Chapter 200: The System’s Hint "She’s...alive." Selene sat with her back against a large boulder just beyond the forest’s edge, looking incredibly pale and fatigued. Her clothing was still torn and bloodstained from where the branch-spikes had impaled her. "Selene...?" Moon’s voice came out hoarse, disbelieving. "You’re alive? How?!" Selene looked up at the sound of his voice, and relief flooded her exhausted face. Her worried expression softened when she saw Moon walking out safely. "I managed to get just enough lives from the countless trees," she explained, her voice weak but steady. "All those Rotten Pines we burned...they gave me enough lives. Just barely enough for a single revival." A weak smile formed on her face, though Moon could see the tremor in her hands, the way she leaned heavily against the boulder as if standing was impossible. "I’m completely out of gas now, no mana left. No stamina. And..." her smile became slightly bitter, "no more lives. But I’m here." Moon stared at her for a long moment. Before a smile erupted on his face, he had thought he had lost her, but she was lucky enough to have gained enough lives to survive. Any less and she would have died. This made Moon once again appreciate his Grim Reaper talent even more than before. He wondered why he was able to gain more lives than others, it didn’t make sense to him. An explanation existed for everything, this was something that everybody knew. The skills that people gained, the pathways, these were all things that people slowly discovered with time. Talents fell under the same universal ruling, except that not much has been found about them. "The druid?" Selene asked quietly, her eyes searching his face. "Dead." Moon retrieved the green core from his storage ring. Staring at the bright green core that throbbed with energy, Selene nodded slowly, her expression slightly complicated. "Good. That’s... good." Silence fell between them, broken only by the sounds of normal forest around them; rustling leaves, the gentle sounds of a wilderness that wasn’t actively trying to kill them. It felt surreal after the oppressive quiet of the Rotten Pine Forest. Yara and Gratis stood nearby, giving Moon and Selene space but remaining close enough to help if needed. Both Savi looked shaken, their earlier shock at witnessing Selene’s death still evident in their eyes. Moon slowly lowered himself to the ground, his legs finally giving out now that the immediate danger had passed. He sat heavily, his back against a tree, his mana-depleted body demanding rest. "We made it," he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else. "We made it," Selene echoed, her voice carrying equal parts of disbelief and exhaustion. And Moon couldn’t help but think about how close it had been. How if Selene had burned just a few less trees, gained a few less lives, she would be truly dead right now. How if the druid had been slightly smarter, slightly faster, slightly more powerful... They’d won by the narrowest of margins. And the cost had been almost everything they had. ♢♢♢♢ The group took a whole day’s worth of rest, their bodies and minds desperately needing the recovery time after the brutal battle in the Rotten Pine Forest. During the quiet hours, both Moon and Selene found themselves replaying the fight in their minds—analyzing every decision, every mistake, every moment where things could have gone differently. Where they should have been more careful. More prepared. It was how awakeners grew. Not just through gaining levels and lives, but through learning from near-death experiences and striving to become stronger, smarter, more capable than they’d been the day before. But the group also made time to simply live. They enjoyed their time with the remaining Savi warriors, sharing meals around campfires, playing simple games that required no words, engaging in activities that had nothing to do with survival or combat. Laughter echoed through the Heretics’ settlement for the first time in what felt like ages. For a brief, precious moment, Selene and Moon forgot the weight they carried on their minds and shoulders. Forgot the reason they’d entered this realm in the first place—to grow powerful enough to protect themselves from the threats that always lurked in the shadows of their world. For just a moment, they were allowed to be young people enjoying good company. Then, during their rest, a notification flashed across both Moon’s and Selene’s vision simultaneously: [When the two spirits unite, the inheritance awakens for those deemed worthy] No further explanation or context was provided. Just that single cryptic message that hovered for a few seconds before disappearing from their vision. Moon and Selene exchanged glances, the same thought occurring to both of them at once. "Do you think it’s talking about the spirit of the Rotten Pine Forest and the Fire Mountain?" Moon asked, voicing what they were both thinking. "But how do we unite them?" Selene’s expression became thoughtful, her mind already working through possibilities. "Since their bodies dissolved immediately after death, I don’t think it has anything to do with their physical forms. It has to be their cores. We need to somehow unite their cores." Her eyes brightened with sudden understanding. "Moon, take out both cores. Let’s see what happens when we try to bring them together." Moon reached into his storage ring, retrieving the two cores they’d obtained from defeating the island’s apex predators. The Magma King’s core glowed with internal red-orange light, pulsing with residual fire energy. The Druid Spirit’s core shone with vibrant green luminescence, radiating nature mana. He placed them both on the ground next to each other. The Savi warriors gathered around, watching curiously but remaining silent, instinctively understanding that Moon and Selene needed to concentrate. Both cores continued pulsing with their respective energies, but nothing else happened. No reaction. No fusion. No mysterious inheritance awakening. "Try putting them closer," Selene suggested. Moon pushed the cores until they were touching. Still nothing. "Maybe stack them?" Moon placed the green core on top of the red one. Then reversed it. Then tried positioning them at different angles—horizontal, vertical, diagonal. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖 Nothing worked. They spent the better part of an hour trying every configuration they could imagine.