Where the two had been standing, a massive scorpion erupted from the ground.

  [Sand Scorpion]: Level 23

  HP: 41,000

  Physical Attack: 2,200

  Physical Defense: 1,250

  [Subterranean Lunge]: Burrow underground and lunge forward 15 yards, launching all enemies in your path into the air. Targets take 1.5x Physical Attack damage upon landing and are stunned for 1.5 seconds.

  While Orion was still airborne, Kael was already firing.

  Double Shot.

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  The Sand Scorpion immediately turned and charged toward him.

  Kael didn’t retreat. He stood his ground and kept shooting.

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  -639 (Kael)

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  Two back-to-back critical hits. The 41,000 HP scorpion crumpled into a heap, dead.

  [System: You have killed a Sand Scorpion. You gain 20,000 EXP.]

  Twenty thousand experience points was a drop in the bucket compared to the 120 million Kael needed for his next upgraded level.

  By the time Orion landed, he received the notification that the scorpion was already dead. He just sat on the sand, stunned into silence for a long moment. Kael’s damage output was simply staggering.

  “As the archives foretold! That… that was insane!”

  Kael looted the materials from the scorpion’s corpse and shouted back at Orion. “Hey, snap out of it. Heal up.”

  “Oh, right! On it, boss.” Orion scrambled to his feet and burned a Sigil of Restoration for himself. Then, he tossed a few more paper sigils toward Kael.

  Several new buffs appeared on Kael’s status bar:

  [Sigil of Warding]: +500 Physical Defense

  [Sigil of Might]: +500 Physical Attack

  Kael was intrigued by Orion’s bizarre set of abilities. “How do you have so many skills? Do you even have enough Skill Points?”

  Orion was only level 17, which meant he should have 17 Skill Points at most. But Kael had already seen him use at least five different abilities: the divine skill, the revival sigil, the healing sigil, and now these two buffing sigils. And that wasn't even counting any potential offensive skills.

  “It’s only four main skills plus two passives,” Orion explained. “Crafting the revival and restoration sigils is just two functions of my [Artifice: Vitality] skill.

  The warding and might sigils come from my [Artifice: Fortification] skill. I also have [Artifice: Judgment] for offensive stuff like lightning and fire sigils, and [Artifice: Subtlety] for debuffs like root and confusion.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  He continued, “The divine compass thing is one of my passive talents; the other one just enhances my sigils. Each skill costs 3 Skill Points, so I’ve still got 5 points saved up.”

  Kael nodded. The Diviner class was exceedingly rare; he’d never really grouped with one in his past life.

  With Kael clearing the way, they proceeded deeper into the desert, wiping out mobs as they went. Orion even managed to ding level 18 along the way.

  After about an hour, they arrived at the mouth of a cave. Kael activated his Heart of the Ocean, and the two of them stepped inside.The interior was illuminated as if by daylight.

  Orion gasped. “As the archives foretold. Boss, what is that item? The light is so bright, and the range is huge.”

  “Heart of the Ocean,” Kael said without turning back.

  “Heart of the Ocean… nice. My [Artifice: Subtlety] skill lets me craft a [Sigil of Night-Eye], but it only lets me see in the dark. The effect is nothing compared to your item.”

  An idea struck Kael. He stopped. “You can see in the dark on your own?”

  Orion nodded. He pulled a pale blue paper sigil from his inventory. “This is a [Sigil of Night-Eye]. I craft it with powdered moon-crystal and bull’s tears.”

  Kael thought for a moment. “Okay, use that. There might be other players in here. We should be careful.”

  He toggled the Heart of the Ocean from Tidal Glow to Night Vision mode. The brilliant light vanished, plunging the cave into absolute darkness.

  Orion quickly lit his sigil. Once it burned to ash, he scraped the residue into his palm and forced it into his mouth, swallowing with a pained grimace. “As the archives foretold. God, these things taste awful.”

  Kael just shook his head and led him deeper into the cave.

  The air grew cold and damp. The further they went, the lower the temperature dropped, until frost began to coat the cavern walls. Thankfully, they encountered no monsters or traps. Soon, they reached the end of the passage.

  “Is this it? A dead end? Where’s the treasure?” Orion asked.

  Kael didn’t answer. He took out his Treasure Map, checked the marked location, and began running his hands along the cave wall. Orion pulled out his compass and began muttering to himself. The needle began to spin, strangely pointing in the same direction Kael was searching.

  Soon, Kael’s fingers found a mechanism hidden in the rock. There should have been a secret lock covering it, but it was already open.

  He paused. So someone did get here first.

  He pressed the switch. With a deep grinding sound, a section of the stone wall began to rise, revealing a dark, six-foot-high opening.

  Kael motioned with his hand. “Stay close. Be ready, there are mobs inside.”

  “O-Okay.” Orion quickly put away his compass and fell in behind Kael.

  Shortly after they stepped through the secret door, their minimap location changed from [Unnamed Cave] to [Blackheart Grotto], and the stone door rumbled shut behind them. At the same moment, two giant spiders scuttled out of the darkness.

  [Frost Spider]: Level 23

  Kael was about to fire when a blast of wind swept past him, visibly slowing the spiders’ advance.

  Orion’s voice came from behind him. “Boss, I switched my [Windbreaker Charm] to its gale mode! Light ‘em up!”

  Kael nodded. I underestimated his trinket. It has multiple modes? Its quality might be just as good as my Heart of the Ocean.

  He didn’t use a skill, just a normal attack.

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  Both spiders were hit simultaneously. It was one of Galeharrow’s passive abilities: [Splintering Arrow], which automatically fired a second shot at another nearby target on a normal attack.

  Not only that, but both spiders were suddenly wrapped in thin, sticky strands, rooting them to the spot. Another of Galeharrow’s passives: [Silkbind Shot], a 20% chance on hit to immobilize the target for two seconds.

  Kael nodded to himself. Nice. I didn’t realize the splintered shot could also trigger Silkbind Shot. He’d never noticed it during the defense of the Blackwind Brotherhood camp, mainly because most players died in one hit anyway. It seemed the Splintering Arrow counted as a full attack.

  The immobilized spiders hissed in frustration. Suddenly, they both spat a stream of webbing at Kael. The air was so cold that the strands froze mid-flight, becoming sharp icicles.

  -893 (Slowed)

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  His attack speed slowed from 0.8 seconds to 1.0 second per shot. The damage was negligible.

  After their initial volley, the spiders focused on struggling against the webbing. Kael continued to fire, managing to kill them both just before they broke free and reached him.

  The spiders didn’t drop any gear, just a few crafting materials called [Frost-Spun Silk], used for making level 20 armor and bowstrings.

  After clearing the area, they continued on. The main tunnel of Blackheart’s Grotto was lined with small side rooms, but they were all empty. The only things inside were more Frost Spiders and Frostfang Rats, chewing on discarded burlap sacks. It looked like this area had been used for food storage.

  They searched three rooms, finding nothing but more crafting materials from the monsters they killed.

  Orion came up behind Kael and whispered, “Hey, boss… you think someone already cleared this place out?”

  Kael nodded grimly. As they approached the fourth room, they saw light spilling from the doorway.

  And then they heard a voice from within.

  “Boss! I found a chest in this room!”