Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 23 - 23 16 Rachel's Memories_1

?23: Chapter 16 Rachel’s Memories_1 23: Chapter 16 Rachel’s Memories_1 Chapter 16: Rachel’s Memories

Rachel bolted upright, jarred awake from a nightmare.

As soon as she sat up, she felt her entire body consumed by agonizing pain.

Every single inch of her muscles felt as if they had been torn apart, sour, weak, and throbbing.

This kind of unprecedented excruciating sensation made her lose control, and her body, just barely propped upright, fell back onto the ground.

What happened?

Rachel was a bit dazed.

Moments later, a flood of nightmarish memories surged back, forcing her to recall unwillingly everything that had occurred.

Right, the leader passed away, all of her partners were gone, she and Gaston escaped, and then…

“You’re awake?

Do you feel better?” A soft and gentle female voice sounded by her side.

Rachel remembered this voice.

It was the voice that had suddenly sounded in her most dangerous moment, a voice as beautiful as the melody of a divine song.

With tremendous effort, she turned her neck and saw Catherine, clad in silver chain mail, with a beautiful, heroic face and glossy black hair.

“Run…Run…” Rachel’s lips trembled, and with a feeble hoarse voice, she blurted out, “You guys run!

There’s danger, quickly, quickly!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Catherine knelt down and lightly touched Rachel’s forehead, reassuringly, “The cave dwellers have been beaten back.

They don’t dare to come again.

It’s okay.”

“No, not the cave dwellers, too scary, run away now.” Rachel, who had regained a bit of her senses, struggled internally.

Eventually, her conscience won over her survival instinct, “Don’t mind me, you guys run!

If we delay any longer it will be too late.”

“Calm down, calm down, it’s okay.

This place is very safe, you’ve been saved.

You’re safe now.” Catherine leaned over and helped Rachel to sit up, holding her close in her arms, while gently stroking her hair.

Her voice was calm and soothing, “Look, it’s very safe here.

No one can hurt you.

Everything will be alright, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”

“I…

I’m safe?

I can live?” Rachel murmured in disbelief, glancing around her surroundings.

This was a small cave with only one narrow crack for an entrance, which was currently blocked tight by crushed stones.

Although there were no other exits, she could occasionally feel a cold breeze blowing through the cave, indicating that there were unseen tiny cracks leading outside, preventing people from suffocating inside.

In the center of the cave stood a strange crystal energy lamp.

Under the lamp, a mithril disc engraved with a complicated magic array lay flat on the ground, shimmering with magical luster.

A light blue beam shot from the mithril disc to mid-air, spreading out to form a semi-spherical light blue shield, covering a spherical space with a diameter of fifteen meters.

There were six smaller Mithril array plates forming a hexagonal pattern about half a meter outside of the blue shield.

Light purple magical light was continuously flowing between the plates, forming a slightly larger purple shield, encapsulating the blue shield inside.

As an experienced adventurer herself, Rachel understood that blue represented defensive arrays.

Even for people with Gold Rank power, it would take at least two minutes to break the defense.

As for the purple array, although her own team commonly uses grey arrays with only three Mithril discs as nodes, the similar layout suggested that this too was a concealment array.

Judging from the number of nodes, its effectiveness should far exceed those she was accustomed to.

Seeing these arrangements, Rachel understood that she had encountered an experienced and well-prepared adventure team.

If nothing unexpected happened, although she couldn’t observe, there should also be an invisible detection array drawn on the cave walls using casting materials.

On one side of the crystal energy lamp, a silver-haired girl was sitting on a package under the lamp with her legs to the side, reading a thick book intently.

Her silver hair was silky smooth and spread out on the ground, yet it remained spotlessly clean.

“Guilt…” Seeing the crescent-shaped mark on the girl’s forehead, Rachel, who had some knowledge of small sects, couldn’t help but utter half a word.

However, she quickly realized her rudeness and promptly closed her mouth.

The silver-haired girl had heard her whisper, looked up at her, and without a trace of displeasure, she gently smiled and nodded at Rachel.

Her demeanor and manners all showed that the girl was a well-educated and noble lady.

On the other side of the crystal energy lamp and further away, a blue-haired girl around eleven or twelve years old was sitting cross-legged.

She was leaning against a giant backpack, holding a crystal box in her left hand, and focusing on something inside the box while talking to herself.

Occasionally, she would even dip her finger into the box, then put it into her mouth to taste.

Not far from the crystal energy lamp, a crystal energy furnace was placed with a small pot cooking over it.

The aroma of the food wafted from the pot.

A blond man sat nearby, stirring the pot with a spoon with an expression of detachment, demonstrating his resistance and indifference to this world.

The cave was warm, dry, comfortable and filled with a serene tranquility.

“Yes, I’m safe now.” Rachel weakly nestled in Catherine’s arms, staring blankly at the crystal energy lamp, her body trembling slightly.

Unconsciously, tears had streaked her face.

“I’m finally safe, sob, sob, I…” Before she could finish her sentence, she was already sobbing uncontrollably.

Feeling Rachel’s trembling, Catherine understood that surviving such a close call had left Rachel feeling emotionally vulnerable.

