"He's Ren." Lina was the one to reply.
'It's not like I can't speak, you know.' Ren thought but didn't interrupt her.
Lina then proceeded to tell her about how Ren was one of the players who had arrived from a different world and was now stuck here.
Selene's eyes widened in realisation and slowly, a mischievous smile formed on her face.
"I guess you can't go back, huh. Looks like we will be spending a lot of time together."
Ren's body went completely numb for a second, and a shiver ran through his spine as he looked at the snake that kept hissing at him occasionally.
"Yeah, I guess," Ren muttered in a low voice and then it was just Lina and Selene catching up with each other about everything they had faced.
Listening to their conversation, Ren discovered that Selene had also encountered the horde, but she was able to escape successfully with the help of the snake.
"So how did you get this snake?" Lina asked curiously as she looked at the snake that kept acting hostile towards Ren while being gently stroked by Selene.
"Huh?" Selene's smile paused; her face went awkward, but she quickly replied, "I received an ability after touching this snake in the forest."
'She's lying.' Ren pondered as he looked at her. She hadn't even explained anything about the broken bridge which only Ren knew about in their whole group.
'Does she think someone else had destroyed it after we had escaped?' Despite having a multitude of questions, Ren kept them to himself.
"REN," a sudden shout alerted the trio but when they looked in the direction of the sound, Selene's face bloomed with a smile but in the blink of an eye, her smile vanished.
A cold gaze replaced it as she looked coldly at the returning trio.
'So there's a lot more to this group's dynamics than I imagined. Interesting.' But he still kept an eye on the snake which was acting like he had stolen its egg or something.
Evan and the group returned and their eyes lit up in surprise upon finding Selene but seeing her cold gaze, they stopped.
Evan and Ronan hesitated, confusion flashing across their faces before realisation dawned on them. Both turned their heads to look at Caleb who gulped in nervousness after seeing everyone staring at him.
"What happened to your arm, Caleb?" Selene asked in a voice that was neither cold nor warm. It was neutral.
His eyes widened and seeing his missing arm, he showed a wry smile and explained how he was ambushed by a vermin.
Listening to it, Selene clenched her hands and as if feeling what Selene felt, the snake instantly started to rub its head on her chin which soothed her a lot, apparent from the change in her expression.
The group chatted for a few minutes while Ren kept thinking of how to get a new axe or probably something better that wouldn't require a lot of training.
"Alright, let's first search for any survivors for now. We are in the middle of an open street for god's sake." Selene reminded the group and they finally withdrew from the unnecessary talk.
'I will have to figure out how to use this Oblivion integration fast. And why did she not react to my eyes?" The detail clicked in his head after finding but before he could ask about it, the group had already started to move towards the Inner Keep.
Knowing that she was hiding a lot, Ren was intrigued to find someone similar to him. Hence the reason why he wanted to know more about her.
"By the way, did the person you were chasing escape?" Lina asked and Evan immediately nodded.
He had actually forgotten about that part after seeing Selene but listening to Lina's question, he instantly thought back to how that individual had simply vanished into the next street without any trace.
"Oh, even I saw some of them but they all escaped." Selene's response surprised the group.
'So there's more than one of those hooded individuals?' This place was starting to feel even more eerie.
And for now, they were going into the centre of the city to reach the citadel in the Inner keep, which was one of the places where rations were generally stored hence they assumed they might find some survivors there.
They kept coming across vermyrexs but with the efforts of the whole group, the single ones or those in pairs were taken down easily.
Ren received a notification.
[Vermyrex's Limb]
[Vermyrex's Tooth.]
Glancing at it, Ren also joined the group in clearing some of the vermyrexs but it wasn't enough for him to get an increase in level.
Out of nowhere, a massive vermyrex which was more than ten feet long with multiple limbs lunged at him from behind.
Due to his tightened senses, Ren turned around at the last moment and embedded the sturdy limb inside its head.
It halted for a second before life faded out of its eyes and then, it simply dropped to the ground.
'But I was trying to aim for its eyes.' Ren looked confused as he had missed his target but the abnormal strength flowing through him was more than enough to kill the vermyrex in a single go and that too in the front part of the skull.
[Congrats! You have reached level 21!]
After a few hours and some twists and turns, the group finally entered the inner regions of the city. Their eyes lit up immediately upon seeing a little flame coming from the gates of the massive citadel.
But just as they were about to take another step, the snake on Selene's shoulders hissed loudly which stopped the group.
Before Ronan could ask what the problem was, an arrow pierced through the air, directly aiming at Evan.
Clang.
The sound echoed through the air as the arrow fell to the ground after colliding with Lina's shield. She had immediately located the arrow that was shot from near the gates of the citadel and instantly used her shield to protect Evan.
"Identify yourselves, strangers."