Second Manual (2) - 6

The sounds of my footsteps echoed through the heavy darkness.

'How much longer is this going to take?'

I had probably been stumbling for more than 3 hours through this horrendous darkness, and I still hadn't found the site yet.

'It's pretty inconvenient that the novel never contained the time that it took to get to these things.'

'Well, it's not like I can do anything about it either.'

With this thought, I continued pushing forward.

I ran into a few dead ends and had to backtrack a bunch of times as the cavern was like a labyrinth, filled with random pockets everywhere.

It was only then that I arrived in a vast cavern that I couldn't even sense the end of.

I looked down at what would be murky water.

"Sigh, if only I didn't have to do anything to get the manuals."

I took a deep breath and then I jumped into the deep lake.

Controlling my spiritual power so that I sank straight down, I started descending into the darkness.

As I went deeper and deeper, the more oxygen turned into carbon dioxide and the heavier my body became.

'Uggh... arghh... umph'

My body started spasming as I continuously lost oxygen. My fingers clawed at my throat subconsciously, trying to deal with the pain.

And then finally, my body couldn't stand it anymore and I took in a breath of water.

As I drowned, a saw what was a pale blue energy, although it could have just been my delusions, wrapping around me as I fell into the darkness.

...

"Kaaaccckkkkk! cough, cough, cough"

I woke up with a start whilst coughing all the water that I inhaled out.

'I'll never do this fucking shit again!'

Of course, I had known that, right as I was at the edge between life and death from choking, the mana from the owner of the manuals that resided here would help me at the last second, and then teleport me into this hidden cavern.

This had only been discovered by chance by a small supporting character in the story that had eventually been used only as a cannon fodder for the protagonist, that after dying, helped with the protagonist's emotional development.

"Just why can't everybody be a protagonist, it's just really unfair, but that's how life is."

I also added at the back of my head.

'And I have no intention of being cannon fodder for the protagonist, I just wish that he could die, but he obviously can't or I'd have to take his job, and that'd just be annoying as hell.'

I sat up and then looked at my surroundings.

There was pale blue mana floating in the air around me, lighting up the cavern chamber.

And in the middle of the chamber, there were 3 podiums, each shouldering each other, creating a triangle in the middle.

'Oh! Did someone get here before me?'

On two of the podiums, there were books chained to them, but on the final one, the chains had fallen to the sides, hanging there limply.

'It's safe to say that either something I did created a butterfly effect that somehow changed the story which is really unlikely as I haven't done anything that serious yet, or... somebody else got transmigrated too.'

'Well, if they're going to stick close to the plot like I am, then I'll meet them sooner or later.'

I then walked up to the two manuals still bound to the podiums.

'The other person probably just knew that these other two weren't a good fit for them, or, they just didn't want to wait that long as they were pressed on time and didn't want to experience that pain a second time.'

Now that I thought about it, I had originally planned on taking both of them, so that I would have four manuals before getting into the academy, but I now should probably only take the one I wanted, as I now remembered that I had this weird system, it didn't seem like I needed the 7 star footwork manual, so I would just take the 8 star weapon manual.

I walked up to the manual, bit the soft flesh in between my thumb and index finger, and then let a drop of blood spill onto the manual.

As the drop of blood touched the manual, a light pulsed from it, further illuminating the cavern.

Then, it started sucking out my spiritual energy like crazy, using it to break the chains that held it in place.

I tilted my head back as I let out a pained cry.

"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!"

All this power being forcefully taken out hurt worse than when I was drowning by one hundred fold, it was so indescribable that I couldn't even collapse, the pain holding me to my place.

I stayed like that for who knows how many hours, stuck in a delirium of pain and darkness, blacking out every few seconds and then waking up again as my brain tried to withstand the burning pain.

I didn't know what happened, but I suddenly regained consciousness.

I was still standing there, with my hand on the book, but my spiritual energy had been depleted almost all the way, and there was rivers of sweat flowing down my body, forming a pool beneath me.

My brain was kind of foggy, as it was only then that I realized that I was panting extremely hard and that the chains had fallen off the book.

My knees suddenly collapsed underneath me, snapping like twigs, almost reenacting the moment before I died, but this time, I still kept my consciousness, lying there on the floor whilst circling my spiritual energy to regain some of it back.

It took me a whole 3 hours of circling before reaching an acceptable amount of spiritual energy, enough for me to stand up without wobbling.

I hesitantly stood up, and then realized that this whole time, instead of sweat coming off of my body, it was actual a black goop.

'Bleeeegh! Did I just really lie down in that muck for 3 hours without noticing?'

I guessed that the black goop consisted of impurities in my body that had been forced out.

'I guess this is kinda cliche too, but my body feel pretty light now and I think that I can move better, even with half of my spiritual energy missing.'

I guess this was a session of torture and a blessing at the same time.

It was only after I had finished marveling at this unexpected reward that I finally turned towards my original goal.

Without even looking at the name of the book, I quickly grabbed it and hurried out of the cavern, still dripping in goop as I just realized something important.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, I should thought about this earlier! If the other person was able to get here, then that means that they could also take that art that I need! Goddamnit!'

My increasingly quick footsteps created loud echoes in the cave as I left the cavern room, leaving the remaining book behind, the sound of dripping water being the only thing that resounded in the silence of the lost darkness.