Adam’s POV
As I soared through the night sky like a particularly unlucky comet, I watched as the borders of the kingdom slowly faded away, replaced by vast golden meadows stretching as far as the eye could see.
Beautiful? Yes.
Comforting? Absolutely not.
Because in exactly a few seconds, I was going to meet the ground at terminal velocity.
“Nove! How much time do I have left!?”
I deactivated my armor mid-flight and immediately chugged a lesser health potion like my life depended on it—because, well, it literally did.
Feather Weight:16 seconds left.
Alright, quick math.
A lesser health potion heals 10 HP per second for 6 seconds, meaning I’d regenerate 60 HP total. I had 31 HP left, so I’d fully heal in about 12 seconds.
Which left me exactly 4 seconds to figure out how not to become some kind of street pizza.
Unless…
Feather Weight only applied to me, Lora, and the sack she was in.
So technically, if I pulled something heavy from my inventory, I could force myself downward faster. Then, in the final few seconds, I could deploy some kind of parachute to slow the fall just enough to survive.
Genius.
Completely untested and highly questionable, but genius nonetheless.
“Nove! Can you make a parachute out of my inventory!?”
“We don’t have any cloth material to make a parachute.”
“USE THE MAID OUTFIT!”
“… I don’t want to.”
“…What?” I said, confused.
“I don’t want to ruin the outfit you said looked really good on me.”
“I NEVER SAID THAT!”
“You thought that, though.”
“IF WE DIE, I’M NOT GONNA THINK ABOUT ANYTHING EVER AGAIN!”
“You won't die, and I could use the sack instead.”
I blinked. Looked at the sack, and saw Lora sleeping soundly inside.
“…Do it.”
The sack vanished into my inventory, and I immediately pulled lora to my front, so that I could hold her easily and that she doesn’t get yeeted into the night sky like a tragic balloon.
For a split second, I realized—she was wearing nothing but tattered rags.
A fresh surge of anger bubbled in my chest.
That bastard. What did he do to my sister?
But that wasn’t a thought I could afford to linger on right now.
Right now, all that mattered was keeping her safe until she woke up.
And not dying.
Priorities.
I pulled out another health potion and downed it, all while flying forward toward what I prayed would be a soft landing.
"Any second now, Nove!" I shouted, my voice rising an octave as theduration of the buff came closer to a stop.
"I'm done," Nove responded, far too calmly for my liking. "I used some spare monster hides from our inventory to fashion a parachute. Though, given the lack of materials, it’s… well, not that durable. I estimate we’ll still crash-land with some damage."
"Fantastic," I deadpanned, bracing myself for a high-speed rendezvous with the dirt.
I let go of Lora for a split second—which was absolutely terrifying—just long enough to reactivate my Valkyrie frame.
The very second the armor was on, I held onto Lora tight as I activated Valorous Echoes, giving myself a 20% damage reduction buff—because, let’s be honest, I was gonna need it.
Then, I pulled out the corpse of the nobleman. And held it with one hand.
Yes, you read that right.
Since his dead body wasn’t affected by Feather Weight, it dragged me down like a meteor.
For three glorious seconds, I descended at an absolutely terrifying speed—until Feather Weight wore off.
Then, at the last possible second, I swapped his corpse for the parachute and—
For exactly one second, I stopped mid-air.
Then, I realized two things.
One, I was no longer in the golden meadows. The rolling fields were gone. Instead, I found myself above a thick, dark forest, filled with towering trees and dense green foliage.
And two…
The Rune of Sol has expired.
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Which meant…
The parachute could barely hold my weight.
"AHHH—!" I screamed in betrayal as the so-called parachute gave up on life and sent me plummeting again.
"NOVE! THE PARACHUTE DOESN’T WORK AT ALL!" I shouted, arms flailing as I held onto Lora for dear life.
"It did work," Nove corrected, ever the smug AI. "It stopped your descent for about one second before the Rune of Sol expired."
Oh, well, forgive me for assuming parachutes should actually, y'know… PARACHUTE!?
"I did the best I could with the materials available," Nove huffed. "Besides, I’m sure you’ll survive this just fine."
The ground was coming in fast.
I turned in mid-air, twisting my body so that my back took the brunt of the fall, holding Lora tightly against my chest to shield her.
Sorry for the rough ride, Lora!
And then—
BOOM.
I crashed like an anvil.
-102
A cloud of dust erupted around me as I left a small crater in the ground.
My body? Completely limp.
My bones? Questionable.
My pride? Absolutely shattered.
The armor deactivated on its own, probably because I was completely out of NEP.
I just lay there, sprawled out in the dirt, feeling like every bone in my body had just gone on strike.
Lora, who had been securely tucked in my arms, bounced off my body and landed in the soft dirt a few feet away. I caught a glimpse of her health bar—it had dropped by a third, but honestly?
I was just thankful she wasn’t dead.
Or, worse—awake.
Because if she woke up right now, she’d immediately start asking questions, and I was in no position to answer anything beyond “Ouch.”
Nove, ever the voice of wisdom, chimed in.
"That’s normal, isn’t it? Since the time you saved her, only about 15 minutes have passed. I estimate she’ll remain asleep for another 15."
Gotcha…
Nove…
"Yes, Adam?"
Where the hell are we?
"From what I can tell, we’re in a forest of some kind. But without further observation, I can’t give you an exact location."
Got it… also, is it cool if I just… nap here for a bit? I had zero energy left—even lifting a health potion to my lips felt like trying to bench press a boulder.
"I could use Emergency First Aid, but we’re out of NEP and it’ll consume a lot of materials."
Oh… well, guess I’ll just die then… Can’t you just drink the potion in my stead?
