In life, not everything goes as expected. This is something that every being knows instinctively.
Heroes can die at the hands of bandits they seek to arrest, honest people are exploited by corrupt nobles. A farmer may plant wheat and end up having to watch his own fields being devoured by insects.
In the case of the poor elf named Alonn, an adventure for power ended up almost costing him his life.
While the Root Gate in Alonn's tailbone was opening and massive amounts of spiritual qi were being absorbed, the handle of one of the great axes hit him in the chest, breaking some ribs.
While the blade of the other great axe made a big cut on the left side of his chin.
Fortunately for Alonn, the dwarves were not proficient at throwing axes and were not used to the weight of these great axes.
Alonn passed out immediately after falling to the ground, with blood coming out of his mouth and the wound on his chin.
"Blackie!" the dwarves finally realized their mistake and went to help the elf.
"Damn, I was just too scared to think straight," Ugly Bull said.
"We must take him to a doctor, he is losing a lot of blood, and the ribs may have punctured an important organ," Ugly Ox said with sweat on his forehead.
"Sorry blackie! But don't worry, if you die we will pray for you every day!" Ugly Bull promised with tears streaming down his thick cheeks.
"What!? Every day!?" Ugly Ox didn't seem to like the idea.
"Cough Cough!" suddenly the elf coughed up blood and opened his eyes weakly.
"Hang in there, Blackie! You will surely go to paradise if you die. You won't need our prayers when you're there!"
"Shut up, Ugly Ox! He won't die, at least for now."
"Hahaha" Alonn started to laugh.
"Fuck, did we hit his head without realizing it?" Ugly bull was terrified.
"..." despite the stupid dwarves talking nonsense, Alonn looked a little happy.
'And to think... that one day fantasy would become... my reality. Can I consider myself lucky?' Alonn thought to himself while feeling the changes in his body.
With the Root Gate open, an enormous amount of spiritual qi began to be absorbed by his body and stored in the place now accessible to Alonn, the Dantian.
The Dantian is the spiritual center of all living beings, but it is usually inaccessible to those who have not opened the first Mortal Gate.
With the Dantian now accessible, Alonn had now entered the second cultivation Realm, the Sacral Realm.
Upon entering this Realm, Alonn has now gained the ability to easily feel spiritual qi, without having to concentrate to absorb it. In addition, all aspects of Alonn's physical body have been improved and adapted.
Now, Alonn no longer needs to absorb spiritual qi by breathing, since the Root Gate does this much more efficiently.
Although the stored spiritual qi increased exponentially, Alonn felt an enormous lack of harmony between the three energies. He can no longer produce more True Qi! Even if he has large amounts of spiritual qi stored, it is useless if he cannot transform this into True Qi!
The proof of this is that the spiritual qi stored in his body simply circulates without order, and even leaves his body easily. While True Qi is controlled within his Dantian.
'Now... I just need to transform all this spiritual qi into True Qi!... And then, I will be able to open the second Mortal Gate, the Sacral Gate,' Alonn thought and then passed out again.
"Damn! He is losing too much blood!"
...
"Doctor, how's blackie?" Ugly bull asked. He was visiting Alonn in an infirmary built by the kingdom.
"He is alive and recovering well from his injuries, but having lost so much blood he has not yet woken up..." the doctor was a young human woman with red hair and blue eyes.
It had been a week since the incident, and the dwarves were becoming concerned if Alonn would be able to wake up or not.
Upon hearing the doctor's answer, Ugly Bull instinctively touched the great axe that Alonn had forged. He's really feeling guilty about what happened.
Seeing the sadness in the dwarf's expression, the doctor smiled and said, "Don't worry, your friend should be able to wake up, thanks to you bringing him in time."
"I hope so," Ugly Bull said and sighed.
"Cough Cough!" suddenly, the sound of someone coughing caught their attention.
"By the gods! I would recognize the sound of that cough even with dirt and ice in my ears!" Ugly bull said and walked to the room where Alonn was.
"Damn, are you a'right? Blackie?" Ugly bull asked.
Alonn opened his eyes slowly and looked at the dwarf.
"I fell fine. Where am I?"
"You are in an infirmary, more specifically the army infirmary of the capital," the doctor said with a smile.
Alonn looked at the woman with narrowed eyes and asked, "Who are you?"
"Damn! She is the one that saved you!" Ugly Bull said.
"You don't need to say 'Damn' to answer.", Alonn rebuked and said to the doctor, "Thanks for saving me from these guys."
"Hey!"
"Hahaha, you are welcome. Anyway, don't be so rude to him, he is a good dwarf and saved you!" the doctor said.
"Saved me?" Alonn looked at Ugly Bull with a strange smile. The dwarf probably did not tell her how he was injured.
"Cough Cough. I'm happy to see you are fine, but we should part ways now!" the dwarf said.
Normally, Alonn would be happy to know that the dwarf duo would finally be out of his sight. But now he has other things on his mind.
"Wait!"
"What?"
"Have you guys... thought about hunting a spiritual beast?" Alonn asked with a smile.
"By the gods, are you crazy!?" Ugly Bull shouted.
Alonn simply looked silently at the dwarf, ignoring the doctor's shocked expression.
"...Hahhahahahaa!" seeing that Alonn was serious, Ugly Bull started to laugh out loud.
'Perhaps the elf's brain has been damaged, but don't tell me that the dwarf is crazy?' the doctor thought shocked.
"You sure have guts... Actually, Ugly Ox and I were already thinking about this!"
"Heh, I know it. You guys are crazy," Alonn said with a strange smile. He finally understood why the two dwarves wanted new weapons.
"Wait, are you guys serious?" the doctor asked. She knows that an expedition was made by the elves to hunt the beast, and the result was their near annihilation.
But now, one elf and two dwarves wants to hunt the spiritual beast!
Alonn smiled and didn't answer, instead he got up from the bed he was on.
"Wait! Your wounds are still not completely healed!" the doctor said.
"I'm fine, my injuries don't cause pain anymore," Alonn said while removing a bandage from his chin. The wound was now just a scar on the elf's chin.
"Damn! You look a bit scary with this scar!" Ugly Bull said with a look of worship.
"Hmph!" Alonn snorted, knowing very well what the dwarf was thinking. From what he remembers, it was the great axe thrown by Ugly Bull that caused this scar.
"Well, if you want to leave I won't stop you, but you need to pay the bill first," the doctor said with a bitter smile.
Alonn looked at the dwarf with fury.
"You damn dwarf, you planned to leave me alone here because of this!" Alonn said.
"Cough... it's not like this, I will pay the bill!" Ugly bull said while wiping sweat off his forehead.
After Alonn and Ugly Bull said goodbye to the doctor and left the army infirmary, they both headed towards the hotel where Alonn was staying.
Due to the long absence, Alonn was concerned about the things he had left in the room.
"Sorry, but we have no responsibility for anything that the guest forgets in the room after the booked period," the hotel receptionist said.
"What do you mean by that? Do you guys not do a general cleaning after the end of the entire booked period?" Alonn asked with a frown.
"We indeed do a cleaning to the room, but we didn't remove anything that the previous guest had forgotten there. However, we always warn the new guest who booked the room about the forgotten things," the receptionist explained slowly.
"And what the new guest does with these forgotten things has nothing to do with you..." Alonn said with a sigh.
"Exactly, but I can check if there are any new guest in the room you were in," the receptionist said and started checking in a book.
"Ah, there's indeed a new guest in the room number '33'. Do you want to ask her about your things?" the receptionist asked.
"Please!" Alonn nodded.
"Mr. Hann, please go to the room '33' and ask the guest to come here," the receptionist said to one of the hotel's butlers.
"Wait! I will go there myself," Alonn thought that it was impolite to make a stranger leave her room because of his mistake.
"As you wish, go with him, Mr. Hann."
"Ugly Bull, can you wait here for a minute-" Alonn turned to speak to the dwarf but realized that he disappeared.
'Sly dwarf!' Alonn cursed and went up the stairs with the butler.
Knock Knock
"Miss Song, if it is not a nuisance for you, could you open the door? There is an important matter that I need to report," the butler said.
No one answered.
Knock Knock
"Miss Song, are you there?" the butler asked again.
After waiting for a while, Alonn sighed and said, "She's probably not in there, so I'll be back later."
"Yes," the butler nodded.
'Anyway, where is that damned dwarf?' Alonn thought but decided to go to the restaurant, he was hungry after spending a week unconscious.
"Thanks, but you can go back now. I will go to this hotel's restaurant," Alonn said as he walked.
The butler nodded and left.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, Alonn quickly chose a place to sit and ordered the food.
"This smells good!" Alonn spoke briefly and started to eat the food that the waiter put on the table.
After eating until he felt stuffed, Alonn blew out a breath and paid the bill to leave.
"Wait, Blackie!" Ugly Bull shouted as he was running towards Alonn.
"By the world, whats up?" Alonn said with a sigh, he was still at the restaurant and realized that the dwarf was being followed.
"Help me!" Ugly bull screamed as he hid behind Alonn.
"Hmm?" Alonn was surprised to see who was following the dwarf, it was that blond elf who accompanied him on the trip to Mardōk.
"That bow elf is crazy! He thinks I stole his arrows!" Ugly bull said.
"But you did it."
"No! It was Ugly Ox!"
"You assdwarf, you think that hiding behind one of my countrymen will help you!? Not even your Gods can help you this time!" the bow elf shouted with the bow on his hands.
"It wasn't me who stole your arrows! It was Ugly Ox!"
"I didn't even mention about my arrows, do you have a guilty conscience!?" the bow elf shouted with a scary face.
"Damn! Has courage then come duel!" the dwarf shouted.
"Stop hiding behind him then, I will gladly beat you to a pulp!"
"Are you a man? Has courage then come here!" the dwarf said in panic.
'What is his problem? Why do Ugly bull fear this elf?' meanwhile, Alonn was trying to calmly analyze the situation.
"Shut up! Go fight outside this establishment, you are bothering the other customers!" suddenly, the restaurant manager interfered.
"Do you hear it? Stop being a coward and come fight me!" Ugly Bull shouted.
"Young brother, get out of my way! I will make this dwarf a target for my arrows!" the bow elf said to Alonn.
"Sigh..." Alonn suddenly sighed and turned to face Ugly Bull.
"What are you doing-" before Ugly bull could complete the sentence, Alonn hit him hard on the back of the head.
'This damn dwarf keeps causing problems, I must use this to teach him a lesson,' Alonn thought, without noticing the shocked looks of the observers.
'But... I never thought that just by reaching the second realm I would have such physical strength, I'm at least three times stronger than before even without using True Qi,' Alonn thought while dragging the dwarf out of the restaurant.
The bow elf followed Alonn quietly.
When they arrived on the street, Alonn said, "If you want to teach this guy a lesson, I will not stop. But let me warn you, you probably will never have peace in the next days. This pair of dwarves can be really stupid."
"Hmph! I just want compensation for my arrows, and I'm not afraid of these dwarves," the bow elf said.
"Hmm," Alonn put his hand on his chin and thought for a while before looking carefully at the equipment the bow elf was wearing.
"What are you looking at? Do I look like a clown?" the bow elf asked with a scary glare.
"Haha, sorry for it. Anyway, can I ask you something?" Alonn said.
"What?"
"Are you an adventurer?"
"...Yes. Thats your question? Stop wasting my time and wake up that Ugly Ox or whatever," the bow elf pointed his finger at the dwarf, who was lying on the floor like an armored garbage bag.
"He is already awake, right? Ugly Bull," Alonn said with a smile.
"Damn, boy! How could you sneak atack your benefactor!" the dwarf opened his eyes and stood up.