Unranked ascension a lit.., p.22
Unranked Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 22
“That could work!” He blurted out.
Quickly retrieving the blade from his storage ring, Lucius rushed back to Maryanne’s side. He held the blade out of her view as he gently lifted her hand.
“I’m going to try something to help you feel better. Close your eyes.”
Maryanne nodded weakly, her eyes barely opening at his touch before closing again. She was having a hard time remaining conscious at this point, likely going into shock. Lucius placed the sword’s handle in her hand, pressing her fingers closed around it.
“Hold this for me. Don’t let go.” He hastily instructed.
Maryanne obeyed, and Lucius took a moment to gather his courage. After several deep breaths, he bit down on his shirt collar before stabbing the blade tip into his own arm.
Lucius’ eyes filled with tears, but he managed to stay silent. A flash of red shot from the weapon into his arm, making him tremble from the intense pain, but his attention never shifted away as he watched Maryanne closely, hope fluttering in his chest as a bit of color returned to her pale face.
“It’s warm —Cough!”
“T-That’s good, Maryanne. Just keep your eyes closed for me.”
“I will. I promise.”
Fifteen minutes passed as Maryanne was bathed in one wave of warmth after another, slowly healing her broken body. By now her consciousness had returned to her fully, and when she could no longer feel the unbearable pain, she asked if she could open her eyes.
“N-Not yet.”
Lucius put the sword away. His face was pale and covered in sweat as he wrapped a bandage around the ruined flesh of his arm. Pulling a long-sleeved shirt from his ring to hide his injuries, he winced as a blinding pain shot through his body when his injured arm snagged on the shirt’s fabric. Maryanne heard his ragged breathing as he finally failed to suppress the pain, opening her eyes in confusion.
Tears streamed down the young girl’s face once again—this time from sadness rather than injuries.
“Lucius! What happened?”
Before he could respond, blackness crept into the corners of his vision, turning the whole world dark as he collapsed to the ground.
Chapter 48
Making Amends
Through effort, you have gained +1 to the Magic Resistance attribute.
Lucius’ eyes slowly opened. He lay on his back, staring up at the opening of the tunnel above him. The sun had shifted to the far side of the sky, and the light pouring through the gap had weakened considerably.
The circle of illumination that had once surrounded him had drifted across the chamber, now casting its pale glow on the opposite side of the room.
“You’re finally awake!” Maryanne exclaimed. She was sitting by his side with Whisper in her lap. The two of them had been intensely focused on the storybook in her hands. She was explaining one of the stories to the mythical creature, pointing at the pictures as she described one event after another from memory. She couldn’t read all the words on the pages yet, but she was able to recite a few of the stories by heart. When Whisper followed Maryanne’s gaze away from the book and noticed that Lucius was awake, he disappeared immediately into the storage ring.
The pain in Lucius’ arm was immense. It was probably what had awoken him. Lucius pulled a bottle of Tylenol out of his med kit while he continued to lie there and dumped a triple dose into his mouth before washing it down with a large mouthful of water. Then he began adding free attribute points into Vitality, one at a time, spending a full five points before the warmth spreading through his body dulled the pain. Now, at least, he felt like he could move without worsening his injuries. Increasing his Vitality did not heal his wounds, but it empowered his flesh, allowing him to survive worse wounds and recover faster.
“Are you okay now?” Maryanne asked.
She stood up and walked closer to him, looking down toward his injuries as she hugged the book tightly. Lucius noticed that the long-sleeved shirt that he had only managed to pull halfway onto himself was now fully in place. Whisper and the child must have helped him finish dressing himself after he collapsed. Carefully lifting his head off the ground, he pushed himself into a sitting position with his good arm. As he did so, a cool piece of wet cloth fell down from his forehead. He smiled as he picked up the cloth, noticing that it was one of his socks. He held it up toward Maryanne as he spoke.
“What’s this?”
“Oh... Your head got really hot when you were sleeping, and you started sweating a lot. Don’t worry, it’s clean! Whisper helped me get it from your ring.”
