Two figures could be seen moving swiftly in the cover of the night. Both were ladies and on the shoulder of one of them was an unconscious young man.
“This is a good spot,” Nina said towards her companion.
“Yes,” Tessa replied.
At their front was a cave that was dimly lit. They had been searching for a place to rest since leaving the place where the battle occurred. They took the unconscious Grey with them but had only managed to see this unoccupied cave.
“Strange, did you notice we didn’t come across even one beast all this while” Nina suddenly asked Tessa as she placed Grey on the floor.
“Yes, I noticed it too. Usually, beasts are very active at night” Tessa nodded confirming what Nina said.
Over the course of their search for a place to rest, they didn’t find a beast. Although they didn’t want to, but not encountering any felt strange.
“Forget it, we’re safe and that’s all that we should be concerned about”
Nina walked out of the cave in search of what she was going to use to block the entrance of the cave. She cut down some branches and used them to block the entrance.
“How do you think he did it?” Nina asked as she looked at Grey.
“What?” Tessa asked, clearly not sure of what Nina was talking about.
“You know, become so strong all of a sudden” Nina still couldn’t get her mind off what happened earlier. The way Grey dealt with the mercenaries like they were ants, all he did was stretch out a hand, and it started raining lightning. It was an unforgettable experience, something both girls will not be able to wipe out from their memories for a long time.
“I don’t know. I heard there were secret techniques which are used to raise cultivation levels, but not by this much” Tessa said after some time. She had heard of these secret techniques from her father and knew they were detrimental to the body of the user.
“These sorts of techniques always comes with an effect towards the user. If what he used was something like this, then it must have been a high leveled one” Tessa continued with her hypothesis.
“I hope he will be alright,” Nina said. She didn’t care if what Grey used was a secret technique, all she knew was that Grey saved them and that’s what truly matters. She only asked out of curiosity.
Both ladies continued talking about other things and soon they fell asleep.
The next morning.
Grey opened his eyes and was surprised when he saw rocks all around him, he tried standing, but his body was a wreck. He felt pain all over his body, and it was like something drained all the energy from him.
When both girls heard the small sound Grey made when he tried to stand up, they turned around.
“Grey, you’re awake,” Tessa said happily. Clearly she was also worried about their savior.
Grey was surprised by the voice, he didn’t remember how he got here. A beautiful face suddenly popped up in front of him.
“Are you feeling any better?” Nina asked as she also walked closer.
Another beautiful face popped up again, “What’s going on?” Grey blurted out unconsciously. He was confused by what these two beauties were doing here with him. He knew they were alone since he didn’t hear any other sounds of movement apart from the two girls.
The girls were confused by his question and how he looked at them. Grey was currently looking at them like they were strangers, “Could it be that he doesn’t remember anything?” Tessa whispered to Nina.
“Maybe” Nina shrugged.
Grey suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth because of it. He managed to move his hand towards his head. Scenes from the previous night started flashing past his eyes. The pain died down after some time.
“How did we escape the mercenaries?” Grey asked the girls after remembering what happened. The last thing he remembered was setting up a defensive wall. Since that was the last thing he remembered, it obviously meant he lost. There was no one else there and from the little interactions he had with both girls, there’s no way they could defeat the mercenaries.
“Well, it seems like he remembers us but doesn’t know how we escaped” Nina whispered to Tessa.
“Maybe it’s one of the effects of the technique” Tessa whispered to Nina.
“You know I can hear you right?” Grey spoke again when he saw both girls weren’t answering his questions.
They finally turned their attention towards him.
“You don’t remember how you defeated them?” Nina asked just to be sure.
“Defeated who, I’m talking about the mercenaries” Grey reminded them, he thought maybe the girls were talking about the Apes.
Grey’s answer showed he really didn’t remember, so Nina went on to tell him about everything that happened. Grey’s mouth was left agape since he didn’t believe the person they were talking about was him.
“You truly don’t remember any of it?” Tessa asked.
“No, I blanked out after his attack destroyed my walls,” Grey said sincerely. ‘Could it be because of the pearl?’ Grey was baffled by what they told him. This is the only thing he could think of which might cause what they said.
There’s no way he used a secret technique, he didn’t even know any. After thinking about it for a while, he still couldn’t think of a reason. He could only attribute it to the pearl which had assimilated with him.
Grey was finally able to sit down, when he saw the condition his clothes were, he suddenly thought of his backpack. ‘My money’ Grey almost said out loud when he remembered his backpack.
“Did you bring my backpack?” Grey asked, the most important thing to him right now was his money. There was no way he would be able to see free money like that again, and the cores he has gathered were inside.
“Yes, it’s there” Tessa was the one who replied as she pointed towards a particular spot in the cave. When Grey looked at where she was pointing, he saw his backpack along with his blades by the side.
“Thank you. If you hadn’t come, we would have already been captured by now” Nina thanked Grey wholeheartedly. This was the second time Grey had saved their lives. Tessa also offered her thanks when she saw her friend thanking Grey.
Grey just nodded as a reply. Since his essence was drained, he wanted to cultivate as soon as possible since they were still in the mountain.
He sat crossed leg and started cultivating.
‘I broke through’ Grey was surprised when he noticed this. It hasn’t even been up to fifteen days since he broke through to the First stage of the Arcane Plane, but now he had made another breakthrough.
Grey replenished some of his essences before they left the cave. The girls wanted to head out of the mountain, they had already experienced so much over their short stay in it. He decided to accompany them till they got to the outer region of the mountain, after that he’ll head back in.
He didn’t have any plans of leaving yet. Since he came out to train, he’ll make sure to train till his heart’s content.
After the girls left, Grey went back to the cave. Since it was quiet, and no beast was in the surrounding.
He sat crossed leg and started meditating, he noticed something while he was cultivating earlier, but he couldn’t confirm it while the girls were still present. Now that he was alone, he wanted to check it out.
He entered into the chaos space and went towards the stone used for testing. After placing his hand on it, the energy entered his body just like before.
After the energy returned, the stone lit up.