.

Ian rushed to his friend, as soon as he fell, to his happiness he did not lose consciousness, but was simply very exhausted.

- I'm sorry Elim, I was so scared if I ... - Jan immediately began to apologize for the fact that he was so scared at first and did nothing.

- Let's talk about it later, we have to get out of here, take your backpacks and get the stapler, - Elim replied. Now he had no time for Ian's apologies, and they were not needed, his reaction was quite natural under such circumstances.

Ian quickly grabbed their things and, fumbling, after a couple of seconds took out a medical stapler, which they took with them as many as three. Elim by this time, got up, picked up his sword and headed into the tunnel from which they came. Jan caught up with him and handed him the stapler, after which Elim, right on the go, put him into action, sewing up the wounds inflicted by the bargestr. It hurt Jan even to watch his friend use this stapler on himself, but Elim himself did not show any signs of pain. Soon the staples in the stapler ran out, as well as the wounds that Elim could reach.

Their duo had already moved a fairly decent distance, so they stopped, and Ian had to use the second stapler of the three they took to sew up the wounds on his friend's body, and then helped him with the bandaging. As soon as little attention was paid to Elim's wounds, they immediately moved on. They planned to stay in the dungeon for a day in order to go out at night and sneak away, but due to the wounds received by Elim in battle, they rushed to get out of the dungeon as quickly as possible.

Jan walked gloomier than a cloud, carrying two bags: his and Elima's. During the last battle, at first he could not move, who knows, maybe if he immediately entered the battle, Elim would not have had such wounds.

"I took level 2, caught up with Elim, yeah, right now. Once it came down to it, there was no use from me. " - such thoughts were in the head of the guy. He clearly understood that if not for Elim, that monster would have killed him long ago.

"Thank you Elim, and once again forgive me for being a burden," Jan began to apologize again.

Elim just grinned. He knew perfectly well that if Yang had entered the battle immediately, he would most likely have died, his armor would not have saved him from an accurate blow to the neck, and such a blow would definitely have happened, given his friend's almost complete lack of combat experience. He did not talk about this to Jan, he would be even more upset.

"It's okay, you entered the battle later, you could even use mana and broke a couple of ribs for that creature," Elim replied.

He was able to notice the power of the blow that Yang inflicted, he was definitely able to use mana, albeit purely instinctively, but this was already enough for him to learn how to use it normally in a couple of days.

From the words of a friend, Jan felt a little better, and since they started a conversation, he decided to ask:

- And those stakes that grew out of the ground, how did you make them?

"Do you remember the soul of that kobold mage I devoured? So with her help I made them, - Elim answered honestly. This was one of the main skills of the soul gatherer - using the abilities that the souls collected by him had.

- You can use his abilities !? Yes, it's just super cool, if you collect many souls with different skills, you will become simply invincible, - Ian was really surprised, the feature of his friend, in his opinion, was just incredibly powerful.

Using the abilities of collected souls is really an incredibly powerful skill, but everything comes at a price, and this ability is no exception, as Elim shared with his friend:

- I spent a lot of mana on this, I would say 30-40% of all that I can have on these two wedges, and the soul of this kobold is now very weak, I can hardly use it in the near future.

"That's how, if such a skill were without problems, it would be too great," Ian voiced his thoughts aloud and thought again.

After that, their conversation came to naught and they walked on in silence. Apparently fate considered that these two had enough for today and did not put anyone in their way, so after a while the guys got to the black shroud, which was the gateway to their world.

Elim was very pale, and the bandages on his wounds were already soaked with blood enough, and he was staggering, but he still made a halt before going out.

- Come on, we need to discuss something, five minutes and let's move on, - said Elim, sitting down on the ground.

Jan followed suit, dropping his backpacks, he sat down opposite. During this trip, he was very exhausted both physically and emotionally and wanted to go back, but he understood the reason for the conversation, so he stopped without question. They planned to leave at night, 24 hours after entering, but a little over 14 hours have passed, so when they leave, they will immediately go to the military.

Elim, meanwhile, took out 3 skill books that they were able to get hold of after a battle between kobolds and goblins. [Fireball I], [Stone Spear I], [Mana Empowerment I] - these three books were now lying in front of the guys.

- I propose to do this: 1 book for you, 1 for me, and the third we will leave for one more person, whom we will take into our team.

Jan agreed and picked up the [Stone Spear] book.

- I already have petrification, I think it would be logical to take [Stone Spear], do you mind? Jan asked. He certainly wanted this skill for himself, but if Elim wanted to take it, he would have given it up without delay, after all, without him they would not have gotten out of here.

Take it to your health, and I'll take [Mana Boost], "Elim said after making his choice.

He had a fire crystal that was incredibly useful in combination with [Fireball], but Elim was used to melee combat and [Mana Empowerment] was perfect for that.

- We are reading now, and you will hide the third book along with the crystal under your clothes, no one from the military should know about skill books yet, let alone get one of them, okay?

Ian nodded and hid the remaining book and the crystal given to him by Elim under his clothes. After that, they both began to read, sitting a few meters from the gate, so that in case of anything they could have time to leave. It took about ten minutes when the book in Elim's hands shone and disappeared, teaching him [Mana Empowerment]. Ian was still reading, so Elim decided to check his status.

[Level: 3]

[Strength - 13]

[Agility - 17]

[Stamina - 17]

[Magic - 12]

[Active skills:

Mana Buff I]

[Passive skills:

Mana Control I]

[Features:

Cruel soul

Soul Collector]

[Soul Gatherer Skills:

Abilities of the Devoured]

[Abilities of the Devoured]

[Description: A soul gatherer, using the absorbed soul and a large amount of mana, is able to use the skills that the soul possessed during life.]

"I didn't even notice how I reached level 3, apparently I missed the message when I almost passed out after the death of the bargister," thought Elim, evaluating the new skills and characteristics in his status. By this time, Jan had already finished reading his book and silently looked at Elim, looking nowhere.

"I got level 3," Elim told his friend.

Ian stared at him in surprise, but after briefly writing down a list of the monsters Elim had killed, he realized that this was to be expected.

- Let's go then? - Ian asked, standing up and throwing bags over his shoulders.

"Come on," Elim replied, getting up heavily.

Then the guys entered a black veil.