While everyone dragged all the unconscious bodies to one side, Nero wt and grabbed the two artefacts. He studied the blank slate but found nothing significant. On a whim, he channelled his aether into it and discovered that the slate absorbed the aether easily, but showed no reaction.
He instinctively knew that he did not have ough aether in his body to elicit a reaction from the slate, though perhaps that knowledge in itself was a reaction from the slate. Comparatively, the statue did ev less. It did not absorb any aether, and besides showing the appearance of an odd being, had no value as far as Nero could tell. But finding their value was not his mission.
Nero put the artefacts in his backpack once more, careful to put them in differt pockets from the key and Eldrim card he already took, before getting up. The others were bound to start waking up soon, so they all quickly began to retreat.
Nero did not see Vanessa on the way back, and the glass boxes did not shatter and leave them sured by a tide of skinny human specims, which was great. It was not just Nero who had considered that possibility. Fortunately, things were looking up.
*****
"I don't mean to rush you, but hurry the fuck up!" Bael roared as he used a brick to smash the face of the monstrosity he had tak to calling a berserker. Its silverish grey skin was better than any armour Bael had ever worn, resisting his sword as if Bael had be using a feather instead.
At most, he had be able to leave behind a few scratches on its skin, and ev those quickly vanished. As if that was not ough, it was faster and stronger than them too. It had killed Jonathan with a single punch, reducing the size of their team to four, with the fourth member being that useless artisan.
But the thing that made Bael feel the most reluctant was that it was that useless artisan who had be the most effective against the berserker! Not only did he have the most versatile collection of cards in his grimoire, but his innate ability was incredible ev if Bael didn't know what it was exactly.
He accurately detected that while sharp cutting attacks could not harm it, blunt attacks would do more damage. Th, he found a loose brick in the wall that seemed otherwise whole, and gave Bael that brick.
As absurd as it was fighting with a brick, the brick was much tougher than any weapon they had available, and it had a strange suppressive effect on aether that also seemed to work on the berserker.
But while all the numerous cards blocked and slowed down the berserker, and the brick seemed to be effective in fighting it off, of them had a way to actually kill the berserker. Moreover, it seemed to never run out of ergy, so all they could do was keep fighting.
That is, until, the artisan discovered a hidd, secret chamber that required a special card to op. They had no idea what that card might be, or where they could find it, but the artisans ability allowed him to discover exactly what effect the card needed to have to op the chamber, so he started crafting a card right there, in the middle of the battlefield.
All they needed to do was buy him ough time to op it. But that was easier said than done. Although the other soldiers managed not to get killed by the berserker, ev a slight scrape was ough to break bones and leave them unable to fight.
That left only Bael, alone, fighting against a berserker. He was a good fighter, so he managed to avoid direct hits, but it wasn't like he could avoid getting hit at all. A small part of him hated the fact that the only reason he was still alive and fighting was because of his innate ability.
His father had told him Nero's words. He said that wh Bael finally faced death, or lost a team member due to his stupid mistake, he would quickly get over his childish reluctance to avoid his innate ability. The fact that Nero was right made Bael hate him ev more, and he channelled all that hate into his brick as he smashed it into the berserker's face.
But in exchange, the berserker managed to land a hit on Bael as well, knocking him back and snapping his left arm so that it was dangling.
It hurt. Oh god, it hurt a lot. But as his passive healing ability began to work, making sure that the bone reconnected in the perfect way, the pain began to fade. In a few seconds, by the time the berserker recovered from having its face smashed in, Bael had also recovered.
The monster's recovery ability was ridiculous, but it was only now that he was finally using his own ability that Bael realised that his healing was no less ridiculous.
Moreover, there was one hidd secret to his ability he had only just realised during this fight. Every time he healed, whatever part of his body healed was just a little bit stronger. If his bones broke, th after recovering, they would be just a little bit more resistant to breaking.
If Bael had known this all along, he could have be so much better prepared. But there was no point in lamting what hadn't happed.
"It's op," yelled Silas suddly, as two bookshelves moved apart, revealing a dark, narrow passage.
"Pull the other soldiers in, I'll follow you once you're safe."
Silas did not question Bael. In fact, ev before Bael had giv his orders, Silas had be helping one of the soldiers stand up so that they could go through the passage. Fear threated to almost overwhelm Silas, but with the threat of literal death hanging above him, Silas had no choice but to overcome his fear. He just kept thinking about what Nero would do in any giv situation and do it.
So far, it had kept not only him, but the others alive as well.
"We're in," Silas yelled from the dark passage. Bael once again exchanged blows with the undying monstrosity, and th quickly limped into the passage as well. It was too narrow for the berserker to follow, fortunately, and everything in the library they were in was too strong to be destroyed by them or the berserker.
But knowing that did not stop them. The whole team kept running in the dark passage, unaware of where they were going, until they could no longer hear the berserker screaming.
One of the wounded soldiers fell, unable to continue running, and that finally caused them all to stop.
Silas didn't miss a beat. He immediately sat next to the fall soldier, pulled out his grimoire, and began looking for healing cards.
"You're going to have to help me," Silas said. "I'm almost out of aether."
"And you think I have loads?" Bael retorted angrily, but took the healing cards from Silas and began working on the soldiers.
The thing about a passive ability was that it was always active, though the user could control the extt to which it was active. It also reduced the aether expditure such an ability should have, which was the only reason Bael had be able to continue fighting that berserker so long.
Suddly, Bael's hand paused.
"Do you think it has a passive ability?" Bael asked without ev realising it.
"What?" Silas asked, confused what Bael was talking about.
"No matter how much I beat up the berserker, it kept healing. Do you think it has a passive healing ability? Passives reduce the aether costs, so that would explain why it was able to last so long. Well, the other explanation could be that it had huge aether reserves."
Silas was silt for a few momts as he looked at Bael with worry.
"Bael, that thing had no aether," he said softly. "It's body was full of cursed ergy."
"Oh yeah," Bael murmured. He was too exhausted, and that was causing him to overlook simple facts. "It can't be a passive ability because it had no aether. It's not like it could rely on cursed ergy for its abilities."
Seeing how the other soldiers were looking at him with worried eyes, Bael shut up. Besides, it wasn't like he had to dure exhaustion for long. In a few minutes, half an hour at the most, he would be back to his peak state. His passive did not just heal his injuries - it constantly returned him to his strongest state.
His ability… was not so bad, he reluctantly admitted.
"Now how the hell are we going to get out of this library with that monster blocking our exit?" Bael asked.
Silas had no answer. They had already retrieved the Eldrim card cyclopaedia they had be st to retrieve. Now they only needed to return safely and hand it in.
In the dark, while the others rested, Silas could not help but peak into the book. To think, countless unknown, original recipes were nestled in the palm of his hands. His father would literally kill to get an opportunity like that.
Fortunately for him, Silas' own innate ability made it so that darkness could not impede him. He began memorising the strange symbols in the book, ev if he didn't understand them yet.