“Do you and your wife share the same Class?”
Cole’s heart skipped a beat, shocked that it only took Sylas a single glance at his status screen to understand this. It hadn’t even been more than two or three seconds. He couldn’t fathom how something like this could even be deduced.
Cole took a breath. “We do.”
“It’s symbiotic.” Sylas said more as a statement than a question.
“It is.”
“And your son?”
“He has a Class of his own…” Cole said a bit bitterly.
His son’s Class was what had gotten them into this mess in the first place. Or, rather, it was the reason their son was lying half dead on the ground while his parents were just fine.
After they got the Twin Moon Healer Class that they shared, their son had ended up choosing a Class that could be used to protect them, insisting on it. He gained a much weaker Common Class as a result, and his main focus was just playing the vanguard so that he could protect his Healer parents.
However, it wasn’t until later that they realized this Healer Class wasn’t nearly as simple as it looked and their son had made an unnecessary sacrifice.
The boy, though, was stubborn. Plus, it was already much too late to change things, so they could only support him to the best of their abilities.
Most of their resources ended up being poured into their son to help him grow stronger. If they had absolute strength like Cole felt Sylas did, he would just protect his son to his back. But after their government learned of their Class and wanted to take them in and control them, their lives were flipped upside down.
“Your stats are halved.” Sylas said again.
Cole was almost numb to the surprise, but once again, he nodded.
“Interesting…”
Sylas had never heard of such a thing before, but when he gazed at Cole’s wife, he could feel the subtle link between the two. At first, he had mistaken it for just the normal closeness between husband and wife. It was only natural that they have some synergy and resonance between one another in normal day-to-day interaction.
But to think it was actually this.
“Why did you send me this?” Sylas asked.
“You are the only one that can take us out of here.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Sylas said coldly.
Cole grit his teeth. “You took the gold coin and nothing else. That’s more than I can say for what most others would do.”
It was true. The moment others saw that he had one valuable thing, what would be there to stop them from checking on their other valuable things?
Anyone who could make it here was sure to have several trump cards, but Sylas had just let them go.
Honestly speaking, Cole was overestimating Sylas. Sylas wasn’t above killing for the sake of gain or profit. The only reason he hadn’t considered it this time was because he was in a race against time, and he was also pretty sure that the three of them were running on empty.
Cole’s mere 32 F Coins told the entire story. This family had likely traded in everything they had to give themselves the best chance at this Dungeon, and they had still ended up failing.
On top of that, Sylas was pretty sure they would leave this place empty-handed because they had come to the wrong location.
If he was correct, their real target was this so-called City of Gold, not the Mountains of Giza. Though, it was possible that they were even more unlucky than Sylas was and had to go through all of this just to find a path to this City of Gold.
“That is only half the truth.” Sylas said again.
Cole’s heart skipped a beat. He was really starting to think that Sylas had some sort of mind-reading Class. Anything was possible in this world, right?
However, that wasn’t the case. Sylas just found that he was even better at reading intentions now than he had been in the past. The changes to his mind that Ithkuil had triggered were still beyond his understanding.
“… You also have abilities that I don’t understand that I would like to observe…” Cole finally said.
At that moment, Cole’s wife wiped her brows with a forearm, their son’s condition stabilizing. As he groaned awake, the two began to pay attention to what was happening as well. But it was clear by their actions that they trusted Cole to make all of the decisions.
They were clearly a package deal.
Although the son was useless, Cole’s abilities couldn’t be maximized without his wife anyway. And he certainly couldn’t throw the son away and expect his parents to work for him properly. So this was the only way forward.
But Sylas still hesitated, wondering if it was worth it. He didn’t know what dangers lay ahead, and he was already dragging Alex along; was it really a good idea to bring more people?
Sylas gave Alex a look and then nodded to the family.
The reason he was letting Alex freeload off of him was that when the time came, he would be a key part of their fighting force. There was no way that he could keep fighting one-man army battles and expect to succeed.
Though the son might be useless, he had a feeling that the abilities of this couple weren’t simple at all.
Not only did they have a Gold Class, but it was a unique one that worked in ways most couldn’t fathom. Maybe because of the drawbacks, it had even greater strengths that Sylas didn’t know about just yet.
What they were lacking was a Rune Master to help them make it through to the end. In that case, he would become that person.
“Alright.”
Sylas accepted the contract and suddenly their part of two became one of five.
Most often, he preferred to be alone… but this time he would have to sacrifice some of his own comfort for the bigger picture.
As for what would happen when they stared down the big prize at the end of it all…
Sylas’ gaze flashed with a dangerous light.
… That would depend on their actions.
