My jaws dropped at the feature I didn't know existed. A function where I could not just share the points I earned hunting but also trade it with a lot of abilities I never thought I could possess. From mastery of certain abilities to body modification, anything could be bought with a price.
Yet all present were limited to non-magic abilities.
"I said hurry!" she scolded, and there goes all my remaining points. A total of a four hundred point nine abyssal points, to be exact and I didn't even know such an amount had already been stacked.
She started waving her hand, then a handkerchief suddenly wrapped around her mouth and a surgical blade appeared in her hands.
"Y-you gonna operate on this thing?"
"This thing, Cipher… is still alive. And there's no way it is dying in my sight" she replied, a little annoyed.
The whole pack of rats was standing behind us, glaring with worried eyes and visible panic in their minds.
"Everyone, please stand back and trust me," she assured us with such sincerest eyes far different from what she used to have. Instead of her usual brown eyes, she had irises of white almost glowing when light struck at them.
None were able to complain about the life their fellow with at her hands and just stood silent with jaws dropped as she started cutting up the wound even deeper with such dexterity and accuracy.
Neither her eyes nor her fingers showed signs of flinching, and in just less than two minutes, she was able to take a small broken piece of a claw and stitched up the wound.
"Now, the hard part…" she muttered then started pumping the patient's chest, over and over. But it was showing no signs of revival.
"Josie, you've done enough."
"Come on, breath! Damn it!" she shouted in anger as she kept going on the chest compression. Her press started getting faster and harder as her temper starts to overwhelm her.
"Josie, I said that's enough."
"No! Not yet! She can still make it." she reasoned yet all I could see on her was no longer determination but stubbornness. "No one's dying in my sight. Not anymore!"
She didn't stop pumping the rat's chest, even though all of the creatures in the chamber had already given up on the poor patient.
Yet somehow, her stubbornness seemed to pay off when a miracle occurred. The rat lady suddenly gasped for air before limping once more to the ground. But her breathing gave reason for everyone to rejoice and for Josie to finally sigh in relief.
"Good work, Josie. You did great."
"How bout start calling me older sis from now on?" she asked, grinning.
"Maybe if you're older than my actual age" I snickered, then my gaze shifted towards a cloaked creature on the corner. Shivering as it lets off faint weeping. "And who is this?"
"G-Go away! I don't want to hurt you!" it squealed, dropping its cover upon trying to run away.
** Leap skill activated **
Her body crashed into the ground as I pinned her down. It kept on struggling and making a screeching sound as it claws the marble floor, but its strength was not enough to remove the weight of my hands "We're not done here yet. Who are you?"
"Please, stop! That's our noble lady. Out leader. The one we're looking for." the fat rat claimed.
"This… thing?" it had golden fur all over its body with a physique similar to a hamster rather than a rat but its eyes were rabid and its claws were sharp as heck. Yet one of its nails was cut off, and I guess I know where it is now. "You sure? This hardly looks like a noble except for the fur"
"Y-yes… he's stating the truth. I don't know what happened but I think it's because of the stone downstairs…" a soldier replied with a grim face.
"Stone? What stone?" Josie questioned, yet none had the confidence to reply. Or they were just too frightened to talk about it.
The only thing they could do was show us where it was standing. The lower level, or the basement.
But rather than a stone, it was more of a small slanted dark pillar with glowing purple cracks in it. And just being too close brings a woozy feeling.
"It's a cursed stone…" the fat rat gasped upon seeing the pillar. "Hurry, we have to leave before it-"
"You mean, an ether stone?"
"Wha!? where did it go!?" the fat rat yelped as the item vanished into the item storage.
** Item Classification **
Item name: Ether stone
A stone pillar radiating Ether Energy, also known as Mana.
Effects: Any organism exposed within a specific range and duration shall go under mutation to create a vessel for magic.
***************************
"Sorry, I already took it. It won't harm anyone this time." I claimed. "What were you saying earlier?"
"I-It transforms anything into monsters. Just like what happened… our lady…" the fat rat claimed, diverting his gaze. "I should've come earlier…"
"I don't think it's too late for your lady." Josie confidently replied. "I don't know much about this transforming stone but the transformation isn't complete yet and seeing your leader still conscious despite being exposed is a good sign. We might still have a chance to save her."
"B-but… will her appearance be turned back?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Yeah, she's the symbol of our race! You have to turn her back!" another claimed.
"Who cares about that? Don't you want her alive!?" Josie argued, shutting the soldier up. "There's no guarantee of such thing happening. The transformation already turned. At least be satisfied with the chance of her making it out alive."
Josie stormed out of the basement with a wrinkled eyebrow as the rest of the soldiers contemplate their actions. None of them could speak, even after following Josie upstairs.
"Please excuse the attitude of my kin." the fat rat claimed.
"They're talking about a symbol. What is that?"
"The leader, our lady Tarra, is one of the lineages of golden blood. The reason why the four races had come as one. They're the symbol of peace for our race, and hope for our kin." the rat's face sulks "and seeing her turning into… something…"
"Well, that's crap…"
"I know… we're truly doomed once the others found out…" it replied.
"Nope, your beliefs are crap," I claimed. "Relying on the symbol so much instead of unifying yourselves just because."
Truly a shame, but who am I to judge? Even my own greedy race cares only for themselves. And with the appearance of the rifts and players, everything just turned into hell.
"We better leave this place before the monster underneath us comes back…"
As I was about to leave, the carvings on the walls took my attention. It's the universe, but with a white shooting star falling into a world. But it wasn't ours as its geography didn't match at all.
And what intrigues me was the white shooting star… something is inside it. A small purple crystal is embedded at its center head while its tail stretches and fades into the edge..
Then the whole place started shaking.
"Up! Up!" I ordered upon the rats, rushing upstairs and finding everyone evacuating but before the rest of us could leave, the tower starts to descend, blocking the entrance with dried ground and sand. And the descent of the towers was still ongoing. "Upstairs!"
We raced through the circular staircase, finding ourselves at the top of the sinking tower. And before the earth could devour us along with it, we jumped into the wasteland.
The tower left a large hole in the surface of the earth, and from the hole, the mole once again resurfaced.
Another quake shook, pulverizing the dried land and dragging it into its center, creating an inverted cone pit where the other rat soldiers rolled into their demise. And we on the upper pit were getting dragged in the sliding sands, and closer into the mouth of the beast.
"Hey, you can dig, right? Can you dig us out of here?"
"I-I don't think I can. I can't build tunnels if this soft ground" the rat replied.
"Then we have one option left," I claimed, summoning the silver blade. "Let's end this, you son of a bitch."
** Leap skill activated **
The sand below me burst as I made the leap into the monster's sky, dropping on its head in force of falling object and a blade aimed at its head.
It was struck and wailing, but the blade didn't pierce its skull enough and I was tossed aside, dropping the blade into the sinking sand.
"Dang it. You'll pay for that!" I shouted, releasing an arrow twice before the beast finally got me.
Its claw pierced my side, and blood spewed out of my mouth. The pain was numbing, but I was still able to release an arrow into its eyes and helped break free from the monster's clutches.
Yet it was the last attack I could deal with it as all my strength drains along with the blood flowing out of my wound. And the only thing I saw before my sight blurs into darkness, was a golden fur dashing into the beast and squealing rabidly.