It didn’t take long for Katherine to meet up with Damien and Zara. After finding the Legacy Tomb, she stopped hunting beasts altogether and blazed her way directly towards them. The Legacy Tomb’s rewards were the most important thing at the moment.
Damien was immensely surprised feeling a human aura enter his detection range, this feeling intensifying when he saw it was Katherine. After all, what were the chances that the two of them would end up teleported close to each other in the vastness of the secret realm?
But he didn’t dwell too much on this fact. He was more than happy to travel with her. Zara was the same, abandoning Damien and rushing towards her friend the second she sensed her.
Before he could say anything, Katherine spoke up. “We can talk on the way. I found a Legacy Tomb nearby that I’ll need your help clearing.”
Damien’s eyes brightened at the mention of a legacy tomb before he hopped onto Zara’s back and beckoned Katherine to join him. “Alright, Zara can fly fastest out of the three of us, so let’s travel this way.”
Nodding, Katherine joined him on Zara’s back. After giving Zara the directions to the tomb, she started making conversation with Damien.
“So? What level are you at right now? Just so you know I’m already at level 99.”
Damien smirked. “Oh, you haven’t stepped into 3rd class yet? And here I thought our little princess was faster than that.”
Frowning slightly, Katherine softly punched his arm. “Hmph, I bet I’m still doing better than you, though. Stop stalling and tell me already.”
Shaking his head lightly, Damien gave her what she wanted. “I’m at level 98 right now while Zara should be only a few beasts away from evolving.”
Although she was shocked by his speed, Katherine kept up her slight facade. “Well, I’ll still be first to reach 3rd class so it doesn’t matter anyway.”
She wasn’t wrong. While Damien had just become level 98 while she was only two to three kills away from a class change. After bantering for a little while longer, they moved on to the main topic.
“So, what’s this about a Legacy Tomb?” Damien asked.
Katherine nodded as she proceeded to explain her encounter. From the part where she landed on the mountain, to the information she received from her father, and finally, her stumbling upon the stone slab.
At this point, Katherine didn’t care to hide her identity. Although she still hadn’t told Damien her real name, she figured he had some solid guesses at who she was. Mentioning her father wasn’t a problem.
“A stone slab, huh. There was no need to call us for this, right? It’d be better if you raise your strength instead of prioritizing others.” Damien chimed.
Katherine couldn’t help but smile at his consideration. “Of course I’d do that, stupid. But when I got near the tomb, I felt an immense sense of danger. I felt that it’d be best if we cleared it together.”
“So basically you’re dragging me down with you,” Damien said with fake unhappiness in his tone.
“Yup! If I die, you’re coming with me!” Katherine proclaimed shamelessly.
As the two laughed and chatted, they reached the entrance of the Legacy Tomb. Zara landed in front of the slab before letting out a subtle growl.
“Hm? What is it?” Damien asked.
From Zara’s thoughts, it seemed that there was a mysterious force that wouldn’t allow her to move forward. She tried to push against this force, but her resistance only served to strengthen its rejection.
“It must be a mechanism that was placed to make sure none of the beasts in the mountain got hold of the legacy. Perhaps only humans or other outside races can access the tomb.”
Thinking for a bit, Damien spoke once more. “It’s fine Zara. While we explore the tomb, you should prioritize yourself.”
Zara whimpered in complaint, but after some convincing she relented.
Smiling at her, Damien got an idea. “Zara, I expect you to be 3rd class by the time we come out. Don’t you remember that once you achieve that level we’ll finally be able to talk for real instead of transmitting thoughts?”
Zara’s eyes brightened. Indeed, no matter how coherent her thoughts were, the only person she could speak with was Damien. She had a good friend in front of her that she wished to talk to and also the beast empress that she had questions for.
With her new goal in mind, Zara no longer complained, instead pushing Damien to leave so she could start training.
“Alright alright, I’ll see you when it’s all over.” Damien looked over at Katherine as they nodded to each other. Then, they carefully walked forward and placed one hand each on the stone slab, while their other hands were interlocked.
They didn’t know if the tomb would separate them, so they wanted to take some small precautions. And only a second later, the two of them suddenly disappeared from the spot.
