Ryne suddenly felt a spiking painful sensation on his left shoulder as he tried to punch whatever was causing it with his right fist.
It worked in the worst way it could, the beast tore away a chunk of flesh from his shoulder and jumped on the ground while Ryne ended up punching his own wound.
He wanted to let out a miserable scream to express his pain but he needed to be ready to deal with the beast first.
Noticing it for the first time, it looked to be a cross between a mole and a rat, with a long pink tail swinging in the darkness.
Blood was dripping from its canines that stuck out of its mouth drop by drop, making Ryne grimace in pain.
Having no time to think much, he decided to cast his most adopted spell right here, imagining the basic runes and chants for the Grade-1 fireball spell.
Surprisingly, it failed!
The anxiety of the situation and his accumulated paranoia burst forth, seizing his thinking capacity.
The mole beast didn't notice any abnormality as it ferociously drew close to Ryne and leaped towards his family jewels at an accelerated pace.
Unable to use his hand to block it in time, he shifted as much as he could to the side as he could in an attempt to avoid it, resulting in it piercing his thigh in another bite.
Falling on the floor, Ryne gritted his teeth and tried to cast a 'flame edge' this time, another plain Grade-1 spell.
Although not as good as he imagined, he managed to successfully cast a needle-sized 'flame edge', a quarter of its usual sight, in a panic this time.
Quickly letting go of it, the mole that was enjoying his delicious thigh didn't notice a searing needle jabbing at its eyeball.
SCREECH!!
In extreme pain, it let out a saddened sound from its throat, increasing Ryne's fear, which in turn, only led to him casting another spell, finally finishing the maddening beast.
Checking if it was dead again turned out to be a wrong move as the reeking scent of the dead beast, anxiety, his own leaking shoulder, and thigh, and his sense of weakness quickly made him throw up while blood still kept trickling out of his body.
At first, he wanted to let out a shout after the beast died to inform his master of this feat, but then he remembered how it was very hard for his master to come inside from that small entrance and another beast like that one could be lying in wait for a chance like this.
Thinking till here, Ryne decided to do the only thing he could, he crawled.
Leaving a trail of blood on the rough ground behind him, every inch soon felt like a mile. The determination that it took to move a single meter hardened his will but aggravated his internal injuries further.
Gritting his teeth, he kept letting out painful groans to ease his suffering by a negligible amount as he cursed this cheap master of his with the worst words he could think of in his mind.
After 15 minutes of crawling like a dying dog, he finally noticed the light shining upon him from outside the tunnel, giving him an intense urge to let out a jubilant cry, but low on energy reserves, he could only continue to crawl ahead.
Golver was frowning his brows outside as he looked towards the cave entrance,
'I made a mistake, I should've bought… seasoning, that beast would taste bland now. I hope it's up to the kid's liking.'
That's right. He didn't think Ryne could be brought to the brink of death by a Mid-Grade-1 beast. Not even in his wildest dreams. After all, Ryne was a 'Divine' elemental mage, there was no way he could've lost to a trifling Grade-1 beast while being at Grade-2 himself.
In fact, he was almost entirely correct, since Ryne did manage to 'defeat' it in only 'two' blows pretty 'easily'.
But what he did fail to consider was Ryne's abysmal lack of combat sense, his taut mental state, the unfamiliar location, and a complete lack of information.
Anyways, when he looked toward the cave entrance again, he saw a shivering hand switching just outside the cave entrance before losing energy and landing on the ground with a 'thud'.
Turbulent emotions ran amok in Golver's heart as he saw this scene, quickly suppressing them as he rushed forward to treat his disciple.
When a hint of rosy color finally came back on his fainted disciple's abnormally pale cheeks, he thought bitterly to himself,
'How stupid! How fuc*ing stupid could I be? How did I miss this possibility? It's entirely MY fault. He's just a kid… I just indirectly killed a legendary 'divine' elemental image in his early years, before his legend even began. How pathetic would it have been if someone with a fate feared by Gods were to be killed by a measly rat in an unknown cave, even sent by his master.'
The stream of thought wildly trampled his aged and refined sense of self-respect as he slapped himself hard on the cheeks twice while muttering to himself,
"Thankfully… he fainted, otherwise, I would have been listening to a torrent of abuses from this little disciple of mine."
…
Strangely, although Daney was completely off the point in thinking how Golver would treat his disciple, even his kindness frighteningly resulted in a worse conclusion than Lumien's whips. After all, although Daney was hurt, he was never on the brink of death in grueling conditions.
His first hunting of the beast also went surprisingly well as he was able to one-shot the venomous snake-like magical beast with his Peak-Grade-1 mana.
Lumien clapped his hands in appreciation and decided to reward him by cooking it for him when it happened, although Daney only looked more glum than usual.
Still, his limited brain cells told him that he needed to have his fill if he was to ever become a warrior at this point.
Lumien himself gave it a rest after two bites and let Daney eat the rest. Daney appeared surprised when it happened as he kept glancing at Lumien's belly and then his face.
Lumien noticed this as he gave him a stern stare but that only managed to fuel the kid's curiosity. His gaze even held a trace of mocking intent now which spurred Lumien's anger finally,
"Whatcha lookin' at?"
"You… dieting?"
"No, I just eat less," Lumien told this while preparing for what was about to come. An even more intense and mocking stare soon lingered in front of his eyes.
"It's different? Fat pig, are you ashamed?"
"Why would I be ashamed?" Lumien kept repeating to himself that he shouldn't beat the kid while he was being rewarded.
"...of being a fat pig?" Daney 'innocently' tilted his head to the side.
"It's a genetic defect… nothing I can do about it..." Lumien held his breath, in an attempt to hide his belly.
Daney also stopped making fun of him too as his voice felt miserable, which in turn cheered Lumien as well.
'He has a good heart at least.' While he was thinking, a sound came from the side,
"Genetic defect huh? So was it your mother or the father? Which one was the pig?"
"YOU LITTLE SNOBBY-NOSED SHIT!!!"
"Was I wrong? Was it a boar—ahhhh…"