Nova's eyes bulged in astonishment. He thought he might have misheard something.
"Could you repeat that, sir? I think there's something off with my ears."
"You heard me correctly. I'm here to ask you to join the fight against the King of Winter," Eric Watson replied with a smile, confirming his statement. "And small injury in your ears won't hinder your hearing."
Nova became speechless after hearing Eric's reply. He still couldn't believe someone invited to battle against the King of Winter and he was in a situation where he couldn't refuse.
The King of Winter is the most powerful monster in Winterland — the region representing winter.
Normal stage 2 explorers won't be able to come out alive in a battle against it. It requires a group of stage 2 with perfect coordination to successfully kill it without any accidents.
"Sir, as you can see I'm already injured badly and can't help you in battle anymore."
Instead of outright refusing, Nova said this. He wanted to gauge Eric's intentions: whether he saw Nova as expendable or a genuine ally.
If Eric did not take Nova's injuries seriously and still insisted on having him in the fight, it could only imply that he viewed Nova as disposable.
"That's not a problem, I have a special life potion made by the Holy Church, you can use that," Erick replied with the same smile.
'What's wrong with this guy's brain? Who in the right mind would use a special life potion for a minor injury and exhaustion.'
'And how can I refuse him now?'
Nova's mind raced, and he began considering options to cleverly avoid this situation with Erick.
After a few moments, Nova replied, "Sir, this is my first time in the labyrinth, and I'm not even a proper stage 1 explorer."
Erick acknowledged him. "You are correct; in your current condition, you won't be able to contribute much, but I still need you."
"Sir, I'm confused," Nova honestly expressed his uncertainty.
"In your current situation, you're not very valuable, but I see the potential in you."
"I observed your battle against Toxsona the whole time and was impressed by your fighting style; I believe you could be the key to our success."
Nova extracted two key points from Erick's words—potential and observation.
'What does my potential have to do with your battle against King of Winter and why are you watching my battle against that damn spider?'
'Also why I didn't know the monster's name?' Nova could only complain to himself.
"Sir, but that doesn't solve the problem. No matter how much potential I have, I'm just an ordinary person right now."
"You don't need to worry about that. We have a potion maker in our team and you will get one free of cost."
"You seem happy about getting Toxsona's head core, and fortunately I know the auxiliary materials for that monster."
"As long as your compatibility is high enough, we can create a potion in a single day."
After getting a series of answers from Eric, Nova felt the whole world was spinning rapidly. He never thought a person would bring a potion maker into labyrinth — where only limited slots were available in a team.
On the first floor, 20 people are the limit of a team.
Gathering more than 20 persons in the team will not result in an advantage; instead, they will be cursed by the labyrinth.
The same goes for stage 2 and higher explorers, they cannot fully display their entire strength inside the first floor.
Other than the case of self-defense, their strength would be the same as a stage 1 explorer on the first floor.
So using a precious spot for a random guy who's not a proper stage 1 explorer caused Nova to be suspicious of Eric's intention.
He still didn't completely believe everything Eric said, unless he really gave him a complete potion created using Toxsona's core.
'What should I do? Continue to find an excuse or find a way to escape after deceiving him?'
When Eric saw the dilemma and hesitation on Nova's face and still not making a choice, the smile on his face disappeared for the first time.
"Do you think I'm talking too nicely?"
When Nova heard Eric's calm and almost silent voice, he felt a chill run down his spine.
He felt like prey in front of a predator, and his life was not in his hands.