Chapter 20: Exploding Crust
Will had sensed an ominous feeling from the lake and quickly decided to leave the area with Aria. Aria was reluctant because she never felt her energy arts revolve so smoothly as she did when she stood beside the lake.
As they were rushing through the dense undergrowth of the dense jungle, Will turned towards Aria. "Just who is your teacher? When did you turn into a 1 star warrior?"
Aria sighed. "My teacher is an unusual person. I don't know his exact identity, but he isn't an ordinary person. One thing I am certain about is that he is extremely powerful.
He came to this planet to research something. Due to some circumstances, I ended up becoming his student amd he told me that going to the Warrior Academy would be a waste for me. I have been training under his guidance ever since." She said as if in deep thought.
After hours of quick traversal, Will and Aria finally reached the edge of the forest. In front of them was an extremely barren land, as vast as the horizon would lead them to observe.
The ground was dry amd the temperature lower than within the humid forest. The purple sky loomed over the grey caked rocks that had gone extreme heat expansion amd developed millions of cracks.
Will took in a deep breath. "From what I've read, these rocks look sturdy, but due to the constant thermal expansion and rapid cooling in this dry environment, many rocks are hollow. When you step on them, certain rocks will deflate like a balloon and explode, causing severe injuries. We need to be careful moving forward."
"This... we are in the Exploding Crust zone?" Aria asked in shock. "This region hasn't been completely explored by humanity yet. Why did you come here?"
"My aim was to disappear until I could solve some of my personal problems. I warned you that this journey was going to be dangerous. What better place to disappear than one of the three dead zones on the planet?" Will asked.
He looked on at the vast expanse of the greyish rock terrain and felt a faint anticipating within himself. He observed as a stone abruptly exploded like a mine and a terrifyingly hot geyser of explosive steam erupted and shot high into the sky.
He took in a deep breath. And then, without hesitating, he began running at the maximal pace he could. At this moment, a silhouette of a black rabbit surrounded Will's body as he rushed ahead, rapidly jumping over stones and then jumping away as the stone exploded behind his feet.
Aria saw the faint silhouette of a black rabbit and was reminded of the moment when Will had punched out terrifyingly, smashing Jin Sola to death. At that moment, a terrifying white boa snake's silhouette had formed around Will, but it almost had an ethereal look like the snake had become real. The rabbit at this moment looked faint, almost like a shadow clad around Will.
She quickly used all her power to keep up with Will, her body flashing from point to point like a mirage. She looked at Will in astonishment as she found that in his ordinary, non warrior body, he could keep up with her. The two continued racing ahead, as a series of steam explosions erupted behind them leaving a clear trail.
"My master said that the true experts all had their own secret arts. Is this rabbit movement technique a secret art of yours?" Aria asked in wonder.
Will was currently sweating bullets. He could only display the faintest of breaths of the rabbit's movements and it was almost tearing up his body. Will found a newfound appreciation of how terrifying Enkidu's natural physique was, that he could use the full scale of this technique like he was having a casual jog.
"I don't know if it can be called a secret art. I can barely use a hint of the technique without causing all the bones in my body to shatter." Will said as he grit his teeth.
After fifteen minutes of crazily jumping on stones that would rapidly cave in and then explode outward, Will finally landed on a stone which held out firmly. With a sigh of relief, Will abruptly stopped his movement, however that alone caused him to feel like all his muscles were about to tear apart, tendon by tendon, however, he eventually managed to swallow down the pain and sat down on the single stone.
Aria saw that the large stone Will landed on didn't explode and jumped onto it as well. She was slightly panting, but Will was completely drenched and there were hints of blood oozing out of his body. His own blood, not the blood of the primordial demon.
"Your secret art is really taxing." Aria observed in shock, before sitting down on the rock. Will did not reply, as he was extremely short of breath. He took out a nutrition pack from his bag and rapidly gulped it down.
Only after sometime could he breathe normally. "I thought my body had pretty much healed, however, it seems like it was just an illusion of health." Will thought to himself as he closed his eyes. He could see that the remaining 25% or so of the life wheel was vibrating like it was going to shatter. Will had the premonition that if the wheel shattered in this manner, he would die.
"I can only make the Life Wheel gently merge into my body and not let it collapse. Using the form of the rabbit's movement art almost brought it to breaking point." Will analyzed carefully.
With this, he felt a renewed sense of urgency as he began to practice the cleaning body tablet's nine exercises, looking at the red giant in the sky. He twisted and turned his body to the limit, working on every muscle and bone in his body as he initiated the complicated breathing rhythm he had inherited from Gilgamesh.
Slowly, he could feel the concentration of red beams over his Life Wheel, melting away into a royal golden liquid with the hint of poisonous red to accompany it. The exercises did their work as under the guidance of the red beams from the sun, the primordial demon's blood was expelled out of Will's body while the golden liquid merged with every individual cell, causing an unbearable itch within his soul.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone