Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

Archie watched as the vibrant red outline of vital energy, shaped like a humanoid, slowly stood up straight as though it had been initially hunched over. As the figure stood up right, they looked to be at most five foot five, six inches shorter than Aoife.

Archie's face remained blank as he continued to act exactly as he had twenty seconds ago, just moments before she arrived. Still and silent.

Archie watched with Vital Sight as the figure raised their fingers to the side of their head and slowly pushed back, their fingers brushing through their supposedly long hair.

He wasn't entirely sure; hair, by all means and purposes, was dead tissue. Because of this, it didn't appear within Vital Sight.

Archie continued to watch as their left arm reached into their side. He continued to keep his face blank and his breath steady as his mind was going a mile a minute at the thought of what the person was going to pull out.

After a few more seconds of them digging around on their side, they made a hum of approval, which to Archie sounded distinctly feminine to his right ear, the one that wasn't covered up by a root.

His heart slowly calmed down as the figure pulled out an object that they used to tie up their hair and shook their head slightly before wiping their hands on their sides.

Just a hair tie, Archie thought in relief, keeping his poker face as relaxed as possible. Almost pissed my pants because of a damn hair tie.

…Can I even do that still? Archie thought in confusion. The last time he felt the call of nature was when he'd finished the Cursed Ship dungeon and was heading toward the Assistant village. Since then, it had never come again.

As the feminine-sounding humanoid vital energy outline finished tying up their hair, they turned to stare at Aoife's unconscious form, protected from the ground above them by Archie's arched body.

As the humanoid outline turned to face Aoife and crouched beside her, the scent of lilac and raspberries tickled his nose.

However, instead of continuing to stare at Aoife, their head snapped upward, locking onto Archie's root-pierced visage - mere centimeters under his own.

To which Archie's Mana Revolver of Nature pressed against the side of their head, held by a greenish blue mana hand construct.

Once bonded with an item containing spatial storage, you would gain an ability called Spatial Storage, which allowed you to access a pocket storage linked to the item.

Interestingly, Archie hadn't found a range limit that prevented him from accessing the spatial storage of either his Spatial Rings or the Livingwood Propagator, as long as he was wearing them.

This meant that so long as he had his Livingwood Propagator and/or his Spatial Rings on his person, he would be able to access them from anywhere his mana could reach.

In Archie's words: this is absolutely busted and I love it.

"I'm not here to harm you," she said calmly, entirely unfazed by the revolver pressed against their head.

"Quite the opposite, really," she added cheekily, the index finger on her left hand lightly pushing away the barrel from her head. "You might want to get a stronger gun if you want to at least injure me."

Archie remained silent for a few seconds before creating a mana construct of the word 'Why?' that hovered in between both of their faces.

"That's for you to figure out," she teased as she pushed her face forward, her eyes almost touching the root that pierced through both of his eyes.

Before Archie could respond, her hands shot toward his face, far faster than what he could react to.

Her left hand grasped the root that had pierced through his right temple, narrowly missing his brain before curving out through his left eye. At the same time, her right hand seized the root that had punctured his outer ear.

Without warning or giving Archie a moment to prepare for what she was about to do, she snapped off both ends of the roots and yanked them free.

Archie released a pained grunt from her sudden action and felt his Vital Metabolism start to actively work on repairing his face.

"Sorry," she said, lightly patting his jaw with her left hand that still held the root she ripped out.

Something in her tone told Archie she really wasn't.

Archie slightly tensed as he saw her toss both roots onto the ground and move toward the roots that ripped through his right arm. She stared at them, then traced them up, moving up his arms and into the root dome, before shaking her head and releasing a disappointed sigh. "You're going to need Aoife to reinforce the dirt and stone around you before you can get free."

"Your arms, legs, and back are intertwined with the roots that protect you both from being squashed," she continued, much to Archie's confusion as to how she knew Aoife. He hadn't mentioned her name.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

'Why are you helping us?' Archie wrote out with mana constructs in front of her face.

The female humanoid took a step backward before placing both of her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest. "Because I am the greatest and kindest samaritan you'll ever meet, Click," she said cockily, a playful grin spreading across her face. Though Archie couldn't see it, as his eyes were still being regenerated, he could feel the cockiness radiating off her.

She then nodded satisfactorily at his stunned response and tilted her head slightly to face Aoife, who was semi-covered in roots, an attempt by Archie in order to protect her from the chunks of stone and dirt that fell atop them as the root sphere was still being erected.

Kneeling down, she carefully snapped off the roots that partially covered Aoife and set them on the ground beside her.

Archie remained silent as his eyes now fully regrew, connecting the two separate halves, and now staring at the smug so-called samaritan who had removed the roots that ripped through his eyes and ear.

His vision was still a bit bleary, but he was able to make out the appearance of the one who was helping them out of their own good will.

She had light blue skin and slightly darker blue hair that cascaded to the middle of her back, tied in a ponytail with a purple scrunchie. This revealed her long, sharp-tipped ears, which drooped low, reaching just above her neck.