Zara deeply stared at the area they were standing with a worried look in her eyes, but in the end, she chose to leave. She couldn’t disappoint the expectations Damien had for her.
***
When Damien opened his eyes, he was in a large cavern reminiscent of the dungeon, except this one wasn’t straightforward. Instead, it was walled off and he could sense many twists and turns almost like a labyrinth.
Luckily, he was still with Katherine, so he didn’t need to worry about that.
“Let’s move forward carefully. We don’t know what could be waiting for us here.” Damien stated.
Katherine nodded. “My father told me that some of the higher level tombs are guarded by 4th class beasts. The only problem is that there’s no way to tell the level of a tomb before you enter one.”
The two walked vigilantly through the winding road provided to them before they reached their first split. When Katherine looked forward, there were 5 paths in front of her, but something felt off.
“Which way should we go?”
Damien glanced at her, confused. “What do you mean which way? There’s only a single path here.”
“Eh? But there’s clearly 5-” it was then that Katherine realized the source of her off-putting feeling. “These are illusions.”
Damien was surprised by her words but realized it made sense. He had never been able to see natural illusions or illusions created by arrays, rather he only saw the array itself. The only illusion he could see, even if it was just as a blurry silhouette, was Katherine’s disguise.
‘So when an illusion is being directly cast by someone, I can still see its shadow, but anything else simply doesn’t register in my vision’ Damien still didn’t know exactly how his eyes worked, as he never sought to explore them. But he was slowly unraveling the various functions they contained.
“If it’s illusions then let me guide the way. I know you’ll be able to see through them if you utilize your affinity, but it’s best to save mana right now.” He said as he held out his hand.
Katherine nodded before grabbing his outstretched hand, leaving things to him. As they made their way through the twisting pathways of the labyrinth, Katherine was having mixed feelings.
On one hand, she thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of being protected and watching Damien’s tall back as he fearlessly led her through the labyrinth, but on the other hand, she hated the feeling of leeching off of him and not contributing to their success.
She was the one who dragged him here, so she didn’t want to hold him back.
As if sensing her complicated emotions, Damien spoke. “Don’t think too much. I have things I’m good at while you have your own. Remember how great of a team we were during the monolith capture event?”
Katherine nodded. ‘In the first place, I was never one to doubt my intentions. I knew these things already, so why was I stressing?’
She didn’t get the time to think too much about it before they entered a large cave. Without a word, the two of them jumped in separate directions before taking out their weapons.
A massive flaming pillar emerged in the spot they were just standing, and out of it came a massive creature. Calling it a beast didn’t seem to be the right word. It was humanoid in its form, but its body was made purely of molten lava and rocks. It seemed to be some sort of golem.
The golem’s attack patterns were strangely similar to the first 3rd class the two had ever faced together, the man named Adrian. Due to their experience fighting someone who wielded lava, they didn’t have a hard time defeating it. Besides, they were much stronger than they were back then.
Wind would only boost the fire, so Katherine didn’t use it much, instead opting to confuse the golem with her illusions. Its intelligence wasn’t high at all, making this a simple task. She masked their locations while making the golem believe it was in a winning position.
Meanwhile, Damien took care of the offense. He shot beans of plasma that worked surprisingly well against a golem made of lava while utilizing his sword art to deal heavy damage.
Tens of spatial blades shot out without pause, slowly severing each of the golems limbs before he landed a fatal strike, decapitating it.
The fight with the golem truly wasn’t worth mentioning, ending in less than half an hour before the two gathered once more and continued past the cave they were currently in.
The next area was a large empty space. Unlike the previous scenery which was mostly natural, this room showed clear signs of human interference. It resembled a throne hall, but much smaller than it should be as if the owner of this hall couldn’t fathom truly titling himself an emperor.
As the two walked forward, a strange force brushed past their bodies, making them vigilant. A sudden irresistible sensation overcame them, causing them to feel unnaturally drowsy.
The two of them quickly approached each other, thinking that they were going to be teleported somewhere, but they didn’t have enough time. By the time their hands had clasped together, everything had already faded to blackness.