Abyss

After a few moments, Arvad faintly inhaled a breath, and his eyes became wide as he was jolted awake due to the terrible pain.

The only thing that greeted him was pitch-black darkness and a horrible stench.

'Looks like I have broken my collarbone and shoulders.' He greeted his teeth and thought.

'Crap! What was that girl's problem? How did I offend her?! Umbras really don't like humans as they say.'

Arvad quickly pushed against the ground to stand up when he felt something soft between his grip. Unconsciously, he squished it twice, before he felt red eyes, darker than the blood, silently gazing upon him.

For a second, he forgot about the splitting pain, and sprang up from his spot. The sight which greeted him induced his nausea by several greater levels.

From what he could make out of it in the darkness, a spider-type beast's corspe was sitting in front of him. Its red eyes which did not have any signs of life glared at him, making him feel cold. The mutated spider appeared to be a female one, since its upper body was that of female, while lower had eight pincer-like legs.

Arvad stood there with his mouth agape. He could not believe what had happened. Looking at his palm, he appeared tranced as he gave them empty squeezes.

'Did I just molest a female spider? And that too a dead one?'

Arvad's face twisted into something unrecognisable. After a long moment of silence, he finally took a deep breath, and looked around as if confirming that no one saw this shameful act.

'It's a relief that no one is around, or my reputation would have gone down the drain.'

Fearfully patting his chest, he sighed in relief. But soon, he started to frown once again. Arvad felt as if he was inside a creature's guts who was having constipation due to eating the wrong food.

The only reason he had not thrown up was because of the training back home. Roland would regularly take him to the slaughterhouse to watch how to skin and cut various type of demonic beast. It was one of the required skills to survive in the wild.

The pain was steadily growing unbearable and Arvad knew that he immediately needed to climb out of that hellhole. Only the herbs above could heal his injuries the fastest.

However, he feared that the Umbra girl might still be there, so he decided to take asylum in this abyss for the night. It seemed pretty safe to say the least, far better than the battlefield above.

Though, there was one worry in his heart. 'What are Umbras doing in this place? They shouldn't have appeared here? I will have to report this as soon as I go back.'

Arvad shook those thoughts, and intently gazed at the female spider's voluptuous chest for a couple of seconds. If someone else looked at this scene, he might have taken him as a pervert.

"Looks like I don't have a choice. Sorry for the intrusion."

He quickly walked forward, and started digging in the spider's chest. After a bit of effort penetrating the spider's hard defense, he took out a red orb-like thing. It was shining with brilliant splendor like the precious of diamond, chasing away the darkness that stuck around the abyss.

The shine itself spoke of its value. The dead female spider must be at least a Grade 8 beast, but only this core remained to speak of her strength.

Although Arvad had seen quite a few back at the palace, he could not help but admire this for a few seconds.

Looking at the almost 150 meters long walls surrounding him, he knew it would be long before he could climb out.

"It's a pity that this core can't help me heal, and can only serve as a lamp. If only I had awakened."

Arvad tossed the radiance of the core to the surroundings, and found there were many beasts' corpses ranging from ordinary to rare. For a normal hunter by the town, they could make him reach over night.

Arvad frowned as he looked at the needle embedded in the glabella of an ape. It appeared similar to the one used by the mysterious girl to attack him.

"Now that I think about it, it looks like that umbra girl's work. She must have set this trap to catch the mutater dragon off guard and reap his life." Arvad patted his head as thought up to here. "I likely ruined her plans, she must have attacked me in anger."

The more he thought the more he felt it was right. He sighed for a minute, and decided that he should leave as soon as possible. The Umbra girl might come here when she hunts that mutated dragon.

'However, it hurts alot.'

Arvad felt dizzy from pain, and hoped that he could find a beast which could aid in healing.

Despite searching around for a bit, he found no such beast. Just as he was about to give up, he noticed a strange beast which almost looked like a turtle.

'Is it a Siena?'

Looking at the reddish luster on its tough skin, he confirmed his speculation. They were known for that red hue. Even though this beast's meat did not have healing properties, they had a special physiology.

Upon dissecting it, hunters found that they had a really long digestive tract. Their digestive system required days to digest food. Rarely, their stomach might have herbs which were valuable.

Since Arvad did not have any choice, he decided to try his luck to see if he could find any healing plants or such it might have accidentally devoured. He walked up to a beast with a sharp fang, pulled them out, and started dissecting the Siena with his one hand.

Judging from its wound, it must have died from a single attack. Siena were known for their tough defense, so it just renewed his fear for that Umbra girl.

'How old was she? 12 or14? She seemed to be even younger to be honest. I have to work harder, there are a lot of people who are stronger than me.'

The pungent smell of its belly left a deep frown of disgust on Arvad's face, but feeling the pain radiating from his shoulders, he took a deep breath and persisted.

After digging through countless layers, he finally found its stomach. The beast seemed to be eating when he was hunted as he could see food particles mixed with strange green liquid.

"Ughh, I genuinely feel like puking."

Despite utter repulsiveness, he searched through it. Siena was a herbivore creature, which only feeded on grass and plants. After closely smelling and differentiating, he noticed to his sadness that there was no healing herb.

However, he did smell a flower which had a strong analgesic effect, meaning painkiller-type effect.

'At least, with this, I can climb through this hell hole.'

Arvad closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself for what was about to come. Although he had been taught that the ultimate goal was survival, his hands still could not help trembling.

'If you want to survive in the jungle, you must become wilder than the other animals.'

Those words echoed in his mind as he took a deep breath, and devoured the smelly green past.

With difficulty swallowing it, he coughed hard, and almost vomited it again. 'Ugh, It's the first day and I almost died two times, I don't know how I will survive in this hell for the next two days.'

After a few minutes, Arvad felt the pain from his shoulders and collarbone had faded by a considerable amount, and he sighed a breath of relief.

'At least, it was worth the sacrifice.'

Now, he rushed to the wall of the abyss, and brainstormed to find a way out. Suddenly, his gaze fell on the sharp fang, and he smiled.

Soon, more moments flew by, and Arvad appeared at the edge of the wall again. However, now the 150 meters tall wall did not seem as hard as before. He had fixed the orb inside his robe for light, and there were two sharp fangs in his hand.

'Here I come.'

With a confident smile, Arvad strongly stabbed the fang into the wall.