She wore a green and black poncho over a similarly colored tunic and pants. Along the backs of her ears, two metal chips were embedded on each side, with no other signs of cybernetic enhancements in sight. The only other distinguishing feature on her was a violet pin on her upper chest with the word "Bow!" written above a cartoonish depiction of herself pointing downward.

The only objects that were visible would be the bulging pouch she had on her side, a Pouch of Holding, he guessed, and a few other objects that he was not able to Identify, including herself.

[?]

It was just like Cyric. She either has an item equipped or a skill that has some sort of concealing or blocking effects. He'd seen quite a few accessories in the Equipment – Accessories stand in the System Bazaar as well as when both he and Aoife were walking through the city of Louther.

Once bonded and equipped, the wearer gains the ability to hide, or at the very least obscure, their status page, race, level, and various other effects. Within the city, he'd seen at least seven in ten people wearing some type of ring, mask, or some other type of accessory on their person to hide their level.

He'd thought of purchasing one for both Aoife and himself, but the cost of the cheapest ring was more than what they had combined, not to mention compared to the stat points he received from his Trollblood Signet, which was far better than what the Ring of Concealment offered.

Once the roots around Aoife were removed, the blue-skinned woman turned to him for a second and winked at Archie and stuck out her tongue at him as she slid her entire left arm into her bulging pouch, cementing his theory that it was indeed a Pouch of Holding that she had.

"Boo!" She playfully teased. "Trying to cheat is bad."

Cheat? Archie questioned. What am I cheating at? I didn't sign up for any exam.

'What would I be cheating at?' Archie wrote out in front of her using mana constructs, something that took him about twenty or so seconds to do without it breaking and looking wobbly.

"Maybe a couple of them rocks hit your head a bit harder than I thought, Click," she muttered under her breath, her left arm still rummaging around inside her Pouch of Holding.

Grabbing his chin and squishing it slightly with her right hand, she began to inspect his head, searching for any injuries she might have overlooked before.

Not seeing anything, she released a sigh at his still confused look. She then patted his right arm that was impaled and held in place by many of the Epipremnum aureum roots, and softly spoke, "You poor thing…One day, when you are able to evolve, try to plead with the System to graft you with some more brain cells."

Wh- What? Archie blinked, trying to process what she told him… Did she just…?

"Aha!" she exclaimed, turning away from Archie's befuddled look while holding up some type of Venturi mask over Aoife's mouth and sent a pulse of mana into a gray H-shaped sign just above where Aoife's nose was.

After a few moments, two black bands released from their sides and wrapped themselves around Aoife's ears, just as a teal-colored gas released itself within the Venturi mask, and the H-shaped sign on the tip of the mask turned a similar color.

Archie watched the mask with unconcealed fascination as it slowly brought Aoife's furrowed expression into a relaxed one.

The woman who had healed Aoife and helped free Archie nodded in satisfaction as she admired her handiwork before beginning to stretch.

Then, the moment she finished, she moved faster than Archie could track - grabbing the advanced-looking Venturi mask and slipping it into her Pouch of Holding. Without hesitation, she slapped her left palm across Aoife's cheek, jolting her awake and causing her to shoot up in confusion.

"Later, Clicks!" the blue-haired woman rapidly waved before she'd suddenly vanished from sight, leaving behind two very curious humans, leaving them with only one more cheeky comment. "Fill your coin purses up for when we see each other again, I expect you both to treat me to a bunch of drinks!"

With Vital Sight still active. It looked as though she'd become a ghost.

"Brace yourself," Aoife warned Archie as she held his shoulder slightly aside and had her left arm upright in a chopping motion, glowing a steaming grey color. In front of her stood eight more roots that remained embedded through Archie's back.

Archie wasn't even sure to be honest how the roots even managed to pierce through his armor, they were expected to be able to handle anything on his level in terms of physical damage.

Must be an issue with my technique, Archie theorized as Aoife brought her left arm down, separating Archie from the last eight Epipremnum aureum roots and sending him stumbling forward for a moment before he caught himself.

Going to have to experiment with different types of armors and test out each one to see which is better and why that would be the case, Archie mentally noted and signed a thank you to Aoife, who reinforced the walls around them and freed him from his impaled confines.

Rolling his shoulders and feeling Vital Metabolism and the Self-Repair rune on his chestpiece activate, Archie looked up to the still ongoing battle above.

The humanoids were still on the offensive, refusing to yield their ground to their traitorous enemies. While the Dinomyrmex Gigasi refused to back down, following the orders they received from their Twin Queens, to kill the humanoids that betrayed them.

Both sides remained unaware that they had been played by Archie, who, in all honesty, couldn't care less about either of them.

One side actively supported slavery, not only accepting it as the norm in their nation but also enslaving Aoife, his friend. The other was simply a happy coincidence - one Archie had no qualms about exploiting.

He had a bet to win - a barrel of that beer he drank with Bralmir was on the line. Failure wasn't an option for him.

Woe to anyone who dared stand in his way when a bet was on the line.