Chapter 18: Door

Seeing a distraction, Riven turned to her. “Yes. What happened earlier in the day? You suddenly passed out after checking my Sigil.”

She looked up at him and looked away before she looked again, a small frown on her face. “Your Sigil reacted strangely. Riven… what is your Sigil?”

He noticed that it was the first time she had used his name and that there was a note of fear when she asked the question. He didn’t know the answer to that, so he simply said, “Undying.”

She huffed in annoyance. “Yes, but it’s different in a way. It’s not like my own, a Radiant Sigil. And it’s not classified as the other two from what I can tell. Also, I can’t see your Sigil fully. It was covered by something.”

Riven raised his brows. Out of everything she said, the only thing that interested him was the classification of her Sigil. “You have a Radiant Sigil. No wonder you are strong.”

She grunted and shrugged. “It did come with some perks, but we’re not talking about my Sigil. What is your Sigil?”

Riven sighed and finally sat, his back facing the door, careful not to touch it. “I don’t know. It was like that when I activated it.”

She didn’t say anything and just continued to stare at him. Something lay between them that neither of them was willing to say. Eventually, she nodded. “Alright. I will introduce you to my master and the sect. It will be up to you to impress him, though.”

That wasn’t what Riven was expecting, but it made his heart warm. Finally, he wasn’t feeling so lost. He really didn’t know what he would do next. He knew he had to get stronger, but he didn’t know how to go about it.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely.

She shrugged, looking uncomfortable, then quickly changed the subject. “Speaking of Sigils, how did you find this place?”

“I just felt the aura. I don’t know how to explain it, but it just kind of calls to me? No, not exactly like that, but I did feel it in a way. I can’t explain it properly.”

She didn’t give him a weird look and just shrugged. “It’s expected. Sometimes catacombs of the aura call to practitioners that share the same traits.”

Riven flinched and scooted away from the door. “Catacomb? This is a Catacomb?”

He had never been in one, and now he was almost leaning against its doors. He shuddered. He had heard stories of Catacombs, none of them good. Filled with monsters and rules of their own, forcing people to do certain things.

She gave him a look. “Yes. But I’ve never seen one like this before. Usually, it’s in open space in a way that we shouldn’t be boxed in like this. Look at the ceiling—it ends in darkness. I don’t think we can get out of here unless we clear the Catacomb.”

Riven felt a chill. They had to enter and clear it? And it was his Sigil that triggered it. That meant it had something to do with the undead. He couldn’t help his thoughts from wandering and the excitement that began to fill him.

Maybe he’d reap a lot of rewards as well! Yes, the stories talked about the dangers but also about the rewards, especially auras and monsters of certain specific Sigils.

Finding the right Catacomb could cause a leap in advancement.

Kivara saw the greed on his face and warned him. “Catacombs are dangerous. Once one is found, it will be measured by some relics to determine its level of danger and what rank of practitioners can begin entering. But this one? We have no idea what will be inside, and it seems… more aware.”

The hair on Riven stood. “Aware?”

“One thing I’ve learned in my life is to be wary of coincidences. Also, why are we trapped here, and the only way to go is to enter the Catacomb?” she asked.

Riven nodded slowly, a look of understanding on his face. “And it’s an undead Catacomb too.”

They didn’t say anything for a while after that, each lost in their own thoughts. But eventually, Riven asked the question, “When are we going in?”

Kivara sighed. “Let me regenerate and get near my peak state. We are probably going to die, but at least we should fight to the best of our abilities.”

Riven noticed that she didn’t exactly sound pleased with what she was saying.

Then she continued, “I’ve not really had the time to properly heal. Your Sigil caused my energy to deplete, and then we had to run from those necromancers. Let’s try it tomorrow. By then, I should be good to go.

“Can you do what you did for my wound to heal faster? I don’t know it, so…” She trailed off.

Riven shrugged. He still had some energy left, so he leaned closer to her, let his hand hover above her stomach, and willed the Undying effects to happen.

A cold energy of purple and green crawled out of his hand to spray against her, seeping into her stomach.

She nodded at him and then put her back against the stone.

Riven sighed and moved away from the door, putting his own side against the wall as well. He didn’t even know if it was morning yet, but he doubted it. Those necromancers had woken them in the middle of the night, after all.

Eventually, he drifted off.

When he woke up, he did so with his stomach grumbling. He was hungry, and he needed a bath and to relieve himself. Kivara was still sleeping… or meditating. Riven didn’t know which one she was doing.

But he didn’t disturb her. As much as he wanted to hurry them along, he knew that would be a stupid thing to do. They both needed her to be in her fighting form when they entered the Catacomb.

And there was a way to help her as well.

The door to the Catacomb was putting out auras—undead, death aura.

He spent the hours waiting for her, drawing the auras from the door to his Sigil, but unfortunately, since he had no rank, his container was small, so he could only give her small Undying effects at a time.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep