Jumping from the 2nd to the 3rd level of Qi cultivation had been a pleasant surprise and a sorely-needed upgrade for his body. However, his wounds were still present, even if reduced and sleeping. He had to take care of them before they started to accumulate and impair his future. Jacob's talent was already abysmal, and if he began treating his body like sh*t, he would probably capitulate.
He emptied his head while going inside the 6th room, knowing it would be a fight. Jacob felt overwhelmed by everything that happened in barely one day. He needed some respite, and fighting with a sword in his hand was the best recess he could hope for.
"Be careful," he told Juliet and Geneva.
A massive ghoul overturned the floor plates and charged him.
Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 2nd stance – Invisible Blade
Jacob stepped to the side, and his sword briefly disappeared while he dodged the big oversized hunk creature like nothing.
The monster was as strong as a warrior at the 4th stage of the Cockroach realm. At Jacob's level, only a talented warrior could have taken it on without dying.
The monster fell to the ground without its head.
Spending thousands and thousands of years practicing the sword meant that his actual talent had just skyrocketed. Of course, he could only use the first three stances of his own style, but it was enough.
"Let's go," he said while cleaning the viscous black blood from his sword.
"How did you do that?" Geneva asked, dazed.
"A bit of practice, I guess," Jacob replied with a smile.
In the middle of the room, two more Ghouls appeared.
Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 1st stance – Cut
He bisected both of them in a blink.
Jacob stopped and checked the arm he was wielding the sword with.
It's a bit sore. I guess I cannot overuse my Martias Style, even if I tone it down.
He was restricting the scope of his blows to avoid crippling his body. However, it seemed that even now, he could only fight for a very short time.
Much better than before. And as soon as I'm back, I'll get to work on some real Alchemy.
His stomach grumbled.
Maybe some pasta al ragù too.
Four Ghouls came out this time, and Jacob shouted to Juliet: "Take care of one, Juliet! Geneva, stay back."
The older woman was a marvelous fighter, but she was still too weak to fight targets so big.
One of the enormous Ghouls immediately lunged for Jacob. But, unfortunately, our guy was still a bit slow to match the speed of the monster and, for once, he had been taken by surprise.
Jacob simply rotated the sword and faced the monster with its flat side.
Blade Tyrant Martial Style, 3rd stance – Deflect
The Ghoul tried to punch Jacob to paste with its superior strength. What the monster did not expect was to find his fist buried in the floor and Jacob right up in his face, calmly stabbing his undead brain. Then, with one last twitch, the Ghoul made to grab him to crush him.
Jacob jumped backward without frills nor acrobatics. He could have done a backflip, but it had seemed distasteful to him.
He quickly killed off the last Ghouls while Juliet pummeled hers to death. She had abandoned the ax and simply relied on her superior body. The Ghouls were naturally stronger than humans, but not humans with a Hidden Constitution such as Juliet.
Jacob grabbed a chest by the wall and started emptying every treasure he found in it. Pills, weapons, armors. It was getting heavy fast, but there had to be a reason he had brought Juliet with him, right?
"Miss, would you make the honors?" he said with a strained voice while thrusting the treasure chest to her.
Juliet was still trying to clean off the Ghoul's foul blood when she frowned.
"Am I a donkey, Jake?"
"One could only hope," he laughed.
Juliet carried the chest nonetheless while Jacob strode toward the 7th room.
"Well, this one is a puzzle," he said, and the walls started immediately moving toward the center of the room.
"Big Indiana Jones vibe here, I'm not going to lie," Jacob said with no care in the world.
He went up to one of the slow-moving walls and simply put a palm on it. Then, after a few seconds of chanting, he deactivated the Inscription Patterns inside of it. He repeated this action another three times, and suddenly they were not near-death anymore.
Jacob opened up the door at their backs and then went to the one in the front.
"This room would have been very tricky for those people. If I had to guess, they would have all died here," he said while unlocking the hidden Inscription Pattern on the door and opening it. "Luckily, the 8th room just treasures. However, here, in the 7th room, there is another secret room with a weapon fit for Geneva."
Geneva had gone through so much in the past hour that she barely heard him say her name. She was confused, tired, and filthy. She had never wished for a hot shower in her life like at this moment.
"Jacob, I'm sorry. Is it dangerous?" Geneva was battle-crazy, but this temple gave her the chills. The monsters they had been fighting looked like they would be making bank in the Hollywood Horror studios.
"This one is not a Spirit Weapon, sadly. But it will bind to your blood, and only you will be able to wield it. The mechanism is pretty safe, and you just require some compatibility. Since you have a great talent for fighting but not a remarkable talent for Qi, it will compensate for your low attack power. It packs quite the punch."
"What weapon are we talking about?" Juliet asked.
"A Halberd."
"A what?" she was confused.
"Halberd, Juliet. It's like a spear but with a blade. This one, if my memory serves me well, should have a huge blade. It's more like an Asian variant of a halberd."
"Never seen a halberd in my entire life," Juliet admitted.
"I don't see how that's relevant at the moment," Jacob commented, slightly exasperated.
"Well, I think it is," Juliet said with some irony.
Our protagonist gave it a laugh, happy that some spirit was coming back to them, and then, he told Geneva to follow him to a suspicious-looking part of the floor.