While the group slept, Oliver was at the base, some distance away, sharpening a bone into the shape of a knife. The blade seemed sharp enough, but Oliver did not stop until he tried to touch the edge with his finger and a drop of blood appeared on his skin.
At some point Oliver heard someone approaching and looked up to see Donovan staring at him.
"How's your wound?" Oliver asked as he set the whetstone aside and tucked his knife into his trousers, covering it with his shirt.
Donovan looked down at his own bandaged arm.
"Much better...these plants are truly miraculous"
On their way from the Elemental Cavern to find Donovan and the others, they had picked up various plants and other things they had found in the tunnels.
Among those plants were some with healing properties that, while not capable of growing limbs, could at least clean and disinfect wounds.
"I'm glad... they must have been through a lot"
Donovan sighed and sat down beside Oliver.
"Well, yeah. But at least we're still alive, right?"
Donovan gently nudged Oliver's side, who just smiled.
"How's your test coming? Have you finished it yet?"
Oliver was silent for a few seconds, not expecting this question from Donovan.
"Well... I'm on it. And you?"
Oliver only answered superficially, something Donovan understood and didn't think much of.
"Same as everyone else, I guess..."
Within the group, they rarely shared personal information with each other, the exception being the women's group with Elisabeth, whom they trusted completely.
Oliver smiled faintly and continued talking to Donovan until the group woke up.
Among them, Kalen opened his eyes and stretched his arms, feeling completely rested after several days of recovery.
'…How much I would pay to have a bed right now'
His back ached slightly from sleeping on the floor for so long, but somehow, he had gotten used to it over time.
Like the others, they had all left luxury behind and had to adapt.
Looking around, Kalen noticed that breakfast was being prepared. His stomach rumbled quietly, so he walked over and greeted everyone before sitting down to wait for them to finish preparing it.
Using elemental energy consumed a lot of his own energy, leaving him exhausted each time he used it, which then required him to consume more food to replenish the lost energy.
A few minutes later, Elisabeth approached him and handed him a bowl of earth with a soup made from ingredients they had collected in the tunnels.
"How are you feeling?"
Kalen took the bowl and thanked her before answering.
"Well enough to do anything without feeling like my organs are going to explode"
Elisabeth sighed and sat next to him in silence.
There wasn't much to say, it was during these times of rest that they could actually feel halfway calm. At least they could breathe a little and talk to each other to forget their tense situation.
Taking advantage of this, Elisabeth looked at Kalen, who was still devouring his food, and leaned on her knees.
"What are you going to do after this?"
Kalen looked at Elisabeth and swallowed.
"I...? I guess to get on with my life... if we make it out of here"
Elisabeth looked at him desperately.
"You should have a little faith, don't you have any interest in Urasis?"
Kalen took a sip of his soup.
"Not really... I just accepted the invitation because I was bored"
Elisabeth did not know what to say, her thoughts and desires were very different from Kalen's. She simply could not understand his way of thinking, just as he could not understand her.
"Will you continue... you know, working?"
Knowing that Elisabeth was referring to his work as an assassin, Kalen was silent for a few seconds.
He had been thinking about what to do with his life earlier. He planned to finish college and stop being an assassin... if his adoptive mother would let him.
That was another reason why Kalen wanted to accept the invitation, despite his deepest feelings.
He wanted to escape his life...not that he enjoyed killing or not. For him it was just work, he didn't use his feelings to work, he used his hands. All this just to make a living.
Kalen finished his meal and put the bowl down.
"Who knows... let's get out of here first"
Suddenly the ground began to shake, alerting everyone who held on to something to avoid falling.
"What now?!"
Kalen looked around but saw nothing strange, which meant that whatever was causing the shaking was below them.
Answering his guess, black spikes pierced the ground, creating holes several centimeters in diameter. Then the spikes retreated, and a few seconds later they pierced the ground again.
"It's him!" yelled Donovan as he and Oliver ran towards Kalen and Elisabeth.
