Current situation

——It hurts! It hurts so much!

She vaguely seemed to be back on the cold altar. The images in her eyes were completely shattered, the biting flames devoured her body, and some indescribable behemoth in the void leaned over and whispered maddeningly in her ears.

She doesn't understand.

She doesn't want to listen!

The immense pain made her curl up and cover her head, moaning softly. It was difficult for her to maintain her instinctive silence.

Fortunately, this pain that was enough to destroy the body and mind did not last too long.

As the scroll was activated, the healing magic was unleashed, and an aqua-green light traveled around her body, quickly soothing the pain caused by the damage to her body - and this also greatly reduced her burden, pulling her back from the brink of losing control and fainting.

This is not ordinary healing magic, it is "Great Healing Magic".

The healing speed and effect of the Great Healing Technique are amazing. As long as the person is not dead, any physical injury can be quickly recovered in a very short period of time. It can be called a miracle of bringing the dead back to life.

Many priests can only use this ultimate move once a day. The scroll made based on this can be regarded as a life-saving trump card...

At the moment when the headache suddenly came, she did instinctively doubt the boy's intentions.

But the fact that such a precious item actually worked its magic, coupled with his undisguised expression of shock after she fell to the ground, somewhat cleared him of suspicion.

However, although the surface injuries had healed, hidden pain was still lingering in her limbs and bones - but this was not because the "Great Healing Technique" had not been fully effective, but because of her own problems.

The marks left by the divine fire naturally cannot be easily erased by magic from mortals.

But for her, this level of pain was no longer enough to affect basic movements.

"…Are you okay? Are you alright? Oh my god, please be okay, don't scare me!"

The boy's constant shaking of the railing and shouting were really noisy. She rubbed her forehead, frowned and said, "...It's 'Backlash'. Stop shouting, my head hurts."

"oh oh……"

The young man suddenly realized something and stopped what he was doing. He immediately sat down where he was and looked at her with his head tilted, like a black puppy silently watching her.

Using magic requires stable mental strength, which comes from talent and extensive meditation training.

Although using the scroll only requires a very small amount of mental fluctuation, for those who are mentally traumatized or lack mental strength, it will still cause backlash pain similar to "failure to activate".

The boy didn't ask any more questions. It was obvious that he was familiar with this kind of knowledge. So -

At this moment, he should have realized that a girl who was seriously injured and seemed to have suffered mental trauma, had a complicated background and was unable to move around easily, was probably not the best choice for a companion.

Is this annoyed look a sign of regret?

"I'm sorry."

After a moment, he suddenly uttered these words.

"……Why?"

The swollen and sharp headache finally subsided at this time. She raised her head and no longer concealed her confusion.

"If I had known you couldn't use items, I would have given you a potion... I'm sorry for making you suffer for no reason. Are you feeling better now? Are you still in pain?"

here we go again.

That awkward feeling of doubt.

But this time, she didn't dwell on this strange feeling, but chose to skip it and go straight to some effective conversation that she could understand.

"The condition for you helping me is that I can help you escape from here?"

"ah?"

As if he didn't expect her to ask so directly, the boy was stunned for a moment before reacting, then smiled a little embarrassedly.

"It's just a scroll, there's no need to talk about any conditions... Compared to that, the more important thing is to leave here quickly. Are you feeling better? Can you walk normally?"

"Why do you have to bring me along? You know the habits of that monster just now. It obviously got here before me. Wouldn't it be faster to act on your own? Why waste time saving a stranger?"

"So you don't believe me."

The boy blinked, as if he finally understood, and there was a hint of helplessness in his smile.

"I did get here a little earlier than you, but not for long, only about an hour, and I still haven't fully understood the situation here. Besides... we're all strangers, isn't that the case for everyone in the world at first? In a place like this, rather than getting stuck alone, wouldn't it be better to have companions with whom we can pool our wisdom and overcome difficulties together?"

In theory, this is true.

Although she did not attach much importance to so-called mutual help, nor did she think there could be any trust between these "companions" who met by chance, the kindness and harmlessness shown by the boy all the time still made her want to continue communicating with him.

Anyway, at this moment, she didn't have anything she had to do.

Since you are using someone else's things, then help him out and consider it an equal exchange.

"So what are you going to do?"

