Emily POV
Emily kept staring at the portal long after the Florathi had disappeared.
The distorted space slowly stabilized while the leftover mana fluctuations faded from the surroundings. The battlefield was still a mess. Cracked crouched, scorched air, and patches of undead mana covered the area, yet Emily barely noticed any of it.
Her eyes remained fixed on the empty space where Zahard had vanished.
Only she knew what was going through her mind at that moment.
The image of Alice almost dying continued replaying in her head again and again. The spear piercing through Alice’s body. The blood. The brief moment where Emily genuinely thought Alice had died before she activated her skill.
Even now, her chest still felt tight thinking about it.
A wave of illusionary mana spread quietly across the battlefield.
Emily looked up.
Alice descended from the sky in her dragon form before landing nearby. Black scales disappeared under layers of illusion while the Abyssal Trickster manipulated perception around them and blocked everyone’s vision. Within seconds, Alice’s massive dragon body shrank and transformed back into her human form.
After changing clothes, Alice slowly walked toward Emily.
"Uh, Emily..."
Her voice sounded awkward.
Alice had never been good at talking to people. Most outsiders thought she was cold or distant, but that was mostly because she genuinely struggled with conversations. Outside combat, she usually had no idea what she was supposed to say.
People like the daughter of the Ashfang Tribe’s leader, who somehow became close friends with her almost immediately, were extremely rare.
Normally, Alice would rather stay quiet than risk saying the wrong thing.
Even now, she opened and closed her mouth several times.
"I..."
Then she stopped again.
Inside her head, thoughts kept colliding into each other.
Should she apologize?
Should she promise to be more careful?
That part was difficult because Alice already knew she would probably fight the same way again if necessary.
Still, after seeing Emily cry after the Mistborn battle, Alice had decided she should at least try to be more mindful whenever Emily was around.
This time, however, things had happened too suddenly.
Alice genuinely had not expected an attack capable of nearly killing her instantly. Even then, instead of healing herself immediately, she had used those few seconds to locate the hidden enemies first.
She knew Emily would not like that.
"That..." Alice tried again before fumbling over her words once more.
Surprisingly, Emily stepped closer instead.
She smiled softly and gently held Alice’s hands.
"It’s okay," Emily said.
"Huh?" Alice blinked, confused by her expression and gentle words.
"You can fight however you want. I don’t mind it," Emily replied calmly.
Then her smile remained the same as she quietly added, "But from next time, I’ll kill everyone immediately the moment they threaten you."
"T-Thank you?" Alice answered.
Emily clearly meant those words sincerely. There was genuine warmth behind them. She simply wanted to help Alice during battles.
And yet...
For some reason, Alice felt a strange chill hearing those words.
Something about the intensity hidden behind Emily’s calm expression felt slightly dangerous.
Unfortunately, Alice had absolutely no idea how to respond to emotions that intense.
So after several seconds of confusion, she simply accepted it.
Emily finally let go of her hands.
"You should check your rewards quickly. We still need to move toward the Third Area. Eliminating all the teams doesn’t matter if we can’t defeat the final Boss," Emily said with a small smile.
Alice visibly relaxed now that the conversation had shifted.
"Right."
Emily focused on her System notifications.
A massive wall of messages appeared before her eyes.
The Drowned King’s defeat had been a First Kill of the Second Boss Monster inside a Great Dungeon. Combined with Isaac’s Lord Talent, the rewards had become absurd.
[Gold Coins x720]
[High-Grade Mana Crystals x240]
[Spirit Essence Stones x96]
[Soul Refinement Elixirs x48]
[Death Affinity Crystals x24]
[Legendary Enhancement Cores x12]
[Legendary Equipment Set: Tidegrave Saintess Set x2]
[Legendary Equipment Set: Abysswalker Requiem Set x2]
[Boss Monster Core: Drowned King x2]
[Necromancer Legacy Fragment x2]
[Ancient Spirit Contract Scroll x2]
Then more notifications appeared immediately afterward.
[Title ’Monster Hunter’ has been upgraded to ’Adept Monster Hunter.’]
[Title ’Adept Monster Hunter’ has been upgraded to ’Expert Monster Hunter.’]
[Title ’Critical Hit’ has been upgraded to ’Critical Hit Adept.’]
[Title ’Critical Hit Adept’ has been upgraded to ’Critical Hit Expert.’]
Emily was surprised.
This was different from what had happened in the First Area.