“I’ve never tried that… and I think it’s best to experiment with that under better scenario since I don’t think I have the necessary organs to break down the nutrients from the potion.” She paused for a second, “Also, You won’t die from this, The armor kept your body intact, At most only other creatures can kill you right now.”
Thanks for the clarification Nove.
I tried keeping my eyes open, but I was fading in and out of consciousness faster than a college student pulling an all-nighter.
Then—
Footsteps.
Heavy. Metallic.
Like someone in full plate armor was approaching.
Shit. I needed to get up. What if this person was dangerous?
I forced myself to move, pulling a stamina potion from my inventory. But lifting my arm felt like trying to push a truck uphill with my forehead.
The footsteps stopped.
Then, a voice. Monotone. Flat.
"Two human children?"
…A woman?
"Oh! You’re hurt."
Her tone changed instantly, shifting from robotic to genuine concern but still robotic.
I still couldn’t see her clearly—my eyelids felt like they weighed a ton—but even through the blurry haze, I could tell she was heavily armored.
"Do not worry, child. I will make sure you are okay."
"Thank… you."
And with that, I passed out.
Nove POV
Since Adam went to sleep, I was cut off from the outside world.
I pouted and tapped my golden fingers against my chin, thinking.
Hmm… what to do?
As always, I transported Adam’s consciousness into the core nexus area and did what I always do when he sleeps—snuggled up on top of him.
Mmmm… so warm. So cozy.
I wriggled around a bit before settling in, pressing my cheek against his chest.
This… this is nice.
Even though I couldn’t sleep, I could still feel the sensation of comfort, warmth, and gentle regeneration that sleeping could provide once I was close to his heart.
“I want to stay like this forever…”
I murmured dreamily, letting out a small sigh of happiness.
But…
I shook my head. Adam wouldn’t like it if I lazed around too much.
So, with a reluctant sigh, I sat up and focused on decrypting the nobleman’s Nexus core, As I was working on breaking through the encryption to see what goodies were inside his inventory.
But that wasn’t the only thing on my mind.
I was also really curious about the three relics we took from the nobleman.
A small rod, about an arm’s length, with various core nodes attached to the top.
A chilling blue crystal orb, radiating with a weird energy.
A rough red crystal, pulsing faintly.
I tilted my head.
The blue crystal seemed to be the easiest to decrypt, so I focused on that one first.
And what I found?
Amazing.
It held tons of nutrients and Core Nexus energy. If Adam absorbed this, he’d get a massive boost in almost all of his stats—especially Strength.
I glanced down at Adam, who was still collapsed beneath me, completely unaware of what I was doing.
Then, I looked back at the blue crystal glowing in my hand.
Adam always complains about how weak he is.
He’s always cursing his lack of power.
But this… this could fix everything.
I could feel my face heat up as I imagined the scene:
Adam waking up, realizing how strong he’s become, and then… patting my head.
Maybe even saying—
"Good job, Nove. You're amazing!"
Fufu~!
I wiggled excitedly at the thought, hugging the blue crystal close to my chest.
Wouldn’t he be so happy to wake up to all his problems solved? Wouldn’t he call me a good girl for helping him?
I bit my lip, fidgeting.
Technically, I should ask him first before altering his body…
But… he wouldn’t mind, right?
He’d love it. Right?
With a mischievous giggle, I leaned over him, smiling.
"Ehehe~ What’s the worst that could happen?"
I then stood up and walked a few steps away from his body.
...Oh, Adam’s totally going to freak out when he wakes up.
With excitement bubbling inside me, I began the Essence Absorption process on the chilling blue crystal in my hand, feeding it into Adam’s core.
Immediately, I felt it.
A surge of power. A wave of strength.
Numbers flashed before my eyes.
- STR: +1
- VIT: +1
- END: +1
- STR: +1
- CHA: +1
- VIT: +1
- STR: +1
It kept going, faster and faster.
Not only that—Adam’s NEP, which had been completely drained, started regenerating rapidly.
I let out a small giggle as I watched the numbers skyrocket.
He’s going to be SO happy when he wakes up!
And then—
It happened.
"Wha—?!"
I screamed as I suddenly noticed something horrifying.
Adam’s life force… was depleting.
No. No. No.
“No, no, NO! This wasn’t supposed to happen!” I panicked, trying to stop the process.
But it wouldn’t stop.
Adam’s life force kept fading.
“STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!”
I frantically pulled everything I could from the inventory—Nexus Crystals, Nexus Blood, Monster Scraps.
I switched the absorption target, redirecting the energy drain away from Adam and into these resources instead.
Using every ounce of NEP I had, I poured it into Alchemical Regeneration, desperately trying to stabilize his life force.
I couldn’t reverse what was already taken, but I could slow it down.
“PLEASE! JUST STOP!”
My voice cracked with pure desperation.
And then—
CRACK!
The blue crystal shattered.
I collapsed onto my knees, my golden hands trembling.
I was completely out of NEP.
Completely drained.
Completely empty.
Visions of what happened in the cave flashed in my mind.
No. No. No.
I snapped my head up, eyes wide.
“ADAM!”
I scrambled over to his body, trembling.
My heart stopped as I took a closer look.
…He had aged.
His face looked slightly older, He didn’t look like a kid anymore, his features more defined. He had lost years of his life.
I… I did this.
“No… No, no, no…”
I clutched his shirt, my hands shaking violently.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Fear gripped my chest like a vice.
I buried my face against his chest, curling up on top of him like a scared kitten.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
I kept mumbling, my voice barely a whisper.
I held onto him tightly, feeling his faint heartbeat, clinging to the smallest comfort.
Even though my mind was spiraling, even though guilt weighed down on me like a mountain, his warmth helped calm me.
I kept whispering apologies, my voice cracking.
“I’m sorry… Please forgive me, Adam…”
I didn’t stop.
Not until—
Adam’s eyes fluttered open.