Chapter 136: Reaching Tier-5?
[Arthur’s Pov]
"Maybe I... made a mistake, ouch!"
"You think? Just shut up and let us heal you!"
After Elara hit my head, I shut my mouth and let her and Liora do their job, feeling the coldness and the pain leaving my body gradually.
Seeing the state of my body, I couldn’t help but have some regret.
’I shouldn’t have approached that giant.’
A few moments ago, I stupidly decided to fight the ice giant face to face, ignoring Liora and Elara’s warnings.
I could only describe our fight as the second most intense fight I had in my life — right after my fight with Zephyr — and obviously, I won.
I used my solar power at the maximum output, ignoring the Aether consumption and turning the ice and snow of the area into a pool of hot water. It was a great victory, but unfortunately, I had to pay a small price.
I was literally missing around ah... 20% of my body, and 50% of it was frozen.
And I mean deep frozen, not just the skin. If not for the regeneration power of my new race and the solar power of my trait, I would have died either as a frozen statue or a dough of blood and flesh.
But on the bright side...
"We will become rich..."
My gaze landed on the corpse of the ice giant. Its condition wasn’t the best, but fortunately, I somehow killed it by severing its head cleanly instead of harming the body.
I only had to wait for them to heal me so I could put the corpse in my storage and sell it for a fortune!
I was now on Elara’s lap inside the hot water’s pool that reached my neck. Liora was responsible for removing the coldness from my body without harming it by carefully manipulating it into her own body, while Elara was healing the unfrozen parts using her holy affinity.
I was really grateful for both of them, they helped me so much since we entered this dungeon. Especially Liora who used her own body to treat me.
I wanted to warm my body myself, but I was out of aether and mental power. I was barely staying conscious by sheer will.
I looked at her hand. She was holding my hand while her own was starting to freeze.
Then I looked at her face with worry and concern as I asked: "Liora, doesn’t it hurt you? To use your own hands to move the chill away?"
Liora didn’t respond for a moment until her hands were almost fully frozen. She took her hands away and moved the ice out of it into the water. Once her hand returned new, she continued and without a change in expression responded:
"It hurts a little, but it’s better that way for your safety. I can’t manipulate it away from you directly without harming you, but when I take it into my hand, it gets easier to remove. I can feel my hand, but I can’t feel yours."
Her eyes glowed for a second as she continued: "Additionally, it hurts you more than me. My pain is nothing compared to yours."
"...."
I let out a breath as my eyes softened and thought: ’I’m really a terrible person...’
So what if I was feeling more pain? That pain was caused by my own actions, so why did she have to share my pain?
That wasn’t the person I wanted to be. I wanted to be the king that brings joy to his people, not a stupid prince that causes his precious friend to suffer.
’I will not do such a reckless move again.’
Just what was I thinking when I decided to fight that giant? I should have listened to them.
I turned my head to the right. Liora was clenching my shoulder while manipulating the coldness. I covered her with my wing, hoping it would comfort her a little, then I muttered with a grateful tone:
"...Thank you."
•••
[Raylin’s Pov]
"Hehe, I’m rich! Selene, I’ll feed you like a fat princess today!"
"Yaay! Wait... fat?"
[What do you mean "I’m" rich? It’s "we"!]
In the academy’s general store, a few moments ago, I was taking all the corpses and some herbs out of my storage before the worker there.
He looked at them thoughtfully for a long moment then gave us a number of 6 digits!
Those corpses could be used to make some potions and great fire and stone artifacts, and because not many people were willing to enter that dungeon, the prices were a little high.
Not to forget, I got 30k EC just for informing the academy about the cat that almost killed me. That was really a great win for only one dungeon.
I looked at Selene, who was rubbing her stomach with furrowed brows, and happily said: "Are you coming with me to the library? I may stay there until the night."
Selene left her dazed state and nodded without a hint of hesitation.
With a single nod, I cast a spatial gate, and after a few minutes reached the library, took a few books and began reading while patting Selene as usual.
[I swear Kyle will kill you when he sees that.]
I ignored him and continued reading. I mean, she was the one who liked head pats, and I wasn’t taking advantage of her. We were just close friends so why should I care about Kyle? It wasn’t like he could kill me because of that anyway.
’Wait!’
Come to think about it, I had never seen him since the banquet. It was also the last time Selene had spoken to him face to face.
Also, since I improved my spatial awareness, I had never seen her contacting Kyle.
’How could that overprotective father ignore his daughter the same day she went to live in the same suite and bed with a man? Was he secretly trusting me?’
[Absolutely not! What a joke!!]
Glutton’s voice cut my thoughts off, but he was right — I myself would have killed myself multiple times if I was in his shoes!
[Maybe he is finally doing his job of protecting the academy, maybe he thinks that a lunatic person like you would touch a corpse rather than his daughter, or maybe he doesn’t want to grant you your wish!]
"...."
Hearing Glutton’s words — and ignoring the second part — I remembered the wish I was supposed to get from him. It was something for saving Selene when I was young, and as the vice principal of the most important academy in Elyndra, he was probably quite too rich.
’What should I ask for?’
As that question lingered in my mind, I suddenly decided to ask a trusted adult.
’Hey Aria, are you busy?’
—Hmm? No, did something happen?
Hearing Aria’s voice that responded almost in an instant, I continued:
’Do you remember the promised wish from the vice principal Kyle? What did—!’
—Oh, I forgot to tell you...
Aria cut me off and continued:
—I wasted it for enough cores to make both my aura and mana cores reach Tier-5. Don’t repeat my mistake! I regret wasting my wish on that! You are a genius, you can reach that Tier yourself quickly by killing some monsters and buying the cores yourself. I’d have helped you myself if I wasn’t lacking money recently...
I nodded in understanding as I thanked her and stopped speaking.
’That’s really a problem...’
Progression gets only harder the more you increase your Tier, but despite that, some students in fourth year were already Tier-5.
Aria wasted her wish to reach Tier-5 quickly, but she was stuck there for the past years without any more progress, while the students who didn’t have such privilege still had closed the gap with her eventually.
In other words, she wasted a valuable wish just for a useless shortcut.
As a genius myself, I could always make artifacts, let my servants sell them, buy some cores, and go hunt. That way, I’d eventually reach Tier-5 before the fourth year.
So logically, it was better to use my wish on something else. Unfortunately, there was a big problem.
I couldn’t be sure that I’d live long enough to see the fourth year. If I focused on only getting cores and ignored Glutton’s progress entirely...
[Hey!]
...I’d probably reach Tier-4 in 2 or 3 months. As for Tier-5, it might be by the time of the third year judging by how people describe the gap between those two Tiers.
So why was I in a hurry?
I literally had a meeting today in my dream with probably one of the strongest members of the Dark Order!
If they decided to attack, then wouldn’t it be better to become Tier-5 as fast as possible? What would a treasure do to me if I was dead before using it?
’Agh... I’ll decide after I see what happens with Isaac.’
I shook my head and focused on the book before me. It was about runes.
Against a stronger opponent, that was my best gamble to win. The aspect of runes mostly cared about resources more than an individual power.
It was like how I had recently made 3 arrows that could help me to kill a Tier-4 Exalted. Unfortunately, they were one time use, but that explained the point of more resources equal more power very well.
And I didn’t forget the cube I had taken from Taigo after killing him. Understanding it could help me later. I needed to read more about runes for that.
As I read a page after the next, the time flew by quickly.
And eventually, the night arrived.