Kapitel 35: out of the gates

Garmond had lost a lot of blood during the fight with the beast. And although, the sword ability made him heal faster, by giving him some energy collected from the beast.

The Anabolic process altogether, carried a lot of energy, and it had to be replaced with just the adequate amount of food.

The new ability though was something Garmond never expected, with the sword, each damage dealt on an opponent will draw strength from the opponent and lend it to him.

It was like a faster way of absorbing mana, without the need to concentrate. But he definitely had a limit to jow much he could take in.

Taking-in too much, would just walk him to his grave, without notice.

As such, he had to let out all the energy to avoid popping like a balloon.

'With this new ability if the sword, I can level up with ease!' It was a thought that left him with a large smile on his face.

All he had to do was to keep fighting!

Each battle with powerful opponents would quickly lead him to the next level. But Garmond didn't have the luxury of time to dwell much on his thought.

He looked zombified, his face white from the excessive loss of blood. He shuffled his feet's as he strode towards the cafeteria, famished.

"Hey, what's wrong? You don't look too good" It was Aliya, and her voice was laced with worry.

She was just making her way to the hunting grounds to see how well Garmond was faring, only to see him in such pitiful state.

Well, at least he was still standing.

Garmond turned his stiffened neck with a sickly look on his face, as he looked at her. He looked like he would fall at any moment.

"Nothing, I'm only heading to the cafeteria to get something to eat" Be replied bluntly, as he continued his weak strides towards the cafeteria.

'What happened in there?' she was somewhat worried, seeing Garmond in such a pitiful state.

'Did he encounter any powerful beast? But he doesn't seem to be injured'. Her mind raced, but there was nothing she could think of.

After Garmond had revealed his identity to her, she revered him greatly and did literally everything she could to be of assistance, as his help would definitely be needed to put things right.

Garmond returned his attention towards the cafeteria, his eyes blurring out slightly.

"I think you'll be needing a blood diet for the week. You're lacking blood" Ariana said, his signs of weakness were just too much.

As he finally neared the door to the cafeteria, it suddenly pulled open on its own. Coming out from tbe inside was Chris. His black sheathed blade fitted on his waist, a companion he was always with.

"Master Chris" Garmond's mouth twitched slightly. Referring to someone as master, didn't really suit him, but having learnt so much from the latter, being his humble self, he had to pay respect.

"You look terrible, what happened?" No one could simply ignore his current look. If he wasn't standing at the moment, they'd probably think he was dead.

"It's nothing, I just need to get something to eat. Had to go to the hunting grounds to get a crystal" Garmond replied reluctantly, he didn't have such leisure of time.

But Chris was blocking his path!

'Can you just come off the way, then ask the questions later?!' he thought to himself frustratingly.

Chris paused for a moment, sizing him up, before he finally said with a calm voice and his usual stoic expression, "that's bad, unfortunately the kitchen is out of foodstuffs. They just called me now to go get them the stuffs from the nobles parlor...."

After hearing the first part of Chris statement, Garmond's eyes blanked.

What was he supposed to do?!

He had nearly lost his life to get a crystal that would last him a week, and now he had to wait?

For a moment, he began hallucinating, almost drooling from his mouth. If there was one weakness he had, then it had to be food!

Even in the past, I mean, who would want to work or train without enough food?

"...But you can follow me outside, maybe get something to eat on the way. From there we will head over to the nobles parlor to get the stuffs"

Garmond's face brightened up once again, as soon as he heard Chris offer. He couldn't spare anymore time.

"Alright then" Garmond replied with a cough, straightening himself.

'All I have to do is to hold out for a while. It's nothing much'

Since they all valued stoicism, Garmond had also adapted, keeping a stoic expression whenever he was interacting with any of the inspectors.

Just as the two turned to leave. Garmond could hear the familiar voice call out to him.

It had been weeks since he heard the voice, but it was still as clear as ever.

"Garmond?!"

His eye's met the pale blue eyes as he turned and it was just as he'd thought.

Although some of her features had changed to an almost unrecognizable extent, it still remained the little Devine he knew.

Her skin appeared much more smoother than it once was, with no blemish. Her long black hair, now straightened and silky.

The robes she had on, made her figure more pronounced, showing off her voluptuous curves.

Garmond was dazed for a second looking at her, he almost didn't recognize her at all.

"I would have still been shocked by the changes that occured in your body, if I didn't see her" Ariana was stunned.

It was expected, with the training of mana one would become closer to what was called an immortal. Having a figure that couldn't be affected by the flow of time itself.

The more refined ones mana was, the more younger they would appear, defying the laws of nature in itself.

The changes that occured in Devine were normal, but there was too large of a difference, between the current Devine and the previous.

Hell even her demeanor seemed to have changed a lot as well!

"What a surprise to see you here. I thought you'd be eating in the dorm as usual, what pulled you out today. I've been hoping to see you here for a while but you never came" She complained, pouting her lips.

Since the entire grounds was divided into portions for each trainee to man. They could hardly see each other. And they couldn't trespass into the territory of the others.

It seemed there was some sort of competition going on between the inspectors, that they weren't informed on. But regardless, they still had to maintain the rule.

They could only meet in places that were common to all the areas. That included the cafeteria, test grounds and the infirmary.

Garmond was quickly drawn back to reality by her soft voice, that played like music to his ears. Who knew what transformation she had undergone in the past few weeks.

"I'm sorry about that, I was usually busy with my training, so I had Hendrix help me bring the food to the dorm" Garmond replied back, scratching his hair.

"I was thinking..." Just as she was about to continue with her words she felt a soft tap on her shoulders.

"Devine, Miss Reina will be waiting for us. We've already wasted enough time" Another voice suddenly cut in on their conversation.

With one look, although slight changes made it hard to tell, Garmond could recognize the figure. It was the girl who almost had herself killed back in the village.

Devine looked back at Garmond with a contemplating gaze, before heaving a deep sigh.

"Garmond, I'll be with you later. Make sure you're back here in the evening. I won't be taking any excuses" She said, as she quickly went off with her companion.

"We don't have much time left, it won't take long before they would start preparing for dinner, so let's head out " Chris said calmly and almost like a bullet, the hunger returned.

He had completely forgotten how hungry he was while talking to Devine. But right after she'd left, it returned almost I instantly.

Garmond followed behind Chris as they advanced towards the gates of the school.

The black metallic surface, stood tall and firm. It's shadow towering over them. The height was really terrifying. Garmond had no idea why they'd put up such a large wall.

'At the end it won't take much effort to get past that, would it?' he thought to himself as he looked at the large wall.

Finally, they had arrived at the gates and upon seeing Chris the guards didn't ask any questions, as they hastily opened the gates.

As they stepped feet outside the gates, Garmond took a second to draw in the fresh air. It had been two weeks since he'd entered inside the school grounds.

Doing nothing but training. Finally coming out, gave a sense of freedom, albeit very little.