The scene within the bedroom was nothing short of horrific.
At the doorway, there lay about seven or eight bodyguards' corpses, reduced to severed limbs and body parts. One could only guess the number of deceased from the torn and tattered clothes scattered around.
Nearby, copious amounts of blue murloc blood... It appeared that after the murlocs broke in, the bodyguards had put up a valiant fight, managing to kill a few of the creatures.
However, the sheer number of murlocs quickly overwhelmed and killed them.
The large bed in the center of the bedroom was stained red with blood, contrasting starkly against the white sheets.
A conspicuous blood trail on the floor beside the bed suggested that Victoria's mother had been wounded by a murloc, then dragged off the bed.
From the wheelchair by the bed, the medicine on the nightstand, and the medical equipment, it was evident that Victoria's mother had been in poor health, likely bedridden.
At this moment, John understood what experiences had shaped Victoria into becoming the strongest swordsman in her profession.
Victoria, standing to the side, clenched her dueling sword, her right hand trembling uncontrollably.
The grief of her mother's death, the rage against the creatures, and the desire for revenge intertwined, leaving her momentarily unable to react, her mind in a state of shock.
Victoria felt the world spinning, about to faint.
John grabbed her shoulders, gently shaking her, "Hey, Victoria! Victoria!"
Victoria looked at John with a dull expression, her voice shaking, "What... what is it?"
John knew he had to snap Victoria out of her state. She was completely incapacitated, "Your mother is dead, killed by those murlocs. Standing here won't bring her justice!"
"I'm about to enter the portal to another world. Follow me if you want to come." John slowly released her shoulders and turned to walk towards the door.
After hearing John's words, Victoria's pupils shook violently, tears uncontrollably streaming down her face.
She finally accepted the reality of her mother's death.
A fierce desire for revenge surged from within her chest!
Victoria raised her hand, wiping away her tears, her eyes becoming resolute.
She immediately set off, catching up with John outside the door.
John glanced at Victoria, "How are you feeling now?"
"Don't worry about me. I'm not just a little girl who cries all the time." Victoria responded with a hint of irritation, her pride wounded by what she perceived as John's underestimation.
Suddenly, Victoria remembered something. She opened her system panel and sent John a team request, "Let's form a team. That way, we can share experience. It wouldn't be fair to you otherwise..."
[Swordsman Victoria has sent you a temporary team request]
John looked at the team request before him, clicked accept, and both their interfaces displayed their teammate's status. Being in the same team meant their skills would not accidentally hurt each other.
Moreover, when team members hunted monsters, they could share the experience gained.
Victoria asked with a hint of confusion, "Why did you let me take on those monsters by myself earlier?"
During the fight, she had been curious, noticing that John seemed to want her to gain all the experience... But it seemed unfairly disadvantageous to him.
"The reason I let those monsters to you is because my experience is maxed out until I complete my class change. I can't level up any further," John explained.
He felt there was no need to hide his level status from her, especially since Victoria had seen him the previous night and could probably guess as much.
Victoria looked slightly surprised.
She had indeed considered this possibility, but it had only been a fleeting thought.
It had only been three short days since the portal to another world had arrived!
But John had just admitted he had reached level 10, ready for his first class change?!
That speed... wasn't it a bit exaggerated?
His profession was that of an alchemist... Shouldn't alchemists be a support class?
And the portal that had mysteriously appeared on the school's playground had just as mysteriously closed last night. Putting two and two together with John being level 10, there was only one possibility... John had single-handedly tackled the portal, and killed all the monsters inside, and protected everyone at the school!
Victoria paused for a moment, looking at John's back ahead of her, feeling that this man was so unfathomably profound.
She had an intuition that if she could follow in this man's footsteps, she would surely go far on the path of the Awakened!
John first returned to a study at the corner of the fourth floor. Inside was a fireproof door where he had placed COCO.
COCO came out from the door, relieved to see Victoria safe and sound.
"Victoria, why are your eyes so red? What happened?" COCO noticed Victoria's swollen eyes, feeling a bad premonition.
"Monsters killed everyone in my house last night, including my mother." Victoria took a deep breath. Her tone remarkably calm. Now is not the time for sadness yet.
She glanced at the fireproof door behind COCO. If only her mother could have hidden in there, perhaps she would have been spared...
But this world doesn't have so many hypotheticals.
The murlocs had sneaked in and launched their attack in the dead of night, and her bedridden mother had no chance to escape.
COCO's eyes teared up, and she hugged Victoria tightly, gently patting her back.
COCO knew that after Victoria's father died two years ago, the only family members left were her sister and mother. The rest of the distant relatives were just eyeing the Wittgenstein family's fortune.
And now, the only family member Victoria had left was her sister, Trista.
"Don't be sad. Let's leave this place. I'll call the armed police to deal with this..." COCO said, reaching for her phone, but Victoria stopped her.
"COCO, I'm actually an Awakened too. I plan to enter the portal with John and avenge my mother with my own hands!" Victoria spoke with a grave expression.
COCO was initially stunned upon hearing this. She had already been surprised to learn John was an Awakened, but now Victoria too?!
It seemed she was the only one among them not to be an Awakened.
"But just the two of you, that seems too dangerous..." COCO regained her composure but still felt it was inappropriate. "No, we should contact the armed police!"
COCO didn't care if they were Awakened or not. Letting her two important younger ones enter the portal was something she absolutely would not agree to as an elder sister.
John smiled and said, "Don't worry, those monsters are no match for me."
"But..." COCO remembered John's heroic figure in the basement, where he had taken down three murlocs in just a few seconds, indeed appearing very strong.
"COCO, we'll escort you out first. Go somewhere safe and wait for us. We'll come to find you soon." Victoria said earnestly.
Watching their determined expressions, COCO's heart gradually wavered. The two people she had known for three or four years seemed to have grown up to be independently capable.
She gave a bitter smile, "Fine… Go ahead. Promise me, both of you must come back alive."
...
10 minutes later.
John and Victoria watched COCO drive away, then returned to the mansion.
They all made preparations for the battle ahead. Victoria's clothes were torn at the back. So she went to her room and changed into more suitable athletic wear for fighting.
Seeing Victoria changed and ready, John took out his Agility Boots and tossed them to Victoria for her to wear, "Put these boots on. They'll increase your agility by 2 points. It might seem small. But it's quite important in the early stages."
Victoria took the Agility Boots, her beautiful eyes looking at John, "You're giving me the equipment. What will you wear?"
"My agility is already maxed out. I can't break the limit before my class change." John explained while taking out his poison-coated dagger, retracting the mixed snake venom from one of them and replacing it with Succinylcholine.
Now he had two poison-coated daggers, the one in his left hand could paralyze enemies, and the other in his right can poison and kill them. He found them more convenient to use in combination.
Looking at the daggers in John's hands, Victoria recalled the scene when they encountered each other last night...
She looked down at her hair that had been cut off. She acutely aware that if John hadn't held back last night, she probably would have been dead.
Unable to hold back the question that had troubled her for a long time, Victoria asked:
"John, are you... really not a rogue?"