The group rushed forward to where Zeke last saw the survivor. Mikella’s heart pounded against her chest as the thought of someone actually being alive filled her head.

  Someone, just like them–another otherworlder–was alive and kicking. The survivor ran but she couldn’t blame them. After being in this hellhole for so long, it’s no surprise that they would be more than shocked at new people coming in.

  However, even as Mikella ran with all her might to find this survivor, the swamp was constantly getting in her way. The rivers were wide enough that they had no other choice but to turn around, even using the vines to get over the large expanse. Even then, doing that would often get the creatures that swam in the rivers to come at them. One wrong move, and they could easily get taken into the river of acid and suffer horrendous wounds.

  Even then, Mikella kept running.

  “Are you sure you spotted someone?!” Hamil shouting while leading at the back using the minerals under his feet to float along with the party.

  “I’m sure!” Zeke shouted, boosting his Dexterity buff to match them. Saang and Kote were y keeping up with everyone else, their own Dexterity nearly on par with one another. “But I’m not sure why she’s running!”

  “We gotta find her, before anyone else can!”

  Mikella shouted, getting Zeke’s approval. They have to, otherwise the monsters would come after her. They don’t know whether the monsters here were too powerful for that girl to counter, but knowing her situation, it’s obvious she’s only at Beginner.

  There, in the next few moments, Mikella’s eyes spotted a young woman running with all her might. It wasn’t as though she was faster–she just knew the surroundings better. She stepped around and away from any dangerous areas, using the very environment to get in their way.

  “I found her! She’s running from us, but I found her!”

  Mikella wanted to rush forward and get to the girl, but not before suddenly getting slashed at the back by some attack she barely perceived.

  Her back winced as she felt acid burning at her flesh and skin. She fell to the ground, growling as she looked back to find none other than the annoying sloths that they took down moments ago.

  And there were plenty of them to go around.

  “Shit!” Mikella cursed, getting everyone around to go after her. Zeke went ahead to heal her wounds, but he kept looking back and forth, to their survivor to the monsters approaching them. “We’re gonna get surrounded!”

  “Mikky, you go after her–we’ll handle them from here.”

  Zeke suddenly said, and as one, the Tempest Winds gathered around Zeke, facing the sloths that were slowly approaching them, ready to ramp up speed the moment they spotted a chance. Mikella widened her eyes at his remark.

  “What? But–”

  “You’re the fastest of us here!” Zeke called out, instantly putting her worries down. “You can find her and bring her back. We’ll be fine–just go after her, now!”

  She looked back at him for a second, hesitation gripping at her. But only a moment passed. Zeke was right. Out of everyone, her speed was crazy, especially after her recent gains, gear upgrade, and her control over lightning. She can easily run back and forth if she wanted to.

  Meanwhile, Zeke can easily defend himself. The sloths were easy, just annoying, to deal with. With the Tempest Winds supporting him, Zeke would be just fine. As for the others, having Zeke around is enough to guarantee their survival, so they don’t really need Mikella to make it faster to end things.

  Right now, finding and protecting the survivor came first.

  “Alright. Just stay alive!” Mikella called out.

  “Back at you! Now go!”

  Zeke shouted, his tone similar to that of a veteran in war. But she didn’t mind that. If anything, it’s proof that Zeke had this well under control. As for her, she brought out her Cloak of Darkness, a cloak that Zacharia once gifted her for scouting back at the biodome. She wanted to give it back, but Zacharia said, and she quoted, that it was such a bare-bones cloak that she could keep it if she wanted to. None of his soldiers needed it anymore, and it was just stuffing his storage bag for no reason.

  That honestly ticked her off, but getting a nifty free cloak that hides her visibility wasn’t something she was gonna pass up. She made sure to get every single chance to get something for free.

  It was definitely useful to have around, especially within an enemy-infested area that could go after her while she chased the survivor.

  Her speed picked up as the scenery around her changed in a matter of heartbeats–she ran as fast as she could, but she expanded her Intelligence to recognize her surroundings. Now that it was over 100 points, she could gather visual information faster than ever before. Cloaking herself with a layer of electricity as well, she dashed faster than anything possible.

