บท 65: Secret of a Secret
Metallic flavor could be sensed by his taste buds and he started to cough out bits of black blood.
Wiping his mouth after he finished coughing, Edwin surveyed around to where he was currently at.
He was in the same familiar chamber in the cave where he got the Mortal Plane's Codex.
"How did... what happened? How did I return back here?" Inside Edwin's mind were the numerous questions on how he got back in here and what did he even experience.
Everything was just as he remembered it was in the chamber, nothing changed; it was as if the days he had gone through seemed unreal.
The boy stood up and he started walking carefully, but several seconds didn't even pass when he stumbled on the ground. Afterwards, he vomited more black blood.
He ate some healing pills coming from the satchel, but none of them worked as he kept puking out blood.
"Agghhh...", following which, he felt an excrutiating pain on his abdomen, making him strongly grasp the said part of his body with one of his hands.
Then something on his chest glew which alleviated the pain he was feeling. That glowing thing also stabilized his condition.
After he felt the pain subsided, he took out the object that glew from his chest area, which was the the Mortal Plane's Codex.
"Are you even helpful or not?", Edwin tightly held the codex.
The codex slightly shook, as if responding to the boy's words. At the same time, bits of information entered Edwin's mind.
Edwin sighed and put back the book inside his robes and looked at the mark on left wrist. It was the same mark that the codex gave after he was knocked out.
When he inspected the bits of information that newly-entered his mind, he felt a brief headache but it immediately vanished away,
"What kind of mess did I enter into?"
"But can I even do anything now?", Edwin grumbled to himself again. In the end, he calmed down and asked the book if there's something usable in here to use as weapon, preferably a dagger.
The codex gold him that there was a pair of daggers in the armory. He looked for those pair until he saw it behind a rusty chain mail.
When the book told him its grade, a surprised reaction covered his face when he found out that they were actually Superb-Medial grade.
Superb-Medial grade even if it was rusty right now, meaning that at the time of the weapon's peak, it could've been a Minor-Superior enchanted weapon!
In addition, there was something written on the blade of both of the daggers, however, just like the mark on his palm, he couldn't decipher the words on both of them.
"This is enough." With a happy smile, Edwin left the cave feeling he obtained a valuable treasure.
***
The next day, James returned to the shop.
"Hi James!", Anna greeted him.
"Hello.", James replied back. The most noticeable thing about him now was the growing eye bugs on his face.
Allen gazed at James, "You still look tired, you should return to your house and get some rest." He was currently taking notes of a plant on top of a shelf.
"No thanks, I hate being alone. Mom and dad aren't home yet.", James replied while slightly shivering.
As he was about to walk to his spot, Anna grabbed one of his bare hands in a bid to shake him, but she felt a chilling pain on her hand which prompted her to pull it back.
Her hand turned pale and frost formed on it due to lack of warmth after touching James.
She used the mana inside her body heat up her hand until the coldness disappeared.
"James, are you really okay?", Anna asked while caressing her numb hand.
"I said I am!" James shouted, startling the girl
Allen approached James and forcefully grabbed one of his hands.
Even though Allen was currently wearing gloves, he could feel a piercing coldness flowwed entered his hands which spread towards his arm.
As the coldness was about to enter his chest through his shoulder, inside his consciousness, the Erchian Dagger started to spin and drove out the coldness out of his body.
"Mister, your grasp is too tight!", James tried to remove his hands from Allen's grasp.
Allen was the one who removed his grasp from James' hand and said, "Kid, do you feel anything?"
"No, nothing. I feel normal.", James replied and sat on his spot before the other could say anything back.
Allen looked at Anna and saw that she was still massaging her wrist to remove the numbness.
Due to Allen being vastly more powerful than the girl, he sensed that the amount of mana in her body was almost depleted after she used it to heat up her hand earlier.
Ironically, Anna was a fire magician, yet, nearly all her energy was wasted on a single heating which was suppose to be easy for her as it was one of the uses of her elemental magic!
He then looked back at James who was holding the plant encyclopedia.
'The coldness pierced through my gloves, it's not the element of ice, because the coldness attacked our souls instead, it's very weak, but it was still able to hurt a newly-ascended adept.', Allen thought.
Allen inwardly pondered, 'Why is he even able to cause damage to somebody else? He doesn't know any magic.'
***
Several days passed, and during those days, the snowfall didn't stop even once, though it was only light, but if accumulated after a long time, the effect was no less than a snowstorm.
Edwin didn't encounter any goblins nor orcs, making him wonder where did they go. It was like, they didn't actually exist.
Using a long branch he got from a tree, he made use of it as a walking stick to check if the snow he was trudging on was too deep or not.
Some time passed, he paused as he heard the sound of flowing water that prompted him to immediately approach it.
Travelling a few more distance, he saw a familiar unfrozen river, so familiar that a chill ran down his spine.
Of course, this was the river where he was supposedly killed by some sort of shadow.
"I'm finally inside the inner region.", Edwin said.
Fearing that that shadow might come here and kill him again, but this time, maybe him dying a true death, Edwin started to back off from the river, however, before he could even pass an another tree, the river started to rumble and something shot out of it towards him.
Seeing that something was headed for him, Edwin took out his pair of daggers and sent out a flash towards it while retreating hastily.
-clang-
A sound of metal clashing against metal echoed out as the flash broke into pieces while the figure continued to fly towards Edwin.
On the other hand, Edwin initiated Shadow Steps and dodged the figure on time, but the impact created a shockwave that made him fly a few meters away.
The boy landed on his feet as soon and didn't hesitate to initiate Burst Steps to run away while spotting what was the figure.
Edwin: "A demonic crocodile?"
After gaining a certain distance, Edwin stopped running away to preserve his energy, at the same time, the demonic crocodile started to run towards him.
The demonic beast's speed was fast, but wasn't as fast as how it rushed earlier from the river.
Even though it might not be fast, it was certainly much faster than Edwin's normal running speed.
If Edwin would use Burst Steps, he would certainly be much faster than the beast, but the problem was that the said technique would only provide a burst of speed in a short time.
In addition, he would quickly run out of internal energy if he kept using it because it wasn't for any long-term running.
When the monster got near at Edwin, it struck out with its silver-like claws.
Edwin avoided to the side, the monster's attack was only able to hit the ground, briefly shaking it while leaving a deep mark on the snow..
After that, the beast let out more attacks, making the boy retreat every single time.
"I can't get too passive, I wish I could use the book.", Edwin initiated Shadow Steps. The reason why he couldn't use the book was that he knew it wouldn't let itself be used, and might even electrocute him if he kept being stubborn.
With Shadow Steps he swiftly dodged the incoming attacks of the monster and even got to counterattack.
Edwin attacked back with Multi-Flash and it pierced through the monster's shiny scales!
"Yes!"
Red glowing veins suddenly appeared on the monster's scales, and spread it throughout itss body.
"No!" Edwin noticed what was happening immediately used Burst Steps to run away.
Then a shockwave was sent out of the crocodile's body, instantly reaching the boy.
He was flung far away from his initial position onto the air making him hit a few tree branches; but Edwin didn't become flustered.
He took out a grappling hook from his satchel and threw it to a thick tree branch.
The hook's rope wrapped around the tree branch and used it to land safely on the ground.
Edwin looked at the direction where the crocodile's position was, and saw that all of the trees near the said monster were uprooted and the snow on the ground disappeared, as if a windstorm passed by.
The demonic crocodile didn't waste more time and charged towards the boy once again.
"Why is it chasing me?", Edwin grumbled and continued to dodge more of the monster's attacks.
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