The narrow mountain passage stretched farther into the depths of the rock, twisting between towering cliffs that rose high enough to block out most of the afternoon sunlight.
The further they went, the colder the air became.
The dry heat of the desert had already disappeared behind them, replaced by a damp chill that clung to the stone walls. Their footsteps echoed faintly through the passage, each sound traveling farther than it should have in the confined space.
The only source of light came from the creature flying ahead of them.
The Amethyst Raven glided through the darkness, its crystalline body emitting a soft violet glow. Every beat of its translucent wings scattered faint reflections across the surrounding walls, making the jagged rocks shimmer as though they had been covered in fragments of amethyst.
Ryota followed several steps behind it, his eyes constantly moving between the path ahead and the surrounding cliffs.
He hadn't forgotten what had happened in the desert.
They had been ambushed.
Ramos had been taken.
And somewhere ahead of them were the people responsible.
His grip tightened around the sword at his waist.
They had already wasted enough time.
Every minute they spent wandering through these mountains gave the kidnappers more time to move Ramos somewhere else.
Fayzan walked behind him, his usual relaxed demeanor completely absent. One hand remained close to the hilt of his sword, ready to draw at the slightest sign of danger.
Ayame stayed between the two men, her gaze fixed on the Amethyst Raven.
The crystal creature had been leading them ever since it discovered the trail.
For several minutes, nothing had changed.
It continued flying deeper into the passage, occasionally circling back whenever the trail became difficult to follow.
Then, without warning, its movements changed.
The Amethyst Raven slowed.
Its wings beat several times in quick succession before it abruptly descended toward the path ahead.
Ayame noticed immediately.
"Wait."
She raised her arm.
The crystal bird turned toward her and flew back.
With a soft flutter of its wings, it landed on her forearm. Its crystalline talons rested against her sleeve as its violet eyes remained fixed on the darkness ahead.
Ayame looked at it carefully.
"What did you find?"
The raven gave no verbal response.
Instead, it turned its head.
Its beak slowly pointed toward the bend ahead.
Ayame's expression became serious.
She followed its gaze.
At first, there was nothing.
Only darkness.
Then she noticed something.
A shadow shifted near the corner.
Ayame immediately lowered her voice.
"Someone's there."
Ryota stopped.
Fayzan's hand instantly moved toward his sword.
Neither man said another word.
Ryota carefully approached the corner and leaned just enough to see what was beyond it.
His eyes narrowed.
Two figures stood farther ahead.
They were players.
Both were swordsmen.
They wore dark leather armor reinforced with metal plates around their shoulders and chest. Their swords remained sheathed, but their positions were anything but casual.
They had deliberately stationed themselves in front of a much larger opening in the mountain.
They were guarding it.
Ryota slowly pulled his head back.
"Two players."
Fayzan looked toward him.
"They're definitely guards."
Ayame's gaze shifted toward the Amethyst Raven.
The crystal bird remained perched on her arm.
Its beak was still pointed toward the guarded entrance.
There was no doubt now.
The trail continued beyond them.
And if the raven was correct, Ramos was somewhere on the other side.
Ryota's expression hardened.
"Then we go in."
Fayzan nodded.
"We'll have to get past them before they realize we're here."
Ayame took a cautious step forward.
But before any of them could make another move, something suddenly grabbed Ryota's shoulder from behind.
Ryota's body reacted before his mind could catch up.
His hand immediately went toward his sword as he spun around.
"What—?!"
He stopped.
Standing directly behind him was a familiar woman with slightly disheveled red hair.
She was breathing a little harder than usual, clearly having hurried through the mountain after following the coordinates Ayame had sent.
Despite that, her expression remained confident.
Kiraya smiled.
"Found you."
Ryota stared at her for a moment before the tension in his shoulders finally eased.
"...Kiraya?"
"That's right."
She gave him a small wave.
Ryota released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"You actually caught up."
"Of course I did."
Kiraya glanced past him.
Her eyes immediately landed on Fayzan and Ayame.
