Tis But A Flesh Wound
-10 Years Post Saturation Completion. CONT-
"You know as well as I do that Taylor is resourceful; the fact that not a single trace was left after his cabin was attacked is enough evidence for me to believe his crazy ass jumped into the Party Instance…and he's been there over a year, alone, fighting against monsters WAY stronger than him." Brenden countered as he looked at the 328 High-Zeta coins in his inventory.
Having sold everything, including all his resources, Brenden only had enough for a single RC-Pill, which he unhesitantly gave to Emilia, leaving him with less than half the required amount necessary to buy a second pill.
There wasn't a doubt in his mind that I was alive, and if his theory was correct and I had been in the (Δ++) Instance for so long, there was a good chance I had been racking up money the entire time.
If that were the case, so long as Emilia had her pill, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that between the two of us, we could pool together enough money to get our hands on the two pills we required.
The only issue was he had no idea if I had seen the update or had been working towards getting my hands on a pill.
"Listen, everything will be fine. We need to stay positive, babe. Don't think about Murphy's law taking effect (anything that can go wrong will go wrong.)." Taking a deep breath, Brenden walked up and embraced Emilia for what could potentially be the final time, and after giving her a deep lingering kiss, he broke the Instance token…and entered the same (Δ++) Instance that I had over a year prior.
Something to note is that over time, we had come to learn that not only did the number of plus signs attached to an Instance Token indicate the strength of the monsters living in that dimensional space, but if the Instance's title had one or more plus marks attached it designated the fact that multiple people could enter the same Instance, so long as the same person bought the tokens together.
Then there were the ++ ranked dungeons, which were essentially not that different from the Perm-Instances and allowed a large number of people to enter.
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One month, it took an entire month for Brenden to pick up any traces of me being in the Instance, and even then, it took him another two months until he was confident that he was on the right track of finding me.
On his fourth month of slogging through the seemingly never-ending underground labyrinth, he came across a brutal sight. As far as the eye could see, there were thousands and thousands of corpses strewn every which direction, and even the soil was painted red with gore.
And it was in the center of this meatgrinder-like chaos…that I was laying …on the ground, and barely breathing…and that brings us full circle…
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"Taylor, keep your eyes open, focus, don't die on me!" A man's voice broke me from my inner monologue.
'Huh, what was I doing again?' I thought while looking up at the battle-worn man standing above me, wearing metal-plated armor. His formerly perfectly styled sandy blond hair was now a mess, and a mixture of crusted and fresh blood coated his face.
"Brenden… what are you doing here…" I choked out while attempting to spit out the blood, threatening to choke the life from my body.
'Ah…that's right, the battle…s**t, I guess I took one too many hits this time.' Swallowing with some difficulty, I raised my right hand and caught my younger brother by the shoulder, causing him to freeze in place and meet my icy blue eyes with his own.
"You f**king idiot, what were you thinking rushing into this place? If I had known you were going to be this stupid, I would never have given you that TOKEN!" Brenden swore, but his tone held something other than anger; contrary to his words, it was evident to me that he was scared, and judging by the intense pain coursing through my body, it didn't take someone with my high level of Intellect to figure out why.
I was in bad shape. Both my legs were torn to shreds, my right arm was gone, and more importantly, was the fist-sized hole spewing blood where my stomach used to be.
"Heh…guess I f**ked up this time, little *COUGH* brother," I stated, followed by a few bloody coughs leaving my mouth.
While I struggled to so much as breathe, Brenden didn't stay idle; using a gentle grip, he caught hold of both my shoulders and proceeded to drag my limp body to cover and prop before propping me up against the remains of a ruined building.
The entire time Brenden did so, his head was on a swivel, anticipating a sneak attack or something to that extent, but it was a fruitless endeavor.
Unknown to him, My final attack before falling had been enough to eviscerate everything within half a mile, and while that may seem destructive and powerful to some, in actuality, it was the final push of a dying man and far from the level of the higher beings blessed by Arkadia.
'F**king Arkadia, life was so simple yet boring before the Descent of the mystical construct.' I grunted in thought while staring up at the luminous crystals coating the ceiling of the Instance Dimension.
'Ah, that's right, I need to give him one of those pills. Luckily with the level and Rank difference between me and those f**king monster hound things, I earned wayyy more than enough cash.' Mustering up the last dregs of energy my body could produce, I augmented my shredded hand, stabilizing the condition enough so that I'd be able to withdraw two pills from my inventory before allowing them to roll out of my palm and into my lap gently, the act of which caused Brenden's eyes to widen in surprise.
"Those…are those RC-Pills…how is that possible." Unable to contain himself, Brenden blurted out, causing a weak smile to spread across my face.