Healing System

Chapter 226 Child of Shadows (6)

'Ice?' Kevin's eyes finally settled, taking in the surroundings to their full capacity.

He was currently standing on a patch of ice, and before him were several dozen yeti monsters, stationed all around.

Yet that was not all that puzzled him. In between these patches of ice was water—meaning he was literally floating right now.

That also meant combat would be a bit more tricky than he would have initially liked. After all, he could feel the cold clearly, and even with the shadows surrounding him having the fire affinity and actively warming him up, he still felt cold.

The monsters before him were not that strong either. With his current strength, he could easily deal with them.

'But is that the objective here?' Kevin thought with a frown.

If these were ordinary Snow Yetis, they would have already noticed he was here and likely attacked.

But now, they were merely strolling around, gnawing at the ice below them while completely ignoring him.

They weren't monsters he could communicate with, so he didn't even try.

Therefore, Kevin opted to simply use his shadows to get off the slate of ice, finding a decently high-up spot to scout the area.

Spreading out his mana all around, he noticed a fair amount of resistance. If he didn't know any better, he would assume someone was dampening his perception.

But in reality, it was just the density of mana in the air—just like with any other elemental world.

Be it a world of fire, ice, or water, each had its unique quirks that made it harder for travelers to use their mana efficiently.

Nonetheless, he was able to feel at least one-fifth of the regular amount, giving him enough insight into the situation.

Yet at the same time, his confusion only grew further.

These trials were unnecessarily complicated. In the first place, so much time would have been saved had he been transported directly to the black tower.

'Unless... I was supposed to see Elizabeth's clone.' Kevin pondered for a moment but put that thought to the back of his mind.

If that were really the case, then he would have seen her again.

However, just as his thoughts fell, he suddenly noticed a peculiar presence heading his way from the very outskirts of his sensory range.

Not wasting any time, he immediately used his shadows to fling himself as close as he could toward the figure and, in the best-case scenario, instantly kill it.

After all, coincidence as it may be, the figure was Elizabeth's clone.

The only off-putting thing was that it did not try to avoid him this time, even as he inched ever closer.

Until eventually, he arrived right before the clone, swinging his hand covered in shadow mana down at its neck.

But just as his attack was about to connect, he suddenly halted as the clone seemingly reacted in kind, slashing right at his body, trying to dismember him instantly.

Kevin simply dodged to the side as a shocked expression appeared on his face. Yet before he could speak, the clone spoke first.

"You fucker! How dare you stalk me, huh!?" The clone—Elizabeth—began huffing and puffing as she headed in his direction.

"Elizabeth... wait." Kevin immediately stopped her, finally putting the pieces of the situation together.

However, she wasn't having it. With another step, she thrust the sword straight at his heart.

'Why does her temper have to be so...' He didn't finish his thoughts as he attempted to whack the sword to the side.

To his surprise, there was quite a lot of resistance—much more than he expected from someone who, just a few days ago, couldn't even hurt him with a kick.

'Did she...?' His eyes widened as he began inspecting her with mana, and just as he expected, she had formed a mana core.

It was not as grand as his, as she merely formed a single one—the Flow core.

In all honesty, he was surprised that was even possible, given that he remembered her having an [Intermediate] ranked Metal affinity.

By all means, that would not be enough to acquire the Flow core of legends. Even he wasn't supposed to have it.

But alas, either because of special circumstances or pure luck, they both managed to get it.

"Let go, stalker!" she shouted as he accidentally caught her sword with his hands.

Kevin quickly let go of it before saying, "Elizabeth, it's me. You can stop now."

"Yeah, right! What's my favorite color?"

'Seriously...' He tried his best not to sigh out loud, noticing her red hair, red scarf, red-and-black jacket... and red boots.

"Red?"

His answer came as a shock to her as she suddenly put the sword down.

"Kevin? Is that really you?" Tears welled up in her eyes, but with a single wipe, they disappeared.

"Do you know what happened? I was suddenly sent to some weird white place earlier," she questioned, trying to regain her somewhat existing composure.

"Me too. I was sent to a massive city... but aside from that, did you also have someone looking like me follow you?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, it looked just like you at first glance, but it didn't have that weird constipated look you tend to always wear," she remarked with a shrug before narrowing her eyes.

"How about you? Did your stalker have some odd facial features?"

Kevin merely shook his head. "Didn't have a sword—a dead giveaway since you always carry it around. I'm convinced you have it on your bed while you sleep."

"W-What!?" she suddenly shouted before speaking in a whisper. "H-How do you know?"

'Yeah... no doubt about it.' Kevin nodded to himself. 'This is definitely Elizabeth.'

He had his suspicions for a couple of moments, but her wannabe stupid personality couldn't be replaced.

However, that put the two of them in quite an odd situation.

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Whereas he came here to finish his trials, what was the reason for her coming here?

"Elizabeth, did you have someone guide you to a tower?" Kevin questioned, trying to make sure.

But alas, his confusion was left unanswered.

"Tower? Nah. I found a black oak tree in that white world and touched it. Immediately, it brought me over here."

'So are we connected or not?' he couldn't help but think, flashing a small frown.

This whole scenario had an ominous feel to it.

Kevin just couldn't quite put his finger on it.