Rentaro’s eyes snapped open as a gentle breeze blew past his face. The tall trees of the forest hovered over him, their leaves filtering the breeze as it whistled past.
He was on the ground for quite a while.
Cold crept into his skin, and he turned his head slightly, and just beside his face, he saw a thin pool of saliva glistened on the floor.
"You’re finally awake?"
Rentaro’s blurry vision slowly beca clear as his senses sparked to life, and he found Princess Sylvaria right above him, sitting in a tree branch ters away from him.
Her wounds were completely healed by the ti he woke up.
"I assud your life was over after depleting all your energy." Not only did she grow wary of him, she also kept her distance. After all, he killed a mber of his own race, what was stopping him from killing her especially since he proved to be currently stronger than her?
"W-What..." Rentaro muttered under his breath and sat up. His body felt numb and stiff, like he was stuck in the sa position for a prolonged period of ti.
He pushed himself up slowly. And his body protested the movent.
As he straightened, his knees cracked, his back popped, and his shoulders clicked one after the other, like old tal gears grinding back to life.
He rolled his neck, wincing at the sharp snap it gave, sounding less like a man waking up and more like a rusted machine desperate for oil lubrication.
"Your skill." Her words caught his attention, and he looked up. "For your Soul-Energy to be completely depleted after using it once, what kind of an ability was that?"
"My Soul-Energy depleted? Completely?" His brows jerked, he knew his Soul-Energy was depleting, but not to that level.
’I see.’ He said in his thoughts as he squeezed his fingers tightly into a fist, then slowly released it.
’So that’s tiless...’ He still couldn’t believe the ability he had in his arsenal, but one thing was for certain.
’With the level I am at right now, using tiless is a huge gamble."
Tiless cool downs were reduced to just three uses before his Soul-Energy dropped to a dangerously low level, but it wasn’t the sa for its drawbacks.
Using tiless just once took a huge toll on his body. His vision blurred slightly, it took all his ntal strength just to remain conscious, and most importantly, to feign its drawbacks.
Against Alex, soone who managed to recently obtain a Soul-Core, he managed to hold his own. But against a seasoned Soul-Hunter?
It’d be over for him in seconds once his weaknesses were discovered.
’If I’m ever going to utilize Tiless to its full capabilities, I need to get stronger. I need to increase my physical stats. It seems there’s a lot I have to do before I can even think of ascending to the other levels of the sanctuary.’
"I lost consciousness the mont my Soul-Energy depleted completely, that ans if an awakener or Soul-Hunter depletes his Soul-Energy, they will die?"
"That’s right." Princess Sylvaria said bluntly.
"Then why am I still alive?"
"Elves have the ability to regenerate and self heal faster than humans as you are aware, however being of a royal bloodline I also possess healing abilities, and I healed your wounds. Thankfully the healing process also restored so bits of your depleted Soul-Energy."
"You healed ?" He asked, confused. In the first place she was the one that tried to kill him. "Why?"
"Because I don’t like owing favors, especially not to a human of all people. Although it was for your own selfish benefits, you saved from the Lizard king folks, and even saved from the human who tried to kill . I believe preventing your own death makes us equal." She said, crossing her legs as she glanced down at him.
"I see." Rentaro sighed a bit, then slumped down to the ground, a bit relieved. Princess Sylvaria might have stopped the end results of expunging one’s Soul-Energy, but she didn’t recover his Soul-Energy completely.
He still felt a bit dizzy, and his strength hadn’t fully returned, but in the very least, it was far better compared to the imdiate effects after using Tiless for the first ti.
"What happens now?" The entire forest was quiet... a bit too quiet compared to the start of the trial where explosions rang out through the sky and the ground trembled under the Awakeners might.
"While you were unconscious, the first trial ended."
"It ended?" He looked around, and the Lizard Folks king’s body was still there, Alex’s body crushed to a pulp was still there, even the Lizard folks body was still there. "Then why hasn’t anything happened?"
Princess Sylvaria stayed silent as she stared down at Rentaro with narrowed eyes, she didn’t tell him but, the mont he passed out and the first trial ended, the sanctuary tried to reconfigure itself for those who passed its trial.
But sothing went wrong, and instead of reconfiguration, the entire world went white for a few minutes, the ground disappeared, the sky turned white, and the system of the sanctuary fell silent.
"You do-"
[Ding! The allocated ti has elasped!]
[You have passed the first trial of the sanctuary!]
Just before she could speak, the voice of the sanctuary’s system ca alive, and they both saw their individual panels that displayed their success in clearing the first trial of the sanctuary.
[You have qualified to ascend to the second trial of the sanctuary.]
[Standby for ascension...]
A soft glowing light hovered beneath the legs of Rentaro, then Princess Sylvaria as she sat quietly on the tree branch. Monts later, a faint golden glow wrapped around their bodies before they slowly dissolved into shimring particles and vanished completely.
A faint golden light flashed across an empty field before Rentaro and Princess Sylvaria slowly reappeared within it. Endless waves of yellow wheat stretched across the vast land, swaying gently beneath the wind. Far beyond the golden fields stood a massive and beautiful city, its towering walls and shining buildings glowing beneath the distant sunlight.
[You have arrived at the second trial of the sanctuary!]
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