Lucian stopped moving when he saw Thorin and his team party ahead, resting, and it seemed as though they were cooking.
"Why did—" Nova let out an annoyed groan when Thorin noticed her, and a wide grin appeared on his face.
"Happy to see that you are still alive, Nova!" He shouted and left his teammates to Nova's side.
Lucian glared at Thorin, not only because their long time friendship was over, but also because Thorin had become stronger than the last time they met, and he was putting on some strong body armor; there was a sword kept neatly at the side of his waist.
Luna's tummy growled at the aroma of the food Thorin's party was cooking. "I wish I was on his team." She mumbles. For days, they had been walking, fighting strange magical beasts; luckily, some were edible, while others were just gross and pure poison. Finding water was hard; her system magic wasn't strong enough for combat but somehow had been doing wonders in keeping them alive. "I'm surprised you are not advising me to keep my voice down because Nova is going to be sad if she hears me or something."
Lucian's eyes were pinned on Thorin's teammate, who had managed to create a camp for themselves; they looked warmer and strangely comfortable with life in the dungeon, and he couldn't figure out how they had kitchen utensils for cooking. 'What sort of magic did they use?'
"What about Nova?" He asked absentmindedly.
Thorin ignores Lucian and Luna and drags Nova over to his camp.
"Captain." A girl in Thorin's party said, "She's not part of our team." Her menacing gaze moved to Lucian and Luna. "What if the rest of the leeches think that we want them in our team because of her?"
Thorin laughs out loud, "Don't worry about those losers; they know their place." He pulled his head closer to Nova's ear, his arm still wrapped around her shoulder as he whispered. "A beautiful girl like you shouldn't be with deadbeats like them; it's going to lead you to an early grave if you are not careful."
Nova shivered in disgust and tried pulling herself away, but Thorin's grip was too strong.
"It seems like you haven't been able to level up because you have been following those two losers." Thorin examines Nova's fragile state. "If you ignore a quest from your system, you are going to be punished."
His words felt like a slap to Lucian's face. He sat down on a little rock at his side. 'Could Nova already be following the quest her system gave her?' Nothing about her actions made sense. Whenever he uses his powers to read Nova's mind, it is clear that she doesn't like him, yet she keeps acting as though she cares about him. Lucian has recently distanced himself from her but still couldn't bring himself to leave her side because he needed Nova's abilities to stay alive. She was the strongest among them. Her strength and beauty were two of the reasons Thorin kept trying to recruit her.
"Did something happen between you and Nova?" Luna sat down close to Lucian.
'Did Nova confess her feelings for him again, and he rejected her?' She thought. Lucian read her mind by catching a glimpse of her light brown eyes behind her bangs. He felt like rolling his eyes. 'I get that this guy was something in the past, but in his current state? I don't understand why anyone would be in love with him.'
"What?" Luna asked when Lucian glared at her.
He arranged her bangs and made sure they properly covered her eyes; how she was going to see wasn't his problem. He didn't want to read any of her unpleasant thoughts anymore.
"Stop touching me." Luna snarled.
"Don't worry, it's a revolting feeling for me as well." He pulled his hand away from her hair. "Tell me more about system magic." He said in a serious tone.
Lately, Lucian has been carrying out different experiments with his powers, checking if he could steal the ability of a dead monster he didn't kill and if he could copy the ability of others just by watching and focusing hard on how they use their magic. He couldn't. His ability seems to only work on beasts that he killed personally with his hand.
'Not having a system must have made him curious.' Luna thought. System magic wasn't that great to her; she felt like hers was crap.
"How am I going to explain it?" She thought out loud. "It's like those novels online that show one's rank, magic attributes, and affinity."
"You mean like a video game."
Luna twists the side of her mouth in a frown.
"What sort of task does your system give to you? Are they demanding? Or it's not really a must."
"Little tasks that I ignored most times, but the damn system gives me a migraine, and I'm not allowed to heal myself because I didn't listen to it. Consider yourself lucky for not being linked with this slave system, smart guy."
Lucian frowned. "Call me by my name; stop calling me that. How would you feel if I called you ghost girl all the time?"
Luna shrugs nonchalantly. She didn't care about what others called her. She had tried to stop herself from calling Lucian his hated nickname, but at times it slipped out of her tongue like something she couldn't control.
"Have you ever thought of the idea of using a poisonous plant or beast to create a combat system for yourself?"
"There's no way that is possible." Luna stops and stares at the screen that suddenly appeared in front of her.
[Hidden quest: take the poisonous tongue of the beast Achiloq.]
[Warning: A-rank beast]
[Status: D-rank healer]
[Hidden skills: Death assassin]
[Your quest begins in 10 seconds.]
"What?!" Luna's weak arms took a defensive form as she formed a fist, looking around the place they were settled in.
"Shut up, Lucian. Thanks to your dumbass suggestion, you have given my system the perfect way to force me into doing a dumb mission."
The ground in the dungeon shakes, putting an end to Thorin and Nova's chatter.
"Shit, I don't want to die. I don't want any of this." Luna cries. Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝✦𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚✦𝕟𝕖𝕥