Chapter 99 False Alarm

A FEW MINUTES EARLIER

Arvell lay in a pool of his own blood, twitching in pain.

He had already undergone most of the process of increasing the level of his Nether Body.

In order to be able to upgrade his Nether Body, he needed to train his body to its utmost potential, accumulating enough energy to break through.

While it was possible to do this manually, using elixirs as a crutch was generally an exponentially faster process.

The natural way would have cost Arvell far more time.

Maybe taking another couple of months before he could break through.

And that was the best-case scenario.

Further refining his Nether Body became progressively more arduous of a challenge for Arvell.

Lucky for him, Arvell had a mentor who had extensive knowledge in alchemy, giving him an option to shorten this strenuous process.

Furthermore, with his experience, he could shorten the period of refining his Nether Body from two weeks to just a few hours.

Arvell gave himself a soft, muffled cry as his flesh wriggled together, meshing itself back into normal human skin.

His throat was aching from screaming non-stop for the last few hours, but that didn't stop him.

He felt that his body was susceptible to pain at the moment.

'Wait, my body's sensitivity increased because of my upgraded Nether Body?'

Furthermore, he was also still caked from head to toe with dried blood.

It had become sort of a second skin for him.

As if it was just one large scab that encompassed the entirety of his body.

'Just a bit more.' Arvell thought to himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by a distant banging noise.

"Arvell? Big sis's here to check up on you!"

'Angela?'

*Knock Knock*

"Arvell? Big sis's here to check up on you!"

Arvell flinched as he heard Angela's voice come from what he perceived to be the door to his room.

'Why is she here?!'

"Arvell, are you there? Are you sleeping?"

He tried to get up, but his knees were too weak to get up onto his feet.

Instead, he slipped and fell onto his healing back.

"MPHFFF!"

Arvell let out a muffled cry as he struggled to rub his aching back.

He tried to quiet down his voice but couldn't stop his small scream.

Due to his body's increased sensitivity, he could perceive the sensation of falling a little too well.

He didn't cry out in pain but out of surprise.

"Arvell! Are you okay?"

Hearing Angela's rising concern, Arvell tried to say he was okay and diffuse the situation.

"Mphmff…"

Unfortunately, with his mouth covered, this proved to be an arduous task, to say the least.

He was unable to properly convey his message.

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

"Arvell, I'm going to get help! Just hold on!"

Arvell's brows furrowed as he heard the sound of a blast of air and a series of furious footsteps heading away from his room.

'F*ck!' Arvell cursed, 'this is the worst-case situation! Why did she come so soon? Couldn't she have waited another hour?'

He struggled to get to his feet as he turned the bathtub's sink, letting the cold water fall on his skin.

"Mphhhff!"

'...I need to get rid of this rag.'

Arvell washed his blood-caked body before cleaning the bathtub to remove any traces of blood.

His body had formed for the most part, but small patches of skin were still missing.

Luckily they were all on his chest and upper thighs.

Things he could hide under clothes.

Arvell had left his clothes in the room, but this wasn't too much of a concern for him.

He had already pre-packed several sets of clothes in his inventory, so it was merely an act of using some Aether to retrieve them.

Arvell picked out a blood-red shirt so that if he were to bleed in front of Wilfried and the others, they wouldn't notice anything.

While putting on his clothes, Arvell heard another furious knocking on his room door.

This time it was Wilfried.

"Arvell, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…."

Due to how raspy and dry his throat was, Arvell's words were barely audible.

"I'm coming in!"

'Great, just great… He couldn't hear.'

Arvell finished putting on his clothes in a hurry and opened the bathroom to find a nervous-looking duke and his daughter looking at him with worried expressions.

"Sorry, I fell asleep in the bathtub. So... why are you all here? Do you need me for something?" Arvell asked with a soft-yet raspy voice.

He flashed the two the most dazzling smile he could muster.

Wilfried breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank goddess, it was just a false alarm."

Arvell feigned his ignorance by looking at Wilfried with a confused look.

"What do you mean, what was a false alarm?"

Wilfried turned to Angela with a tired look in his eyes.

"Angela came to check on you a few minutes ago. When she didn't hear any response, she naturally assumed the worst and ran in a rush to find me."

Angela flinched when she heard Wilfried's words.

She turned to Arvell with a defensive look in her eyes.

"But… I heard muffled screaming! Why did you scream while sleeping in the bathroom?"

Arvell scratched the back of his head with a nervous look.

"I had a nightmare…."

"But... Why is your voice a little ragged?"

"My throat is just a little sore right now. It'll be better in a bit."

Arvell felt he was utterly pulling this one out of his a*s, but knowing how much the Silvercolts believed his words, he was sure they would let this fly over their heads.

"Oh… That makes sense!" Angela hit her open palm with her fist.

'Woman… At least try to question what you hear.'

Wilfried smiled softly.

"It's good nothing bad happened; now we just need to convince Lie-"

"ARVELLL!"

Lienna rushed into the room and gave Arvell a spine-crushing hug.

'Oh no… Not this again!'

"I was so worried!"

Arvell flashed Angela a glare.

'This is all your fault!'

Angela met his eyes before hurriedly looking away, continuing to whistle her tune from earlier.

She decided to play innocent!

'I'll get back at you!' Arvell swore in his heart as his vision began to blur.

Smothered between Lienna's twin mounds.