The moment Ayame saw her, her expression brightened.
"Kiraya!"
Before Kiraya could react, Ayame rushed toward her.
Kiraya's eyes widened.
"A-Ayame?!"
Ayame threw both arms around her.
Kiraya stumbled backward half a step from the sudden impact, but she quickly recovered and placed one arm around Ayame.
Ayame hugged her tightly.
"I missed you!"
Kiraya's expression softened.
"It's good to see you too."
Ayame finally pulled back enough to look at her.
"How have you been?"
Kiraya hesitated.
Then she gave a slightly embarrassed smile.
"Busy."
Ayame blinked.
"Busy?"
"Very busy."
Kiraya rubbed the back of her neck.
"Ever since I joined Crowned Era, there's always something happening. Raids, dungeons, boss battles, guild missions... every time I think things are finally calming down, something else comes up."
Ayame puffed out her cheeks.
"We haven't seen each other since you left Eternity Lions."
"I know."
"You could have visited."
"I wanted to."
Kiraya raised both hands defensively.
"I really did."
Ayame stared at her.
Kiraya's smile became increasingly awkward.
"But every time I had free time, another raid would come up."
Ayame crossed her arms.
"So you forgot about me."
Kiraya's eyes widened.
"What?! No!"
She shook her head vigorously.
"I didn't forget you!"
"Then why haven't you visited?"
"I just haven't had much free time."
Ayame continued staring at her.
Kiraya could only smile awkwardly under the pressure.
Finally, Ayame sighed.
"Fine."
Kiraya visibly relaxed.
"But you better tell me about all the fun things you've been doing later."
Kiraya smiled.
"Deal."
"And we're going to have lunch together."
"Absolutely."
"You promised."
"I promise."
Ayame's expression immediately brightened.
"Okay!"
Fayzan, who had been watching the reunion from behind them, couldn't help but chuckle.
Ryota shook his head as well.
They were standing in the middle of an enemy-controlled mountain, with Ramos potentially in danger, and somehow Ayame and Kiraya had already made lunch plans.
It was almost impressive.
However, the lighthearted atmosphere didn't last.
Kiraya's smile slowly faded.
Her attention shifted toward Ryota.
"You don't need to worry."
Ryota looked at her.
Kiraya's voice became firm.
"We'll get Ramos back."
Ryota's fingers tightened around the grip of his sword.
He nodded.
"We will."
There was no uncertainty in his voice.
Ramos wasn't a player.
He couldn't respawn.
If they failed to rescue him, there was no second attempt waiting for them.
Kiraya nodded firmly.
"Good."
She then looked toward Fayzan.
After that, she turned toward Ayame.
Finally, her gaze settled on the Amethyst Raven.
Her expression became serious.
"Tell me everything."
Ayame nodded.
"There are two players guarding the entrance."
She gestured toward the corner.
"Both are swordsmen. The raven spotted them before we reached this point."
Kiraya narrowed her eyes.
"Do they know we're here?"
"Not yet."
"Good."
Ayame raised her arm slightly.
The Amethyst Raven remained perched there, its crystalline feathers glowing softly in the darkness.
"It's still pointing toward the entrance."
She looked toward the cave.
"I'm certain the trail continues inside."
Kiraya studied the two guards from a distance.
"How many enemies do you think are beyond them?"
"We don't know."
Ayame shook her head.
"That's the problem."
"If we attack those two now, they could immediately send a message to whoever is inside."
Fayzan nodded.
"And if there's an entire group waiting beyond that entrance, we'll be fighting them on their own territory."
Ryota added, "They could also move Ramos as soon as they realize someone is coming."
Ayame's expression darkened.
"Or they could escape through another route."
Kiraya remained silent.
She stared toward the entrance.
Two guards.
An unknown number of enemies.
A mountain passage with limited room to maneuver.
And an NPC whose life depended entirely on them.
Charging straight in wasn't an option.
A prolonged battle was exactly what they needed to avoid.
Kiraya's eyes narrowed.