  Strangely enough, the girl seemed to be rather adept at hiding, but not for long. Mikella jumped up to a tree, her senses stretched out wide enough for her to find the girl still working tirelessly to get away. She had a lot more wounds on her now, cuts and bruises from possible tumbles while trying to get away.

  She couldn’t understand. Why is this girl so afraid? She was just trying to talk to her. She certainly wasn’t going to tackle her or anything. But then she remembered that in this situation, it was possible that she could be perceived as an enemy in a fear-rattled mind. Changing her tactics, Mikella followed her slowly as time passed.

  She made sure to stay far away, at least beyond the survivor’s supposed sense range. Of course, this was all while believing this girl didn’t have some sort of powerful perception skill, but there really wasn’t much she could do about that.

  Slowly, but surely, Mikella followed the girl, all the while finally managing to Identify this girl and her level throughout the trip.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Scout, Level 22

  As she perceived the girl, she noticed that she was wearing a very bedraggled outfit–a white blouse that was ruined with all sorts of yellow stains and red smushes of blood. She wore black shorts that barely covered her almost skeletal legs, the skin pale and riddled with cuts and bruises. Just looking at her brought a pang of pain to Mikella’s heart.

  It looked like she was a poor office woman who had her life turned over, because she could see what looked like an identity card still holstered to her hip. It stuck to her person, completely forgotten as time went on. The face she had on now was completely different from the photo displayed on the card, and she saw something important–her name; Amber.

  Mikella followed her till she eventually slowed to a crawl. She saw Amber gasp and wheeze, her frail skinny body nearly shivering from the excess effort. She looked like she hadn’t eaten in days, maybe weeks if all she did was drink water. Perhaps there was some sort of river with clean water, because all she saw around her was acidic rivers and perhaps even the sound of a waterfall, the acrid stench of it reminding her that it wasn’t pure fresh water either.

  Her long blond hair was caked in sweat and dirt, losing its once lustrous sheen according to the picture. Her cheeks were sunk in and her eyes were bloodshot. She was a wreck, all things considered.

  But Mikella didn’t care. She slowly walked up towards the woman as far as she could, and took off her Cloak of Darkness.

  “Hello?”

  “Aaaaaagh!”

  Amber screamed in fright as she noticed Mikella appear out of nowhere in her eyes. Even when she made sure to stay as far away from her as possible, her fear was clearly beyond what she thought possible.

  “D-Don’t be afraid!” Mikella called out, her hand outstretched. Of course, she put away her weapons. The last thing she wanted was to make her think she’s here to kill her. “I’m not here to hurt you!”

  “Lies!”

  The girl suddenly screamed, her voice ragged and filled with abstract terror. Mikella was taken aback by this.

  “Lies! Lies! Lies! You’re gonna kill me! Kill me, eat me! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I’m not gonna do this! I can’t do this! I won’t survive!”

  Her brows furrowed at this outburst. There was clearly horror there in Amber’s eyes, but there was more to it. It was as though she was misunderstanding something, at least Mikella thinks so.

  “No, I’m not gonna hurt you, or kill you,” Mikella said gently. Her hands were still outstretched, showing no sign of movement. She did, however, close in step by step. She wanted to make sure that no other enemy might come after her as far away as she was. “I’m here to help you. My name is Mikella Ashton. I’m the same as you. I just want to help.”

  “Same…?” Amber said, her face turning wider and wider in a panic. “No, no, no, you can’t be! I didn’t do anything! I just wanted to survive! I swear–I didn’t mean to!”

  While that was certainly interesting to hear, Mikella ignored her ramblings as she approached her further. This, however, made it worse as Amber only backed away further.

  “Listen, I don’t know what you mean. Just… just stand still and let me approach. I swear, I won’t do anything. I just wanna–”

  “No!” Amber shook her head wildly. “You’re not gonna get me! You’re not! I… I won’t let anyone get me! I won’t!”

