A Partial Solution

At the moment, Noah lay on the makeshift bed back at the last camp. His body seemed alright but the mess within was really devastating. His bones suffered multiple fractures and although his bones hadn't broken, they weren't far off. His Essence Veins were slightly better but it was still so bad that he had regressed to the 7th Level of the Novice Stage. All in all, he would have to stay bedridden for at least two month.

Actually, Noah expected far worse. On Earth, using this kind of technique could leave you in bed for years and that was if one possessed a strong enough body. Normally, using it caused one to be crippled or worse, dead. The Limit Break technique was not made for fun after all. It basically placed every bone and muscle in the body on overdrive, making one overdraft their life force for more power, it was impossible for most to handle it. So the fact that his 12 years old body was not destroyed was a very miraculous thing to Noah.

Right now, he could do nothing other than staying in bed to allow his injuries heal. After all, he wasn't in the outside world. There were no Elixirs that could help him swiftly recover, so he could only wait for his body to recover in a natural way.

"I found something interesting." One day Alyssa watched as Noah forcefully controlled his weak arm to feed himself, suffering no small amount of pain in doing so while she spoke. She could never fathom why the boy even younger than her was so paranoid that he would rather suffer through that pain than allow her feed him. Yet she wasn't angry because she knew that this wasn't something that would be done only to her, she felt that he would never trust anyone to do such to him, leading her to believe he lived an even worse life than her. "I caught a glimpse of beasts like the scorpion we defeated diving into the sand today."

"Does that matter?" Noah didn't understand why she would bring up a topic like that. Wasn't it obvious that the scorpion was running away from the sun?

As if guessing his thoughts she answered. "It was noon at that time."

Noah's eyes widened. "You mean...?"

Alyssa nodded. "I risked some damage to my soul to head outside..."

His eyes shot towards the carapace of the scorpion that lay in the cave. "Their carapace can withstand the sun's attack!"

"Hmm." She nodded once more but she wasn't as happy as she was supposed to be. "But they don't seem to stay up for long. I couldn't stay out of the shade for long so I don't know how long they can last in the sun but I could see some scorpions screeching in pain before burrowing deep into the soil."

Noah, on the other hand, smiled with satisfaction as he finally saw some hope of leaving the hell hole he was stuck in. "It's a solution, a partial one but a solution no less. It's actually very simple." A ruthless expression appeared on his face as he released a cruel smile. "We'll just hunt a lot of them down."

Anybody hearing this would be dumbfounded. It seemed Noah was even crueler to himself than his enemy, he had yet to recover yet he was already thinking of battling once more.

Alyssa was no exception. Her poker face thawed as she revealed a look of shock. "You wish to stockpile the carapaces."

"Yes, we'll treat the carapaces as cover from the sun and when the first one is about to give in, we replace it with another. We'll do this until we exhaust half the carapaces we manage to stockpile. Hopefully, by that time, we would have found the exit to this place, passed the desert or would have to return here." Noah explained his plan to the shocked girl with a calm look as he kept on eating with his weak arm.

"But your body..."

"I've waited two months already, what's another two or three?" He answered immediately without even batting an eye, causing her to be restless at his unwavering and calm attitude.

In the end, Alyssa could only sigh as she nodded. With her voice filled with a rare sadness, a whisper left her. "What have you experienced?"

It was a whisper but Noah heard it. A smile graced his lips but placed together with the cold light in his eyes, a cold killing intent surfaced from deep within him. "Too much."

She said nothing as she left the room in silence.

***

Five months passed before Noah healed completely. And since he couldn't move, those five months had been spent training his Essence. He had spent all his time, practicing with it and further refining it.

So not only had the quality of his Essence core increased to the point where his Essence shined with glittery gold light, a mark of high quality, he had also recovered his lost strength and advanced to Level 9 of the Novice Stage! He had advanced from Level 7 to Level 9!

But actually this wasn't considered shocking as he was originally at Level 8 before his injuries. Still, with one more advancement, Noah now stood at the peak of the Novice Stage!

Right now, he could go toe to toe with anyone below Level 4 Intermediate Stage. He could even advance to the Intermediate Stage if he wanted yet he did not do so because that would harm his foundation. Even if he were stuck in this hell and wished to increase his strength, he knew to assure that his advancements had stabilized and wouldn't affect his future talent.

Anyways, all that was needed was for him to create that last 1% Essence Vein leading to his brain and he would be done, advancing straight to the Intermediate Stage. It sounded easy but it was not, this was where multiple people stumbled upon on the path of being a Battlesoul master.

For others that 1% was very hard to create and even geniuses treaded carefully as a single mistake could cause one to get brain damage and be rendered an idiot. Yet for Noah, it was as easy as eating. With his Silver Dragon Eyes, he could determine the best route for that Essence Vein so he was practically settled.

And this was not all. Noah had actually been able to advance his Flicker to the range of 15 meters from the initial 13. Although 2 meters wasn't much, in a battle it was the tiny details that ensured victory.

Noah smiled as he donned his lack luster armor. It was hunting time once more.