Sho frowned as he watched Elisa demolish yet another wild beast.
'This girl is way too strong..' he thought.
Regardless of whether it was a bear, a wolf or even an eagle, she would dispatch it with ease. Most of these beasts were something Sho would have to run away from. However, Elisa elegantly destroyed them in a variety of ways. From what he could see, their strength was about even but she was much faster. He assumed part of that was due to her Path.
She had awakened the Path of Lightning. Before Sho could even react, she'd have sighted a beast coming towards them and, just like lightning, she'd streak at it, cutting at it everywhere. In seconds, it'd be dead while she would be spotless, having moved faster than the blood flying everywhere.
That hatchet had to be something special too. It seemed entirely fine despite biting into countless animals. It was really no wonder that she'd been confident in defeating him no matter who hew as, when she was probably the fastest thing in this forest.
Every time she killed a beast, she'd stick their bodies in some sort of bag. He didn't even try to keep track of how many bodies went into the small black bag.
After trekking for what seemed to be at least an hour, Elisa turned back at him and smiled. "We should be at the outer ring now."
Sho couldn't help but ask. "Will you do all that again just to get back to your home?"
Elisa laughed a little. "Of course."
However she grew serious upon remembering something. "You should be careful when you get back to your sect. I had to scare off some bastard who was stealing your stones."
Sho nodded, thanking her.
Elisa turned to leave before again remembering something. "Learn what the essence of your Path is. What exactly are you doing when you use it? That's the only way you'll get strong.. just like me!"
Sho nodded again, his usual deadpan expression lightening up a bit.
Elisa shot him a look, her voice resounding in his ears, as she began going back to her home in the center of the forest. "And find whatever part of you is missing", she said.
—
—
—
The sun began going down as Sho approached the sect gates, its light barely reaching him through the trees he walked through. While he'd walked, he hadn't encountered anything too dangerous. There were a couple of birds like the one he'd faced, after first waking up. However, with his added experience and better stability, he was able to dispatch of them without too much difficulty.
He'd also tried using his Path more. He could never sustain that intricate vision he now had, for more than a second. Not only did it overwhelm all of his senses far too much for his brain to handle, it sapped him of energy almost completely. He'd only activated it once before he reached the sect gates.
Seeing Sho, the guards called out, asking for his sect token. Momentarily at a loss, he, then, realized that he did feel it in his robes. While Elisa had been nice to him, he still held reservations and didn't think that she'd done the entire thing simply out of some kindness. However, it seemed as if that was really the sole reason.
Pulling it out, he showed it to the guards who went to verify it. Seeing the simple name Sho pop up, weird expressions showed up on both of the guard's faces.
Sho, noticing this, grew confused. There should be nothing wrong, right? However, thinking about it further, it made sense. Juge had probably told the sect that he had died.
Hesitating for a bit, they let Sho past the gates. Walking into the sect, his bag of stones in hand, he traveled to the outer sect center to cash in these stones.
Once he got there, he immediately went to the mission board. Again, he got a strange look. He heard the receptionist whisper to a partner of theirs.
"Should we just let him submit it? Juge won't be here for a while anyways."
"Yeah, sure."
The original receptionist turned back to Sho and allowed him to submit the minerals he'd collected.
"41 pieces of river cobalt. 41 sect points", the receptionist said before infusing something into his sect token.
Sho frowned. Juge had most likely stole some stones from his bag, though it was weird that despite that, he wouldn't come here.
Taking it in stride though, Sho walked back to his dorm. Getting there, he walked up to his room and unlocked it only to see some random kid a year or two younger than him, doing push-ups.
"You gotta go all the way down. You're only doing half the push-up."
The kid flinched at the sudden intrusion before nodding and adjusting his push-ups, not even thinking about the fact that Sho shouldn't have been able to get into his room.
Seeing the better form, Sho cracked a little smile.
Then both parties seemingly remembered that this was supposed to be their room. No other disciple should be able to get into it.
'Ah right, they probably assumed I died. Maybe Juge told them that.. but now what?''
Sho blankly stared at the boy who was now standing up, staring warily at him. However, before either of them could say anything, a gust of wind blew up behind Sho.
"Outer Disciple Sho, correct? Follow me. This is no longer your home."
Sho turned around to see a tall old man with beady eyes and a hawkish nose. For some reason, his thin lips were curled into a smile.
Seeing Sho's hesitancy, the man looked closer at him before his smile broadened even further.
"Where are my manners? I am Core Elder Lahon. A mistake occurred in our organization. You shouldn't be in this room. Follow me."
This time, not waiting for Sho's response, he began walking out. Sho, at this point, followed him. If he'd really been moved, then there was no point staying here.
Walking out of the dorm, Lahon turned to Sho. "You'll need to keep up, Prince Sileon."
Sho jolted, feeling as if he'd heard that name before. Still, he couldn't remember when. "Who is that?" He asked.
Seeing this, a frown appeared on Lahon's face as he ignored the question. He, then, began walking towards the center of the sect town. Sho had no choice to follow him but something was strange. Lahon, despite seeming to be taking casual steps, was advancing way too quickly. It was if each of his steps was the distance of tens of Sho's steps. It forced Sho to run to keep up.
Looking back at Sho, Lahon's expression worsened further. "Did those useless servants teach him nothing?" He grumbled out loud. He slowed down, his steps only taking up around 5 of Sho's. Sho slowed to a jog yet his mind kept running at full speed.
As they walked through the sect town, the building quality visibly and qualitatively improved. In fact, where the outer portion of the town had mainly large buildings and dorms, the center portion had more care put into it.
Lahon led Sho to a certain two-story house. "This will be your home in this sect from now on. Get acquainted with everything. Ask around if you need anything", Lahon said, dismissively, about to walk away.
"The sect confiscated a black bag of mine. Could you retrieve it?" Sho's voice was distant.
Lahon's eyes narrowed before he turned back around to see a strange expression on Sho's face. It was one completely twisted as if he was fighting with himself.
An odd smile appeared on Lahon's face again before he nodded and left.
Sho, however, upon seeing Lahon leave, walked into his new house. It was spacious with a decently decorated living room. There was a kitchen and a bathroom as well. The first floor was essentially its own real house within the sect. This made Sho, despite his inner desperation to remember, a bit curious about what was on the second floor. He thought there'd be no point introducing another floor since he'd be the one person staying here.
He decided to put his memories to the side and go up the stairs to see the second floor.
Going up the stairs, he saw two doors on either sides of a hallway. He went into the right door first and was greeted with the sight of a fairly spacious room with a mat in the middle. There were an assortment of, what seemed to be, rocks and tools on one side of the room. There was also a table in the corner with a pill bottle and some liquid. However, the most apparent item in the room was the tub in the middle of the room, enclosed between the mat. It was filled with some sort of dark liquid, not water.
Sho had merely taken a cursory glance before he left. He went over to the other room. It had roughly the same layout, being spacious with a mat in the middle. However, while the first room seemed more minimalist in a brutal way, this one gave off a certain sense of soothing. There was a table in the corner, similar to the first room with pills and liquids. There was also a tub in the middle of the room, filled with water in contrast to the other tub.
He felt something drawing him to the tub. Still, he went back to the first floor and got acclimated before going back upstairs. Apparently, this was the Spiritual Strengthening Room while the room across was the Physical Strengthening Room. This tub was supposed to help him advance in the strengthening of his soul as well as comprehension of his Path. That last bit drew him even further. Taking off his clothes, he went into the tub.