Seed of Titan-Chapter 62: Buying Time with a Calculated Risk

Drai walked back to the gate, waiting to see if there’s anymore giant golems to fight. But after a minute of waiting, nothing had happened, so Drai finally released his augmentation.

[Colossal Augmentation terminated. Remaining cooldown: 23 minutes]

’I can’t get enough of this skill. Too bad the duration is still too short. And I can’t abuse it because of the cooldown too.’

As Drai was lamenting his skill’s limitation, Flo finally remembered about Auri.

"Guys! Come here quick! Please!!!"

Drai quickly headed toward Flo but was quickly stopped by Natalia’s shout.

"Drai! Come here and help me!"

Drai instantly turned around and ran to Natalia. Upon arriving, he immediately spotted her injury.

"Are you hurt? Did you train too much?" Drai asked, tilting his head curiously.

"Train your ass! Now shut up and get me to Flo!" Natalia scolded. Despite the painkillers, she was still feeling awful and was on the edge.

Drai grinned and carefully lifted Natalia, carrying her to Flo’s hiding spot.

Although Drai had been having a good time by himself, he also missed his friends a bit. Seeing them again and being scolded by Natalia made him feel quite happy.

When Drai and Natalia arrived, they could see that Flo and Christo were crouching beside Auri, tears filled Flo’s eyes.

"Drai, we have to get out of here quickly. Auri doesn’t have much time left," Christo grimly said.

Drai examined Auri. Her complexion was dark, filled with bluish patches and veins. Her breathing was so weak that her chest was barely even moving.

Drai adjusted Natalia’s position on his shoulder before lifting Auri up and gently moving her onto his other shoulder.

"Let’s go," Drai firmly said, suppressing his anxiety. He didn’t know what his friends had gone through for Auri and Natalia to end up like this, but he knew there was no time for trivial questions; time is of the essence.

The group walked to the gate, entering the opening after Christo made sure it was safe.

Upon entering, the group saw that they were in a dark hallway. Christo immediately took out his lamp, shining a dim light on their surroundings.

The first thing they saw was a golem with a broken torso lying on the floor; it was the golem Drai slammed into earlier.

The hallway floors and walls were gray, seemingly made of plastic panels. And on the walls were wide transparent panels that looked like windows.

Christo took a peak through the transparent panel that was closest to him.

"It’s too dark. I can’t see a thing," he said. He then followed the windows until he arrived at a metal door.

Christo checked the door and the small panel beside it.

"It’s locked," Christo remarked after failing to open the door. "Help me, Drai."

Drai came forward and kicked the door open since his hands were busy carrying the two girls.

"Thanks," Christo said before entering the door.

The others waited outside in darkness, looking at the dim light of Christo’s lamp through the window.

Soon, Christo came back out.

"It looks like a security room. Let’s check the other rooms," Christo said, gesturing the others to follow him.

The next room he entered was an office. Like the ones in the complex, there wasn’t much in there.

"Why are we wasting our time?" Flo questioned. She didn’t know why they didn’t just head straight to the exit.

"Because there might be something that can extend our deadline," Christo replied, not revealing too much as per usual.

After Christo entered the next room, he suddenly asked Flo to join him inside.

"A botanic lab?" Flo exclaimed after seeing the interior of the room. She was familiar with the setting because it resembled her faculty labs.

"Can you try to find anything useful?" Christo asked. Flo nodded and began inspecting the room.

After a few minutes, Flo said, "Nothing. Any plants that were left have died for quite some time. There’s also no research notes or anything similar."

"Hmm... Let’s continue then."

The next room was also a botanic lab, and Flo still couldn’t find anything useful there.

However, the room after that was a bit different, for it was a different type of lab.

Flo looked around the room with slight apprehension, for there were plenty animal carcasses around that had rotted since who knows when.

"Why didn’t they clean this all up?" Flo remarked with a disgusted expression while poking a pile of carcasses with a small stick she pulled out from her satchel.

"Maybe they didn’t expect anyone to pass the lab’s security, or maybe they just didn’t care much," Christo replied.

Christo and Flo spent another few minutes in the room before they left.

Entering the next room, they saw that it was also an animal lab. Christo and Flo quickly began their inspections.

After a few minutes, Flo suddenly shouted, "I found something!"

Christo made his way to Flo and saw that she was crouching beside a small cabinet that was open. Inside it were various vials with worn labels, with a small syringe next to each of them.

"I can’t read the labels, but the ones on the top look similar to the ones in our medical lab!" Flo exclaimed, looking hopeful.

"What do you think they are?" Christo asked, eyeing the dozen or so vials and syringes that Flo was picking up.

"Antivenoms!"

"Antivenoms? You mean..."

"Yes! There could be a cure for Auri!"

Flo put the vial sets on a nearby table and inspected them closely. Unfortunately, all the labels have worn out, leaving them illegible.

"Are you sure they’re not venoms or poisons instead?" Christo asked.

"I’m not sure, but I don’t think they would store venoms in an easily accessible cabinet," Flo replied, looking a bit hesitant.

