?Daniel breathed heavily, blood dripping down his clothes and weapon. Even though he didn’t sustain many injuries from his foes, Daniel felt he’d been thrown into a mixer. Shallow cuts covered his entire body.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have fooled around this much with my Sword Aura,” He murmured, a chuckle escaping his lips.
It might have been comprehensive to try a wide variety of things with his Sword Aura, but it wasn’t harmless. The aura wasn’t solid under normal circumstances and required a mental command to transform into razor-sharp blades and swords, but it was also oddly sharp in its smooth condition.
Daniel realized that when he shrouded his entire body in the Sword Aura, he’d accumulated from the energy influx he’d obtained in the last few fights. The Sword Aura cut mercilessly into his flesh when Daniel lowered his guard. The moment his concentration burst, Daniel was cut dozens of times.
That was rather disadvantageous in the middle of a fierce battle.
Fortunately, he didn’t have many issues dealing with the Tier-1 Monsters he’d sought to slay. As Daniel used Sword God and his Sword Aura more often, he became more proficient with them. Evading Tier-1 Monsters with graceful movements and severing them was no longer difficult.
The combination of two powerful Artifacts, Sword God, several years of experience, and the portion of Michael’s memories he’d consumed before leaving the Soul Grimoire worked well enough to eliminate his foes.
Daniel wouldn’t have sustained any injuries if not for his foolish experiments.
At last, after three hours of combat and traveling, Daniel decided it was time to return to Arx. His mental power was drained beyond the norms, and he could barely stand despite the constant refill of stamina that his Sword Artifact provided.
Upon returning to the settlement, Daniel was greeted by some Forest Elves. They guarded Arx and pointed out the way to the warehouse. Nobody asked who he was or why he was covered in blood. However, the gazes he received spoke volumes. Rumors about him had already spread through the settlement. Everyone in Arx has already been informed about the wooden manor incident.
On his way to the warehouse, Daniel encountered Tiara. He’d seen the Princess of the Silverfang Tigerfolk often enough but never got to talk to her.
“Greetings,” Daniel greeted her with a faint smile. I’m Daniel Fang–…”
Tiara lifted her hand and gestured to him to stop.
“I know who you are. You’re my Master’s brother,” She said in a matter-of-fact tone, “I am also very interested in your story and your past, but don’t think that my curiosity revolves around you. You can tell me a lot about Master and his life before he became an Awakened. He doesn’t tell us about his life before…all of this.”
Tiara pointed toward the Intermediate Summoning Gate and smiled with a hint of sadness.
“Either way, I have been looking for you. To be precise, my Master was looking for you. He…is not in a great mood and has been ‘cleaning’ the Untamed Jungle.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow at the news. Cleaning the Untamed Jungle could mean two things, but given that his brother’s mood was bad, Daniel figured that Michael had been playing gardener in the Untamed Jungle to vent his stress. He did something productive while distressing by tearing apart the trees and harmful plant life, which had been blocking the growth of the surrounding plant life.
“Where is he?” Daniel asked Tiara.
She pointed somewhere but shook her head after a second, “I think it’s best if I lead you there.”
“Do you want to go to the warehouse first to empty your War Rune storage? I prefer to soothe Master’s anger first, but if you are in a hurry…” Tiara stared intently at Daniel, not giving him much choice. 𝘧𝘳𝘸𝓿.𝘤ℴ𝘮
“Let’s go to my brother first.”
Tiara nodded in mild satisfaction. She turned around, coursed origin energy through her legs, and kicked the ground. Soil and debris hurled in all directions, creating a smokescreen before Daniel. He ignored the wall of debris and soil and charged through it. However, when he emerged on the other side, Daniel found Tiara tens of meters ahead of him. The gap increased slowly but steadily as Tiara continued accelerating.
‘She is not even trying to slow down for me?’ Daniel groaned, coursing Sword Aura and origin energy through his entire body to utilize his movement technique.
It was painful as the Sword Aura was too potent for the energy paths of a Tierless Awakened, but Daniel figured he couldn’t pay too much attention to that now. Tiara continued accelerating. She moved through the familiar surroundings of the scrub around her and weaved around some larger surfacing roots while picking the fastest way to her destination.
Daniel struggled to keep up with her and had to acknowledge that he was too slow after a few seconds. Nonetheless, he didn’t want to give up now. Since his energy paths were already hurting, Daniel figured he might as well continue moving through the Untamed Jungle’s scrub as fast as possible.
As he moved through the Untamed Jungle, Daniel was forced to keep his perception at an all-time high. Even though Tiara was somewhere ahead of him, Monsters might emerge from the thicket around him at all times. After all, they had already left the safe proximity of the Pentagon Fort.
Fortunately, he found Tiara waiting for him somewhere. A few corpses, drenched in their blood and covered in deep gashes, sprawled around her. A glint into Tiara’s silver eyes was enough for Danny. He could inform instantaneously that Tiara was not only a sweet girl with a bushy tail and fluffy ears but also a deadly warrior.
‘I couldn’t even hear anything from the battle!’ Daniel realized, swallowing hard as he reached Tiara.
She collected the corpses silently and motioned to him to keep moving. That was what Daniel did for the next 15 minutes until he did not even have an ounce of energy or Sword Aura left. The precious Sword Aura he’d gathered in the last three hours had evaporated.
It was a shame, but Daniel was far from dissatisfied. If anything, he was incredibly satisfied with himself as he learned how to intertwine origin energy and Sword Aura to keep his energy paths from sustaining any harm while circulating both through his body simultaneously.
Daniel was now gait and more flexible as he transformed the Untamed Jungle’s flora into a parkour course with various obstacles that could be used to temper his flexibility, perception further, and so forth.
His movement technique no longer felt adequate. Daniel felt that he had a lot more potential to tap into, but then again, the technique was better than nothing.
He was currently a Tierless Awakened and shouldn’t replace his techniques every few weeks. Once he advanced to Tier-1, he could replace his techniques with stronger techniques that used more Sword Aura and the things he was about to learn from the Sword God’s information influx.
He had a lot to learn and even more to improve.
That was fine. It was much more than that.
Daniel felt that it was necessary. It was good that he had more than enough time to grow stronger now that he was in his brother’s territory, where he was safe and sound.
The only issue was that his brother had to carry the responsibility for everyone alone.
Something happened, and Daniel wasn’t sure what it was.
At last, they reached the area Michael had uprooted.
The cacophony of destructive sounds reached their ears.
Daniel swallowed hard.
‘Something is off!’