Reborn as an Extra

Chapter 660: The Evolving Threats.

"So you actually had a backup prepared?"

Kai nodded his head at Rio’s question and spoke.

"Yeah, if you hadn’t arrived and if Lia hadn’t managed to achieve her awakening, I would have had no other choice but to use some forbidden magic or something..."

"Which obviously would have had severe side-effects on Lia later on but at least her life would have been saved..."

"Forbidden magic usually end up using vitality and soul power as sacrifice... and with Lia’s powerful soul, it is actually possible to heal her back to full health if she agrees to sacrifice a part of it..."

Kai sighed and continued in a solemn tone,

"But of course that would have severe side effects; she will lose a major part of her memory, her soul would weaken, her strength would weaken and in the worst-case scenario her ’Path’ would be destroyed..."

"Causing her to become incapable of going any further in terms of personal growth... the consequences of using forbidden magics are quite severe; that’s why I didn’t want to use it at all..."

"But if I had no other choice left, that was the only way out for Lia in that situation..."

Rio glanced at Kai but didn’t criticize him anymore.

Kai’s approach was actually right; even though Lia’s ’Path’ for the future might have been cut off, at least she would still have remained alive.

The only problem would have been that someone like ’Lia,’ who’s worked hard her entire life to achieve what she has achieved, might not be able to easily accept this outcome.

For a high-level awakener to lose their ’Path’ is almost the same as an ordinary person becoming disabled by losing their limbs or some important part of the body.

Your life is never the same after that kind of injury.

Of course, Rio wouldn’t care whether Lia is strong or just an ordinary person; he loves her, not her strength or her powers. Even if she ended up becoming completely disabled, Rio would still take care of her happily.

But Lia herself might not be able to cope with this kind of reality, as it would seem too suffocating for her to be confined to living such a life.

Her ambition is to stand beside Rio and become his strength, not his weakness.

"Well, thankfully I rushed over the very moment I got the signal... but I will have to explain the reasons once I go back or I will be in trouble..."

"After all, I would still be considered ’On Mission’ until I go back and give them a full report of my mission..."

James who had been listening to them talk asked in confusion after hearing those words,

"You also said that before that you were gone for a bit... Where did you go? When we parted there outside the silver mansion, weren’t you assigned to taking care of the criminals and suppressing the chaos in the nation?"

"Why would they send you outside the nation at such a critical time?"

Hearing James’s question, Rio realized that these fellows weren’t actually aware of what was going outside.

"Err... it’s kind of complicated. The good news is that Ashtel Rex woke up three months after I started working as a criminal catcher, so I became free for some time, but then I had to go to the spirit realm for a secret mission..."

"I can’t tell you the exact details but yeah, I was kind of away for about six months due to this mission..."

"I was really under the impression that Lia and you would have long returned by now, but to think that you were both still stuck here..."

At Rio’s words, James’s eyes widened in shock!

"It’s already been nearly ten months outside!? It’s only been about two days since we arrived in this place you know!!"

"The time difference of this dungeon was not like this when I entered this dungeon before!"

James had entered this same dungeon many times before, and he had never witnessed such weird abnormalities; in fact, the time difference of this dungeon when compared to the outside world was actually almost negligible before!

But for certain reasons, the dungeon seemed to have mutated into a completely new form!

"Talking about the weirdness of this dungeon! Why did you bring Lia inside a Pseudo-SS-rank dungeon? Are you out of your mind!?"

"You can’t handle it yourself, and you dared to bring her with you too!? Are you insane!?"

At Rio’s question, James was stunned speechless, and even Kai was shocked.

"Pseudo-SS-Rank!? What the f*ck are you talking about!? When we entered, this dungeon was clearly giving off S-rank fluctuations!"

"It became stronger after we entered it!? That’s unscientific! I have never heard of a dungeon that can get stronger while their people are raiding it!"

"It’s exactly the opposite in usual cases! Dungeons get weaker as people raid them and kill the monsters inside!"

Now it was Rio’s turn to be surprised.

"This?... The dungeon evolved to a higher state?"

Rio’s eyes slowly widened as he spoke out those words, not because he was unaware that dungeons could evolve during ongoing raids, but because Rio was actually very familiar with this phenomenon.

’This happened in the novel during the late stages of the novel... dungeons started evolving crazily... regular dungeons suddenly became more stronger when raids were already ongoing...’

’It was because those dungeons were getting influenced by the increasing mana density, but this kind of thing happened very late in the novel... why is this happening so early this time!?’

’Don’t we still have a bit of time left for this to start happening!?’

Rio already knew that dungeons were evolving and getting dangerous because Raji had told him about it when he was still working as a criminal hunter, but it’s only been six months since then.

And this evolution has reached a new stage already!

Now not just ordinary dungeons are evolving; even dungeons that are being actively cleared are also evolving!

In other words, now it’s not possible to accurately measure a dungeon by its rank, as it’s not sure if it will end up evolving during a raid!

The risk of raiding dungeons has now increased by another level due to this!