Transcendent Gene
Chapter 193: Hidden Legacy [7]

Chapter 193: Hidden Legacy [7]

Gio stepped up with a bang and followed Neriah. At the start, her pathing was perfect.

The line they had to follow was like a wiggling worm. It didn’t allow them to move directly forward for more than a second at a time before they had to adjust their direction. It also didn’t allow them to find the angle it moved on and use a straight line to pass it that way.

The randomness in its changes was difficult to follow even for Gio, who could perfectly see what he needed to follow. He couldn’t imagine what it was like for Neriah.

Her speed was perfect. She’d instinctively judged the rate she needed to move at to keep up with the changes in the pattern. Her movements otherwise, however, were incredibly chaotic.

She roughly saw the outline of the path just as she had when they were climbing to the cave entrance, but her abilities were impaired by the aurora, leaving it only somewhat accurate.

She used it as a general guide for what direction she needed to move in, leaving the rest to her instincts.

And they did get her far.

Gio moved in an orderly path, staying in the center of the path at all times. Neriah, on the other hand, was constantly jumping around.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. A heat rose from the side of her body, and she immediately pivoted herself left and adjusted herself, just barely avoiding the edge of the true aurora.

The light in front of her face blinded her, blending in with the purple color of her pathfinding ability and throwing her off course.

"Tch!"

She clicked her tongue. She felt heat from both sides so constantly that she felt like she was drunkenly stumbling along. The steps accumulated in her head, telling her that she was roughly halfway through the tunnel. She just had to keep pushing ahead.

The aurora moved her around, pushing her mostly towards the left of the tunnel. Despite the subtle changes from left to right, its mostly one-directional route made the rush bearable.

The heat and light became hotter and brighter the further they went in. It flared in Neriah’s eyes until finally...

She was forced to close them.

And when her eyelids cut off her vision, before she was able to use her Sixth Sense to at least somewhat understand her surroundings while she was blinded, the path changed.

The aurora abruptly switched directions and charged to the right. Neriah felt the change around her, but it happened too suddenly. The heat turned into a much more visceral burning feeling against the left side of her body.

Her eyes shot open, but there was nothing she could see. By the time her ability activated again, she’d be incinerated.

’No...’

This wasn’t it.

She’d barely lived. How could she already be facing death?

It wasn’t her first time getting close to it. It wasn’t even the first time she’d looked it in the face.

However, it was the first time she’d seen death so close since she became strong.

’No...’

Her mind went blank. It all happened in an instant, so Gio couldn’t stop her mind from racing into the pits of despair.

But he chose to go second for a reason.

He acted the instant he saw her falter. He boosted himself forward with virtual energy and grabbed her, pulling her away from the edge of the light that was burning her arm. He held her in front of him in a strange position –the only one he could carry her in with the size of the path– and pushed forward even faster.

His eyes were colored black just like the path he needed to follow. He slowed his speed until he was moving along its flow and charged to its end.

For Neriah, it was a chaotic battle against probability, but for him, it was like a light walk.

’It’s almost as if this room was meant to test someone who can sense change.’

He was able to see the path so perfectly because of his eyes. In fact, the other parts of the tomb were the same, weren’t they?

Gio wondered about it as he exited the aurora and arrived on the other side. The end of the tunnel led to another doorway into a new part of the legacy, but the space in between the aurora and the doorway was empty.

It was a place designed for resting. Finally, after almost half a day, they’d reached a place where they could rest.

Gio slowly set Neriah down, allowing her to support herself on two feet. The flashing lights made it hard to comprehend what was happening, but feeling the ground underneath her once more finally helped her accept that she did not die.

In fact, she was barely burned. Gio was able to save her before the aurora could do more than scar her shoulder and arm.

It felt like she’d seen death directly. It felt like she’d been burned much more than she truly had been.

However, it was all an illusion created by flashing lights and chaos. Only the silence could reveal the truth.

"Huu..."

Neriah took a deep breath, her hand on Gio’s shoulder and her eyes on the ground. Her legs were still weak. She almost collapsed in that last moment, after all.

"Wall..." she muttered, squeezing out the words to the best of her ability.

Gio helped her walk to the wall and sit down before moving a bit further away. He looked at her for a moment. Seeing that her eyes were on the ground, he took the opportunity to reach into his Storage Hole and grab a syringe of healing serum.

He kept any antidotes and serums directly next to the door so he could access them without even having to enter the unit. It was certainly convenient for situations like this.

"Here."

He walked up and held it out to Neriah, who finally raised her eyes.

She wanted to question where he got it from, but she didn’t ask.

There was something else being processed in her mind now. She didn’t have the space to ponder something meaningless.

"Thank you."

She uttered thanks and stabbed the needle into her arm, relaxing into the wall as her burn was healed.

Gio shook his head as he responded.

"Don’t mention it. This place looks safe, and we haven’t been able to rest for a while. Let’s take a break before we continue."

It had to be remembered that Neriah surprised Gio before he could sleep and they battled into the night. The last sleep they got was the little bit they could get the night prior, quite a bit more than twenty-four hours ago.

By now, it was approaching noon outside.

’In the worst-case scenario, I have rations in the Storage Hole. I would prefer to keep it a secret, but there’s nothing we can do if we need to eat.’

The beasts in the forest were those that were easy to cook and eat even for people who didn’t know how to prepare meat. Gio had those skills, so he’d eaten well only an hour or so before his fight with Neriah.

He used a lot of energy, but he also still had a lot of energy left in him. He didn’t need to worry for at least another day.

’If I’m lucky, I can hold on for two.’

Neriah was even less of a worry. The healing serum she was injecting into herself would supplement her body’s needs. Any energy it didn’t use healing her would be turned into nutrients her body could absorb.

’It may be possible to stay for longer, but it’s never the ideal. The ideal is to finish either at or before the deadline of the entrance ceremony.’

He didn’t know how much of the legacy was left. He didn’t know if they had to get even further to find any rewards or if they were in front of the final room now.

Whatever the case was, he was prepared to adapt.

And as long as he was ready, he didn’t have to be worried about anything.

That thought was a core part of the mentality that kept him sane in the past.

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