Rise of the Immortal (The Risen And The Fallen LitRPG Part #1) [Under Editing]

Chapter 16: A Confession

"That's . . . but that's crazy!" I exclaimed, gesturing around wildly. "She looks so . . . carefree."

"I'm just telling you what I've heard." Astrida pursed her lips in worry. "Maybe she saw her daughter in me."

I wasn't expecting an answer like this.

Not by a long shot.

"This shit is going nuts . . ." I muttered, staring up at the ceiling. "I just wanted to know why a friend of mine cares so much about an NPC and the answer I get is that she's a mom who lost her daughter . . ."

Then, I fell back into my seat. "What the freaking hell . . ."

Is this why she always calls me 'kiddo', I thought, massaging my now-throbbing forehead. Maybe she used to call her daughter that . . .

"I think I want to ask her some questions," I finally said and started to stand up again.

"Aren't you forgetting something important?" Astrida's words made me come back to my senses.

"Right . . . we need to free her first somehow."

"I was thinking maybe we could get some items useful from that room in the keep Tellina uses to store a lot of things."

"Good plan, there might be something useful there." I nodded in agreement, remembering that room with piles and piles of items on the ground. Then I also remembered something else and stared at Astrida questioningly. "Speaking of useful items, what are you going to use that skull for anyway?"

"You mean this?" She pulled off a leather sack hanging on her back that I hadn't noticed before, unraveled the rope, and pulled out the skull Tellina and I had obtained by participating in that boss raid.

"Yeah, what do you need that for?" It was strange that a girl would need a skull for anything.

"It's one of the ingredients needed for a summoning," she explained, tapping its forehead with her finger. "It's a very important summoning . . . you might say that the fate of this world depends on it."

"You sound very . . . calm even though what you just said is kinda grand."

"I may be not yet contemplating the scale of things." Astrida put the skull back and tied the sack once more before slinging it over her shoulder.

"Aren't you going to tell me what the summoning is gonna summon?"

"We've met for a very short time, so, no. Even though you're the Chaos Slayer, I'm not telling yet."

Shrugging, I looked in the direction where the staircase that leads to Tellina stood. "By the way, shouldn't we try her room, too?"

She stared at me with narrowed eyes. "You have no friends, don't you?"

The unexpected blow made me bow my head in shame. "Yes . . . I never had one."

I heard her let out a sigh. "Well . . . I have no friends if you do not include Tellina."

When I raised my head to look at her, I saw a faraway look on her face.

"To be honest, she's more like a mother than a friend." Astrida then stood up and started walking toward the door. "This world has already taken away my mother from me right after I was born . . . I'm not letting them take away another."

I, too, stood up and followed her. "So . . . what are we doing after getting her out of the dungeon?"

"Anywhere but here." She opened the door with more force than necessary. "Maybe we could start a new town or village or even a city-state."