Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 23: Reunion? (1)

"Haha, I'm fucked."

As I sat in a pool of serpent's stomach acid, I thought about him. About Elias.

Will I really die here, in his world, without even meeting him?

'Crack!'

...What?

'Crackle!'

I looked up, and was immediately blinded by the light. Before I was able to understand what was happening, I felt a strong tug on my sleeve. In a flash, I was pulled upwards and my eyes met a pair of beautiful red orbs.

"Yo, little cub, you have a knack of being saved, don't you?" The white-haired man in front of me grinned as wide as he could. His left arm was wrapped around my waist, while his other arm was pulling me up from the serpent's gaping stomach.

"Is this... General Zhang?" I squinted as my eyes were trying to adjust with the sudden change of light intensity.

"No, this is Patrick." He replied.

"Shut up, you slippery eel." I frowned. So it really was him.

"Chaerin, thank god you're safe!" Jeanne appeared behind him, looking visibly concerned.

"But... But how?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Ah, it was thanks to that thing." Jeanne pointed at my wrist.

I glanced towards where she pointed at, and saw a bracelet strapped on my wrist.

"Isn't this the tracking bracelet you gave me earlier?" I tilted my head to the side.

"Exactly. Thanks to that, we were able to precisely locate where you were inside the serpent's stomach," Jeanne explained, "and that thing works by detecting mana, so when the serpent was dead but we found a mana source roaming around inside its belly, we assumed it was you."

My jaws fell open when I heard her explanation. I didn't even remember I had this on me...

"...Thank you." I timidly said.

To be honest, when I first received the bracelet, I understood why they would want to monitor me. But still, being monitored was never a pleasant thing for anyone. I kinda felt ostracized.

However, it didn't even cross my mind that they could save me by monitoring me.

I was sad and lonely because they didn't trust me, but I never fully trusted them first. It was ignorant of me.

"I'm sorry, both of you." I looked down, feeling ashamed.

"Why would you be sorry?" Jeanne said to me.

I looked down and saw her bloody leg. She was barely able to stand using a spear as her crutch. And yet, she tried her best to come up here to save me.

"I... I didn't think you'd save me. I thought badly of you guys just because you were trying to be careful. I was insensitive, no excuses." I said while looking into their eyes, even though it was really hard for me to not get embarrassed.

Suddenly, general Zhang put his hand on my forehead.

"Did you hit your head or something, little cub?" He cocked his head to the side.

"You... Do you want me to hit your head instead?" I slapped his hand away.

"Come, let's extract its soul." Jeanne said with a warm smile.

"We have to extract it?" I asked. I thought the soul would just be handed to us by some sort of magic and stuff.

"Yes. Normally, the monster's mana doesn't just disappear upon dying. Instead, the mana was dispersed into the surroundings." Jeanne explained while we climb down from the serpent's body onto the damp ground.

"But for weaker monsters, their mana can't last long, and will usually disappear in a matter of seconds," she continued, "however, for special monsters like this serpent, its mana was strong enough to be converted into life force, or if we extract it, a soul."

"Ah, I think I get it. So the reason why we couldn't feel its mana earlier was not because the mana had disappeared, but because it got converted into life force instead, right? And now we have to extract it to form a soul?" I asked while I circled Jeanne's arm around my neck to help her walk.

"Precisely." Jeanne confirmed.

"Now, it's my time to shine~" General Zhang waved around a talisman of some sort.

"What is that?" I questioned.

"Can't you see, little cub? This thing's a talisman, given to me by gramps!" He laughed as he teased me.

"That talisman was made by one of our strongest extractors. Not a lot of people can extract souls. The headmaster entrusted that to us for this mission." Jeanne explained clearly, much unlike general Zhang.

"Thank you, Jeanne. I'm so glad you came with us." I sighed.

General Zhang slapped the talisman on the serpent's head and started chanting something. Upon chanting, our surroundings started to glow in blue-ish color. The blue aura felt warm and revitalizing, and it slowly swirled and gathered around general Zhang.

"He's pretty useful, huh." I absentmindedly muttered under my breath as I watched the sight before me.

"Yes. He's our strongest general, after all," Jeanne apparently heard what I said, and decided to agree with me, "he was the one holding down the serpent while you were inside, too."

"He did what?" I was surprised to hear that.