“I see. Thank you for taking care of me. How are you feeling, Maryanne?”
The girl moved her head back and forth a few times, placing one hand on her neck, testing the condition of her injuries.
“I’m still really sore and I have a lot of bruises, but as long as I don’t move too fast, it’s okay!”
Lucius nodded at the girl’s explanation. It seemed he had done enough—she was no longer in danger of dying.
Moving carefully, he climbed to his feet, keeping his injured arm as still as possible. Once standing, he pulled a spare shirt from his ring, let it hang toward the ground, and stepped on one end. With his uninjured hand, he tore the fabric into a long strip.
He slung the strip around his neck and struggled to tie it into a knot, awkwardly fumbling with one hand until Maryanne stepped forward and helped him finish it.
Afterward, he took a few steadying breaths before lifting his injured arm into the makeshift sling.
The pain was shocking, and Lucius could do nothing but stand frozen, clenching his teeth in a twisted grimace until it finally ebbed.
Once the worst of it had passed, he lowered himself into a sitting position, his gaze drifting up to the hole they had fallen through earlier in the day. He sat there, lost in thought, trying to figure out how he was going to get them out.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Maryanne stealing glances at him as she nervously rubbed her hands together. Each time he turned to meet her gaze, she quickly looked away.
“What is it, Maryanne?” he asked.
The hand rubbing intensified as her gaze passed back and forth between Lucius and the storage ring on his hand, before scrunching up her face in determination and looking him directly in the eye.
“You... need to say you’re sorry!” she blurted out impulsively.
Lucius raised an eyebrow as the unexpected words left the child’s lips. He looked down at the storage ring, following her gaze, and realized what she was talking about.
“You mean to Whisper?”
Maryanne nodded resolutely, but her shaking hands revealed how nervous it made her to make such a demand. Nevertheless, she continued to stand up to Lucius to protect her friend.
“You hurt Whisper’s feelings, so you should say sorry!”
The girl had mostly been quiet and kind ever since he had met her. Starting a conflict was the last thing Lucius had expected from her.
He looked down at her in silence for a few moments, letting her stew in her nerves during the long pause before deciding he had prolonged her suffering enough. A small smile tugged at his lips as he reached out and gently patted her head.
At his touch, her stern facade broke. She looked away in a hurry, her cheeks flushing red as her small hands squeezed tightly together beneath her chin.
“Whisper, come out here.”
The pitiful creature obeyed the command, but when he appeared, it was behind Maryanne’s legs, clinging to her ankle as he peeked around her and kept himself hidden from Lucius’ line of sight.
Lucius did his best to suppress the regretful sigh that rose in his chest. His fear and desperation over Maryanne’s deadly condition had driven him to an angry outburst, one that had traumatized the childlike creature and left a deep crack in the growing bond between them.
“Will you please come over here? I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”
The purple bat trembled as he looked up at Maryanne, who gave him a small nod of encouragement. Slowly, he unwrapped his wings from her leg and began the hesitant walk toward Lucius.
As Whisper’s tiny feet padded across the ground, Lucius couldn’t help but notice the damage: much of the fur on the bat’s left wing was missing, and the exposed skin beneath was shredded and pocked with holes.
When he finally arrived, Whisper stood silently, his face lowered toward the ground, waiting for Lucius to speak.
“What happened to your wing?”
Whisper lifted his head, glancing toward his left wing in fear as the recollection of how he had received his injuries clearly disturbed him.
“Our l-lifeforce is connected, f-father.”
Now the sigh could not be restrained. Lucius let out a heavy breath as he realized that he had not only traumatized the creature, but had proceeded to painfully torture it immediately afterward. He had not intended to do so, but by using Matriarch’s Fury against himself, he was using it against Whisper at the same time.
“I see. That was an oversight, I didn’t mean to hurt your wing. Whisper, do you understand why I got so angry with you earlier?”
Whisper shook his head from side to side as he continued to stare at the ground. Lucius rubbed his chin for a few moments as he thought about the best way to explain, looking over toward Maryanne as he considered his options.
“Do you like spending time together with Maryanne?”
Whisper thought about the question for a few moments before slowly nodding his head.
“Right, so how would you feel if you weren’t able to do that anymore? What if someone came and took her away forever?”
“I would... get her back.”
“What if you failed?”
Whisper considered the question for a long time, looking back at Maryanne every few seconds as the idea settled into his mind.
“I would be very sad.”
“Right. That is what death is like for humans. We aren’t like mythical creatures that can be reborn. If we die, we go away and we can’t come back. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Good. I’m... Sorry for the way I spoke to you earlier.”
Lucius reached out, resting his hand gently on the back of Whisper’s trembling head. As he spoke his apology, his fingers moved in slow, soothing strokes, careful not to startle the fragile creature further.
At first, Whisper stiffened under the touch, his little body taut with fear. But as Lucius continued, the tension gradually ebbed from his limbs. The tremors in his wings subsided, and the tight, anxious expression on his face slowly gave way to something softer—a look of cautious, growing relief.
By the time Lucius withdrew his hand, Whisper was no longer hiding behind his wings, but standing a little straighter, blinking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.
With his apology given, Lucius turned his attention back toward the more pressing issue.
“Okay, now we need to get the hell out of this hole.”
Chapter 49
An Encounter in the Night
Lucius walked in a large circle, staring up at the only exit from this underground cavern that he was aware of. He could probably scale the walls and climb out if he were alone and uninjured, but that wasn’t an option in this situation.
“Whisper, can you lift us out with your shadows?”
Lucius glanced down at his two companions as he spoke. Whisper had taken a bag of beef jerky from his ring’s stock of food and brought it over to Maryanne before resuming their reading. Even Whisper held a piece of it in his tiny hands, though he didn’t actually eat it—he simply licked at it now and then to try the flavor. The mythical creature looked up at the ceiling from his seat in Maryanne’s lap for a few moments, before answering.
“I can do it, Father, but it will be draining, and we must wait for night to fall.”
“Good. I think that’s our best option.”
The three of them got comfortable and settled in to wait out the sun. After learning about something called ‘hopscotch’ from the pictures in Maryanne’s storybook, Whisper asked her to teach him the game. She agreed and the two eventually convinced Lucius to carve hopscotch squares into the hard stone floor for them with Matriarch’s Fury. He agreed, creating a regular-sized game for Maryanne and a miniature version for Whisper after realizing the bat was far too small to hop from one square to another. For the next few hours before nightfall, the three companions ate their fill and hopped around the increasingly dark cave.
One silver lining from the events of the past day was that Maryanne’s malnutrition-induced weakness seemed to have been cured, along with her injuries from the fall, by Lucius’ desperate procedure. The child could now move much more easily than before and would likely be able to walk on her own for the remainder of the journey.
When it became too dark to see their game any longer, they waited another twenty minutes until Whisper was satisfied that night had truly fallen. Then, his eyes glowed purple and he waved his wings, summoning the shadows. A large mass of blackness joined together before it stretch upward, growing thinner as it ascended. When the shadows reached the mouth of the hole, they split apart and spread around it like spiderwebs, anchoring themselves to the ground above to support the weight of the two humans. Whisper created a basket of darkness for Maryanne to sit in, while Lucius gripped the length of shadow above the basket with his good arm. Slowly, the shadows retract, pulling them into the air.
They rose higher and higher, entering the tunnel of dirt and stone that led to the exit. The circle of starry night sky above them grew larger as they approached, until finally, the dirt walls gave way, and the vast night sky spread out covering the world above them. The air was cold. The cave had been as well, but it had at least protected them from the nighttime wind, which made it feel even colder. The loud chirping of insects filled the forest, and the dusty smell of the cave was replaced with damp wood and decomposing leaves.
