'You succeeded!'
Elia secretly rejoiced.
The Sword God's teardrop encrusted on the tip of this dagger is an artifact that contains the aura of the Valkyrie Sword Goddess.
The description is great, but the essence in the end is a healed aura stone.
Aura stones have the property of sensing each other and attracting towards the stronger aura stone.
‘Within a certain range, you are attracted to the stronger Aura Stone.’
For this reason, she didn't make a mistake when she saw the monster light earlier, and didn't confuse it with the Aura Stone.
Because if it were a real Halo Stone, this sword would have shaken, but it didn't.
Fortunately, this training was for searching for Aura Stones, and since she was carrying this tear-studded dagger, she was able to come up with this plan.
In fact, most of the other members of the unit were from noble families as well, and they carried the Heir Swords.
Like that gang that was working as Patrick's henchmen, and that she had expelled before.
But because of the march, they had to reduce their military baggage as much as possible, so they had no choice but to leave all those swords in the Grand Duke's Palace.
So, they couldn't implement this plan.
'No, these idiots probably don't even know about this property of Aura Stones in the first place.'
The reason why Elijah knew this property of the Aura Stones better than anyone else, was because the Baron's family had been destroyed by the monster attack and had become extremely poor.
Her eldest brother, Erhan, had, unlike the sons of other noble families, to make an heir sword with a teardrop of extremely low quality.
Erhan found the sight of his sword being attracted to other swords, when he met the heirs of other families, shameful and humiliating.
So, he eventually inlaid that sword with a fake glass stone.
Since the glass stone is not an aura stone, it cannot be attracted to other good tears.
For this reason, the Erhan sword that she kept did not specifically interact with the heir swords that Patrick's gang had brought out before.
However, the sons of well-off noble families, who could obtain good tears and inlay them into their swords, did not need to worry about such matters at all.
‘Because it is a matter that only the relatively poor care about, they watch others warily.’
Of course, Axion wouldn't have known that either.
The proof of this was the incomprehensible expression on his face when she took out the dagger.
Moreover, the Ruppelt family is a prestigious imperial military family, the leadership of which has been passed down for many generations.
They had definitely crafted and inlaid an extremely excellent teardrop into the sword of that family's heir, so it would obviously attract most of the Aura Stones.
Just like it's happening now.
Among the monsters, a small mass of light floated out.
Keisha's aura stone!
The Aura Stone, attracted to an entity stronger than itself, slowly flew towards where they were.
Illya forcefully grabbed the aura stone as it approached until it was in front of her nose.
You succeeded.
Now we just have to get out of the lake!
“Axion, let's go.”
She knocked on his arm, and as she prepared to swim toward the surface of the lake, she felt something strange.
“Axion?”
Axion's body did not move at all.
Weak bubbles of water leaked from between his slightly open lips.
Upon closer inspection, his lips had turned purple.
'He's in serious condition!'
Fortunately, his heartbeat was weak but palpable.
With this much, he had reached his limits, so how much could he bear?
He didn't show any signs, so she knew absolutely nothing.
How stubborn!
'This is not the time to think.'
She had to quickly climb to the surface of the lake.
She loosened her arms that were tightly holding her body, then placed it on her shoulder in a carrying position.
She kicked her feet madly toward the surface of the lake.
His golden hair was drifting here and there with the current of the water, touching her ear.
'It's heavy!
What a coincidence that this happened again!'
She remembered the last time when he had fainted in the bush, and she carried him on her back, heading towards the palace.
Both then and now, it was so heavy that she couldn't gain speed.
At that moment.
An extremely bright flash quickly approached them from below.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
At the same time, a hideous screaming sound was heard.
Hundreds of fish monsters were advancing towards them in swarms.
She kicked her feet desperately.
But the swarm of fish monsters soon caught up with her.
Is this the end?
She closed her eyes tightly.
But the monsters, instead of attacking her, quickly overtook her and swam away.
Googung-!!!
At the same time, with a massive bang, a huge vortex began to form beneath their feet.
The vortex, which arose from the bottom of the lake, was getting closer and closer to the top.
The monsters fled from that vortex.
"Yes!"
The vortex was literally tearing everything around her apart as it hurtled toward her.
'Can this be part of the training as well?'
'Even if it is Keisha, this seems to have gone a bit too far…'
At that moment, a shattered piece of rock, swept away by the eddy current, flew towards them.
She tried to dodge it, but it wasn't easy with Axion hanging on her.
Flash!
A light came out from the dagger fixed at her waist.
Specifically, the light was emanating from the Sword God's tear attached to the tip of the blade.
Gooooo-
In the blink of an eye, a protective barrier was formed to protect them, her and Axion, tightly.
'Ah, high-level artifacts also have this feature.'
Without having time to admire, her expression froze.
Axion's heartbeat could no longer be felt from his body touching hers.
The weight of his body hanging on her increased, and he hung limply.
She was swimming desperately, moving her feet forcefully toward the surface of the lake, when...
“……!”
She interrupted herself.
To make matters worse, the thirty-minute time limit for the slime pillow had passed.
But reaching the surface of the lake was still very far.
The specter of death was rapidly approaching them.
At that moment, Elijah had an idea.
Elijah secretly took a deep breath and looked down.
The huge vortex current was sweeping and destroying everything as it rose.
But if they went up with this current, they could reach the surface of the lake very quickly.
'It seems like a crazy method… but since this protective barrier exists, maybe it's possible!'
Of course, she didn't know how strong this protective barrier was.
But it's better to try to do something than to die without any plan.
After making her decision, Illya looked down to where the vortex was.
Seeing the violent current sweeping away and completely destroying everything made her think that this might be her future fate, so her body froze and did not move.
She closed her eyes tightly, shouted in her heart the martial spirit that she had repeated until she was tired of it since her previous life, and then rushed into the vortex.
'Even if it's unpleasant, I'll just do it!'
Gojojong-
The violent current surrounded them.
Their bodies shook from the huge shock.
But they didn't show any small scratches at all.
The protective barrier protected them tightly.
'Indeed, a High Grade Sword God Tear is different!'
She was very grateful to the Ruppelt family who had engraved that precious teardrop into the heir's sword immediately.
They rose to the surface of the lake in an instant, riding the whirlpool.
It was as if they were taking a high-speed elevator.
“Fhahat!”
Once she reached the surface, she quickly swam toward the shore of the lake.
By the time it reached land, other members of the unit had already exited.
"deer!"
Lennox ran to her with a worried face.
The rest of the unit, who were in relatively shallow areas, had managed to get out quickly, unlike Elijah and Axion.
Elijah shouted:
"I'm fine!
We have to save Axion before I do.
Bring Master Theo!"
Lennox explained with a puzzled face:
“Master Theo and Master Keisha are not here.
They went to eliminate the vortex of the lake that suddenly appeared...”
“What are you saying?”
Elijah's eyes twitched.
This meant that this vortex was not part of Keisha's training.
‘Like yesterday’s landslide, something is strange.’
But there was no time to wonder.
Axion's condition was serious.
When she put her finger under his nose, he wasn't breathing.
But of course, no one in the unit was able to provide first aid.
Except her.
She had received first aid training as part of her medical education during her military service in a previous life, if only a little.
Illya quickly bent over Axion's body lying on the ground.
“El, what are you doing now...?”
Without hesitation, she placed her lips on his, which had turned a dark blue-black color.