Their bizarre adventure 1

"Aah!"

With a loud groan, Raian ripped a nightmare creature apart.

[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger]

[You have received a memory: Blacksteel Daggers]

[Your will has grown greater]

Taking deep breaths to recover, Raian summoned his new memory.

"Dammit, another one," he muttered, cursing somewhat as he looked at the counter: 

[96/1000]

It wasn't easy to grow stronger. After a week of travel together, both he and Liala had reached a certain consensus: they both sucked at keeping directions. 

Not in the worst ways, like getting completely lost, but they generally had no idea where to travel. As a newbie, Raian felt fine about it. With a steady supply of water thanks to Liala and fresh food from the abominations they felled, the trip felt manageable.

Whether Liala thought the same, he didn't know. She seemed to be in search of something.

He wanted to ask—not out of pure goodwill, but to gain information as well—but Liala hadn't told him, so Raian was content waiting.

There were many possible reasons for her secrecy. She might not want to tell him yet, she might want to verify the information first, or it might be something she thought he shouldn't know.

Raian was fine with Liala keeping secrets. Some things were better not knowing; ignorance is bliss, after all. So he didn't ask. The main reason, however, was her strength.

Except for pure physical strength, Liala seemed to outclass him in every way. Her way of fighting the beasts they encountered, her knowledge about the grim continent, and the dream realm in general.

Strong people and leaders carried more weight, something he knew by heart.

While Raian was out of his depth, Liala thrived in their little adventure. Maybe she carried that weight as well.

To be fair, she had spent months in the Awakened Academy studying, training, and preparing mentally, seeking any knowledge to survive in this land. Raian appreciated that having a powerful ally was not bad at all.

Looking up and gazing at the starless sky, he thought of nothing, just breathing to recover faster. The journey was hard, no doubt, but with Liala guiding them, the frequency of monster encounters was increasing.

Amid his contemplation about discussing this with her, footsteps approached. Ears pricking upwards but calm inside, Raian looked in the direction of the sound.

Liala was walking towards him with a claymore resting on her shoulder, bathed in crimson, her memories clinking together as she neared him.

Swinging her claymore in a wide arc to clean off the blue blood of the prickly crabs, Liala looked at Raian with a smug face. "Looks cool doesn't it? I had to learn it."

A little jealous of her weapons, armor, and that move she just did, Raian got up from the ground, groaning as his left side bled mildly.

Raising his arm to look at the injury, he saw the area around the hideous gash was bruised.   

Despite his stoic appearance and flaw Raian was still a passionate teenager so he answered.

"Yes, it reminds me of sword users in webtoons."

"Of course, I mimicked them after all. Gotta respect the source." Summoning a leather pouch and offering it to Raian, she seemed mostly fine. Few scratches near her face, but overall Liala was uninjured.

Taking the pouch and drinking his fill, he asked, "So, did you get them all?"

Unsummoning her now clean claymore, she answered, "About to, but something interfered, so I ran, following our plan."

Groaning a little at the bruises, Raian took a shabby step. Realizing his severe condition, he summoned a bottle and took a sip. Sighing as the cursed vitality did its job, the injury on his ribs healed painfully. "Alright, let's get out before more come."

When the crowd of crabs or Carapace Scavengers attacked, they followed their plan, bolting in opposite directions to force the crabs to choose. If all the crabs followed one, the other would strike from behind. If not, the number of enemies faced would lessen.

Both trusted in each other's strength. The first to clear their enemies would help the other. Luckily, they met only a few; otherwise, the difficulty would spike.

Merely fighting two scavengers was enough to tire him out. Raian didn't have a proper plan for more than two since most enemies last week preferred to venture alone.

"Wait, aren't you gonna take their crystals?" Liala asked, curious.

"You mean soul shards? Maybe next time. It's not ideal to scavenge the scavenger."

"Hah, not bad, good sir. I'm taking them then." Chuckling at his joke, Liala summoned an axe and started hacking at the unmoving bodies.

