Nacht slowly made his way over to the woman's corpse and picked up her ivory sword. Taking the swiss saber into his hands, he couldn't help but think how strangely comfortable the sword felt. It was faint, but he could feel a small amount of orren in the blade's hilt.
'A relic?'
Nacht was surprised that he managed to get a relic this early. This also explained why his mundane dagger shattered so easily, but judging from the sabers look and quality, It wasn't particularly a high graded relic. Nevertheless, Nacht was still a little excited since this was technically his first relic.
All he had to do now was let his orren flow from his core into the blade and let it bind to the relic. If he could achieve that then he would be able to carry it with him out of penance.
Closing his eyes, Nacht focused on the faint orren inside the relic and inside his own body. He tried to move the small amount of orren from his body but it refused to listen.
For the past couple of minutes, Nacht tried everything he could think of to try and coast his orren into the blade. In the end he was unable to claim the relic. Exhausted, Nacht collapsed to the floor causing the wound on his torso to throb in pain.
He gritted his teeth
'I know that I'm not an enlightened but shouldn't I still be able to control my orren even a little?'
Left gasping on the floor with his wound throbbing, he thought of an idea.
Focusing back on his body's internal condition, Nacht noticed a faint sense of orren coming from his core, but he also noticed something else. The orren leaking from his core seemed to be slowly travelling towards the wound on his torso.
This made sense since healing is an unconscious action made by the body to keep you alive. He imagined that this also applied to the orren which was travelling towards his wound.
This gave him an idea.
Nacht grabbed the sabre by its hilt and let the blade rest on his hand. Taking a deep breath, he cut a deep wound across the palm of his hand, and let his blood flow seamlessly over the relic. Concentrating for the umpteenth time, Nacht tried to guide the orren towards the cut on his hand.
It worked.
The orren in his body was slowly traveling towards the wound on his hand, through his blood. Once it reached his hand, Nacht basically had to beg the orren to follow the flow of his blood into the relic. He didn't know how much time passed, but eventually his plan worked.
Nacht felt a small connection form between his orren and the saber. He opened his eyes and wiped the sweat that had accumulated across his face. He looked at his power core and found a new engraving.
Relic: [Swiss Saber]
Type: Weapon
Grade: Mortal
Description: A reliable sword once wielded by a desperate sinner.
Nacht wasn't surprised.
The weapon looked too mundane then to be anything other than of the mortal grade. A mortal grade weapon was basically a mundane weapon imbued and strengthened with orren.
It was the lowest grade possible for a relic, but to Nacht it was still a valuable treasure. One he desperately needed.
Nacht was very inexperienced with fighting in general let alone knowing how to wield a sword, but for now at least he wouldn't have to fight anyone unarmed or worry about his weapon breaking.
Speaking of which, when was his next battle? So far him and Alister have just been waiting around with nothing else to do. Well, Nacht needed this time to recover and get himself situated. However, Alister had been doing nothing besides cleaning his blade and staring at him with curiosity.
Nacht wiped more sweat off his brow and frowned.
'Is it getting hotter?'
It seemed that the chamber was slowly heating up but he didn't know why.
Left with questions he was unable to answer, Nacht turned towards the only other person he could talk to.
"You can finally walk now? I must say you are sturdier than you look, although it was quite amusing seeing you get flattened against the chamber walls."
Nacht instantly began to regret his choice as he felt the more this man talked, the more he felt the urge to strangle him.
If Nacht wanted to survive in the crucible he had to at least try to get along with Alister—as difficult as it may be. After all, the {Soul Bind} trait went both ways. If Alister died then he would die as well.
They were a team now whether they liked it or not, so it wasn't a good idea to have a bad relationship with the man who may very well have his life in his hands.
"Well, your battle seemed to have turned out much better."
Alister looked down at the corpse he was sitting on and smiled, or rather… continued to smile.
"Did you think I would be so weak as to get injured by some amateur? This place was conjured to make us sinners suffer as much as possible. I'm sure you have seen the rules that have been imposed on us. There's no other reason why a weakling like you would get paired with a savant like me."
Alister looked at Nacht with his signature smile.
"Speaking of weakness, you don't seem to be an enlightened either. Don't tell me you're some ignorant fool from the overworld who thought he could make it out of this place alive?"
Nacht wasn't the only person who had attempted penance outside of the enlightened clans. There are many selfish people in the world so there is bound to be a few willing to attempt penance, hoping to gain the favour of a powerful clan.
The inhabitants of penance know of this so it's not surprising that Alister had his suspicions that he wasn't from here. Especially since he isn't an enlightened.
Natch's eyes narrowed.
"I am not an ignorant fool, you wide mouthed clown."
'Well there goes trying to establish a good relationship.'
Alister ignored Nacht's outburst and tilted his head slightly.
"So you admit you are not from penance?"
Nacht looked into his crimson eyes.
"I'm not."
Initially he tried to hide the fact that he wasn't from penance, but now he figured it would be more trouble than it's worth. Especially since Alister probably knows that he isn't from penance to begin with.
He assumed that the inhabitants of penance wouldn't take too kindly to outsiders. Even so, Alister couldn't do him any harm since he needed him to stay alive. Still, he didn't trust the man even a little.
"Well that makes things much more difficult."
Of course, Alister was right. His body hasn't yet synchronized with a rune so it is far weaker than an actual enlightened. He was merely slightly stronger than an ordinary human due to gaining minor access to orren and his innate traits.
"Are you not upset that you are paired with someone who isn't from penance?"
Alister looked at Nacht, still with that ridiculous smile on his face
"Of course I'm not upset! Although it is true that we don't get along with overworlders, I am much more civilized! If anything, I am just a little peeved that things have gotten slightly more difficult. I really need to leave this place so don't die and there won't be any problems."
Nacht gave Alister a skeptical look. He seemed to be telling the truth… at least.for now.
"You don't have to worry, I don't plan on dying anytime soon."
Alister shook his head.
"Anyways, you must be wondering when we will be sent to the next floor."
Nacht gave a silent nod of confirmation.
"Well, we can go whenever we want! All I have to do is imbue the engravings around the chamber with orren."
"Couldn't we have done that before and not battled the other team?"
Nacht lingered for a moment and then asked another question
"And what happens if we stay on this floor?"
Alister's smile widened
"Well to answer your first question the engravings will only respond when there are two people left alive on the floor and for your second question... you don't wan't to know unless you fancy being burned alive."
Alister paused for a moment.
"Actually that's the reason why we need to travel to the lower floors to begin with, it is to escape the heat."
Nacht gave Alister a dumbfounded look.
"So are you ready! If you want we can challenge the participants on the next floor! Actually nevermind we don't have that much time. We've already been here for a few hours and the heat is killing me!"
The carvings around the chamber lit up and Nacht felt his body being pulled somewhere else.
Before he could be teleported, Nacht asked one more question he really wanted to know.
"Can you answer one more question?"
Alister shrugged.
"Sure but make it quick."
Nacht looked at Alister with faint curiosity.
"Do you ever stop smiling?"
Ever since Nacht met Alister, not once had a smile left his face.
"No."
Nacht tilted his head.
"Why not?"
Alister's smile dimmed.
"Because it is my punishment."
In the next moment, Nacht was in a different place entirely.