Son of Chaos 118 Explore a dungeon

"Quite good, why?", Lara responded. She was unwilling to tell this aunt of her more. If she did that, she would only have to listen to her lecture her. Saying just this would be the safest.

"That's good.", uncharacteristically Jenny didn't continue to ask. "Then I'm sure you don't have a problem if Lin lives here?"

This question didn't come unexpectedly for Lara. She had already prepared for it when she had heard about Lin.

"Of course I don't have any problem with it. After all, she is Ivan's wife too. And I think we will get along quite well."

"Great, then this is settled. Now let's get to why we came here today. We want you to come with us to explore a dungeon." , she then stated the reason.

The sentence really shocked Lara. Ever since she had gotten pregnant with Jane she had stayed in the capital, so why would they want her to come to explore a dungeon?

"Why?", she asked confused.

"Because you have the right skill set and we trust you.", knowing that this answer wouldn't be enough she then continued on. "The dungeon we are planning to go to is a bit unusual. It not only requires fighting, but there are puzzle sections too. And these puzzles are mainly on management. "

Hearing her explanation cleared up her doubts, but she was still surprised, that they had found a dungeon like this. They were very rare, as most dungeons only required fighting and sometimes solving logic puzzles. The ones that require a special skill set would often give much higher rewards, but were much harder too. And it wasn't like one could just take someone specialized in the object of these puzzles. The fighting in the dungeon was too difficult for that.

Not only that, the puzzle themselves would often require the rest of the party to trust the one solving them, which made it only harder to find someone.

Lara fell silent, as she contemplated. It wasn't like she wasn't tempted. In fact, in the last few months, she had thought about trying out adventuring once again. But she had decided against it. Not only would it split her up from her daughter, but also her job of managing her company.

Just when she was thinking about rejecting, Ivan's voice stopped her. "You should go."

"Huh?", she looked at him in surprise.

"I asked madam Tanner about it and she said that you haven't taken a break ever since you took over that company."

"I took some breaks.", Lara hurriedly protested.

"Really? From what I have heard, the only breaks you took were ones, where you did stay at home to take care of Jane."

What Ivan said was the truth. The only times she had taken a break, was when Jane required it. It wasn't like her whole life revolved around her job. She didn't work in the evening or on Sundays, except if there was an emergency.

Seeing her not responding, Ivan continued on. "It is important to sometimes do something entirely different. Only this way, you can keep your mental health. And exploring a dungeon, will not only be something different, but also something you'll enjoy a lot."

"But what if something happens to me? What about Jane then?", Lara asked worriedly. This was the true reason, she had stayed in the capital all the time. After her close brush with death, she unconsciously feared that it would happen again if she went out. And this time there wouldn't be someone who would save her.

The others looked at each other. While this dungeon wasn't that dangerous, it would be highly unlikely that anyone would die, but there was no guarantee. So they didn't know how to alleviate her fears.

Finally, Ivan was the first to break the silence. "This is all the more a reason that you should go."

Lara looked at him in bewilderment and the others too looked at him in curiosity.

"I know that you have continued training even after you stopped going out on adventures, but if you stay this fearful, then there is no chance that you will ever become stronger. Because if you fear that you could die all the time, this means that you have no confidence in your own strength. Heck, if you continue like this, this problem may even creep into your normal life. So take this opportunity, to go out and regain your confidence. What opportunity could be better than this one? Not only would you go with family, who are strong, but also something which has a low amount of risk, while still being difficult."

After saying all this, he looked at her and waited for her reaction. Lara had a thoughtful look on her face. She felt that what Ivan had said was true, but there were some things he hadn't mentioned since he didn't know about it. It had to do with the Berg Bloodline. Someone with this bloodline had to have a mind as steadfast as a mountain, or there would be some impact on their health.

She hadn't wanted to see it, but there were some signs of this already happening. Lately, she had been tired out faster. But still...

Carl could clearly see her struggling. "If you and Ivan are willing to pay for it, then there is a way to make it much safer for you."

"Huh?", everyone was surprised since they didn't understand what he meant.

"Do you know where your skills and memories are stored?", Carl asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"Of course, they are stored in the soul.", Ivan answered and the others nodded. This was common knowledge.

"Then do you know how skill books work?"

This time everyone shook their heads. None of them knew about it. Like most people, they just accepted it and saw it as something too complex to understand.

"That's no surprise. Since it isn't really of any use for most people. Even those who copy skill books don't need to really understand their function, so many of them don't even try to understand them.

The way they work is through soul imprints. To be exact they store a soul imprint that contains the skill, which will then merge into the target's soul and thus enable one to use the skill. It is easy to merge with the soul imprint, but it is really hard to create one. And I don't mean copying one, but extracting a skill one has and make a soul imprint of it."

The others didn't understand why he talked about this, although it was interesting, it didn't seem to have a connection with what they were talking about. But how could Ivan not understand? The suggestion was certainly to make a soul imprint with the 'Reincarnation' skill. Lara would then be able to learn it and stay much safer like this.

"How do I do it?", Ivan asked eagerly.

Hearing him ask this, seemingly not caring about the price, made Carl's mouth curve upwards. He was glad that this guy would be so willing to help his nice.

"You don't want to know the price first?"

"If it can keep her safe, then that is more important. Besides, you wouldn't have made this suggestion if it was something really detrimental for me.", Ivan assuredly said.

"Alright.", Carl then explained the process. It required one to make something like a copy of a part of one's soul. Although this copy wouldn't be a part of the soul, it would still have a connection to it. And this is were one of the problems lied. Because of that when the target integrated the soul imprint, the connection would be integrated too. Although the connection would be very weak, it would still make a few things possible. Such as feeling the position or health status. So this should only be done if the people participating trust each other.

For Ivan and Lara, this wasn't a real problem since they already had such a connection ever since their marriage ring had appeared. The next problem too wasn't really a problem for Ivan. This was that making the soul imprint would damage the soul. Usually, someone who had injured his or her soul would need a long time to recuperate, while having a reduced training speed and constant pain. But when Ivan had split his soul before he didn't have a constant pain, which maybe was because his soul had still been in its normal form, just smaller. But more important was that he had a skill that could strengthen his soul and thus should be helpful in healing it too.

As such the only problem left, was that it would be painful. Which Ivan was sure he would be able to get through.

"Let's do it.", he announced.

"What exactly are you talking about?", Lara couldn't hold back that question anymore.

"Just wait and see."

Chapter end