Chapter 41 Reunion
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"Wait!". Briar stopped and spoke.
At this moment, he was standing in front of a large gate, which seemed to be the boss room.
Livy also saw the boss room gate, but according to her, Danz would never enter a dangerous place purposely. So, she ignored it and continued moving.
She didn't expect Briar to stop here.
"What's wrong, Briar?". Livy asked.
Briar didn't say a word, he just approached the gate and saw three skeletons lying right in front of it.
For someone with experience and extensive knowledge of monsters like Briar, just by looking at them, he could tell that the three skeletons were of skeleton monsters, not human bones. And this made him confused.
"...in front of the boss room, there will never be weak monsters like skeletons...". Briar muttered.
Just as Briar thought, skeletons definitely couldn't exist near the boss room because of the overwhelming aura of the boss inside. Not only skeletons but all other weak monsters were like that.
"Huh? What did you say?". Livy didn't hear clearly so she asked back.
Briar stood up, faced Livy and said seriously.
"I think Danz is in here..."
"What?!". Livy exclaimed in disbelief.
'No way! Danny would never take the initiative to enter the boss room alone!'
Livy's heart kept denying Briar's words but she couldn't say anything. And her intuition also told her that Danz would be behind that gate, it was just that Livy didn't want to admit it.
"Listen. Skeletons would never appear in front of the boss room. There's definitely something strange here. I'm not too sure but it's possible that Danz was pushed into the gate by these skeletons. Look..." Briar pointed at the traces of a small fight beside the skeletons.
The posture and position of the three skeletons looked like they were pushing someone into the gate. Two were on either side of the gate and one was in the middle, not too far from the gate. In front of the third one, there were also some faint footprints of the same individual.
Since this place was a public dungeon, Briar couldn't tell who was pushed in, Danz or someone else. But he felt that the probability was high that it was Danz.
This place was a dungeon that required teammates, so it was rare for only one person to be pushed into the gate without any trace of teammates. They might have also fallen into a teleportation trap, but the probability was very low.
Danz was separated from them so he was alone now, he felt like Danz was the unlucky person who was pushed into the gate by the three skeletons.
'Just... why did the skeleton appear here? And in such a "dead" state?'
Briar didn't understand, he really didn't understand. He had never encountered this before and had never seen it in any book. He was very confident in his knowledge of monsters but this had shaken his confidence.
He furrowed his brows and thought. Meanwhile, Livy was extremely impatient.
She was stubborn but she wasn't blind, she knew what was right and what was wrong. She completely understood why Briar made such a judgment but her heart couldn't accept it.
The boss was really too strong for Danz right now. If Danz entered, there would only be death. That's why she didn't want to admit Briar's hypothesis.
She had always been a person who followed reason rather than emotion. But that only applied to things that had nothing to do with the people she cared about.
Livy's mind was currently in a mess, and she could hardly think normally. All she cared about right now was Danz's safety.
"Aghh, I don't know!"
After a long mental struggle, Livy finally couldn't ignore Briar's hypothesis and her own intuition. She tightly grabbed Briar's wrist, who was currently lost in his thoughts.
"What's going on-". Before Briar could finish his sentence, Livy used all her strength to push the boss room's door open and pulled him in.
*Bang*
The door slammed shut and the two of them had completely entered the boss room.
As soon as she entered, Livy used all her ability to observe everything around her. Briar, with his strong fighting instincts, was surprised when Livy pulled him in, but he quickly regained his composure and began to observe.
"The boss has been released." Briar said seriously when he saw that the center of the room was completely free of monsters. This proved that the hypothesis that someone had entered was correct.
While he was still looking around cautiously, Livy beside him used her highest speed to rush to one direction. Briar couldn't help but be surprised when he saw Livy's actions. But what caught his attention the most was Livy's expression.
The moment she passed by him, her face showed extreme anxiety and great fear, but also mixed with a bit of joy.
Briar didn't hesitate too long, he immediately chased after Livy. Because he understood the reason why Livy did that action and expression.
With his superior speed, Briar quickly overtook Livy, his hand tightly gripping the long spear. He quickly poured a large amount of mana into it and launched it forward.
Livy at the back was not idle either, she pulled the bowstring and fired. The arrow with the strong wind attribute crushed the surrounding air as it rushed forward.
The two attacks came like a storm. Their common target was a tall humanoid bull-headed monster, which was currently carrying a fierce red gaze as it pointed its horns at a person who had lost the ability to fight on the ground.
*Puff*
"Roarrrgg!!"
