It was hard to count but there must have been over sixty monster corpses thrown around – some of which weren't just mole-rabbits, but mole-foxes too.
The sight together with the overwhelming stench of blood was almost unbearable.
"...!"
The woman trembled and glanced back at the young man dragging his feet in the direction of the second barrier.
"Hey! What level of cultivation...!"
She took a deep breath and after pulling herself back to her feet and locking the gate, she called after Viria, but as she did...
*thump*
"...are you... HEY! ARE YOU OKAY?!"
...the young man either tripped on the uneven ground or simply his legs gave out and he fell down face-first, causing the gold-haired woman to call out in panic.
-------
"...sure about that, inmate Lithsar? I know he can be efficient while hunting monsters – I have seen how many he killed yesterday, but saying that he managed to defeat so many while only punching them doesn't make sense."
"..."
Viria let his consciousness return to him and realized that he was laying down on something that could pass as a really hard bed or straight-up floor – he also recognized that the voice he was hearing not that far away from him belonged to Bossac.
"Mister Bossac, how would you explain the materials I salvaged together with those kids then? Do you think the four of us managed to hunt down all those beasts?"
The other voice was definitely less familiar, but by the method of elimination, it must have belonged to the young gold-haired woman that Viria talked to shortly before collapsing.
"Maybe some guard went for a hunt and you stumbled onto the scene and misunderstood it all."
Bossac sighed, sounding as if he wasn't in the mood for dealing with the female prisoner.
"You know that cannot be true – they would never leave so many materials just laying around, not to mention that having their materials stolen would be reported immediately."
The gold-haired woman scoffed, pointing out stubbornly.
"Viria could not be the person who did that, he must have got caught up in someone secretly training, that's the only explanation."
Bossac let out a tired sigh and tried a patient approach.
"No. there is an even simpler one. This guy, Viria, right? As long as Viria is in middle middle or high middle levels of cultivation then it would be completely normal too..."
"Young Viria is at low low levels of cultivation's first step though. I have confirmed it AGAIN just now when I was healing him."
The woman pointed out in a confident tone but was shut down by the annoyed Bossac.
"Eh...?"
She gasped, undoubtedly staring at the guard in confusion.
"He is in low low levels of cultivation."
Bossac repeated himself.
"Impossible – he would not be able to kill all those monsters if he was that weak!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you this entire time! Just go back to your home or workplace, inmate Lithsar."
The gold-haired woman – Lithsar – gasped in disbelief to which Bossac complained with yet another sigh.
"Then... what about the sold materials... all those bills... and the monster cores?"
"...!"
Lithsar breathed out and murmured, now a lot less confident than before, and Viria who woke right up almost jumped up shouting – there were monster cores there?! - but somehow the young man managed to stay down, curious to hear where the conversation will go without him interfering.
"They will stay with the guards – particularly me – until the real owner will show up."
"...hmph..."
Bossac explained to which the Lithsar responded with the softest most dismissive scoff and judging by the following sounds, she turned right around and left.
"She's so annoying for a prostitute."
Bossac groaned and also left, leaving Viria alone.
"..."
The young man opened his eyes and looked around.
He was in an extremely simple room, laying down on the wooden bed with a single blanket for a mattress – with no other furniture in sight.
Viria looked down on his body – once again he was covered in blood, with the only difference being that this time the blood had already dried up.
He only then noticed that the sleeves of his shirt were ripped off, either during the violent fight or the healing process, but at least his hands were all healed up.
Viria raised his left hand and looked at it, furrowing his brows.
"...the ability was mastered even though I wasn't using the soul artifact, could it be that...?"
The young man clenched his fists and focused on the spot in front of him before throwing a punch...
*UMPH*
A snappy sound resounded through the room as Viria barely saw the hit he threw himself.
"Pfff...! Hey, hey, hey! What is this sorcery? An ability that doesn't require me to actually use the weapon that has that ability?"
Viria talked to himself while unable to contain a wild smile.
The more he tried things out and the more he actually fought instead of practicing and studying the more fun it became.
Judging by the lack of usual hustle and bustle of every human settlement, it must have been a night already.
At least a few hours must have passed since Viria lost his cosnsoiusness, and he actually felt quite rested.
Viria waited a few minutes to make sure that he would not walk into Bossac, and simply walked out of the room.
Thankfully, the clinic wasn't a complicated structure and the exit was obvious enough so the young man found it without getting lost or walking in on somebody else be it a guard or another prisoner – which further confirmed his suspicion about the time.
Viria walked out of the building and walked straight to the town square where he didn't hesitate even for a second before going back to the monster spawning ground.
"SCWEEE!"
Later, already back in front of the first barrier, Viria opened the small hatch to test whether the monsters were swarming the gate or not, and was greeted by a single mole-rabbit sticking its head through the bars, snapping its jaws trying to get to him.