"Hmm... Then test them on me first."

"Huh?? A-are you sure, Christo??"

Flo looked at Christo in bafflement. Even if these vials really contained venoms, they wouldn’t make much of a difference to Auri’s terrible condition, so it was probably worth the risk. But Christo didn’t really need to take this risk as he could end up like Auri if Flo were mistaken.

"Yeah. Just do it fast. Didn’t you say we’re running out of time?" Christo nonchalantly replied.

"Well, if you insist..."

Although Flo was apprehensive about this idea, she couldn’t reject Christo as they were really pressed for time. Even if they could make it out to the surface soon, they still had to leave the forest and find a hospital or healer. And even if she didn’t want to do this to Christo, the man could just inject himself without Flo’s help.

For the next few minutes, Flo injected Christo with the various contents of the vials. It didn’t require a whole dose for a venom to show its effects, so Flo just used a tiny portion from each vial just in case they really turned out to be venoms.

After the injections were done, they waited a few more minutes.

"I don’t feel sick or anything," Christo remarked while inspecting himself.

"Well, Auri only showed her symptoms after a few hours, so..."

"What matters is that they aren’t the type to kill in a few minutes even if they are lethal venoms," Christo said before turning to the door.

"Drai! Come here!"

Hearing Christo calling him, Drai was a bit surprised.

Drai didn’t know why he was suddenly needed because so far, Christo and Flo had always left him in the hallway every time they explored a room. Regardless, Drai quickly entered.

"What’s the matter?" he asked.

"Put Auri here," Flo gestured at a table.

Drai complied and slowly laid Auri down on the table with Christo’s help. Following this, Flo lined up a set of vials and started injecting their contents into Auri’s thigh.

"Antivenoms are usually administered through slow intravenous injections or infusions, but I’m speeding it up to save time," Flo said amidst the treatment. "Let’s hope she won’t show any allergic reaction or I might have to stop."

Minutes passed by as Auri kept getting injected either on her thighs or abdomen.

Drai, Natalia, and Christo waited patiently on the side. If they had not truly realized the worth of a healer for a venture party before, now they certainly had.

Moments later, Flo was finally done.

"It’s looking good for now, but we still have to monitor her progress," Flo said, wiping the sweat on her face. This had been a rather slow and taxing procedure, so Flo was quite spent.

"Do you need to rest, Flo?" Christo asked.

"No. Let’s keep going," Flo said as she put away the rest of the vials into her satchel.

Soon, the group was back in the hallway. They only walked for a bit before stumbling into a dead end.

"Hmm... There should be a path here," Christo mumbled while inspecting the wall before them.

"Is it some kind of hidden exit like the one in our mission site?" Natalia asked from Drai’s shoulder. It seemed like she had gotten quite used to the pain from her leg since she wasn’t grimacing too much anymore.

"Perhaps. But there’s nothing here that resembles the stone screws that we used before. It’s just like a normal wall without inscriptions, drawings, or anything," Christo replied.

"Maybe it’s supposed to be opened by the security system," Flo guessed.

Christo spent another minute examining the wall, but he couldn’t find anything. Giving up, he turned to Drai.

"Do your thing, Drai."

Drai nodded and stepped forward, kicking the wall.

However, much to the group’s surprise, the unassuming wall was only slightly dented.

"Huh? You’re tougher than I thought," Drai remarked. He then checked the cooldown status of his skill.

[Colossal Augmentation – Ready to use]

"I’ll use my skill since I don’t want to move too much in case I end up hurting Auri or Natalia," Drai said.

"Sure," Christo replied. He was actually really intrigued by Drai’s new skill, but he figured he could ask about it later.

’I think twice will do.’

Drai’s body quickly enlarged until he was twice his original size. Natalia, who was on his shoulder, felt like she was riding on a human elevator.

Drai kicked once more, and this time the wall blasted open, revealing the space behind it.

Drai immediately released his skill, but something suddenly intrigued him.

[Colossal Augmentation terminated. Remaining cooldown: 6 seconds.]

’Hm? I thought the cooldown’s supposed to be ten times the duration of my transformation. Then it should’ve been at least forty seconds long. Does it mean that the lower my transformation size, the lower the cooldown multiplier?’

After pondering briefly, Drai said to Christo who was just about to enter the wall, "Wait, let me test something."

"Oh, sure," Christo replied as he stopped and turned to Drai, watching him curiously.

Following this, Drai made sure that the cooldown was done and proceeded to transform again. This time, he only grew a tiny bit before instantly reverting.

[Colossal Augmentation terminated. Remaining cooldown: 0.32 seconds]

By the time Drai had finished reading the notification, the skill’s cooldown had reset.

’Looks like my guess was right. Hmm... I should probably take advantage of this and not just go max size every time.’ 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Okay, I’m done," Drai finally said. He couldn’t hold back his smile upon discovering this new information, as it would completely change the way he utilized his skills in the future, opening up countless possibilities.

Christo nodded and turned around, finally entering the wall. Flo and Drai quickly followed suit.