Chapter 346 Volume V - Chapter 64: The Ticket Out of The Dungeon
I stared after the disappearing wolves, unable to stop my lips from curling upward once again.
I had managed to defeat my opponent unscathed. I had also found a way to heal myself. That aside... Now I had a much better grasp of what ordea was really like.
If I could learn to use it properly and fully, it would be a much greater help to me than mana. Before, I had a hard time perceiving how effective it was, but now... it was different. I had succeeded, and it was all thanks to it.
I turned to the sky, and without lowering my smile, I spoke mentally into the empty space.
'Are you satisfied?'
I didn't use mana, I just literally overwhelmed my opponent with ordea. I must have won the bet, right?
I felt the blue glow around me ripple for a moment, then, contrary to my thoughts, slowly fade.
I frowned involuntarily as ordea began to leave my body again. I didn't get any response, whether it was a sign, a sound, or a movement.
Soon, the world returned to its original colors and the last blue glow surrounding my body disappeared.
The pain was back, my body was not completely healed after all. But I was in much, much better shape now than I had been a few hours ago. It wasn't something I could ignore.
Still, I had other concerns and questions than my body.
Was ordea satisfied or not? Did I win the bet or lose...? How will I know which is the answer?
If I lost the bet, I shouldn't be able to use ordea again, at least not if it is really as conscious as they say it is. So... when I want to use ordea, I guess I'll get the answer to my question, but why doesn't it give even a small sign?
Is it because it has a primitive consciousness?
I finally took a deep breath and simply let myself fall to the ground. There was someone I could get answers from after all.
'Lith-'
But before I could finish the word in my mind, I paused at the gentle, beautiful voice echoing in my ears. A figure appeared in front of most of my thoughts.
"Adrian...?"
Oh... it wasn't just the air around her that had changed. Even her voice sounds more... beautiful and delicate.
Now... should I look at her or not?
It's not hard to restrain myself. Not for people passing by on the street anyway... Even though charm is indeed a mesmerizing, almost hypnotic statistic, as long as you keep your consciousness clear and your logic intact, you don't do stupid things. What happens is usually because people stop controlling themselves.
What I don't want to do is that when she sees that I'm hesitant of her, I'll inadvertently make her feel uncomfortable. I don't want her to feel bad when she's already in a bad situation.
But it will be worse if I don't answer her question...
"Are you okay? There's nothing wrong with your body, right?"
I finally sighed again, pushed my thoughts aside, and turned my eyes toward her.
"I'm fine, I guess. Besides... didn't I tell you to trust me? What's the rush?"
I put a smile on my face, speaking sarcastically on purpose. I wanted to show that I was good enough to talk like that, but when the reaction I got was a smile... I couldn't help feeling as if the world had frozen for a moment.
Just imagining her smiling face, despite the mask on her face, made me lose my focus for a moment.
"Good, and what makes you think I don't trust you? I'm still standing here because I trust you."
"Y- Yeah..."
When I looked away from her, even briefly, a silence fell over us both. Then, when I turned back to her again, there was concern in her eyes. Sue was right behind her.
"You're not fully recovered."
Huh? Oh, did she think I was momentarily hurt? That... that actually works for me.
"Yes, I'm not completely healed, but I'm sure I can take down almost all the wolves one-on-one even if I use mana now. A little strain on my body won't hurt me any more. It's just... I won't be able to fight at full strength, that's all. I need more time."
I hesitated for a moment, then sighed lightly and turned around. Right toward the mountain range. The shimmer of the long river in the sky was hitting the slopes of the mountains. It was a beautiful sight.
"But now, we can move again. We're not in danger during the day, and we won't be in danger at night as long as I continue to beat the wolves. So as long as we take a break every few hours, we can start moving forward."
Sue's eyes shifted slightly to the distant mountains. To be honest... she didn't seem to want to go there. But the hope in her eyes had become a little clearer. It was clear she wanted to get out of this dungeon.
"I think it would be better if we rested for one more day."
But Lucia quickly interjected and our focus shifted back to her again. She continued.
"It would be better for you to fully recover before we move, Adrian. Just because we have only encountered wolves so far doesn't mean they are the only ones here. Our target, the mountains... they are far away. I doubt the wolves will follow us there. The protection we have is not absolute."
But this time, instead of trusting her words, I had different thoughts. And Lucia noticed it too. Her blood-red eyes met mine as she squinted slightly.
"Then let's go to the point where the wolves can't follow us and if I'm still not recovered when we reach that point, we can rest. We don't know how differently time works here and on Lunerra, Lucia. Even though we've spent a few days here, it could be weeks out there. I don't want to slow down even more when we can finally have a chance to move forward."
"You sound like you're in a hurry… I think it's more important to make sure we survive."
I continued, nodding my head in agreement.
"I'm in a hurry, we're all in a hurry. But it's not a rush to throw away our chances of survival. As I said, we can only go so far before the wolves can't follow us. That's what I'm thinking."
We both looked at each other for a while. No words were spoken, a deep silence fell. In the end, it wasn't either of us who broke the silence, but Sue.
"Doesn't what Adrian said make more sense…?"
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Both Lucia and I quickly turned to her. Sue continued.
"Lucia's idea is safer, of course, and I think it actually makes more sense. But… I also think we need to move forward. If Adrian is really sure that he's going to win every duel with the wolves, aren't we safe as long as we don't leave their territory? They even bring us food from time to time…"
In the end, all Lucia could do was let out a deep sigh. She looked around for a while without looking at either of us. As if she was looking for wolves or other creatures. But then she turned her eyes to the mountains.
"If you both want it that way… there's nothing I can do."
I thought she was a bit angry by the tone and gesture of her words. She definitely wanted to follow a guaranteed plan. But then she closed her eyes, turned back to me and… smiled slightly.
"I'll trust you again, and if Sue trusts you the same way… As long as you don't break that trust, nothing else matters."
For a moment, I felt locked in her blood-red eyes. I couldn't say anything, I just lost focus for a single moment and… I was literally hypnotized.
I dug my fingernails into my palms. With the help of the pain, I finally tore my eyes away from hers and smiled.
"Yes, yes… Don't worry."
I swallowed in a way that no one notice. Lucia… she was becoming… scary at this point. I had to be careful talking to her, looking at her, even listening to her.
But I decided not to think too much about it, at least for now, because we had to survive and move forward first. So I stood up, stretched, ignoring the general aching in my body, and looked at the place where we had been staying for a few days.
We were finally leaving the crater full of rocks. I hadn't consciously spent much time here like Lucia or Sue, but considering how long we had been here and what we had been through... it was a stepping stone of sorts.
"So we're off then, huh?"
Lucia and Sue nodded quickly. They didn't have a lot of stuff, but they started to do a final check of where we were resting so as not to leave anything behind. Meanwhile, I turned my back to them and simply called out to my mind.
'Lithoa. You're there, aren't you?'
I had just been interrupted by Lucia when I called out to him, but that didn't mean I had forgotten what I needed to ask him.
'I'm here.'
There was no yawn, he also didn't sound angry. Apparently, he was also waiting for me to call him.
And so, I told him what had happened. My bet with ordea, that I wasn't sure if I had satisfied it, and more. I was sure that if anyone could come to an answer in this place, it was him. But at the same time, I didn't expect a complete answer.
Because he himself had said that he didn't know much about ordea. He was someone who could use the energy of neither order nor chaos in his life. As a matter of fact, his answer was what I expected to hear.
'I don't know. Ordea and caora are primordial energies, their consciousness doesn't work like a full consciousness Adrian. So I don't have an answer for you. As you said yourself, the next time you test whether you can use ordea, you will probably get your answer.'
He hesitated for a moment and I could only sigh, but then Lithoa continued, unexpectedly.
'But regardless of that... if you can keep using ordea, you can use it to defeat the dungeon boss. If you keep practicing and learn how to use it even half-assedly, then you will be able to make it stronger. That's what I've been thinking for the last few hours.'
Oh... so our ticket out of here could be ordea, huh?
'Got it. I'll talk to you first thing at our next rest point. Then... we'll see what we can do.'
Lithoa didn't say anything else. His presence slowly disappeared from my mind. Either he had gone to sleep or he was going to do something, but I didn't pay much attention to him. When I turned around again, Lucia and Sue were ready.
We were ready to move forward again, and so we would.
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