Chapter 29 Hidden Secrets

"Are you planning on entering Sky Sword Academy as well?"

Arvell practically knew the answer already, but he still had to keep up appearances.

Zen looked at the ground, letting his messy black hair hide the majority of his face.

"I plan on entering."

It was before he would have proudly announced his intention of entering, but after seeing Arvell's awe-inspiring might, he seemed to have lost his initial resolve.

If anything, he felt like digging a hole right then and there.

Suddenly he remembered something allowing him to have a semblance of hope.

'If I can get proper training, I'm sure I can catch up to him!'

While Zen felt no ill-will towards Arvell since he did save him, he also didn't want to be inferior to another boy his age.

After delegating for a moment, Arvell spoke.

"I might try to enter as well."

Zen smiled when hearing this.

"We might be classmates in the future so let's get along."

"Likewise."

Zen had come a long way these past two weeks.

He started with his heart completely sealed off.

This of course was a direct result of his treatment by the bandits, but during these past two weeks, he had gotten accustomed to being around Arvell.

While the two never openly interacted unless they needed to, Zen slowly became used to Arvell's company, even enjoying it.

In a sense Arvell not talking to Zen and asking him questions about his background allowed Zen to relax around him.

He could tell that Arvell wasn't a bad person, considering he did save him.

However greed can corrupt even the best of men, so while he never disclosed any personal details about himself, he also didn't reject Arvell's attempt at 'befriending' him.

Having Arvell as a friend at school would serve as good motivation to get stronger.

Lykos watched the two of them talk with a smile.

'Arvell's finally behaving his age. Children his age should be eager for the future and outgoing. Although, I suppose ordinary children didn't go through what he went through.'

Lykos took a deep breath and sighed.

'It's only normal that he shut his heart after that. I sincerely hope that he can make friends that he can trust. Maybe then will he go back to how he was in the past'

***

A FEW HOURS LATER

Arvell stomped on the remaining kindles on the ground, putting out the last vestiges of the campfire.

He looked over his shoulder at Zen who was nervously fidgeting with his gear, making sure that everything was properly fastened in case they needed to promptly escape any threat.

Zen knew firsthand how terrifying the Algreppa mountain range was.

Even with the hidden tunnel, the bandit group that transported him still had three casualties.

While the inside of the tunnel was safe, the entrance and the exit still had beasts.

Of course, they would have been completely wiped out if they went the normal route.

They needed to be ready to run away at any time if they came across a strong beast.

"Are you ready, Zen?"

Zen finished giving himself one more look over and nodded his head.

"Yeah. Let's get going."

Arvell steadied his breathing and erased his presence.

While this would be ineffective against stronger beasts, he would be able to ignore the beasts in the first rank.

Seeing Arvell become harder to notice, Zen followed suit.

Since Zen wasn't as used to this as Arvell was, he would still be found out by the first-rank beasts, but it would still be a bit hard for them.

He could use this time to run away or let Arvell kill them.

Despite technically being an Arcane Mage with his wind magic, as well as having experience with swordsmanship, he wasn't quite at the level where he could magic beasts yet.

The two of them used the cover of night to silently traverse in-between sleeping beasts.

While Arvell did feel an itch to fight some of them, he knew it wasn't the time or place to do so.

Their main concern was getting to Elantrya in one piece.

Furthermore, most of these beasts were far out of his league.

He would probably need a few months if not years to be able to fight most of them.

Also, he had Zen with him.

Fighting on his own was already suicide, but fighting while having to take care of someone?

It was pure stupidity.

Zen had given Arvell a rundown of where the entrance was and how to spot it.

Suddenly putting his hand on Arvell's shoulder, Zen pointed at a shrubbery a few kilometres away.

'So that's where the secret entrance is.'

As they neared the location that Zen pointed out as the entrance of the secret tunnel, they heard a large roar echo through the surroundings.

(ROAR)

They both paused and looked up at the summit of the tallest mountain.