Then, slowly, the corners of her lips lifted.
A confident smile appeared on her face.
"I have a plan."
Ryota blinked.
Fayzan looked at her.
Ayame tilted her head.
"What kind of plan?"
Kiraya didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she opened her inventory.
A translucent blue system window appeared beside her.
Her fingers moved through the list of items.
She scrolled.
Then scrolled again.
The others watched silently.
Finally, Kiraya stopped.
She selected an item.
A small rectangular book materialized in her hand.
It was bound in dark blue leather, its edges reinforced with silver. Strange symbols had been engraved across its cover, forming a pattern that none of them immediately recognized.
Ayame's eyes widened.
"...Is that?"
Kiraya nodded.
"A skill book."
Fayzan stepped closer.
Ryota raised an eyebrow.
"You've been carrying that?"
"I have."
Kiraya turned the book slightly so they could see its cover more clearly.
"I found it during one of the dungeon raids Rio assigned to Crowned Era."
Ayame stared at it.
"Then why haven't you learned it?"
Kiraya looked down at the book.
"Because I wasn't sure what it did."
Ryota frowned.
"You can usually check the skill before learning it."
"Not this one."
Kiraya tapped the strange symbols engraved into the cover.
"The information was sealed."
She paused.
"I could only see that it was a skill book."
Fayzan looked intrigued.
"So you carried around an unidentified skill book this entire time?"
Kiraya shrugged.
"I wasn't going to throw away something that came from a dungeon."
Her gaze shifted toward the two swordsmen.
"But I kept wondering when I would actually have a reason to use it."
She raised the book slightly.
"I think I just found that reason."
The joking atmosphere disappeared completely.
Kiraya opened the skill book.
The moment the cover separated from the pages, a faint blue light spilled into the dark passage.
The symbols written across the pages began glowing.
One after another, ancient markings illuminated themselves across the paper.
A translucent system window appeared in front of Kiraya.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Skill Book Detected]
[Skill: ???]
Learning Requirements Met
Would you like to learn this skill?
[YES]
[NO]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ryota stared at the window.
"Still unidentified..."
Fayzan leaned forward slightly.
Ayame's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Kiraya, however, didn't hesitate.
She had already made her decision.
She raised her finger.
The glowing [YES] option waited in front of her.
Kiraya smiled faintly.
"Looks like we found our way inside."
Her finger touched the option.
[YES].
The system window vanished.
At the same instant, the skill book in Kiraya's hands began to disintegrate.
It didn't burn.
It didn't crumble.
Instead, its pages dissolved into countless particles of blue light.
The particles floated upward before suddenly spiraling around Kiraya.
Blue light wrapped around her arms.
It traveled across her shoulders and chest before spreading throughout her entire body.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Ryota watched carefully.
Fayzan remained ready for anything.
Ayame stared at Kiraya with open curiosity.
Then—
a deep system notification echoed through the mountain passage.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Skill Learned Successfully.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The blue particles vanished.
The skill book was gone.
Kiraya slowly lowered her hand.
For a moment, she said nothing.
Her eyes remained fixed on the guarded entrance.
Then the confident smile returned.
But this time, there was nothing playful about it.
It was the expression of someone who had just acquired exactly what she needed.
Ryota stared at her.
"...What did you learn?"
Kiraya turned toward him.
Her eyes briefly met his before shifting back toward the two unsuspecting swordsmen.
"Something that's going to make sure they never get the chance to call for reinforcements."
Ryota's expression sharpened.
Fayzan slowly drew his sword from its sheath.
The quiet metallic sound echoed through the passage.
Ayame raised her arm.
The Amethyst Raven immediately spread its crystalline wings, violet light shimmering across its body.
Kiraya stepped forward.
The four of them were now ready.
Beyond the corner stood two guards who had no idea what was approaching them.
Behind those guards was a cave whose contents remained unknown.
Somewhere inside was Ramos.
And whatever skill Kiraya had just learned, they were about to discover exactly why she had been carrying it all this time.
The rescue operation was about to begin.