A light sound of piercing flesh rang out and a painful scream immediately followed. The spear had been stabbed straight into the boss's eye socket. As for the arrow, it flew straight into its large horns and successfully deflected the attack, saving the life of the person lying on the ground.
The boss's roar resounded throughout the room, it angrily pulled out the spear that was stuck in its eye socket and threw it away.
Briar with his excellent reflexes immediately changed direction and caught his spear. With the weapon in hand, he rushed straight towards the boss without hesitation.
While it was still holding one of its eyes in pain, Briar took advantage of this opening and flipped into the air, pouring his strength and mana into the attack and directly attacked the back of the Minotaurus' neck.
The boss with its strong fighting instinct immediately reacted to Briar's attack. It let go of the arm that was still holding its face and swung it back.
At the same time, another wind arrow flew over, piercing straight into its arm, causing it to quickly stop and giving Briar the chance to deliver the finishing blow.
*Swish*
A huge tear appeared on the back of the Minotaurus' neck, blood spurted out uncontrollably and it quickly collapsed.
*Bang!*
The surrounding space immediately became silent.
Livy finally caught up. She ignored the boss and Briar and headed straight for the unconscious person on the ground.
"Danny!!!!"
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'Ugh... where am I...'
My head was pounding, and everything around me felt hazy. It was as if I had just woken up from a long dream.
I slowly sat up and realized that I was in an unfamiliar room.
'Where am I?'
This place looked like a hospital room.
"Are you awake?"
Suddenly a woman's voice rang out beside me, it felt very familiar but my mind was too chaotic to remember who it was.
I slowly turned my head and faced the woman who had spoken before. I paused for a few seconds and realized who the person in front of me was.
"Ah... Miss Aveline". I forced a smile and blurted out.
"...Uh"
"..."
Why is she here? And why am I in this hospital room?
My mind was in a mess. I couldn't remember what had happened recently.
"Someone's waiting for you to wake up."
While I was panicking about my condition, Aveline stood up and walked out of the room, leaving me alone in the empty room.
Not long after, I heard a series of hurried footsteps approaching from outside. The door opened once more and two familiar figures entered my sight.
"Danny!"
"Danz!"
I was stunned for a few seconds before remembering their names.
"Ah! Liz! Briar!". I blurted out.
"Are you okay? How are you feeling?". Liz rushed over and hugged me.
"I'm okay. Look, I'm completely fine." I smiled and pushed Liz away from me, waving my arms and legs to signal that I was completely fine.
"It's good that you're okay...". Liz let out a sigh of relief.
Briar beside me said nothing but revealed a smile.
...But what happened that they acted like this?
"Ughhhh"
Suddenly a severe headache came and a series of memories flooded my mind. Memories of the things I had experienced in the past few days came back one by one.
"What's wrong with you, Danny?!" Liz said in panic.
After a while, the headache gradually subsided and I finally calmed down. I rubbed Liz's head with my hand and gave her a soothing smile.
"It's nothing. Just remembering something I forgot."
Liz looked at me for a while then suddenly she lowered her head. I couldn't see her expression at the moment but through her next words I could roughly understand her feelings.
"It's my fault... Because of my carelessness, the three of us got separated. Because of me, Danny was seriously injured..." Her voice was now trembling as if she was about to cry.
"No, it's not your fault. That trap will be activated when certain conditions are met, not because of you." I shook my head and smiled reassuringly.
That's right, that trap wasn't easy to activate. It would only activate when there were three or more people within its range of influence and they stopped for a certain amount of time.
"Really? It's not my fault?" Liz raised her head and looked at me with tired eyes. It seemed like she had been tormenting herself ever since we were separated, to the point where she couldn't get enough rest.
"Um, it's not your fault. Even if I used my skills or not, I wouldn't have been able to see anything wrong with that trap. It's just that we were unlucky."
"It's also partly because I was too subjective and chose this dungeon..."
It's not Liz's fault, the one who was at fault is me. As a team leader, I dragged the whole group into danger because of my own carelessness. I'm such a bastard.
"No, it's not your fault! No one would think that they would fall into a trap with such a low occurrence rate. Don't blame yourself." Liz said firmly.
"Livy is right. You don't need to feel guilty. We also didn't think that we would fall into that trap like you either." Briar next to Liz continued.
"You two..." An indescribable feeling welled up in my heart as I looked at the two of them.
...
'But... how did I know the activation conditions...'
I was completely clueless about this trap before. When I found out that I was being teleported, I thought that Liz or Briar had activated the trap.
... This headache must have stirred up some forgotten memories from my previous life. Maybe I knew this knowledge in my previous life and forgot it when I regressed. Only then can I explain why I suddenly remember it now.
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