Eritance - Chapter 36

I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t given something that would make me stronger, but I shouldn’t be rude. After all, there is no doubt that a pouch like this is rare and expensive. I’m sure it will benefit me well in the future.

I forced a smile on my face and thanked the man in glasses for his kind and generous gift. After transferring the contents of my current bag to my new one I turned around and went down the tunnel. I walked and walked and walked. I wasn’t sure that if this was some kind of joke or not. It seemed to me that the training was just getting to the academy, and once I was done walking I would graduate from it.

These people sure like to build long networks of tunnels. So far, I had seen nothing but large halls, long tunnels, and stairs leading deep underground. It was almost as if it were a country in and of itself underneath the land up top.

Of course, being down here made me a bit uneasy. I had heard that there were many kinds of underground races. Some were neutral, others friendly, but many, hostile. I was praying that I didn’t run into any dark elves or basilisks. That would be the end of me for sure.

After walking for more than an hour I came upon a dead end. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t remember seeing any other tunnels for me to go down, but it really was a dead end. When I turned around, the path behind me was blocked.

I was trapped. Someone or something had sealed the passage behind me without me noticing. This was not good. I decided to try to break the wall that had appeared behind me, but I wasn’t strong enough to do so. The wall felt incredibly solid, as if it were several meters thick.

I decided to try to break any wall that I could. I sent a flurry of punches into many different places all over the tunnel that I was trapped in. However, the only thing I accomplished was tiring myself out. I collapsed onto the ground panting.

“Ross, how should I get out of here?”. I figured Ross and the beast warrior knowledge might be able to help me out of this pickle that I found myself in. “beats me you dolt. I may be an otherworldly entity now that I’ve combined with your beast relic, but it doesn’t mean I know everything” he flippantly responded.

Great, I thought. I’m getting attitude from my own relic. “Why couldn’t I have gotten a better relic?” I complained. “At least if I really had gotten the power relic I would have a much better chance of breaking down the walls and getting out of here”.

“Don’t blame the relic for your lack of focus. The beast warrior relic is much greater than that low-grade relic that you saw before. All it could be was a snack for the beast warrior relic” Ross retorted.

“So, what are you saying? That my relic ate the other one? That’s a pretty useless power, considering I didn’t gain anything from it” I said somewhat annoyed.

“Oh? Are you sure? You didn’t even examine yourself, but you assume that you didn’t gain anything. You must be the laziest beast relic user of all time” Ross jeered.

I sat up when Ross said that. Changes? Could I really have had some sort of change happen in my body? With that I instantly began meditating to find the power within. Perhaps a crystal couldn’t measure it properly but going in and inspecting the power directly would surely tell me the truth of the matter.

I searched for the wisp of power within me and followed it all the way to the source. This time was much quicker than before. I was getting used to the power more and more each day. When I inspected my power, I was quite surprised. I noticed my vessel was much bigger than before. It seemed that I had nearly doubled in the amount of power that I could absorb and store directly in my body.

Instantly I questioned Ross. “Why didn’t you tell me that this was one of the things my relic could do?”. “I did you dolt. I said look for special materials that could help you” he lazily responded. “Well, it would have been nice to know that these special materials included relics” I said in a very frustrated tone.

“As I’ve said before, the information is in your head. I’m just here to explain things to you in a way that you can understand. You couldn’t understand before that other relics could increase your vessel size, and so I kept it simple by telling you to look for rare and special materials. Your understanding of the relic has gotten deep now. Although, you really should get a teacher” Ross concluded.

I didn’t fully trust Ross’ explanation, but I had no choice. I was happy for a moment at my ability to grow, but my happiness quickly soured. What’s the point of surpassing your limits, if you’re just going to die anyways?

I needed to focus on the problem at hand. How does one escape a sealed room? I started thinking about what Ross said. About how I jump to conclusions without examining things thoroughly. It mirrored a lot of what Ciara had told me over the past few months. Whenever we got into trouble I always rushed in swinging without thinking first.

I decided to take things slowly. I examined the walls centimeter by centimeter. It took me a couple hours, but I finally found what I was looking for. There was a small crack in the wall at the end of the tunnel. This was an exciting discovery. I figured that this must be the key to my escape. I punched at it with all my strength, but it was no good. I couldn’t get the wall to bust open. Another dilemma.