Chapter 22 - Stagnation
The villagers looked at Gravis with fear, unsure if he would slaughter them next, while the middle-aged man looked at him with a stern look. Sarah walked around the man and towards Gravis. The man wanted to stop her but decided that she probably knew what she was doing.
Sarah arrived in front of Gravis and looked down at his hand. The armor on his hand had broken and showed his skin. Sara smirked slightly, "So, you were human after all," she lightly commented.
Gravis followed her gaze at his arm and noticed that his armor had broken. He wasn't sure how to react since he went all-in on the Earth Spirit thing. Yet, he didn't know how to continue his disguise.
Sarah chuckled lightly. "Don't worry. I was pretty sure that you were human when you said you were an Earth Spirit. Elemental spirits don't appear in human form. Also, if you were actually that strong to make the volcano explode, then why would you need our help to get your 'spirit weapon'?"
She couldn't see it, but Gravis' face went completely red under his helmet. He was going all out with his disguise, but he didn't know that he never fooled Sarah. He was basically a clown dancing in front of her. Gravis searched desperately to find a way to save his dignity.
The middle-aged man slowly pieced together what had happened. The 'Earth Spirit' had scammed the hunters, telling them that he was an 'Earth Spirit'. While the man didn't like scammers, he acknowledged that Gravis saved the village, so he wanted to help him. This situation was probably very embarrassing for the 'Earth Spirit'. The man couldn't see Gravis' face due to the helmet, but he was sure that Gravis' face was entirely red right now.
The middle-aged man walked to Gravis. "It doesn't matter what you are, but you have saved our village. For that, I must thank you sincerely." The man bowed deeply. "If there is anything we can do to repay this debt, please tell us."
Gravis felt like the man had given him coal in a cold winter. He silently cleared his throat. "I have repaid your help, and all debts have been paid. I shall leave now," Gravis shouted imposingly and turned around. He walked away but stopped suddenly. He turned around. "Where is the next town?"
The man smiled wryly. "The nearest town is Wilderness Town to the northeast. It is about a day's march away from here."
Gravis nodded and quickly fled from the village. He didn't want to remain any second longer since it was just too embarrassing. Sarah looked at his fleeing back and laughed. The middle-aged man put his hand on her shoulder. "You shouldn't humiliate our savior."
She laughed more. "He started with all this bullshit. He could've just said he was human in the first place. When we found him, he was buried in obsidian, only his head sticking out from the middle..." Sarah talked with her father and told him all about their interaction with Gravis.
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Gravis was running to the northeast. He had already thrown away his useless armor a while ago. It looked nice but was useless otherwise. Now, he only wore a black shirt and some black pants. He finally got a direction for a town, and there, he could surely buy pills to temper his body.
He learned in his preparation school that the body tempering stage was mainly dependent on pills. Finding a different way to temper one's body was difficult, especially in a low-rank world. He could theoretically temper his skin by training, but that would take years.
While running, he was thinking about what happened to him in this world, up to now. He had arrived, and his 'luck' was doing its absolute very best to kill him. Yet, after that, there was silence from his lack of Karmic Luck. He met no enemies in the two days, where he was regenerating, and the enemies he sought out himself weren't even worth a warm-up.
What did Heaven plan? Gravis thought further about this issue. His lack of Karmic Luck did its best to stop him from cultivating. There were two ways to stop someone in their journey. Either kill them or stagnate them to death. Those ways were actually complete opposites. One was sending strong enemies to kill the person, while the other one was sending no enemies.
Enemies tempered one's will and heart, and if there were no enemies, one could progress higher in their realm. Yet, if they advanced higher in their realm without having any enemies, they would also be the weakest in said realm. And when you were the weakest in your realm, it would be difficult to survive and get further resources.
Gravis clenched his teeth. "So, that's your plan," he muttered to himself. "As a back-up of your volcano plan, you dumped me into some back-water area, where nearly everyone is weak. There are nearly no potential enemies, and probably just as few resources for cultivation."
That's right. Heaven wanted to stagnate him into complacency. He got dumped into an area where he was as strong as the leader of a whole town. If Gravis hadn't learned so much about Heaven's luck and plans from his brother Orpheus, he would slowly fall into complacency and lose his drive.
This was the same way Heaven stopped Orpheus from cultivating. It gave him a wife and beautiful children until he stopped desiring strength. Gravis realized the similarity.
Just when Gravis always lamented his weak strength, Heaven had sent him to a place where he was one of the strongest. That sudden shift in status could make people drunk on the sudden gain of power. Like that, they lost their feeling of helplessness, which drove them to reach higher realms. It would also remove all pressure on a person, basically boring them into mediocrity.
"What a sly and sinister scheme," Gravis commented as he thought about his situation. He couldn't allow for his drive to vanish. He had to get pills to temper his skin and then move on towards areas with stronger people.
Gravis stopped running. "And this town should help me in that," he muttered to himself as he looked at the town on the horizon. After a short pause, he continued running. He was still quite a distance away from the town, when something happened.
"HALT!" A man suddenly jumped out of a bush and stepped into Gravis' way. "I planted these trees and paved the road! Pay a toll to-"
BANG
The bandit couldn't finish his sentence as Gravis just barreled through him, throwing him back into the bush. Gravis didn't even look at him as he continued running. After a while, the man got up from the bush and looked into Gravis' direction. "Damn, at least let me finish my phrase before you do that," he grumbled to himself. "It's normal and good manners to let other people finish speaking, you dick."
Gravis tried not to think about the guy he just ran over. This was one of Heaven's attacks, sending weaker people toward him until he felt more and more powerful. If he continued fighting only weaker people, at some point, he would lose his edge and would start fearing stronger enemies. Gravis needed to keep his will sharp.
If he felt proud about winning against weaklings, his will would get exhausted to death. The longer he remained in this weak place, the more weaklings would come, and the more his will would falter.
He had to leave, fast!