The next day, evening,
"It should be around here somewhere" muttered Kaen, searching here and there deep in the large forest of Antinia.
This forest was located on the outskirts of Antinia so Kaen didn't need anyone's permission to enter, which made it easier for him to acquire the Lightning elemental.
There was only the issue of evading the dangerous magic beasts that resided in the forest, however, they weren't of a level to pose a threat to the current Kaen.
Strange...
According to that person's words, he found the elemental inside this cave but I don't see anything here.
Kaen was inside the same cave that the person had told in his story. According to him, he had come into the forest for monster subjugation with a party, however, a large snake appeared in the outer area where it started to hunt the party members.
Since the party was composed of low-level warriors, it couldn't put up any strong resistance to the snake that was much stronger.
It was an anomaly for such a strong magic beast to appear in the safe zone where only weak monsters were hunted.
To escape the snake, the person entered deep into the forest before coming into this cave to hide.
In this cave, he found a small wooden rectangular box. Out of curiosity, he opened the box, and in the box was the elemental that fused with him, giving him the power of Lightning.
However, Kaen didn't see any box, as mentioned in the story and that concerned him.
According to the story, that person came here after five years, so can it be that it will only appear in five years?
No... that shouldn't be the case. It can't miraculously travel in the cave.
That only leads to one speculation... that it is buried in the ground and somehow the box came to the surface in five more years.
After much contemplation, Kaen used the trident to dig the ground. If he were to use aura, the box could be destroyed so he decided to stick to common digging.
Tuck!
As soon as the trident pierced the mud, the sound of the trident touching something solid resounded in the cave.
Kaen was sure that it was the box since the location was accurate according to the story. It wasn't too deep, only a few centimeters in the ground.
Since it wasn't buried deep, Kaen switched to his hands to dig.
After only two strokes of digging, the surface of the hard surface revealed itself.
Kaen's eyes lit up in delight as soon as he saw the worn-out wood of the box revealing itself.
Getting excited, he moved his hands much faster, removing the mud from the sides and above the box before taking it out gently.
I found it...
He slowly opened the box, keeping his eyes open to see the elemental with his own eyes.
Flash!
As soon as the box opened, a blinding bright light gushed out of the box, making Kaen unable to keep his eyes open to even catch a glimpse of the elemental.
Due to the light, the whole cave was illuminated for a brief moment before the light dimmed down.
Kaen slowly opened his eyes before glancing into the box: "It's empty?"
The box was empty without anything inside.
When he was just wondering about the elemental, Demios' voice resounded inside his mind: "It has already fused with your body, stop looking for it inside the box!"
"Oh," Kaen exclaimed while blushing in embarrassment before keeping the box down and leaving the cave.
Now that I have taken the elemental, what will that person in the future do?
It was only due to this elemental that he was even able to escape the forest safely!
Well, can't do anything about it...
Have to make sacrifices to save the world like how they did with me!
After some pondering, Kaen walked with a smile as he wondered inwardly,
How do I use the elemental?
It's my first time with an elemental so I don't know anything about how it works.
Also, I don't feel any different from before!
It was already nighttime and the sky had turned dark.
Kaen moved swiftly towards the exit of the forest.
When he was almost near the end of the forest, he heard a scream: "Ahhhhhh!"
As soon as the scream entered his ears, his body moved at lightning speed towards the direction of the scream almost reflexively without giving him any time to think.
From Kaen's perspective, he only saw himself getting out of the forest and finding a black troll ——the size of a boulder, about to crush a young man with grey hair and matching eyes to death with its huge hand.
His body reflexively wielded the trident and struck the troll directly in the neck, chopping it off from the rest of the body.
It all happened in the blink of an eye for anyone to see anything clearly.
It was only after Kaen stopped that everyone saw the huge neck resting on top of the tip of the trident while the body stood headless with its hand in the air as if going to strike.
Thud!
Soon, the troll's huge body fell over on its back with a loud sound, flying dirt all over the place.
Kaen who had stopped, looked around to figure out what had just happened and also to figure out the situation he was in right now.
After looking around, he was surprised to see the amount of people around him.
All of them were looking at him and the troll's head with wide-open eyes filled with disbelief and shock.
Sigh... Now I understand how the elemental works.
Since in my past life, I used to rush to help whenever I heard a scream, it seems my subconscious has made it into a habit and since everything happened so quickly due to the elemental, I couldn't control my body.
It was more of a reflex to help rather than my intention!
I need to work on controlling my reflexes, habits, and the elemental too!
Sigh... just too much to do.
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(A/N - thanks for reading. ^..^)