Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 39: Seraphel The Paranoid

Rudy was in the old realm because of the syndicate’s Realm Diver Program, which made talented cadets more experienced and stronger.

However, Seraphel was from Dream Church, so there was no reason for her to be here unless she had entered a raid gate by herself.

’Why would she do that? She is a Thessyne; she doesn’t need to go through the dangers of the old realm to become someone stronger,’ He remarked inwardly as he lowered his bottle and looked at her.

Sera stared at him with an impassive expression.

He sighed and asked, "Since when are you here?"

Her lips curled upwards as she responded, "Are you trying to find out how fatigued I am?"

Hearing her, Rudy blinked a few times and genuinely wondered, ’How paranoid is she?’

Staying alone in the old realm for a long time would make anyone paranoid, let alone Sera.

He rose from the rock, placed the bottle between them, and walked closer to the wall.

"What are you doing?" She asked with a puzzled expression.

He waved his hand, sat down while leaning against the wall, and mumbled, "Drink it if you want."

Her expression turned scornful, and she muttered, "I didn’t a—"

But she stopped the words as Rudy had already fallen asleep.

Sera stared at Rudy’s face in displeasure and mumbled, puzzled, "Why is he acting the same even though I called him instead of him coming to me...? Shouldn’t it have changed something?"

Her gaze drifted towards the bottle, and she pondered whether to drink from it or not.

Five minutes passed, and she finally made up her mind.

She glanced at Rudy as she walked towards the bottle, picked it up, and drank from it like she had been thirsty for days.

Rudy watched her from his barely open eyes and noted in his head, ’It should be around a week since she is here.’

A few hours later, Rudy woke up from his slumber, and as he yawned, his gaze fell on Sera, who was sitting in the opposite corner.

’She can literally dig holes in stone by staring at it,’ he thought as he rose to his feet and walked towards the doorway of the stone chamber.

"What are you doing?" She asked with furrowed brows.

He glanced at her and scoffed, "We cannot stay here forever now, can we? Maybe you can, but I can’t. "

He stepped forward, and she said flatly, "I’ve already found the way to the return beacon."

’What?’ He stooped in his tracks and slowly turned towards her. "What did you say?"

The corners of Sera’s lips twitched into a smirk as she answered, "I’ve already found the safest path towards the return beacon."

’Did she dream of it?’ Rudy frowned. "Then why are you still here?"

She chuckled and stated, "Did you forget already?"

He tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

She shook her head, her golden-white hair gleaming. "This arena of desert where we are right now has the fewest dreadborns."

"Oh... you did say that," He murmured, returned to his spot, and asked, "When are we going to leave then?"

She looked outside and mumbled, "At night."

’I have to know if she saw me fight the dreadborns or not, only then would I be able to decide how much strength I should show her,’ Rudy remarked inwardly.

He looked outside and mumbled, "You sure? Even I didn’t move during the nights because of the dreadborns."

She looked at him and stated, "If you had, I wouldn’t have called you."

He frowned. "Why?"

A smile found its way to her lips. "None can survive the old realm alone, and doing so with an idiot only makes it worse."

’Seems like she didn’t see me fight.’

"Makes sense." He nodded, took out a pack of energy bars from his spatial ring, and mumbled while showing it to her, "Want some?"

She stared at him with her usual cold, impassive expression.

Rudy shrugged.

"Just say no if you don’t want it. Why do you have to stare at me like I’ve pushed you through a gate? Tch."

He clicked his tongue, chewed his energy bar, and, seeing her brows twitch, he understood that his conclusion was the right one.

Sera chose to ignore him and leaned back on the dark stone wall while gazing at the broken ceiling.

’Someone pushed her into a gate, huh... or it can be that she was forced to walk into one. Shadow Syndicate may have a bad reputation, but all organizations put strength above everything else, so it won’t be strange if they also did something similar to the Realm Diver Program.’

As he thought about it, more conclusions formed in his head.

’Maybe all the organizations are actually doing this at the same time to compete against one another.’

He finished an energy bar, stored the remaining, and thought, ’As long as they don’t bother me, I don’t really care about what they do.’

Most of the day had already passed, and an hour later, the pale desert transformed into the dark desert.

The rattling of bones reached them.

Sera lowered her gaze to him and stated flatly, "We’ll leave after half an hour."

"Alright." He nodded and looked outside.

Half an hour later, they stood up from their spots, walked out, and Sera easily climbed to the top of the stone chamber.

Rudy took out his sword and asked, "Anything to worry about?"

Sera walked to the edge of the stone chamber, shook her head, and jumped down.

She gracefully landed on the dark sand and muttered, "Nothing."

’Why do you have to act like that? Does acting cool in the Old Realm make you find treasure runes?’ Rudy mumbled inwardly.

’Not that she was actually cool.’

Sera stopped in her tracks as she turned to look at him with an annoyed expression and asked with a frown, "What are you still standing there?"

Hearing her voice, he came out of his thoughts and stammered as he followed up, "S-Sorry."

She shook her head, and both of them began to walk towards their next destination.