Surprise flashed in the boy's eyes, and he immediately became interested. He stood up and walked to the door lock, shaking the seemingly ordinary iron lock.

"Look at this."

As the padlock shook with a "clattering" sound, some indistinguishable patterns appeared on the edge of the padlock, and it was unclear whether it was a magic rune or a mechanical engineering pattern.

"...Restriction?"

She asked the question and soon received a look of affirmation from the other party.

"The structure of this padlock itself is not complicated, but whether it is violently destroyed or unlocked with tools, the monster seems to be able to sense it instantly and arrive quickly."

In his previous attempt, he had used props to open the door lock. As soon as he took a step out, the long-necked monster came into view and began to attack him without warning.

In order to avoid the flying cane, he turned and fled in another direction, but after a few steps he heard another pair of equally heavy footsteps.

Being attacked from both sides and with no way to retreat, he could only retreat back into the cage helplessly.

Seeing him return to his cage, the waiter-like monsters retracted their necks and observed silently, not even moving forward to attack. After a moment, they closed the iron door, relocked it, and then walked away.

After listening to his story, she nodded, but was a little confused.

"Although the aisle is narrow and there are enemies in front and behind...they move slowly, and their cane attacks have a very fixed trajectory. We might be able to fight them, so why retreat?"

This was really just a normal tactical question, but after hearing it, the boy seemed to have confirmed something important. His eyes flashed and he became more and more like a puppy.

“…I knew you were no ordinary person!

"A normal person with injuries like yours would have screamed or fainted in fear if they encountered a monster like that. Only someone who has been trained and seen the world could remain so calm—Hey, what do you do? Your first instinct is to fight, so you must be a combat profession, right? Judging from your physique, you don't look like a heavily armored warrior... Are you a scout? A thief? Or an assassin?"

This thinking is too divergent.

She didn't answer, refusing to be sidetracked, and still insisted, "You answer me first."

"oh oh……"

He lowered his head slightly and scratched his cheek, feeling a little embarrassed.

"To be honest, I'm a machinist. If you ask me to assemble equipment, develop weapons, and write programs, that's no problem at all. But... I really don't have much accomplishment in martial arts."

I see… That's understandable.

Compared to warriors or magicians, who focus more on self-improvement, mechanics mostly work in state agencies, developing equipment for the military or various private armed forces, and rarely work alone.

Although there have been several extremely talented mechanics in the history of the continent, who are said to be able to defeat thousands of legions with their own strength - but judging from the age and cunning of this young man, he does not seem like a person who can create such a legend.

A mechanic without equipment or teammates to cover him in that situation can really only do so much.

"So...what do you know about this place? Why are we here?"

"I don't know where this is. I got separated from my companions in the dense forest, and then... I was caught here."

The boy said that he originally went into the mountains to complete the adventurer's assessment.

Adventurers were common on this diverse continent, with numerous guilds and assessment centers located throughout key cities. The entry-level exam wasn't difficult. Besides a written test on general knowledge, candidates were occasionally given a random field test of moderate difficulty.

The exam question he drew was to go to a certain mountain range and look for a rare plant that only blooms on moonlit nights.

This was not a difficult task, and he had a good relationship with people since he was a child. He quickly formed a team to accompany him into the mountains, and there were almost no problems along the way.

But just as he was concentrating on following the instructions of the detection equipment and searching in the woods wholeheartedly, a strange fog suddenly descended, silently isolating him from his teammates.

"When the detection instrument suddenly malfunctioned, I realized I was the only one around... Just as I was about to send out the signal, that weirdo appeared out of nowhere and hit me with a stick without saying a word."

Having said this, he touched his head, and it seemed that the pain still remained.

"But I was still vaguely conscious at the time. I just remember that thing dragging me all the way from the woods to here. My backpack fell off during the process, and everything I brought with me was inside! Afterwards, when I regained consciousness, I was trapped here. I was completely bewildered and low on resources. Without any supplies, I simply didn't dare to confront those monsters head-on."

good.

Although this person's social logic is strange, he is quite careful when dealing with big issues.

And after he mentioned it, she herself vaguely remembered some things.

At that time, she was carried away from the sacrificial site by the surging underground river. Despite being seriously injured, she struggled to break through the water surface. The moment she climbed onto the land, what came into her eyes seemed to be a dark dense forest.