She quickly tightened her grip on Rachel’s arm, whispering comforting words.

Gradually, under Catherine’s comforting, Rachel regained her calm.

She slowly extended her hand and held Catherine’s right hand.

“Thank you for saving me.

I have to tell you about what happened to us.”

“Don’t rush.” Catherine didn’t urge Rachel, but instead advised her.

“You can rest tonight, and tell us when you feel settled tomorrow.”

Pannis, who was stirring the pot, stopped her actions, looked at Catherine with a weirdly curious glance, but didn’t say anything.

She returned to her tasks, her face turning colder.

“No.” Rachel refused decisively.

“I don’t know if I’ll have the courage to reminisce tomorrow.

I’d rather tell you now.”

“Alright, go ahead, we’re listening.” Catherine smiled slightly, focusing her gaze on Rachel’s eyes.

“I am Rachel, a Crystal Gunner from the Brenos adventure team.” Rachel began with her introduction.

“Brenos adventure team, Silver Rank, led by the knight Brenos, who is at Beginner Gold Rank.

They’re registered with the Guild branch in the capital of the Falar Empire and their main area of operation is around the Whispering Swamp in the northern part of the Falar Empire.” Lina, the silver-haired girl, smiled mildly at Rachel, her voice cold and her demeanor regal.

“From the Adventure Team Manual, 17th edition, page 744.”

“Uh, yes.” Rachel was a bit startled by Lina’s interruption, but it helped to ease her tension a lot.

“That’s our team.

Recently, our leader accepted a task to collect Demon-Wolf teeth, so six of us from our team entered here a few days ago.

Everything was going well at the beginning.

We bypassed the Rat King’s nest, took advantage of the Demon-Toothed Tiger’s hunting time to cross through its lair, passed through the Dragon-Hawk nest.

When we were about to pass through the Cave Dweller’s Giant Hammer Tribe, we suddenly encountered an odd disturbance amongst the Cave Dwellers.

Nicole, our Mage, told me at the time that she detected a fluctuation in mental magic, this strange disturbance could have been created by someone intentionally.

But we didn’t have time to consider this at the time.

We were suppressed by Cave Dweller forces.

The battle was tough and everyone got hurt.

But slowly, with the help of the terrains, we started to fight back.

That’s when we were attacked.”

“Two people?

Wrapped in cloaks?” Catherine asked.

“No, just one person, without a cloak.” Rachel started shaking again, evidently feeling a lot of pressure from this person.

“He was short, a little taller than the Cave Dwellers, wearing an odd white cloth coat, with a large mask on his face that revealed only his eyes.

He looked ridiculous but was incredibly powerful.

As soon as he appeared, all the Cave Dwellers kept their distance, only daring to follow from a distance.

Despite being injured and caught off guard, against an opponent who could use magic, Brenos, our leader, was simply blown to pieces.

Our Thief Kevin tried to save the leader but somehow fell before he got close to the opponent.

Kidd, Nicole, Gaston and I were scared out of our wits and began running for our lives.

The man didn’t need any light to move freely in the cave and could have caught up with us very quickly.

But he just followed at a leisurely pace, as if he was toying with us, always following us and we couldn’t shake him off.

Nicole is a mage and she was soon unable to keep running, lagging behind.

We heard her cries for help, but none of us dared to stop until Nicole let out a final scream and then there was silence.”

“The three of us ran for several more hours, fortunately not encountering any magical creatures, but eventually we couldn’t run any longer.

Kidd suggested we stop running, that maybe we would have a chance to fight if we faced it.

Gaston also agreed.

So we stopped and waited, it didn’t take long for that person to catch up.

Kidd is a warrior, he charged forward the moment he saw that person, but, but, Gaston pulled me and we ran, leaving Kidd alone.” Rachel, speaking as fast as she could, suddenly fell silent, her body shaking violently.

Catherine’s attempts to calm her were futile.

After a few seconds of silence, Rachel suddenly covered her ears and started shouting frantically.

“No, no, not that, Gaston didn’t pull me at all, I ran with him from the start, no, I started running from the beginning, I wanted to escape all along, Gaston didn’t need to pull me at all, I never had the courage to fight, I abandoned my teammates to survive, I got Nicole and Kidd killed because of my cowardice.”

Catherine went blank for a moment but didn’t look at Rachel with contempt.

Instead, she kept trying to comfort her.

“It’s okay to be scared, everyone has their own fears and everyone can be afraid.

No one is perfect, no one is a saint, everyone makes mistakes.

You were clouded by the fear of death, we all make mistakes.

You’re not a coward, you are brave now, willing to face your mistakes.

I believe that after this experience, you won’t fear death anymore.”

“Yes, I won’t run away anymore.

Only when I experienced the same thing as Nicole and Kidd did I understand their pain and resentment at that time.

I owe them a life, I will use my life to avenge them.

Even if it means death, I will go down with it!” Rachel, after the frenzied shouting, collapsed into sleep from exhaustion, murmuring to herself.

But even in her sleep, her fists remained clenched tightly, refusing to let go.