Four Split Personalities

Game Time PM18:42

As the last streak of dusk’s yellow glow vanished over the horizon, nightfall finally descended upon this wounded land.

One by one, torches were lit at the mouth of the Hodir Mountain Pass, casting the darkness in even deeper obscurity.

"Lorum, keep sleeping a little longer,"

Seeing the gnome ranger Lorum barely open his eyes as he lay in front of her, the rookie thief Elsa immediately furrowed her brow and whispered softly, "I’ll call you when it’s time to leave."

This young elf girl was quite lucky. Although her strength put her at the very bottom of the allied forces, excluding civilians, she had not sustained any serious injuries previously. It’s worth noting that during battle, her Third Combat Sequence was placed on the frontlines against the mutants repeatedly by Motan. The casualties were only less than twenty percent lower than the first two sequences. However, this naive girl who had made significant contributions bled only once due to the ridiculous reason of scrapping her nose from a fall.

As for Lorum, a member of the same Third Sequence and two ranks stronger than Elsa, he was not so fortunate. The dwarf ranger, not even reaching one meter thirty with his untamed hair, barely had a spot on his body without a scratch. Adding up all the large and small wounds, there were at least twenty-plus spots, and four or five were the kind of severe injuries that could have been fatal if the strike had been at a slightly different angle. The majority of his equipment and his enchanted leather armor, inscribed with three basic enchantments, were beyond salvageable. The only item in good condition was his well-maintained two-handed crossbow.

It was a very common heavy crossbow in design and model. The only noteworthy feature was the string made of magic web spider silk, which was much more durable than regular steelwire, widely used in crafting spike and sticky traps, and considered a material of "Excellent" quality. Although not of poor quality, it wasn’t particularly valuable, and the total cost of the crossbow with the string was estimated not to exceed fifteen silver coins.

However, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that this crossbow had always been treasured by its owner, well, at least since some time ago.

It should be mentioned that Lorum’s Ice-touch Bow, into which he had invested two months’ income, was smashed in a melee with mutants not long ago, yet this crossbow had somehow remained miraculously intact.

That being said, a Ranger engaging in hand-to-hand combat with mutants was in itself quite astonishing...

"Ah haha, I’m fine, haven’t I slept for quite a long time already?"

Lorum laughed heartily, shaking his head as he sat up and addressed Elsa, "Besides, I don’t believe you would really wake me up when it’s time to leave. Black Leaf must have told you to leave me behind. Don’t worry, Lorum is in good shape. A little injury won’t stop me from doing anything."

Elsa opened her mouth as if to say something but was interrupted by a voice that arose not far away...

"You’re half right, Elsa definitely wasn’t planning to wake you up,"

A completely black panther appeared silently beside them, revealing a very human-like sneer, "But I didn’t tell her any of that."

Lorum pursed his lips, casually picked up his heavy crossbow and held it close, then turned back to glare at Emang Black Leaf who had just come from the ’emergency center,’ and huffed, "Whatever you say is useless, I’m definitely going to participate in the fourth phase... Huh?!"

It wasn’t until the end of his sentence that he realized what Emang had said and was suddenly frozen on the spot.

"Mr. Black Leaf is right,"

Elsa handed Lorum a cup of warm tree sap, lowering her head and speaking softly, "I indeed don’t want you to take part in the next phase, although I know there’s a good chance I can’t stop you..."

Lorum somewhat dumbfoundedly received the warm tree sap from her, his cheeks reddening as he chuckled awkwardly, "Haha, Elsa, that’s where you’re wrong. It’s one thing for Black Leaf to look down on me, but you can’t..."

"You didn’t have to get hurt so badly!"

The usually calm and gentle little thief suddenly raised her head, staring intently at Lorum with her big, uneven eyes, and said gravely, "If you hadn’t been foolishly covering for me all the time, if you hadn’t always acted as if you would rather be torn apart by those monsters than let anything happen to me, you wouldn’t have ended up like this!"

Lorum was stunned, petrified for a long time before he stammered, "I..."

"You like me, don’t you!"

Elsa’s gaze burned into Lorum, her voice fierce, "Even though I often get your name wrong, even though I call you ’brother’ despite being more than a hundred years older than you, even though I’m clumsy and only a burden, you still like me, right?!"

"♪"

Crouching nearby, Emang Black Leaf whistled a loud whistle.

"No... not at all... I mean, that’s not right, I..."

Lorum first reflexively shook his head, then shook it more vigorously to deny his initial reaction, looking utterly frantic.

"I was wrong, I shouldn’t have given you that bag of magic web spider silk!"

Elsa’s usually cheerful face suddenly grew cold as she gritted her teeth, "Give it up, brother Lorum, you... you stunted dwarf! I... I don’t like guys who are one meter three; I like them three meters one! Got that?!"

Lorum was struck as if by a lightning bolt, standing there petrified, his eyes vacant as he mumbled, "Three meters one... Isn’t that the height of ogres?"