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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 87

Author: Blue_Rat

ch87

Kazuki didn’t stop flying up until he reached the ceiling. Only then could he catch his breath as he realized what had just happened and what had almost transpired.

(Too close, far too close! That thing’s aura completely dwarfed mine. If its aura was that strong, it has to at least be a Sky beast. In which case it should have phenomenal intelligence and be capable of flight yet it never once came out of the water. With that much strength, it’s strange. The moment I was about to unleash my devouring power, it pulled back its aura and vanished. Strange.)

The waters below Kazuki settled and became unnaturally calm. The pod of whale beast had left only a moment after the biggest one retreated. Unease spread through Kazuki’s bones.

(The other whale beasts were easy to deal with but I can’t confirm the big ones’ true strength. From the looks of it though, the two of us are somewhat cautious of the other. Just in case though I’m not going that close to the water for now.)

Kazuki reached up and grabbed the ceiling. Exerting some strength, it was just as tough as the spikes from the cliff wall and he couldn’t tear through it with just his hands. Pulling out a blade of orichalcum, he stabbed it into the ceiling. The blade sunk about halfway in before Kazuki met some resistance. Using his strength he was able to carve out a large chunk in a fairly short amount of time.

(It might be feasible to go through the ceiling but it’s definitely not optimal. From the original spot I fell into this abyssal trench, the depth was dozens of miles. Later on, I fell through what I thought was the bottom with the goat-headed monster, bringing me many miles deeper. Even if I can cut a tunnel through to the surface at the rate I can carve a path it would take half a year maybe even longer and all of that depends if my guess is right on how far I’ve actually fallen. This doesn’t even include if I run into something dangerous on the way, like lava or another strange creature.)

Kazuki wasn’t seriously considering going through the ceiling and digging up but that small confrontation with that creature’s strong aura struck him with fear. Enough fear for him to second guess himself and his decision to continue this path.

Thinking up to here he thought up the direction he was going.

(Just in case this leads nowhere I should leave a bread crumb or two to remember my way back to the shore.)

Kazuki pulled out a rock from his ring and with a small cut on his thumb, he put a few drops of his blood on it before tossing it behind him.

The rock flew through the air and crashed on the shore shattering into a dozen pieces. Even though it broke, with a sniff of the air, Kazuki caught a whiff of his blood on a few of the fragments and could tell the direction with just his nose.

(I’ll leave a few of these every ten or 20 miles. That way if this way is a bust I can get back to the beach without much difficulty.)

With a way trace to find his way back, Kazuki looked down at the calm water. Seeing no movement he decided it was better to move than wait around for something that may or may not come.

After some time, he finally made it to the large crystal object extending out of the water. To his surprise, the crystal was as round as a hill and stretched from the water all the way up to the ceiling like a large column holding up the sky.

There was no place to stand or really any place to land so Kazuki was forced to carve a piece out. With a swing of his blade, he cleared a 10 by 10 area and stored it in his ring before landing on the gigantic crystal.

As soon as he landed upon it he could tell right away what it was and grew excited.

(Pure dark elemental crystal! Elemental crystals grow naturally in environments rich with that element. Combined with time and pressure, they develop in such places. To mine these is pretty difficult because of how pure and concentrated their energies are. One can be easily poisoned by the amount of pure energy and their mage core can easily go out of control and kill them.)

Kazuki had no such fear though. Not only did the ring he got from Oren block such energy, his body as well was more than capable of handling such energy now. Kazuki was at the fourth stage, the mind-body stage. After the 4th stage came the 5th. Glacious had spoken about it before and told Kazuki how it was much simpler to achieve than the 4th stage in many ways and yet at the same time difficult.

Kazuki sat down and went through the memories Glacious had gifted him via magic blood orb and he recalled the details. Glacvious’s words began to play out in Kazuki’s mind.

(The 5th stage, aka the Core stage. Just like its name implies, this stage is all about one’s Mage core. The 5th stage is much simpler than the 4th yet is many times harder to achieve for the simple fact that it requires a mass amount of energy as well as purification. You have to absorb an enormous amount of energy into your Mage core and solidify it. Expand it, absorb more energy, purify it, and solidify it again. You repeat this until your body reaches its limit and can no longer hold any more energy in the core itself. This also becomes a problem for you humans. To absorb so much energy, it’s already incredibly difficult for a regular body. Only if someone is a genius like Garn or has enhanced their bodies several times can they contain so much energy within them? This all in itself is rare beyond rare. You can see this for fact throughout the Feya continent as there are only a handful of 5th stage Mages roaming about. For them to reach that level, they have to make it past the 4th stage then find someplace that has an abundance of magical energy that isn’t already occupied by some expert or kingdom, then they have to absorb said energy without dying in the process whilst expanding and purifying, some luck has to be involved for sure.)

After that memory played out, Kazuki couldn’t help but look at all of the pure dark elemental crystals all around him.

(I could potentially use all of this dark elemental crystal and possibly break through to the 5th stage here and now but the problem is, is it possible to do so in my current situation. I just got done killing several of those whale beasts and have made an enemy with a stronger opponent that has yet to reveal themselves. To sit here and focus all of my attention on absorbing, purifying, and expanding my mage core would leave me completely unguarded. I would be a sitting duck on a silver platter. The risk vs reward is not worth it. Especially when I can get to the surface and safely enter the 5th stage in Glacious’s tiny world.)

In the end, Kazuki had found a treasure but at the moment he couldn’t risk using it in this environment but he wasn’t upset for the simple fact that he had his new ring.

(The space inside of this ring is around 100 miles in diameter while this crystal tower is about 6 miles long. Well, I can’t be sure its actual length due to part of it being hidden in the water but from what’s sticking out, up to the ceiling is around that long. I should be able to store this perfectly and have plenty of room to spare.)

Kazuki made his decision. Jumping upward, he cleared several miles in a single jump. Shaping the block of orichalcum in his ring, when he pulled it out, it was several hundred feet long. Not long enough to cut completely through the crystal but Kazuki didn’t need it to be that long. Flying around the top, Kazuki sunk the blade in all the way to the hilt. Cutting around the top of the crystal, the dark elemental tower became disconnected.

Right after he cut the top, he released his wind aura and fell toward the bottom. Just before he smashed into the water below, he released his wind aura and caught himself. Before anything strange appeared from the water, Kazuki cut around the bottom of the dark tower in a mere few seconds.

As soon as he did, the tall column of pure magical crystal became unstable and began to tilt slightly.

Kazuki placed a hand on the side of the dark tower and willed his magic through his ring.

The gem embedded in his ring glowed with a bright purple light before.

*Shoom*

The 6-mile tall tower of dark crystal vanished into thin air. This was a sight that many could never see even if they had a hundred lifetimes. Even now there were only a few who witnesses such an incredible sight. One being Kazuki who smiled with greed and delight. One deep down below who had just exchanged blows and was now glad it didn’t pursue more action.

Kazuki rubbed his ring, growing ever fonder of it, especially of its enormous capacity. However, just as he was starting to get far too absorbed in his ring like a certain hobit, his stomach grumbled and snapped him back to reality.

*GRRRRarrrrARR*

Kazuki rubbed his belly before looking into his ring for a meal. Seeing the several whale beast’s corpses, he couldn’t help but lick his lips.