Kalen bit his lips as he looked carefully at the ground.
'How did he find us?'
Their cave was simply too well hidden for anything to find them, so there had to be something that would have found them.
Slowly, the ground began to crumble, and the monster continued to attack with its barbs.
The older elemental inside Kalen tried to repair the floor, but he was so weakened that the monster destroyed the floor faster than he could repair it.
At one point in the base, the floor suddenly collapsed, revealing the monster's location.
The monster had also noticed that part of the ceiling had cracked, and a scream of pain similar to the one they had heard long ago echoed throughout the cave.
The monster's face changed from one of pain and agony to one of amused excitement at the sight of the group above, and it quickly resumed throwing spikes to continue destroying their base.
"What should we do?" asked Elisabeth next to Kalen.
Kalen stared at the monster from above and noticed something behind him. When he focused behind the monster, he realized that there was a person there.
His eyes widened in disbelief at what he saw.
"How?!"
There Zayne stood, waiting for the monster to destroy the ceiling. The veins on his face were sprouting and black.
Somehow it looked like the monster was completely ignoring him.
"What is Zayne doing?" Elisabeth couldn't believe what she saw either, she just couldn't understand how he could stand there so calmly behind the monster.
Suddenly, Kalen felt the core in his chest begin to burn him from within. He clutched his chest in pain, not knowing what was happening, and soon a brown energy appeared in front of him, forming a huge orb.
The older elemental had somehow come out of its core where it had been resting and stood still, just like the monster that had stopped when it felt a strange energy.
Zayne frowned when he saw the larger elemental beside the group. It was something he hadn't expected, and it complicated his plans... but not enough.
Zayne lifted his head slightly and the monster screamed, forcing the others to cover their ears in annoyance.
As the monster screamed, the ground beneath each of the people in the base began to sink.
None of them understood why the older elemental had suddenly lowered them, but it began to speak again.
"I can't hold the floor while I stop... this abomination"
Kalen had not listened to the elemental since he had merged with the elemental core. But now he understood that he had come out to confront the monster.
Kalen walked over and looked at Zayne, who was still behind the monster. The young man had a bored and indifferent expression on his face, just like the first day they met.
The elemental noticed Zayne and after watching him for a few seconds, he turned to Kalen.
"Be careful with him, he has an artificial core just like you"
Kalen's eyes widened in surprise at the revelation. Something like an artificial core was supposed to be so rare that an ordinary person would never meet someone who had one.
But suddenly, not only he, but someone else had one. It was too much of a coincidence.
The group came together, and Oliver looked at Zayne and then at Kalen with some confusion on his face.
"What happened?"
Kalen stared at Zayne and Zayne stared back with no expression on his face.
"He has an artificial core too"
The group was just as shocked as Kalen had been, but distant howling brought them out of their shock.
"They're coming!"
The sound of the monster's scream had alerted the creatures of the abyss, and in a few minutes, waves of monsters would reach them.
This would be the first confrontation they would have with another group... and possibly the last.
Kalen took a step forward as the elemental distracted the monster, allowing him to approach Zayne with ease.
With slow steps, Kalen began to approach. The young man, on the other hand, remained motionless.
"What are you doing?"
Kalen stopped before Zayne could say anything and looked at him in the same way.
"I'm asking you the same thing..."
Zayne, who had crossed his arms, suddenly changed his position, and held his bone sword, preparing to fight.
"I don't know who you are... and I don't care. But if you interfere, I'll end your life"
Kalen scoffed at Zayne's words. He didn't know him, but somehow, he could understand his thoughts.
He, who had grown up in such an important family as was expected of a Pillar, who had been trained from a young age, believed himself to be powerful, more powerful than the others around him.
But he knew nothing of Kalen, nor who he was, nor how strong he was.
From the beginning, Kalen was wary of Zayne because, like him, knew how to fight.
But in his favor was the fact that he underestimated him.
So, Kalen relaxed his arms and tightened his grip on his own bone sword.
"Try it"