"General Zhang got angry and used excessive force to hold the serpent down... He's really powerful when he's not holding back. I myself have never seen him go berserk, though." Jeanne said to me.

So that was why the serpent suddenly stopped moving when I was inside its stomach. I probably wouldn't have been able to kill it if general Zhang didn't stop its movement.

"It's done~" He hummed.

The blue aura had completely disappeared, and was now reduced into a single stone, resting on top of his palm.

"So this is a serpent's soul?" I stepped closer with Jeanne and took a glimpse of the teeny tiny stone he was holding.

"Yeap! And with this, mission's complete~" He exclaimed proudly.

"I didn't expect it to be so small... I thought it'd be cooler, like an orb or something." I expressed my slight disappointment. I guess not everything that has magic in it would be cool.

The soul was in the form of a smooth, tiny blue stone. It was brightly emanating a blue glow, much stronger than the crystals on the walls did. And I could sense a particularly familiar, comforting feeling from it. Was it because it was made up of life force?

"Hey, eel. Can I borrow that for a moment?" I asked. I was curious about it, but more importantly, I needed to touch the soul to complete my quest.

[Quest: obtain the serpent's soul]

[Reward: ???]

I thought it'd be completed the moment we obtain the soul, but probably the system wanted me specifically to touch it?

"No." He answered quickly with a grin.

"Dude, just let me borrow it for one second..." I sighed. I didn't have enough energy left to argue with this maniac.

"No. What if you do something weird with it? Gramps will scold me~" He asked while trying to look cute by cupping his cheeks with his palms.

"It'll be more interesting if I do, am I right? Being too obedient isn't fun, y'know~" I copied him and cupped my cheeks with my palms, too, complete with a high-pitched fake voice.

"Hmm. That is true," he touched his chin with his hand, "but nope! Tee-hee!"

"Ugh, please, just let me touch that thing. I couldn't do anything dangerous in this state, anyway." I reached out to grab the stone.

"Fine, fine, I'm kidding~" He grinned and opened his palm, revealing the shiny blue stone, "you'd die if you fight me anyway."

"You'll regret those words someday." I grumbled as I touched the soul.

Hmm.

[Quest: obtain the serpent's soul]

[Reward: ???]

Weird. Nothing happened. Damn it quest, why must you always be so vague?

"...Nevermind, thank you." I sighed and let go of the stone.

"Are you on your period or something, little cub? You're acting weird." He teased me with an innocent face.

"No. Let's just go home..." I turned around, feeling defeated. The soul was right there, and yet I couldn't complete my quest. I had to decipher the quest's intention to get past this.

"Yeah. Let's go back to the entrance. We can meet up with Owen's squad in the middle." Jeanne suggested.

"Are you sure you can walk like this, Jeanne?" I asked. Even though I was helping her stand and walk, I couldn't help but feel concerned about her.

"Yes. I'll be fine." She smiled.

I nodded, even though I wasn't sure if this was the right call. I hope they have great healers back home, so she could get her leg fixed...

"Stop!" General Zhang suddenly shouted.

We tensed up and immediately stopped moving.

"W-what?" I glanced back at him, and saw his gaze fixed on the lair's entrance's way.

"Timmy, come back!" He extended his arm, and suddenly, a wisp of smoke came floating from the cave's entrance and entered his body.

"Timmy? What happened to him?" I asked, completely caught off-guard.

"Timmy is part of general Zhang's mana. That smoke just now was Timmy coming back to fuse with general Zhang again. However..." Jeanne paused.

"However?"

"If general Zhang is gathering his mana, that means he's ready to fight seriously."

I gulped. A new enemy, at a time like this? This world sure wasn't giving me a break...

"Something's here. You guys go hide. Fast." Sparks started to form around his legs. I felt his mana surge as he commanded us to step back.

I nodded and helped Jeanne to go hide behind a huge rock near the cave wall. If he told us to hide, that means we would only be a hindrance in this fight. We were no match against this new opponent.

If so, what monster would be worse than an evolved serpent?

[Ding!]

[The item 'Fated compass' is reacting strongly]

What? A compass?

I opened my inventory, and saw a compass I got from the beginner's bag a few days ago.

"Oh right, I completely forgot about this, too. What does it do?" I muttered to myself and took the compass out of my inventory.

The compass had a weird design. It was a round, golden compass with only one letter on it. An 'E', instead of an 'N' for north.

"...Why is it pointing towards the lair entrance?"