Daina immediately lowered her sword and assisted Kenley to his feet, pressing him closely against her chest.

  "It's alright. I'm sorry for making you worried," Kenley exhaled a faint sigh of relief, maintaining his composure. At present, the most pressing matter was to restore his own condition.

  Unable to see his HP, there was no way to know his current state of health. In any case, the first thing was to drink a potion.

  Kenley extended his hand, attempting to summon his own potion from the dimensional pouch, yet nothing emerged.

  Daina seemed to sense something and then said, "Use mine."

  The fact that Daina could freely summon her potions brought Kenley a slight sense of relief. It seemed that there was nothing amiss with the world. The problem should lie within himself and was related to that Dragon Lady.

  He must find her... She was highly likely the key to resolving all the issues.

  Kenley took the potion from Daina and drank it. "Thank you, Daina."

  "There's no need to thank me. It's temporarily safe here. I just went out to scout and found no enemies."

  "Lady Daina, it turns out you have such a tender side," Kenley smiled.

  Daina arched an eyebrow. "Mr. Kenley, although I acknowledge your heroic actions earlier, it doesn't mean I'll readily accept your flattery."

  Kenley shook his head with a bitter smile. "It's not flattery. To be honest, when I first met you, I harbored a sense of resistance towards you in my heart."

  "Is that so? Well, you're not the first person to have such feelings towards me. As the protector of the Christophon family, I must consider matters from every perspective for the family," Daina said calmly, as if Kenley's candor had prompted her to utter these words.

  "I understand," Kenley nodded.

  The two fell silent for a while, seemingly without anything more to say.

  Just as Kenley was about to get up and move around again, Daina spoke up instead.

  "Who is Irene? You kept muttering this name in your dream."

  Kenley clearly hadn't expected Daina to ask such a question. He opened his mouth and finally said, "She's a really, really good friend of mine."

  "I thought she was your lover," Daina leaned back.

  "Perhaps we were just a little short of becoming lovers."

  "Then why didn't you end up together?" Daina suddenly stared straight into Kenley's eyes.

  "I might never see her again," Kenley didn't know how to explain it and eventually settled on this response.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Sorry, I didn't know," Daina thought that Irene had passed away.

  "It doesn't matter." Kenley moved his body. After drinking the potion, he could clearly feel his vitality returning.

  Although he couldn't retrieve anything from the dimensional pouch anymore, fortunately, his weapon was still there.

  Kenley raised his sword, intending to test his skills. He had to confirm immediately whether he could still use his combat techniques.

  As he swung his sword, Kenley heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, his skills were still usable. It was just that without the UI interface, he couldn't see the detailed data of various aspects. But this didn't have a significant impact on Kenley; at most, it was just a bit inconvenient in some respects.

  "How is it?" Daina asked with concern.

  "It's all good now," Kenley turned back and smiled.

  "Let's go. Staying here might not ensure that anyone will be able to find us," Kenley regained his confident and composed demeanor.

  However, the moment Kenley stepped out of the cave entrance, he came to an abrupt halt.

  Daina turned her head and saw that familiar figure.

  Damn it! Kenley frowned. He didn't know what this Dragon Lady was up to, approaching their hiding place so quietly.

  Kenley and Daina exchanged a glance, raised their swords, and were just about to engage in battle, when Normani's next actions took them completely by surprise.

  Normani suddenly threw herself into Kenley's arms and sniffed vigorously at him.

  Kenley couldn't help but let out a scream.

  What on earth was going on?

  The instant Kenley made contact with Normani, the in-game interface in his eyes immediately started to activate.

  System: "System reboot in progress... 1%"

  A long progress bar began to load in the form of a percentage, and such a line of text appeared in Kenley's field of view.

  The corner of Daina's mouth twitched. It was evident that she hadn't expected things to turn out like this either. For some reason, she felt a bit annoyed when she saw Normani throw herself into Kenley's arms.

  Kenley immediately raised his hands. "Lady Daina, you saw it. I didn't do anything!"

  "I know..." The corner of Daina's eye twitched noticeably.

  ...

  System: "Execute the repair contingency program."

  As soon as the system rebooted, Kenley saw the activation of the repair program. What on earth was going on?

  "It smells so nice..." It was Normani's voice, which sounded exactly like that of a girl with a voracious appetite for delicious food. If it weren't for her special identity and the series of strange behaviors before, Kenley might have actually been deceived by this person.

  "Who exactly are you?" Kenley asked with a frown.

  "You can call me Normani." After saying that, she extended a tongue about a foot long and rubbed it roughly against Kenley's face.

  This time, Kenley was truly frightened. For some reason, he felt a creeping sense of unease. He tried to push her away, but Normani clung to him tenaciously!

  "Stay away from me!" For some reason, Normani's actions just now reminded him of Tia's dark form. Why did such strange things always happen to him?

  Daina's expression was somewhat teasing. "It's obvious that she likes you a great deal."

  System: "The repair contingency program has been successfully activated. Player Kenley unlocks a new mount 【Normani】 as compensation for this game malfunction."

  A mount?!!

  Kenley was stunned. Was this thing really a mount?!!

  "Can you transform?" Kenley couldn't help but ask.

  Normani was currently in human form. Surely he couldn't ride her in this form and fly?

  Normani giggled. "Normani can turn into a dragon!"

  After saying that, Normani took a step back. Her body began to emit a powerful white light, and then her body gradually grew larger, eventually transforming into a huge dragon more than ten meters in length!

  And it was pink... Her entire body was pink...

  The corner of Kenley's mouth twitched. If he had such a delicate pink mount in the game, there was a high probability that his fans would tease him about his peculiar taste.

  "Wow, what a magnificent dragon!" Daina exclaimed with an envious look on her face.

  Kenley asked with cold sweat on his forehead, "She... is magnificent?"

  "Yes, this is a dragon! Mr. Kenley, having a dragon as a companion means you have the qualification to become a dragon knight." It was obvious that Daina's tone was filled with envy.

  "But why can't I seem to feel happy about it at all?" Kenley pressed his forehead, feeling utterly helpless.