Prince of The Abyss-Chapter 259: Stone Crawler

To think that even he could be... this blind.

The mountains had met his expectations; it was a place full of monsters, but he just couldn’t see them before. But now, he could see the tens of lizards ready to jump on him.

’Damn,’ He staggered a little, nervous.

But why hadn’t they attacked him before, while he was still recovering from his wounds... well, even now he was, his arm had not fully healed, and neither had the other spots, but they’ve gotten good enough for him to fight with.

Was it that they could see their power, that he was much stronger than they are, and that trying to fight him was not a good idea, even when injured? But then why had this one attacked him just now?

It was true that he wasn’t paying attention...

Aether ran a hand through his hair. "I think I get it."

These monsters were weak, the weakest one can get, but they were good at hiding, which gave them the element of suprise, pair that with the fact that they attacked really fast, and to avoid the attack your reflexes have to be really fast, so they attacked when their pray had their guard down, and when they knew they could get a hit it.

Which made him wonder if they had any other ability, like poison.

It was possible, but he wasn’t going to try it.

This was why they hadn’t attacked him while he couldn’t fight; because his guard was up, they couldn’t catch him by surprise.

’Quite a strategy... its perfect.’

A monster that tests your awarness, paitience and teaches you to always keep your guard up, while at the same time not being that dangerous, it was the perfect monster to train Kade with. After all, before you learn to fight, it is favourable to have fast reflexes.

Aether looked at one of the lizards with a smile on his face. "I do wonder..."

He summoned Voidpiercer, thrusting the blade into its big stomach before it could run away.

[You have killed a Reader Fragment, Stone Crawler]

’Stone Crawler? Thats your name?’

If he thought about it, this was probably the weakest monster that he had met while in this book, and probably the only weak one so far. It was interesting, since even in Frozen Crown, which was supposed to have enemies that were even more powerful, and he wasn’t saying that it didn’t have, the Children of Praise were all extremely strong, but the monsters themselves were taken care of by three Readers. Mosly Elpis.

In Demon of Dread, the first monster he saw was a giant blind beast that killed an entire squad in seconds, and he only survived because the Abyss protected him. That was the first monster he met. Then came Denial, which he took care of, after months of training.

And let’s not forget that stone giant he had to kill for his heart.

’I never want to go back to the Tides... that place is truly a living hell.’

And yet it wasn’t like things have gotten better here, I mean, just some time ago, he was close to dying to a giant worm.

’I guess the difficulty in class is really visible, huh?’

A Seeker Titan was never meant to be easy.

...

...

...

When morning arrived, Kade had finally woken up, surprised to see him coming from outside.

"Do I even ask where you were? Tell me, tell me, am I going to regret asking you this question?"

Aether tilted his head, holding a wooden blade against his shoulder.

"Have you ever regretted something since you decided to come with me?"

...

"Yeah, you will regret it."

Kade sighed, getting up from his bed, and walking over to Aether.

"Then I won’t ask. So, what are we doing today?"

Aether smiled gently, but Kade could see straight through this smile; he knew something was up.

"We? Not we, you, I won’t be doing anything. You, however..."

...

"Me?"

Aether chuckled at his reaction before throwing him the wooden blade.

"Yeah, you, I did say I was going to train you. Oh, be careful with that sword; it was quite expensive, and we might not eat today. It all depends on how many monsters you can kill, so we can get our money back. No pressure..."

There was a lot of pressure, even more when Kade knew how greedy his teacher was. He didn’t like spending money, so he knew he had been angry to buy a blade for himself.

"But why a wooden blade? I’m fighting monsters... not some training dummy."

Aether scoffed. "I didn’t have money for the others."

Kade looked at Aether with a look that questioned his intelligence.

"Not what I meant... you have a blade, right? Why not give it to me, that way we could have saved money."... "Speaking of it, where do you even keep that damn thing?"

...

"You mean this thing." He said while summoning Voidpiercer, the chains falling down from his marks slowly, as the blade finally revealed itself with all its might and valor. "As you can see its attached to my arm."

Kade’s eyes widened in surprise. "W-what? How did you do that?"

He knew he was going to ask this question, and while the answer was that it was an ability the relic had, he couldn’t tell him that, after all, he had no idea what a relic was. But at the same time, he wouldn’t have summoned the blade if he didn’t have a plan.

Actually, it was profitable that they talked about this now, since he could just summon the blade whenever he wanted.

He had actually wanted to have this talk a lot earlier, but the boy somehow never noticed, makes a little nervous since the lizards tested his awareness, and if it was that bad to not even see a blade suddenly appear from his arm.

Aether put his hands on his hips and raised his head proudly.

"Well its because I’m a master of the rapier style, my connection to the blade has gotten so far that it has become one with me, like a Will because one with a Will master."

Kade leaned forward in excitement. "Wait your the rapier master?"

Aether gave him a cocky smile. "Of course I am. Even after seeing my might in person, you never figured it out? Have my skills rusted that much?"

The boy quickly staggered, embarrassed that he had not realized this earlier.

"No, no, of course not, it was just that... I can’t believe the master of the rapier is training me. I have heard many of your stories from my mother, it’s an-"

Aether shushed him. "Enough with the Praise, we have work."

He turned away with a bright smile on his face.

His plan had worked better than he had expected, a little lie that wasn’t entirely a lie, that was all it took. He wasn’t the master, after all; Kael was still alive, but he had mastered his style, maybe even improved it, so when Kael died, he would naturally be the next master, even if he didn’t think his skills were on that guy’s level yet. The masters were people who could fight a Will user with just their blade and style. If he didn’t have his relics and powers, he didn’t think he could win against a Will user.

...

...

...

"So... what are we doing here again?" Kade asked, following Aether through the mountains, the wooden blade standing quietly in his hand, without any urgency.

"Last time we were here, there were no monsters, and as you can see, neither are there any now."

Aether stopped, turning around to Kade. "I guess you could call this lesson number one... uh..." He put his hand on his chin, waiting. "Never let your guard down."

The next second, a lizard jumped out from the rocks and onto Kade’s face, who wasn’t fast enough to avoid it.

The boy fell to the ground, trying to get the lizard off his face, but it wouldn’t budge, so he could only scream as it bit his face.

Aether sighed, walking over to them. "I didn’t think you were into lizards, I’m not judging though." He said, laughing, while he killed the monster with Voidpiercer.

[You have killed a Reader Fragment, Stone Crawler]

Kade quickly pushed the dead monster off his face, revealing the bite marks it had left, and blood coming out from his wounds.

"Where did that thing even come from? I couldn’t see it until it attacked."

Aether laughed it off, letting Voidpiercer retreat back into his marks.

"I know, right, impressive?"

...

Kade looked at him dumfounded. "What is seriously wrong with you-"

"As I said, don’t let your guard down."

Kade cursed as another monster jumped onto him.

Aether sighed, putting his hand on his hips, and watching as Kade struggled with the small lizard. In their battle, it was clear that the monster was winning, and even if it wasn’t doing that much damage, if he didn’t kill it, Kade wouldn’t be able to take it off, and in the end, die.

"We have a long way to go..."