24. Anger

Sounds of iron against rock reverberated in the passage.

Noah opened his eyes and was almost scared by the corpse on his side.

But when pain rose in his body, he remembered the situation he was in.

'I have basically no "Breath" left. The one being absorbed by my acupoints is being used to mend my wounds, I believe I won't be able to kill even a rank 1 beast, let alone the remaining rank 2.'

He tried to stand up, pointing with his knees and elbows, but he remained in a crouching position for a while.

The noise from the other spiders was getting closer.

'They are probably attracted from the body of the rank 3. I must get away, come on body, MOVE!'

He managed to stand up holding the wall, he put the Kesier rune back in his clothes and moved slowly to pick his remaining saber.

He slowly limped toward the passage on the left only to find that the sound came from the bottom of it.

'Shit! Don't tell me that I'm going to die even after killing the rank 3!'

He was at a loss of what to do, he needed time to rest, but he had no food or water with him since he left his backpack by the fireplace on the surface.

'Wait! Water! Maybe I can sneak out to the lake while the spiders are busy eating their previous boss.'

He looked in the direction of the blue light and moved toward it.

He was walking at a slow pace and supporting himself on the rocks on the wall. It took him one hour to reach the basin.

The environment there was completely silent, either the spiders were still busy eating the rank 3, or their low intelligence didn't make them realize that now they could use the lakeshore at their will.

Since there were no more walls to sustain him, Noah chose to crawl till the center of the underground room.

'Luckily, they have low intelligence, I believe that if it were a rank 3 four-eyed wolf, the effect of the rune would have not been so decisive.'

He reached the lake and took a mouthful of water to drink.

The water relieved his body from some tiredness and even filled it with a bit of "Breath".

'Right, the Breath blessing! These waters must be filled with "Breath" I can speed my recovery!'

Spiders began to crawl out of the holes in the underground room and move toward him, and at their sight, Noah only smiled faintly.

'Of course, another danger would come after I found a bit of hope.'

He threw himself in the lake and floated toward its center.

'Now that I think about it, it's the first time I'm swimming with this body. Well, even the rank 3 was staying on the shore where the concentration of "Breath" is less than the water, so it's safe to say that they can't swim.'

His hypothesis was right as the spiders would just surround the lake without entering it.

A peculiar scene was unfolding.

A kid wearing a smile was floating on the surface of a lake towards its center while sixty or so spiders were waiting along the shore.

'This feels too good! My body is being nourished at an incredible speed, apart from the wound of my shoulder, the others have mostly stabilized. And the concentration of "Breath" is still rising.'

When he was at the center, even his wound on the shoulder showed signs of getting better.

Noah stayed like this for a while, waiting for his wounds to heal.

'Maybe if I go to the bed of the lake, I can speed the process.'

Once he had the idea, he followed through it immediately.

He kept going down through the water, and at around ten meters of depth, he saw a blue oval stone.

It was shining on its own and was beautiful to the sight.

As Noah got closer to it, the thickness of "Breath" rose exponentially, and, when he was in front of it, he could even feel his body getting stronger.

He didn't think much as he took the stone as big as a man's face and went back to the surface to breathe.

The Breath blessing was extraordinary, it was constantly attracting "Breath" of such a quality that all his wounds were closing, and the acupoints went back on completing the second cycle of the Seven Hells.

After half a day, Noah found himself laughing happily, a sense of completeness filled his body.

'This thing is amazing! Not only it healed my wounds, it even helped me complete the second cycle! I've never felt so strong! I wonder if I can manage to keep it…'

He thought for a bit but then shook his head.

'A treasure is only of worth if I have the strength to protect it. If I'm weak, it's just a calamity. Better to simply give it to the inner circle and take some rewards.'

His acupoints had stopped working since the cycle was complete, and his wounds were healed, there was no point in being here anymore.

He tied the stone to his clothes and looked at the spiders still waiting on the shore.

'Well, let's see what my body can do now!'

.

.

.

Going back to the time the guards escaped, four men were staring at the entrance of the cave.

Then a fifth figure came out, revealing itself as Balor.

The group was mostly fine, they only had some light injury that needed some mending.

When Balor came out, he found the other four men staring at him with disgust and repulsion.

Mason didn't even waste time talking, he arrived next to him and punched his face hard.

Balor fell to the ground, confused.

"Ca-Captain, what are you doing?"

Mason could not control his anger as he kicked the fat man on the ground.

"What am I doing? What have you done is the question! We all heard Noah cursing you, apart from being a disgusting man holding grudges against a kid, do you know what mess you've put all of us in?"

Balor took the insults but still felt wronged, wasn't Noah just the bastard kid of a whore?

But Mason didn't care about his confusion and kept kicking in anger.

"When I said that the vice-captain vouched for him, it wasn't the whole truth. That kid was the only disciple of the smiling blade William Challi! Do you know what he will do to us when he arrives?"

Realization dawned on Balor as he trembled in fear.

"Th-then let's just say that the rank 3 killed him while we could do nothing, like this he would not do anything to us?"

But Mason only shook his head.

"I already contacted him through a special talisman that he gave me explaining the situation. I will not risk my life to cover a piece of shit like you. Men, tie him up!"

Everyone got to work and tied Balor while they waited for the judgment of the vice-captain of the guards to fall on them.

A day and a half later, a figure appeared in the distance.

It was speeding like a bullet on the ground, and its legs were barely visible from how fast they were moving.

It abruptly stopped at the fireplace, where the guards were waiting.

It was sunset, and the figure got revealed by the last ray of light of the day.

William stood there catching a breath, the tiredness for his hurrying there was surpassed only by the anger for one of his men betraying his disciple.

"Where is he!? Tell me where my disciple is!"