitly from anyone that Aurora was the daughter of Grand Duke Ferdinand, but he had speculated it from everything that had happened back on the cliff.
"And your mother was a barbarian?"
Aurora shook her head before Leon continued.
"I thought the Coalition and the barbarians had conflicts? How could a grand duke of one of the states of the Coalition have a barbarian as a wife? If you don't mind me asking."
Aurora shook her head and spoke casually.
"Your not from around here uh, what's your name again?"
Smiling, Leon wanted to laugh, but unfortunately, it hurt to laugh so he could only give a soft chuckle.
"I guess you never got my name. It's Leon and you are correct in saying that I'm not from around here."
Sitting back down, Aurora started tapping her temple with her finger.
"Hmm, well I guess the answer to your question would be easier to answer with an explanation."
Aurora scooted in closer to Leon.
"Although it is true that the barbarians and Coalition haven't always been amicable or seen eye to eye. In the past few decades, the two haven't really engaged in warfare. The most there have been were some small border skirmishes that only results in a few injuries, but both sides smoothed past such incidents."
Suddenly, Aurora looked proud once again.
"With that, the Coalition tried to take a much more friendly stance with the barbarians and my father fell in love with mother. Being a sort of poster boy, my father married my mother and had me. There was of course was a lot of dissatisfaction from some of the nobles in Silce regarding my father marrying a barbarian, but surprisingly my grandpa, the current king, didn't mind the marriage. Unfortunately, my mother passed mysteriously, when I was little."
Pointing above from where the two had fallen from, Aurora continued to speak.
"In fact, the destination we were actually going to was my mother's grave. She wanted to be buried in her favorite place rather than some dusty old mausoleum. Since my father is currently fighting for the title of Archduke, he didn't mind me leaving the war-torn capital and go to visit the grave. Unfortunately, somehow we were discovered and attacked…"
Aurora's words answered a lot of Leon's questions. He had always wondered why the daughter of the current Grand Duke and granddaughter of the current king was out in barbarian lands, but it suddenly all made sense. In fact, Leon thought the trip would have been fine since they saw zero presence of barbarians and would have most likely arrived at the destination safely if it hadn't been for the failed assassination attempt.
Seconds of complete silence went by, as Leon continued to mull over Aurora's words. Feeling slightly uncomfortable and awkward, Aurora broke the silence.
"So what should we do now?"
This was the million-dollar question since Leon was also thinking the exact same thing.
"I was also wondering the exact same thing. But before I can even decide anything, where are we?"
Looking up at the ceiling, Leon could see a faint light many meters up from his current position.
"I can only tell that we most likely can't climb our way back up. With my current injuries and the fact that the crack is as far as a small mountain away. We can only explore our other options. Can you tell me if there are any other exits? I would check, but moving my body hurts like hell."
Turning her head, Aurora took a look at the room and reported her observations.
"Well, there are actually a lot of exits around. I can see at least four in varying directions. I have no clue where we are, but we are gonna have to find a way out of here sooner or later. It's been about two days and I've been living off your water canteen and your wet rations that were in your pockets."
Hearing Aurora's concerns, Leon realized something important.
'Oh shit. All my rations were on my horse. I only had a few of them in my pockets for snacking while we rode…'
Realizing they couldn't stay here until Leon healed fully due to food issues, Leon could only think deeply for a few minutes before he finally spoke.
"Aurora, how much food do we have left?"
She reached into her pockets and pulled out two pieces of dried meat.
"Most likely a day left with the both of us…"
Leon painfully turned his neck and looked straight at Aurora.
"We'll have to use that day to the best of our abilities I guess. Aurora I'm gonna do something that may seem weird, but if I'm right then I'll be able to at least move a little so we can try leaving wherever we are. However, I need you to nod your head that you won't interfere unless I ask."
Aurora looked skeptically at Leon but nodded eventually. So, Leon continued.
"I want you to move me close to the water"
Doing what Leon said, Aurora grabbed onto Leon's shirt and slowly dragged him towards the body of water in the middle of the cavern, before she looked at Leon.
"What now?"
With a plan in mind, Leon spoke.
"I need you to walk back towards that rock and look the opposite way while plugging your ears for a couple of minutes."
Aurora looked at Leon like he was crazy, but he only stared back at the girl so she eventually did what she was told. Leon opened the system and checked his stats.
Level: 43
HP: 131/435
Experience: 340/14890
Title: The Liberator of Gods
Class: Storm Walker
Mana: 415/415
Vitality: 81
Strength: 79
Intelligence: 96
Agility: 94
Luck: 44
Blessing: Ultimate Blessing from ??????
Stat Sheet: Hidden
Unused Attribute Points: 105
Skills: Backstab(2), Dash(4), Stealth(2), Slash(3), Wind Weapon(2), Wind Slash(2), Dagger Throw(1)
Passive: Sword Knowledge(2), Dagger Knowledge(2), Monster Language(2), Storm Born (1)
Seeing his new stats, Leon smiled as if he had just received the best news of his life. He originally speculated it from the beginning ever since he saw the power the marble had, but he had instantly gained thirteen levels from the marble killing some of Arulo's men.
The marble was used by Leon and was his possession, so since it caused a calamity that killed people. He naturally gained the experience from killing the people. Although, he speculated that Arulo had somehow survived the entire calamity since he speculated he would have gained even more experience if it had managed to kill the powerful night.
Leon had deeply thought about what to do next and decided to gamble on something that might not even work, but for him to be able to be more than an essentially paralyzed man. He needed the ability to move so he could try to find a way out and defend Aurora.
Leon smiled.
'I'm gonna go through a body transformation.'