“Um… Miss Elf?”
“Uwaaa — “
“No, I mean… I didn’t mind that much…”
“Uwaaa — “
After listening to Lance’s story, the Elf Girl was weeping uncontrollably, which in turn left Lance not knowing what to do.
‘Aren’t elves supposed to be detached beings? Why is this Elf Girl’s empathy so strong?’
‘Did I overdo it?’
After telling the Elf Girl about his and his sister’s experiences with some added embellishment, her tears began to flow uncontrollably.
This left Lance flustered, unsure of how to proceed.
“I… I will definitely help you get back! Definitely!”
The Elf Girl wiped away her tears and looked up, making a promise to Lance with extreme sincerity.
“Alright, alright, please stop crying first…”
“I wasn’t crying…”
“Right, right. You wasn’t crying, you wasn’t crying.”
After a while, once the Elf Girl had gathered her emotions, Lance immediately asked the question he wanted to know most:
“Where are we? Which floor of the Great Labyrinth is this?”
“Floor 58. We are already deep within the Maze.”
Hearing the Elf Girl’s answer, Lance’s heart sank.
No wonder the monsters he encountered here were all mid-tier at the minimum, along with many strange mutated creatures.
That dragon had actually dragged him down to such a deep floor!
Seeing that Lance didn’t react, the Elf Girl continued, “The nearest teleportation circle should be on Floor 60.”
“We can either continue exploring downward and clear two more floors, or return to Floor 50… What do you think?”
Lance hesitated at her question.
With his strength as a newly initiated mid-tier, it was impossible for him to clear two floors and reach Floor 60 alone, and returning to Floor 50 was equally fraught with danger for him.
Therefore, if he wanted to return, he had to rely on the Elf… But since she had already come to Floor 58, she likely intended to continue exploring further down…
Thinking of this, Lance no longer hesitated and said immediately, “Then let’s head down to Floor 60!”
Hearing Lance’s choice, the Elf Girl breathed a sigh of relief and had no objection to his decision.
“Then let’s form a party for now. I’ll take you to Floor 60; consider it repayment for saving my life.”
Then, with a swipe of her fair, slender finger through the air, a stable void rift emerged out of thin air.
She casually summoned a platinum-colored metal card from it.
“Let’s form a party first. Do you still have your Adventurer’s License?”
The moment he saw that platinum card, the Soulfire in Lance’s eye sockets flickered.
She was actually a Platinum Rank Adventurer! The Elf Girl’s strength was indeed extraordinary!
Gold Rank Adventurers usually possessed high-tier strength, while Platinum Rank Adventurers were extremely rare throughout the entire Adventurer’s Association.
This rank usually corresponded to the combat power of the Elements level, and experts of that level could easily use their strength to secure more promising work, such as becoming a Legion Commander for a small or medium kingdom.
Seeing Lance’s reaction, the Elf Girl’s eyes dimmed, and she said self-deprecatingly, “Unfortunately, I haven’t awakened my Elements yet. Currently, I’m only at the late stage of the high-tier.”
“I reached Platinum only because I have completed many exploration missions.”
Lance was stunned and somewhat confused. “But didn’t you defeat the Poison Flame Dragon?”
“I just used a tool to trick it…”
Seeing that Lance was unconvinced, the Elf Girl reached out and tapped a ring-shaped metal device behind her ear.
Subsequently, a pale purple transparent projection appeared over her right eye.
She explained, “This Ancient Magic Tool is quite special; it can see through the weaknesses of dragon-kind.”
“It was only by relying on the power of this device that I was able to continuously attack the Poison Flame Dragon’s weak points. In the end, it was merely a pyrrhic victory.”
Seeing that the Elf Girl’s expression seemed a bit off, Lance timely cut off the conversation.
He pulled his bronze-colored Adventurer’s License from his Traveler’s Pocket and said, “That’s still much stronger than me. I’ve been an Adventurer for almost two years, yet I’m still only at the Bronze Rank.”
The Elf Girl smiled and said nothing more, handing over her card.
Lance also hurriedly extended his card to touch the platinum-colored identification.
The moment the marks touched, a white light radiated, and a line of pale gold text appeared before their eyes:
[Platinum Rank Adventurer] Astrid Razegaru Nelpzeqiru Leia Aglanzel Elgar and [Bronze Rank Adventurer] Lance Fallos have formed a party.
“Astrid? Elgar?”
Lance’s knowledge of elves was very limited, restricted only to storybooks.
He didn’t understand what that long string of surnames meant, so he simply remarked with sincere admiration, “What a beautiful name!”
Hearing such a blunt compliment, the Elf Girl’s ears turned slightly red.
She turned her head away in embarrassment and whispered softly, “Yours isn’t bad either…”
“What?”
“Nothing! You stupid skeleton!”
Lance: ???
Lance couldn’t understand why he was being scolded again. For now, he only felt that the Elf Girl’s personality was truly eccentric — she couldn’t even take a compliment!
Suppressing the turbulence in her heart, the Elf Girl walked to the side and instructed, “This is my safe house. You should absorb the Life Crystal first; it’s vital for exploring the next floor.”
“I’ll take this time to recuperate as well.”
Reminded of this, Lance immediately fished out the necklace with the green gemstone from his Traveler’s Pocket.
Feeling that surging life force, his mood instantly improved.
He found a flat spot and began to extract the Life Essence from within.
The Soulfire in his eye sockets flared up suddenly, and the ghostly green soul power rippled from his eye sockets toward his limbs.
His broken bones were gradually repaired, becoming harder, stronger, and more powerful…
As Lance absorbed the Life Essence, white light would burst from his body from time to time.
Every time the light appeared, it meant Lance’s level had climbed up by one.
However, such a trait was quite annoying in the pitch-black room, acting just like a malfunctioning lightbulb.
To avoid the glare, simply turning her back wasn’t enough; eventually, the Elf Girl had to cover her eyes with her hands to get a moment of peace.
…….
Once the light completely vanished, Lance summoned his task panel, and new level information appeared in his eyes:
[Status Window]
Name: Lance Fallos
Level: 41
Race: Undead (Skeleton)
Class: Swordsman
Skills: White Crow Sword Art (High Rank) Level 6, Charge Level 5, Divine Protection Level 5, Appraisal Level 4, Detection Level 3, Undead Eye Level 2, Basic Potion Theory Level 2, Monster Material Identification Level 2, Archery Level 2, Universal Persuader Level 1
XP: 127,641
Status: Evolvable (Random)
Seeing his level jump to Level 41 all at once, Lance was still shocked.
Even though he knew a Life Crystal provided a massive boost to undead creatures, he truly hadn’t expected it to raise his level by twenty levels directly!
Level 41?
‘Then doesn’t that mean I’ve already returned to the high-tier?’
Just as Lance was rejoicing, a new prompt box suddenly popped up:
[Would you like to begin a Random Evolution?]
‘Huh? Evolution?’
If Lance didn’t know about the method of Isomorphic Evolution, he would have very happily chosen “Yes!”
But now… No!
There was no other reason! Because if he evolved in his current state, he would be nothing more than a Large Skeleton Soldier or a Skeleton Knight!
However, Isomorphic Evolution could allow him to return to being a living creature step by step, so he had to save this evolution opportunity!
Once he obtained Flesh Essence, he would evolve into a Ghoul!