"You had that? Why didn't you tell me? Last time, I had to rip its flesh to take it out."

"First, you didn't ask. Second, you can't use it anyway, so why bother?" Her axe didn't stay still while she spoke, the sound of flesh being chopped was quite nasty.

Raising his finger to speak, Raian dropped it afterward. What she said was true. Even if he wanted more shards, there was no real need to use them. He didn't need to absorb broken soul shards to grow stronger. Whenever he killed a nightmare creature, depending on their rank and tier, the number in his spell-granted status grew and he felt stronger. Maybe feeling stronger was some kind of an mental thing affected by the number.

Still waiting for Liala to finish, Raian raised his right hand and looked at it intensely. Activating his aspect, a golden light embraced his whole body, starting as a small dim glow. A surge of power engulfed him, the feeling of strength coursing through his veins.

Focusing deeper, he stopped breathing, channeling the aura to his right hand. Clenching it into a fist, he tried to gather all the aura surrounding his body into his fist. Like a tidal wave, the aura converged and then dispersed.

Ever since meeting Liala, Raian started training, trying to improve his control over the golden aura. He thought of a few ways, and Liala chimed in with her ideas. They talked about it a little.

Exhaling, Raian stopped his practice. Liala was almost done. The chopping of flesh had stopped, and knowing she was absorbing the shards, Raian jumped in place a few times to check his condition.

Finding no problems except a few ugly scars, Liala landed beside him, causing some dust to rise.

With a joyful smile, she asked, "So, where to? Last time, I chose the direction."

"As the stronger one, you decide." Leaning back and stretching, Raian answered indifferently.

"I thought taking turns would be fair."

"No need for fairness. The strong lead and shoulder more responsibility. That's my ideology in the slums."

"Slums sound like an interesting place."

"Not to brag, but in the slums, I led a small group of idiots. As for your interest, it's not the best place, but it's not the worst. People still live there."

Dropping her claymore softly on the ground, Liala held it upright. In the next moment, she let go, waiting for it to fall. As the claymore dropped in a random direction, Liala pointed and gestured for Raian to follow her. "Cool. When we get out, you have to show me around."

Contemplating with worry about how she decided their direction, Raian sighed deeply and followed her. While following her and being weaker than her triggered his aspect to react in disgust the amount was manageable as it could be easily suppressed. Maybe it's warrior's respect or something like that.

Walking side by side "You know about martial arts?" asked Liala

"Yeah somewhat, I read about them in webtoons."

"So, what did you think?"

"Most of their movements look unnecessary. I don't understand why they practice it. If they wanted to kill their opponent, they could be more efficient and lethal."

"Of course, it looks like that in webtoons. They need to be more colorful and over the top to attract readers. Mundane people don't know how fights happen, and most Awakened read them, ignoring the unrealistic parts to enjoy the story."

"You sound like you know a lot."

"Of course, I'm an official author on webtoons. Got a few titles under my belt. Simple things like martial arts are easy to imagine but difficult to execute."

"Martial arts sound like a glorified way to fight."

"Well, the term 'martial arts' is less about fighting style and more about self discipline."

"How so?"

"Well… you can punch in many ways, but by practicing a single type, the punch becomes stronger, faster, and more consistent."

"I guess that makes sense, but I don't know where to begin."

Poking her own face Liala pondered a little. Shrugging her shoulders to express something she asked with a smile every conman would be proud of.

"Mmm…. Have you heard of Niko Style?" 

-xXx-

As the two walked forward, the plain they left behind sank back into its quiet silence.

Meanwhile, in another part of the barren continent, a lone figure stood still. The warrior faced the Dormant Monster. In the end the man prevailed over the beast.

Worn and torn by the battle, he might have won, but his injuries told a heavy story. Missing an arm, he didn't even attempt to stop the bleeding.

Gazing up at the starless sky, the warrior wished for a weaker enemy next time.