The supposed home of the sixth rank beast.

'Shit! Wasn't it supposed to be hibernating at this time of the year? How the hell did it wake up?'

Lykos materialized next to him.

Arvell felt a monstrous pressure weigh down on him.

The pressure was far worse than it was before.

If before it was an object of unease and fear, now it seemed life-threatening.

Zen even froze in fear upon feeling the immense pressure exerted by the beast.

'That isn't important right now! You need to find cover quickly!'

Arvell grabbed Zen who was still in a daze and violently shook him.

"Zen pull yourself together! We need to leave now!"

"Huh…What?"

Zen responded in a dazed state.

'Tch, he's still recovering from the beast's pressure'

Arvell clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Suddenly a chorus of shrieks and roars began ringing out all around them.

"Shit! It's already begun!"

Arvell grabbed Zen and ran to the entrance.

[Temporal Manipulation]

Creating a zone around his and Zen's body with accelerated time, he ran as fast as he could towards the entrance.

Stapping out of his reverie Zen looked behind them, freezing once again.

"So…So many beasts! It's a stampede!"

A horde of beasts began closing in on the two of them.

The beast's eyes reflected a mixture of fear and a predatory glint.

These beasts had originally become riled due to the rank six beast's roar, however, upon seeing two weak-looking youths, decided to have a late-night snack.

The prey had become the predators.

As they neared the location Zen pointed out earlier, Arvell noticed a crevice hidden behind a bush.

Knowing that was probably the entrance, he through a bewildered Zen inside, before drawing his sword.

He jumped inside the tunnel and faced the oncoming beasts.

[God-slaying Swordsmanship First Stance: Dimension Slash]

To any onlooker it would have looked like Arvell was simply cutting the air in front of him.

An act of desperation by a child who didn't want to become monster food.

Zen might have assumed the same if he wasn't recovering from his earlier shock to notice it.

Suddenly, the entire cave shook and a portion of the ceiling rumbled as it came crashing down, completely sealing the entrance.

He had slashed through space to cut a small rock that was holding the entire entrance together, causing a small rockslide to occur, completely sealing off the entrance.

Breathing out a sigh of relief Arvell collapsed to his knees.

While he was able to confidently use the basic skills of the god-slaying swordsmanship, using its special stances was still far too taxing for him.

Coupled with his time manipulation from earlier, drained most of his Aether Reserves.

While his Nether reserves were virtually untouched, having almost all of his Aether drained was still quite taxing for him.

He slowly propped himself up and slowly walked towards Zen who was slowly coming out of his Daze.

"A-Arvell? Where are you? Are you there?"

Zen looked around frantically in the darkness.

Since they collapsed the entrance, there was no source of natural lighting within the tunnel.

Meaning the two of them were in pitch-black darkness.

Of course, this wasn't really a problem to Arvell who had night vision due to his enhanced body, but even he couldn't see too far ahead.

Arvell sighed as he saw Zen panicking in the darkness.

"Hey, I'm right here. You can calm down now."

Hearing Arvell's voice, Zen exhaled in relief.

(BANG)

(BANG)

(BANG)

Loud banging noises rang out from the collapsed entrance.

'They really don't know when to quit? Can't they just eat each other or something?' Arvell lamented.

Unfortunately, his lamenting wouldn't change anything. Even Arvell knew this.

He grabbed Zen by his arm.

"Zen we need to go now. A few boulders won't hold them for long. If they catch us, you can kiss the rest of your life goodbye."

As much as Arvell wanted to fight them, he knew he wasn't their match.

Especially when they were facing a group as large as the one chasing them.

"Yeah… Let's go"

Zen fearfully nodded his head.

Arvell put his arm over Zen's shoulder and leaned on him.

"I'm a little drained after sealing the entrance. I need you to help me out here."

"Alright, I understand."

Propping up Arvell, the two of them continued their journey in complete darkness.