Recovery

##READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS IS JUST AN ADVENTURE OF AKIRA DURING HIS RECOVERY.

The cool conditioner air traveled throughout the hospital. In a medical center, lay Sota in a hospital bed. A doctor beside him, and a nurse at his left.

Beep! Beep!

His pulse and heartbeat were normal, but his wounds were different. In a container at a corner in the room, was a stockpile of soaked cotton wools. All of those were drenched with blood.

His head had turned red with the overflow of blood, but he managed to stay alive. The blood flowed like water and occasionally landed on the floor.

He was in a critical state, trying to stay alive and not accept death's invitation.

"What a strong being. It barely touched me, and I'm already dying."

*Cough*

"How then would we face those creatures? I have to get stronger!"

He thought overly and sometimes muttered his thoughts out loud.

Meanwhile, the three apprentices were at their homes, recuperating. Akira on his bed, woke up to a new day and admired the glowing beauty - the sun.

"Woah, I feel energized!"

He stretched his body and did a few exercises before scrutinizing his body. While standing from his bed, he had a remembrance.

"I thought we were at that mountain."

"My stats!" he screamed forcefully spreading his palm.

[Stats]

[HP: 94]

[Strength: 15]

[Fatigue: 10]

[Protection: None]

[Level: 2]

[Achievements: Shadow Realm Pass (Beginners), Ultimate Destruction, Shadow Realm Pass: Newbie, You can't do more than a dead body]

[Skill: Stats (Activated), Destroy (Activated), Sensory Attack (Activated)]

"Yes, of course. I fainted due to overfatigue."

"But wait the orb! There isn't any additional information in my stats."

Akira was confused, unaware of the orb's operations. Its sudden disappearance set off a chain of thoughts in his head, but Akira decided to forget about it for the time being.

He braced himself for the future and departed from his shed. While taking a nice stroll, he spotted a large building in the distance.

"A medical center!" he thought.

He tried to close the distance between him and the center. He encroached further into the center and was welcomed by a group of workers situated at its entrance.

"Receptionists, I presume?"

He tried bypassing them, but with the sound, his shoes emanated with each step, he was sure to be noticed.

And just that happened.

"Hello, may I help you?" One of the workers questioned, proceeding to Akira.

His eyes circled, and sweat flowed down his cheeks, as the worker was about to make contact with him. With a touch of the worker, Akira vibrated, coughed, and looked away.

"You know what, I shouldn't be scared. She's just a receptionist, right?"

He forcefully swung his hand away from her and distanced himself.

"Uh, no." He shoved his hands into his pockets, gulped down saliva, and said, "I'm just trying to see a friend."

The worker ransacked him with her eyes, and immediately noticed something was off.

"You don't have a permit...."

He grabbed his hands and quickly ran to the elevator at a corner in the hall. He exhaled and slowly crouched while setting the floor of his elevation.

"Man, I can't keep up with this. Why am I even scared? I should've told them who I wanted to visit, and they would have shown me."

"Now, I don't even know where I'm going. But, if I had told them, it would result in some shitty conversation with them."

His mind was in thought, and he didn't know where he headed. The hospital was a large facility with numerous rooms, and Sota could be in any one.

Akira had just set a journey of an endless search of rooms.

Finally, the elevator opened its doors, and Akira found himself on the highest floor. A single floor was so large, that its end could hardly be seen. Hence, countless rooms resided in it, as well as countless patients.

"This is too much..."

Akira tried comprehending the size while circling at the center. After a brief observation, he set out to seek his teacher, Sota.

He knocked at every door he could, all with strangers in them. Each room had patients ranging from babies to elderly, with different events being held.

Unfortunately for Akira, his eyes witnessed some content it wasn't supposed to. A few times, he walked in on people half naked, some still dressing and during operations.

"Shoot!" he screamed every single time he saw those things.

After an endless search, he gave up on the current floor. He returned to the elevator, about to descend, but was immediately distracted by a single room at a corner.

He squinted, trying to grasp a view of it. It was a metallic construction, a cube just like all other rooms in the hall. But this one was different, he sensed something different in the room.

A chill similar to the one he felt when he saw Sota at first.

He ran desperately towards the compartment. The closer he got, the feeling became more ominous.

"It's only Sota that has that aura."

Upon his arrival, he was phased by a tall door that stood at its entrance. Out of all the rooms - especially the inappropriate ones - this was the only locked one.

Akira kicked, smacked, and tried various means of breaking in, but all were invalidated.

A lock. It stuck unto the reflective metallic door at its top corner with three digits, "0' "0 "0".

"I guess that rules out one combination."

He looked at the lock, still contemplating his next move. Trying more combinations was not an option. Out of millions of combinations, only one was valid. It is a joke to try all.

There must be a better way.

He flipped the lock and scrutinized his environment for any aid. It seemed like his luck had just run out. It was after numerous thoughts, that a solution surfaced,

"Ahah? My new skill. It would most certainly help me."

"After all, what's the use of a skill without any implications in reality, right?"

He closed his eyes, and his ears seemed to deafen. The environment calmed down, winds slowly scratched his skin, and finally, a thin glimmering string emerged.

"What's this?" he thought, still forcing his eyes closed.

He had not seen anything like it, not even during his previous battle. Surprised, he stepped back but the thread was still visualized.

It connected to the bottom of the lock, which was also visualized in his head.

"Strange," he thought.

While trying to position himself below the lock, he heard strange clicking sounds. It reverberated, filling the environment with sound.

But, alas, it was all in his head.

Suddenly, he saw the lock reconfiguring itself to a new passcode, and he grasped the digits. It was strange, but he was fairly happy with the outcome.

He forced his eyes open, as though he had awoken from a nightmare. He rushed towards the lock and abruptly grabbed it. With all his might, he turned and clicked the lock, and it opened.

He banged the door open, only to see a weak body lying unconscious on a medical bed.

Sota? Or another man. Akira couldn't understand. His face was too disfigured to recognize, blood was flowing endlessly down his cheeks, creating a shallow pool below the bed.