The guy slowly pulled away and took out a potion from his inner pocket.
He seemed to hesitate for a moment before gripping my chin and slowly pouring the contents down my throat.
His touch was so careful; he furrowed his brow as if he were the one in pain.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not at all.”
It was the highest-grade potion, so there was no way it would hurt.
The stiffness around my neck vanished as if it had never been there.
Chirp!
Just then, Chirpy flying around suddenly darted towards Cha Rui.
It instantly flew onto his head, pulling his hair and yelling.
Though I didn’t know the exact details because I had been asleep, it seemed quite startled.
It seemed to have roughly understood the situation upon seeing the monster with its head gone, but it just wouldn’t calm down.
“Chirpy, stop that.”
At my dissuasion, Chirpy finally flew over to me, its tail wagging discontentedly.
Even Cha Rui, who would usually react indifferently, now looked strangely dejected.
Honestly, both of them…
As I barely managed to soothe the panting bird and turned around, I flinched at the sensation of something tripping my foot.
The treasures that had been piled up throughout the room had suddenly turned into snake corpses.
Everything, including the coffin, had merely been an illusion to lure people in.
Although I already knew this fact, the sight of black snakes writhing together was utterly bizarre.
Kugugung—!
At that moment, I looked up in surprise at the sound of something breaking.
It turned out that the walls of the room were collapsing.
By defeating the mid-boss, a passage to the next area had been opened.
Habitually, I looked up at the ceiling and let out a small gasp.
How long had it been since we started?
The condition was already filled up to [2/4].
“It looks like the two of them cleared one, too.”
The development felt much faster than the original progression, but that was actually better.
If we could keep up this momentum, we might even finish the raid before the two-hour mark.
“Come here, let’s go.”
Feeling rushed, I turned towards the collapsed wall and reached out my hand to Cha Rui.
He had been looking up at the numbers, but meekly reached out his arm.
Perhaps because of what had just happened, his demeanor was notably softer.
This might last for a few days.
I glanced at him as I stepped forward, and Cha Rui, who had similarly crossed the wall, suddenly stopped walking.
“Why?”
“…Do you have one more patch?”
“A patch?”
I flinched instantly.
Cha Rui shouldn’t know that I had brought the illusion patch.
I put it on in less than a second—did he see that?
Trying hard to hide my surprise, I unconsciously swept my tongue across the inside of my lip, then gasped.
The patch was definitely not in the place it should have been.
“Are you perhaps looking for this?”
As I failed to control my expression and my eyes darted wildly, Cha Rui held something out in front of me.
It was the illusion patch, with signs of use.
Why is that…
I stared blankly down at his palm before my face quickly flushed hot.
I could guess how the patch had moved.
Well, after all that tossing and turning, it would be strange if it had still been stuck on.
Feeling embarrassed, I cleared my throat unnecessarily and took out the patch I had originally intended to give him, holding it out.
Cha Rui took it, then gave a self-deprecating laugh, twisting one corner of his mouth up.
He seemed to feel mortified at himself for trying to do something now.
“Pathetic. I should have prepared in advance.”
“Don’t say that. You just had bad luck this time. Who could possibly defeat you normally?”
Feeling frustrated, I reacted a little exaggeratedly, and he, who had been tilting his head, looked at me.
His gaze swept over my face, briefly lingered on my lips, and then quickly moved away.
I also quickly moved my feet as he turned around, mouth tightly shut.
Why is he like that?
Wondering if I had said something wrong, I checked his expression, then let out a silent groan.
It was because I had belatedly noticed the situation ahead.
The newly opened passage looked similar to the previous one, but it was an entirely different space.
Unlike the previous passage, which had been endless, this one was blocked by a wall.
A large statue stood in front of it, wearing a long hat and posed with one foot extended, as well.
The peculiar thing was that its face was green.
“It looks like Osiris.”
Cha Rui seemed to recognize the statue’s identity immediately.
Since this floor was clearly closely related to Egyptian gods, he didn’t take his eyes off it, determined not to let his guard down this time.
“What is this stone slab?”
A considerably large stone slab was placed beneath the statue.
A deep groove was carved on the left, and hieroglyphs of unknown meaning were more shallowly engraved on the right.