  Much to Mikella’s horror, Amber turned and ran towards the one place Mikella hadn’t seen throughout the entire meeting (perhaps due to the situation at hand)–a river of acid that was wide enough to become a torrent as the liquid flowed violently below. Her eyes widening, Mikella dashed forward, forsaking whatever calm she had.

  “No! Stop!”

  Mikella’s hand reached out, trying to close in as fast as possible, but her power might be too much. If she closed in with too much force, she might end up just crushing her. She thought about using lightning, but she might just shock her the moment she touched her, and with her power, she could easily kill her outright. No matter what she thought, her ways of reaching her was too violent to catch her.

  Then, in her horror, Amber jumped into the river of acid without hesitation, and got swallowed up in it.

  What happened next was a moment of screaming anguish, followed by a cascade of sizzling and burning. Amber’s entire body became submerged, only revealing herself one bit after another to show her entire body just sloshing itself off bit by bit, her muscles and skeleton showing themselves for the world to see.

  Mikella didn’t care for herself one bit as she plunged her hand and forearm straight into the river of acid, trying to pick up at least whatever’s left of Amber. She didn’t care that she would end up a pile of goop. With Zeke, he could pretty much bring back anything from near death.

  That was what her panic-riddled mind was telling her as pain took over, her arm instantly evaporating. She screamed aloud, but her eyes, tearing up, never wavered. She focused on picking up the girl that foolishly jumped into the river with nothing to lose. She kept digging around the rushing acid, unable to feel anything anymore despite her best efforts.

  That was when her shoulders were grappled harshly and pulled away from the river of acid, forcing her to look up to see Zeke, his eyes widening in a panic as he saw her now missing arm, leaving behind a melting stump of flesh and bone.

  “What are you doing?!” Zeke shouted, horror taking over as he already started healing her arm.

  “Let me go! Let me go!” She screamed, begged even, for Zeke to let her go. Despite her stats, her panic and guilt was causing her body to not work as intended. “Amber! She just–! I gotta find her! I gotta–”

  “Mikky!”

  As though he understood everything from that torrent of nonsense, Zeke held onto Mikella’s shoulders tightly, looking her straight in the eyes. His chromatic green and blue eyes met her yellow, a serious frown plastered on his face.

  “Mikky… she’s gone,” Zeke said, now gentler than before. “There’s no way to come back from that. With her level, there’s no way she can survive from that.”

  “Don’t say that!” Mikella pleaded. Her eyes teared up as her slowly recovering arm tried to grab his shirt. “Don’t say that! She’s still–”

  “Even if she was still alive,” Zeke cut her off, completely putting down any hope in her heart. “I can’t heal her. She’s too damaged. And… there’s not even a body left behind anymore.”

  Zeke gestured with his chin to the river, showing Mikella that the screaming and anguish that was occurring just moments ago ceased to be. Just like he said, all she saw now was just a river of acid flowing down violently. The body that jumped in there clearly died a long time ago, becoming pieces and parts that flowed around the river throughout the entire damn dungeon.

  Mikella shook her head. Over and over and over again. She didn’t want to admit this. She didn’t want to accept this reality.

  But no matter how much she tried to ignore it, it was staring at her right in the face. Forget the arm that was still recovering from its former stump slowly to her wrist–the reality was that she let someone die when she could’ve easily taken her out.

  If she had worked faster. If she had done things smarter. If she had not taken the chance to talk and instead just tackled her. She could’ve done all those things and more–yet all she could do was just stand there like an idiot while Amber jumped off to her death without a second thought.

  Tears began to flow, her mind no longer capable of accepting anything anymore. She cried out, her head bumping into Zeke’s chest as she let out a cry from deep in her heart.

  The pain, the misery, the despair–she knew this all by hand, being the one in her position so long ago, back at the first cursed tower. If things didn’t pan out in the way they did–she could’ve ended up in the same position as Amber.

  And worse–Clara would’ve been far worse off.

  She just kept crying, no longer able to make any coherent sentences as the other members of their party approached the scene with gaping mouths and widened eyes.

  They stood there silently as they all unanimously decided to just be there for Mikella as she cried.