Level 5?!

Celine leaned against the wall while breathing heavily. She felt exhausted. She didn't notice it earlier because of her adrenaline rush.

Rendell also leaned against the wall. His wounds had reopened and he could already see a touch of red on his bandages. "What level are you now?" He asked while looking at Celine.

Celine lifted her head to look at him. "I'm at Level 5 now." She responded to his question.

Rendell nodded upon hearing this. He purposefully let her deal the final blow to increase her level.

In the group, he was the only one who could fight high-level monsters. It would be hard for the others to fight one given their current abilities so he decided to boost Celine's level. If he was the only high-level combatant, he would have no time to rest.

"Why did you give up the final blow to me?" Celine stared at him deeply.

"It's for the survival of the group," Rendell answered, but he didn't bother to explain it to her. She was a smart woman so she should be able to understand it soon.

Celine furrowed her eyebrows, but she didn't press the matter.

After a moment of silence, she asked. "What should we do now?"

"You should bring Phillip to the office to have him treated. I'll retrieve the dropped items." Rendell replied.

"Phillip?" Celine's eyes flashed with worry. It was only now that she remembered that Phillip was beaten up by the Black Rat earlier. She immediately went to search for him.

After she left, Rendell went to the corpses of the Black Rats to collect the items they dropped.

They killed a total of 8 Black Rats and he managed to find 30 Gray Tokens, two protective shirts, one leather shield, one battle axe, one ring, one necklace, and five lesser healing potions.

It was a bountiful harvest!

He couldn't bring them all by himself so he asked Aurora for help to carry the items.

"You're bleeding! I already told you that you still can't move around too much!" Aurora went to his side and inspected his wounds. Her face was filled with worry.

"Alright. Alright. Can you help me carry the items inside the office? I can't carry them by myself." Rendell immediately changed the topic before she could even start to nag.

"Items? Do you mean the dropped items? Let me deal with them. You should go back and rest." Aurora held his arm and brought him inside the office.

"I can't leave you alone. It's still dangerous. We haven't sealed the entrance yet." Rendell disagreed right away.

Hearing this, Aurora smiled at him. "Have you forgotten what kind of Gift I have? If there's danger, I'll be the first one to know it." She smugly said.

Rendell was at loss for words. She sounded so reasonable that he couldn't offer any rebuttal. In the end, he could only shake his head in defeat. "Fine, but you have to be careful out there. If you discover anything dangerous, you should scream."

"I know." Aurora grinned at him.

"Bring the potions first. We'll have those guys drink one to speed up their recovery." Rendell reminded her.

"Okay. I'll bring them right away. Stay here and wait for me." Aurora said before she went to grab the potions.

Looking at her leave, Rendell was still worried, but he chose to believe in her ability to sense danger. 'Why am I worried about her? Don't tell me I'm starting to… No way!' Thinking about this, he vigorously shook his head.

Soon, Aurora brought the lesser healing potions to Ericka.

"Thank god we got these potions!" Ericka was relieved to see the potions. "With these potions, we can help them increase their recovery speed. Miss Marie, can you help me give this to them?"

"Sure! No problem!" Marie nodded without hesitation. Her husband was one of the injured so she wanted nothing more than to help him swiftly recover.

While they were helping the injured people drink the healing potions, Celine went to help Aurora in collecting the dropped items.

***

A few hours later, Kent and Phillip recovered to some extent. As for Ralph, he was still unconscious, but his wounds were starting to heal.

"Have you guys sealed the entrance?" Kent asked while clutching his chest. Ericka had already patched up his wounds and he even took some painkillers. However, he still felt a throbbing pain in his chest.

Celine nodded in response. "I have sealed the entrance with some boulders."

Kent turned his gaze to Aurora. "What about the area? Did you see any movements from the evolved creatures?"

Hearing this, Aurora shook her head. "I checked the surroundings using my Mystic Eyes. There are no evolved creatures nearby, but I will continue to monitor the situation outside."

Kent nodded. "Please do that. We can't say for sure that we're safe."

"Leave it to me."

"By the way, what happened to the Black Rats?" He stared at Celine.

"Rendell came out to help me deal with the remaining Black Rats. We managed to kill them all." She replied while taking a glance at Rendell to see his reaction.

Kent furrowed his eyebrows at her words, but he didn't dare scold Rendell for his actions. "We'll deal with the dropped items later. We need to leave tomorrow. There should be some evolved creatures that noticed the commotion earlier. I believe that they are just waiting for an opportunity to strike. We can't wait for that to happen. Only James and Celine are in good condition so we must avoid confrontation."

"I'll search for a place for us to stay." Celine suddenly said.

"No! You can't go out!" Kent immediately disagreed.

"I'm already at Level 5. I can take care of myself. Even if there's a high-level evolved creature, I'm sure that I can safely escape." Celine muttered confidently.

Kent and the others were stunned when they heard this.

"You are already at Level 5?!"

"That's fast!"

Even Kent couldn't believe it.

"He can vouch for me." Celine pointed her finger at Rendell.

Everyone turned their gazes to Rendell.

"Is she telling the truth?"

Rendell nodded. "That's right. She is already at Level 5."