The design suggested that once the deep groove was filled with something, it would naturally flow towards the hieroglyphs.
And that ‘something’ was, as expected, human blood. Specifically, the blood of only one person.
Cha Rui seemed to have noticed to some extent from the shape of the slab, as he took out a small bottle of water from his item pouch.
He seemed intent on testing it and began pouring it into the round groove.
However, the water did not fill it up at all; it was absorbed as if poured onto sand.
Even without a separate explanation, it was too clear what the stone slab wanted.
In the end, Cha Rui crumpled the empty plastic bottle in annoyance and tossed it aside.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
If we didn’t do anything here, there was no way to advance further.
Knowing this, Cha Rui put on a displeased expression but still pulled a small dagger from his waist.
And without hesitation, he brought it down on his palm, and as the skin parted, blood began to trickle out.
It was painful for me just to watch, but this was something only Cha Rui could do.
The second mid-boss required the blood of the strong.
Yes, that’s what I knew, but…
“This isn’t it, either?”
“……”
The scene unfolding before my eyes was completely different from my expectation.
Just like with the water, Cha Rui’s blood was completely absorbed by the stone slab.
I, who had been about to take out a potion from my item pouch for treatment, was deeply flustered.
Come to think of it, the development had been different during the first mid-boss, so there was no law saying it wouldn’t be different this time.
If his blood didn’t work, then I was the only person left.
Perhaps it was a relief that I was the one chosen, rather than Cha Rui, who had to face the final boss, having to shed his blood here.
I took out the S-rank dagger instead of a potion from my item pouch and walked forward.
“Wait, let me try.”
“What? No, you don’t necessarily have to…”
Cha Rui, who couldn’t have known this fact, hurriedly tried to stop me, but my hand moved first.
Sure enough, the drops of blood that fell into the round groove were not absorbed and began to pool.
Since the palm alone had limits in filling it, I chose my wrist from the start.
It might look a bit gruesome, but with a potion, it would be no problem at all.
However, Cha Rui thought otherwise and tried everything to stop me.
Unable to drag me away by force, he urgently held my waist.
“Seo Inho, stop! You’re bleeding too much.”
“It’s okay, this much is fine. We don’t have any other option anyway, do we?”
He seemed to close his mouth at that, but apparently it wasn’t enough, and he didn’t give up on trying to persuade me.
Instead of quickly treating his own hand, he watched me and worried anxiously.
“Or I can try again, so…”
“Cha Rui, it’s fine.”
When I finally put my hand on his chest and firmly refused, he grudgingly backed away.
His eyes, which alternated between looking at my wrist and my face, were still anxious, but he no longer tried to dissuade me.
While the struggle continued, quite a lot of blood filled the groove in the stone slab.
The cut must have been deeper than I thought, as a considerable amount of blood flowed out in a short time.
Although I had confidently stated I was fine, such a degree of bleeding was bound to take a toll on my body.
Even now, as I forced strength into my legs, a sudden dizziness washed over me.
“It’s almost done.”
Finally, the blood, which brimmed and filled the groove to the end, began to flow towards the hieroglyphs.
As the blood surged into the shallowly carved crevices, the characters gradually turned red.
And only after confirming that the very last character was filled with blood did I finally give up and flop onto the floor.
My legs were shaking, making it impossible to stand upright and pretend to be fine.
“Seo Inho!”
Seeing that, Cha Rui immediately put his arm around my shoulder to support me.
I wish I hadn’t been so serious.
After being so resolute in my refusal, this was a rather pitiful sight.
“Haha… Is there something like a Choco Pie?”
I threw out a joke to ease the mounting embarrassment, but his expression still didn’t seem ready to lighten up.
With his lips tightly set, he hurriedly poured the potion onto my wrist.
While injuries like this could be treated with a potion, there was no immediate way to replenish the lost blood.
I would have to rest and avoid overexertion for a while.
But even that was not an easy option right now.
Kwoooong—!
As the stone slab was completely filled, the walls on both sides began to part.
The passage, which had been just wide enough for three people to pass through, gradually expanded.
Then, the statue’s mouth stretched wide, and its expressionless face became chillingly distorted.
The dignified appearance of the god of the afterlife could no longer be found.
