Chapter 80: Stay

Zach was beginning to feel quite confident when it came to dodging arrows. Even rooms with three active walls weren't lethal anymore. He felt like his peripheral vision had widened and improved. Occasionally, it also felt like he could sense the arrows coming from his back like he had eyes on the back of his head.

He couldn't help but feel happy and proud over his progress, even when he could tell that Dukiel had feelings on the other end of the spectrum.

However, Zach was still far from done. So was Julius, so he had a lot of time to train.

Zach picked up and focused on the sensations of the arrows he couldn't see but could sense. With Yanael's help, he figured out it was thanks to his hearing, but if he honed it, it didn't need to be reliant on something so delicate.

In a real fight, it wouldn't be as silent as it was in the training rooms, especially in the ones with nothing but arrows. The only sounds there were the sounds of the mechanisms shooting and reloading the arrows as well as the whizzing sounds of the arrows themselves as they flew through the air.

By sharpening his hearing, Zach could more easily notice the arrows that were coming from his blindspots. Sёarᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

But what if he had been fighting a roaring monster and someone shot an arrow at him from behind? There was no way he could hear it.

Yanael refused to explain saying it was something he had to feel to learn. He had to learn to understand.

Zach thought it was a load of bullshit.

But Yanael hadn't been wrong so far. So, Zach trusted her and continued training while focusing on sensing the arrows he couldn't see.

After a while, he dared to take another step and train in a room where all four walls shot arrows at him. When he did, he had to rely on his hearing and other senses to dodge arrows even more frequently.

Zach couldn't put his finger on it, but after some time, it felt like he could guess where the arrows were going to come from. It wasn't because he heard or saw them. His skin prickled and after a few moments, an arrow was heading toward him from the direction his skin had warned.

When he told Yanael, she just smiled and nodded encouragingly without saying anything. Zach shrugged and continued training until he reached the final step.

Spiked floor.

Zach didn't want to leave the Locale before he could securely and safely exist inside the room that almost killed him. That meant he had to learn how to stand and move on the spikes.

It was hard. It was borderline impossible.

Zach had to cover the soles of his feet with barriers just to get started. And he hadn't even entered a room with arrows, only a spiked floor.

"How the fuck…?"

Zach didn't understand how he was supposed to stand on the spikes whose tips varied in size from needles to fingers. Even the finger-sized spikes were impossible to stand on without a barrier since he couldn't keep his balance.

The rare moments when Zach managed to stand for several moments without falling, the spikes dug into his feet like, well, spikes.

Zach remembered how Yanael had moved across the spikes when they first dropped into the death room. He frowned. She didn't seem to use her wings for anything other than movement speed. He hadn't seen her fly, at least.

"Is it the shoes…?"

Yanael was an S-rank familiar. Her clothes were included in that status, as proven by how they slowly recovered and cleaned themselves over time. Naturally, her shoes were included in her outfit. Were S-rank shoes the answer?

"Yanael, can I borrow your shoes?"

"No."

"Damn it."

Zach wanted to figure it out on his own. There had to be a trick or something. If he could just figure it out…!

However, he wasn't making any progress, and it frustrated him. Eventually, sooner than he would have liked, he gave up.

"I give up, Yanael. What's the trick?" Zach turned to his angel with a desperate and ragged face.

Yanael shrugged and took a light step onto the spikes.

"There's no trick."

Zach was tempted to step on one of the thinner spikes and pierce his foot just to make a point, but he resisted the urge and simply glared at Yanael as she walked across the room and back until she opened her mouth again.

"I'm just controlling my weight and the muscles in my feet. Your progress so far has been impressive, Master, but this isn't something that can be rushed. It takes time to build up the necessary strength and balance."

Zach scowled.

"Tch."

He wanted to say that they had plenty of time. She just needed to tell him how to train. But Yanael signaled that someone was coming.

"Zach, you in here?"

"Yup."

"Julius is done, so we're packing up."

"Oh, really?" Zach's eyes lit up.

Dukiel finally arrived at the open door after speaking with Zach from the hallway. He was about to confirm Zach's question when he saw the room Zach was in. He stopped and his mouth opened slightly.

"...Are you serious?"

Zach looked down his body and at the spikes. He held up a foot and showed off the barrier.

"I'm not standing on the spikes directly, so no, not yet, I guess."

"...for fuck's sake…" Dukiel murmured a curse and shook his head as he turned around. There was no way he was even trying that, especially now that they didn't have a bunch of time to waste anymore. They could finally return to the Academy without worrying about leaving their friend behind.

Zach and Dukiel regrouped with Julius.

"Hey, Julius. It went well?" Zach hadn't seen Julius in a couple of days and greeted him with a smile.

Julius nodded

"Yeah, though, I think I need better underworld energy now to strengthen Manny further."

"Better?"

"Higher concentration or purity or whatever. Stronger stuff, you know? Stuff at this level won't have an effect any longer."

"How do you know?"

"Oh, I can feel it. When I was about halfway done, it stopped having any effect on Manny."

"What…?" Dukiel slowly turned to look at Julius.

"Do you mind repeating that, Julius? I think you just said the underworld energy became useless a week ago." Zach smiled, but his eyes were frosty as he looked at Julius.

"Yeah. Basically."

"Then, Julius, my dear friend, do you mind telling us why the fuck we stayed here?"

Julius shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe it still has some effect."

"'Who knows?' We stayed here because of that? Because you can't—No, I'm not going to bother."

Zach raised his hands and took a step back with a shake of his head. He was letting it go.

They walked in silence until Dukiel had a realization.

"Guys, I just realized. Our permission…"

"Permission?"

"To leave the campus…I think we might have overextended our stay."

"...Well, shit."

"...Sorry."