Back then, the System had rejected duplicate Titles and converted the extra reward into access to the Special Shop instead. But this time, the Titles themselves had upgraded twice directly.
’What is this?’ Emily wondered.
Eleanor noticed her expression almost immediately.
The ’older’ woman still looked exhausted from the battle. Her clothes were damaged, and traces of pain occasionally flashed across her face, but her thoughts remained calm.
"Lume, set up a barrier," Eleanor said.
The Abyssal Trickster obeyed after Emily gave permission.
Dark illusionary mana spread through the surroundings and isolated the group from outside perception.
Only after that did Eleanor continue speaking.
"Your Titles upgraded twice?"
"Yes." Emily nodded.
Eleanor then looked toward Alice. "Your Monster Hunter Title upgraded twice too?"
Alice nodded as well.
Eleanor took a slow breath before explaining.
"This happened because of how the System distributes Titles. The first time, it grants the base Title itself. Because of Isaac’s Lord Talent, we received duplicate rewards. But since nobody can possess two identical Titles, the System removed the duplicate and compensated us with Special Shop access."
Emily listened carefully.
"However. the second time is technically not a new Title. The System treats it as an upgrade to an already existing one. Isaac’s Talent duplicated that upgrade opportunity too," Eleanor explained.
"So this happened because of Isaac again." Emily’s expression brightened slightly.
"Yes." Eleanor nodded.
Averon stood nearby with an extremely strange expression on his face.
The more time he spent around Isaac’s group, the more he questioned whether these people understood how insane this information actually was.
Titles were among the rarest rewards in existence. Entire factions fought wars over opportunities to obtain First Kill rewards from Great Dungeons. One of the major reasons powerful Lords rushed toward Isaac’s City was specifically because of the possibility of obtaining Titles.
And Isaac’s Talent could multiply them.
Averon genuinely felt this information could shake the entire world.
Yet these people were discussing it casually in the middle of a destroyed battlefield as if they were talking about normal loot distribution.
Was he the strange one here?
Or were these people completely abnormal?
Emily, meanwhile, remained focused on the practical side.
"So what do the upgraded Titles do now?" she asked.
"Expert Monster Hunter increases damage dealt against ordinary monsters by thirty percent. Against Boss Monsters, the increase is twenty percent." Eleanor answered calmly.
Emily’s eyes widened slightly.
That increase was absurdly high.
"And Critical Hit Expert gives a three percent chance for any attack to deal double damage. Previously, the probability was less than one percent," Eleanor finished.
Even Alice was surprised after hearing that.
The improvement was much larger than expected.
The rest of the rewards were equally valuable.
Legendary Equipment Sets were priceless. Individual Legendary items were already difficult to obtain, but full sets were on an entirely different level because equipping multiple pieces unlocked additional abilities.
That meant the two sets they received were far more valuable than normal Legendary equipment.
Then there was the Boss Monster Core.
Emily immediately thought about its importance.
Since the Drowned King had been a Necromancer-type Boss Monster, the resulting Genetic Catalyst would most likely have either Spirit-type or Death-type properties.
Both were extremely useful.
A Spirit-type Catalyst could further purify Emily’s bloodline while strengthening her control over Spirit Element.
If it became Death-type, Isaac could absorb it instead because he possessed Death Element affinity.
After finishing her rewards, Emily suddenly looked up. "Where’s the corpse of the Boss Monster?"
Eleanor’s expression became awkward.
"There isn’t one."
Emily’s smile stiffened. Several seconds passed before realization hit her. Her attack had completely pulverized the Drowned King.
Back then, she had been too angry to think about preserving materials.
Emily immediately panicked.
"T-The phylactery should still exist, right?"
Eleanor slowly shook her head.
Emily’s face paled.
They needed the Drowned King to fight in the Third Area. A powerful undead summon would drastically increase their chances against the next Mini Bosses and the Boss Monster.
If they could defeat the Boss Monster, and win the competition, it would increase his prestige tremendously.
The fact that he defeated powerful Lords would help him a lot.
But if both the body and phylactery were gone, raising the Boss Monster would be imposs—
A quiet chuckle interrupted her thoughts. Avery, who was watching Emily, found Emily’s panicked reactions cute.
"Do not worry so much You can still raise the Spirit of the Drowned King," Avery said.
Emily immediately turned toward her.
"How?"
"The fragments of its spirit should still be lingering around. Try to sense them with your Spirit Element. Since your Spirit Element is already beyond Level 5, you should be able to sense them. Then, use your equipment to raise its spirit through them," Avery answered.