“Let’s find somewhere to take shelter for the night. We need to move swiftly to find a safe place to sleep, so please let me carry you one more time, Maryanne.”
With a nod from the child, Lucius carefully strapped the backpack over his shoulders and crouched down, allowing Maryanne to climb inside. As he took her weight on his back, a sharp pain shot through his left arm. Clenching his teeth and lifting the bag up slowly, he rose to his feet. It took a few minutes for the pain to subside, but the constant pull of the pack on his injured shoulder meant he would have to endure some discomfort until they reached their destination.
He started heading toward the road, but the darkness of the forest, combined with his lack of attention to landmarks during their earlier flight from the centipede, left him unsure of the route. Whisper, noticing Lucius’ hesitation, eagerly offered guidance.
“This way, Father! I can lead you to the road!”
“Thank you, Whisper.”
Whisper conjured a small hand out of shadow, using it to grasp Lucius’ and guide the two humans through the gloom of the forest. Their progress was slow at first, but once they found the road, they were able to move more quickly. Lucius broke into a run, following the path as the dark forest blurred past on either side. After some time, he spotted a mailbox jutting from the treeline a few dozen meters ahead—proof that they had finally found a potential shelter.
Lucius turned off the road when he reached the mailbox, following the driveway toward a small, cabin-style home like the one Maryanne lived in. But as soon as he caught sight of the building, Lucius suddenly stopped moving, staring ahead warily as his brow furrowed.
“Are we there?”
Lucius turned to the side so Maryanne could see why he had stopped. She looked at the cabin, immediately noticing the flickering light spilling out from its windows. Lucius had to help the child to understand what that meant, however.
“A fire?” she questioned.
“Yes... But if there’s a fire, someone must have lit it,” Lucius explained, considering whether it was wise to approach strangers at night or whether it was better to keep moving.
“Maybe it’s Mom and Dad! Let’s go see, Lucius!”
Lucius didn’t share Maryanne’s hopeful enthusiasm, but he decided to approach the cabin anyway. After all, he was strong, and he could always retreat if something seemed off.
“Okay, but keep your eyes open and hold on tight in case we have to run.”
He moved forward cautiously, a strange, conflicting sensation emanating from Sense Danger. It was as if the talent couldn’t decide whether to warn him, like the potential for danger was present but hadn’t solidified into a threat. As Lucius stepped onto the cobblestone walkway leading to the front door, his foot snagged on something, triggering a loud clattering sound—like a bag full of empty aluminum cans being shaken.
Lucius jumped back as he glanced down at the trip wire he had kicked, crouching in a defensive posture as Matriarch’s Fury materialized in his hand. Sense Danger flickered in the same odd fashion as a taut, straining sound like rope being stretched tightly came from the cabin roof. He glanced upward, following the sound just as a man’s voice rang out sharply from the same direction.
“That’s far enough. Don’t move!”
Lucius’ eyes snapped open as he twisted toward the voice—just in time to spot a man stepping out from behind the cabin’s large chimney, a tall wooden bow drawn and an arrow leveled straight at him. The man’s combat boots creaked against the roof as he moved, camouflage leggings tucked neatly into the tops. Instead of a matching camo top, he wore a long, dark jacket with the hood pulled low over his head, casting his face into shadow. Only the rough blur of a brown beard jutted out from beneath the hood, offering Lucius the barest glimpse of the figure preparing to shoot him.
As soon as the man spoke, two more figures emerged—one from each side of the cabin. They moved to flank Lucius while the archer remained in front, his bow still trained on him. These two also wore uniforms, though only one wore his properly. Lucius glanced up at the man on his left: a tall figure, appearing to be around thirty, with a head of thick blonde hair and a clean-shaven face. His uniform was neat and well-kept, and he carried a longsword that gleamed with a mirror-like perfection. The dark color of the sword’s crossguard, grip, and pommel stood in stark contrast to the bright silver of the blade, which exuded a palpable pressure that made Lucius instinctively wary. It was undoubtedly a magical weapon—likely created by the system.
