To Dion, it must have probably just seemed like I took alcohol out of thin air.
"Ino, Ino, Ino, look. That's alcohol right?" Dion brightened like an excited puppy that just saw a bone. "Ha! We are not going to die afterall!"
He then began scrambling forward on his knees to me. "Give it to me."
But right at that moment, I threw the alcohol back into the inventory.
"No, no, no, no, where is it? Where did you throw it to!"
Dion turned to the direction I tossed the alcohol, and when he did not see it, he turned to me and crawled closer. "Hey, give that alcohol here!"
"Have you forgotten what I said about my bonded ability?" I asked with a devious smile.
Dion's excitement slowly began to fade. He sat in front of me then arched a brow. "So you need a favor in order to grant my wish?"
I nodded deviously.
Dion lowered his eyes and placed a finger on his chin, then muttered to himself. "Ino, what do you say?"
After a few seconds, he looked back up to me then asked. "Let's hear the favor."
I smiled, then shrugged. "It's simple actually. All you have to do, is help me safely get out of this bloody territory."
"Huh?" Dion scoffed. "Who told you I have the power to take care of anyone else besides me? I'm sorry, but I only know how to take care of myself."
Tsk.
Typical reply of a rogue.
Though I already expected such a reply.
I tilted my head. "I'm sorry too, but you are going to have to learn to take care of people besides yourself. If you do need this alcohol, then no matter what, you cannot run away on your own after taking it. You'll have to watch my back, until we are out of this territory. If you do otherwise after taking this alcohol, then according to my bonded ability, your heart will explode, and you will die."
"W-what?!" Dion's eyes widened and his jaw dropped even more.
[You have acquired 5 Karma points.]
[Available Karma points: 2,355]
For a moment, a tense silence hung between us.
Dion seemed to be lost in thought. If I were to guess, I would say he was probably speaking to his bond right now.
After a few more seconds, he grunted and aggressively raked his fingers through his hair. Then he asked, "Is that all the favor you want?"
I thought about if I had any other thing to ask, but I didn't. All I needed from him was to make sure that after I gave him the wine, he would not escape on his own and leave me behind.
"As long as you help me get out of this territory safely, that would be all."
"Then I must ask that you grant onto me more bottles of wines."
"Huh?"
'More wines? Is this guy crazy? Those wines don't belong to me!'
Dion continued. "See, the thing is, the more drunk and absolutely wasted I am, the more powerful my bonded ability becomes, and the more enemies I can use it on. Since we're probably deep in this territory, I'm going to need a lot more than just that one bottle."
I swallowed. "How much more are we talking?"
Dion smiled sheepishly. "Fifteen or more bottles should do."
"What?!"
It took a lot from me to control the urge to strangle this bastard.
Dion nodded. "Yes. I don't know how many of those creatures are out there, but that number of alcohol should at least help us get through them."
I blinked a few times, then raised my hand. "Give me a moment."
I then flicked my gaze to the side.
'Gamer privileges…'
[Activating Gamer Privileges…]
'How many bottles of wine are in the inventory?'
[Bottles of Alcohol: x15]
I sighed. This was absurd. There was no way I was going to grant his request because Aika would be furious if I gave out all of her alcohol.
I was just about to make up my mind to deny Dion's request when Aika's weak voice echoed in my mind.
'Give it.'~~
'Huh? Are you sure? That's all the alcohol you have.'~
'…Yeah.'~~
I looked to Dion who was still smiling sheepishly, then I said through gritted teeth. "I can only give you ten. Would you be able to do with that?"
Dion's smile faltered, but quickly returned and he nodded. "Sure. Give 'em here."
A large inventory window only visible to me appeared to my right and I slowly began pulling out bottles of alcohol.
As I dropped each bottle on the ground, I could see Dion's gleaming eyes following every movement of the bottle with frantic intensity.
By the time I had dropped all ten, he was already drinking his first bottle.
"Gosh! Ino, this is good stuff. Ha!"
He wiped his mouth after almost downing the entire bottle in one go. Then he belched and said, "Oof. Excuse me."
Just looking at his face was making me annoyed.
"Hurry up and get drunk! We've got less than five hours left." I muttered in irritation.
Dion smiled, then chugged down more of the wine.
While he was drinking, I shifted my gaze to the side, where a large map appeared and I began silently studying it.
Aziz's Beautiful Garden was a very vast territory, and the sheer concentration of red dots representing enemies on the screen made me shudder.
Would we even be able to make it out of here?
It would be really great if we could sneak out of this territory without getting caught.
However…
Looking at this map that showed the ghouls covering almost every area, one thing became clear. It was far more likely that we might need to fight our way out at some point, than completely sneaking out without getting caught.
Would we be able to fight and survive if the time comes?
Of course, once we leave this prison, we would be able to use our exclusive skills. But I'm not strong, and just me and Dion won't be enough to deal with this ghouls if we have to fight.
'This is frustrating…'
Is this entire plan to escape just pointless?
I frowned deeply.
But after a brief moment, I shook my head.
Pointless or not, it was still far better to try and escape than just do nothing.
If at the end, I managed to escape, that would be a victory. But if I ended up being killed, I'd just come back to life, anyway.