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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 16

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Author: Blue_Rat

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ch16

As the days passed one by one, Kazuki’s progress was slow. His control over the godly aura was almost second nature for him but he still couldn’t use it the way he had witnessed Glacious or Etora use it. When the two released their aura’s they could seeingly increase gravity on a person. Kazuki learned that this was more like a spiritual pressure. Though to someone with a weaker soul, it would physically feel as though they were being crushed so the difference did not matter.

Going through the memories he had received from Glacious, he also learned of other ways aura could be used and applied but he struggled to grasp these ways. He had tried to use it as a weapon and pierce rocks or clackers but they seemed completely unaffected. In the end, he could barely intimidate a few clackers but if they were in a large group, even the intimidation would not work.

Still, one unexpected benefit he had gained was his soul. When Kazuki circulated the godly aura from the compass into his mage core, Kazuki could feel minor improvements to his soul. In turn, his senses and physicality improved as well. He could hear a little further each day and he needed a little less rest than the previous day before.

Keeping the Azirian blood at bay was now no longer a chore and became an annoying inconvenience but not much more than that. Unexpectedly, Kazuki actually considered himself lucky on some level that Reya had infected him with her blood. Whenever that large monster appeared, Kazuki found the best way to send it away was to unleash the Azirian blood and cover himself with it. The stench from the blood seemed to be the only counter to the monster’s presence. Without it, There was no guarantee Kazuki could have survived for so long.

*Heuh*

Kazuki released a small grunt as he grabbed onto a nearby spike and pulled himself up. After being down here for a while, he found that making an entire suit of armor out of the rubber rock was impractical. Still, he could rely solely on the rope and acid method. He had been constantly experimenting and trying to come up with more options to escape this shit hole when an idea struck him.

At first, he made wrappings out of the rubber rock to cover his hand. The end result was too much bulk and less flexibility and he couldn’t bend his fingers properly nor grasp things in the most optimal way. Reducing the rubber rock to an even skinnier vine, Kazuki made something slightly thinner than a pencil. Using this thin rubber rock, Kazuki braided them together and made gloves. Now he could grab the spikes without fear.

He didn’t stop at the hands though. With a little more effort, Kazuki had made foot covers that directly slipped over the bottom of his shoes. He now had this rubber-like material protecting his hands and feet. This made Kazuki’s climb a hell of a lot quicker.

The only real problem with this new equipment was its durability. Because the material was made so thin, they became damaged fairly quickly from the spikes. Kazuki would utilize them until they were about halfway done. After that, he would switch back to using his rope and acid method. In this way, he climbed and climbed. Six hundred feet up, seven, nine, all the way until he was nearly 200 feet above the floor of the trench.

Pulling out his stone tablet, he marked this new spot on his map before putting it away and thinking.

(At the rate I’m going it will be years before I climb out of here. Not only that, this all henges if I have a large supply of rubber rocks.)

Kazuki squeezed the rubber rope in his hands and inspected it with his ki. He could sense tiny tears all over the rope. Although it could withstand the sharp edges from the spikes, it wasn’t invulnerable. Everything overtime was prone to damage, especially when it was in constant use.

(This rope won’t last for too much longer and neither will my gloves or boot coverings. At the rate I’m going through, I’ll run out of rocks. I need to find more, a shit ton more.)

*Grrrr*

A small rumble snapped Kazuki from his thoughts and he immediately became alert.

(An enemy!)

*Grrrrrr*

It was only now that Kazuki recognized where the noise was coming from. Rubbing his belly, he realized his stomach was grumbling.

(Has it really been three months since I’ve eaten, damn.)

Circulating his ki to his stomach, the rumblings settled down until they faded.

(I can’t keep going like this. I can only suppress my hunger for so much longer. Should I just eat some of those clackers? Are they even edible?)

Kazuki thought about the clackers he had killed and dragged back to his base for experimenting and research. The smell coming from their corpses reeked like rotting scum off the bottom of a rat’s nest. Kazuki could only keep a clacker’s dead body in his base for a day and no more before they started to stink up his home.

(If I’m gonna eat one, I should definitely at least get a fresh one. While I’m at it, I’ll look for more rubber rocks as well. With that I’ll be killing two birds with one stone.)

*Fwap Fwap*

Kazuki froze in place as he heard something flying nearby. Controlling his aura he didn’t hesitate to unleash the Azirian blood in his head. As soon as there was enough of it, Kazuki pushed it through the pores on his skin and covered his body in a layer of foul blood. He then suppressed the rest. Standing perfectly still on the jagged spike, he calmed his racing heart with ki and listened.

*Fwap Fwap…fwa*

The sound of wings grew fainter in the distance and Kazuki heaved a sigh of relief.

(It didn’t come…)

Kazuki quickly made his descent. Following the map he made, he jumped down from spike to spike using both his gloves and rubber foot coverings until he touched down. After that, he made a mad dash for his base. Only when the door was sealed tight behind him did he finally start to calm down.

(That monster doesn’t seem to be coming today. It used to show up every other day or so but lately it’s been appearing less and less. Hopefully, this means that damn behemoth has lost interest in me.)

Kazuki approached one of his shelves and inspected the corpses of clackers he had.

Kazuki covered his nose in disgust. He had barely come close and their smell slapped him in the face.

(Good these things truly are trash. I’ll discard them on my way out.)

Kazuki first grabbed his large gourd and started to gulp down water. The sour smell of his water wasn’t any better though and left a strange after taste in his mouth but at least his stomach was feeling fuller now with something in it.

Refilling his black water bottle with acid, he strapped it to his side. Grabbing a pair of clacker legs he had already removed from the bodies and cleaned, Kazuki also strapped them to his waist. Grabbing the few clacker corpses clogging up his shelves, Kazuki went outside and threw them far off into the distance.

*Phoom*

The bodies landed a few hundred feet in the distance and when they landed the echo coming back showed a flash of an image in Kazuki’s mind. Hundreds upon hundreds of dead clacker bodies piled up forming a small hill of death. Kazuki couldn’t help but smile at his handy work.

(serves the little bastards right. Attack me every fucking time. Death was too easy for them.)

Kazuki really felt that way. Nearly every time he left his cave, he would wind up running into a group of clackers and every time, they would want to eat him. Sometimes Kazuki could ward a few of them off using the aura’s pressure but those times were few and far between. Usually what would happen was they would hear him and then all attack at once. Kazuki found it relatively easy to deal with them using the acid but found it to be too much of a waste as the acidic water took quite some time to replenish.

In the end, his tactic was either to trick them with the clacker legs. By rubbing them together, Kazuki could mimic one of the signs of danger. Usually, this would make them flee but on the chance that they ignored his warning sign, Kazuki would be forced to fight. He couldn’t use his voice full of ki as it would attract other dangers but there were other ways to deal with them.

Grabbing a handful of rocks from the ground, Kazuki would just throw them like little bullets directly into the clackers oversized cone shaped ear on their backs. Once that was destroyed, the clackers would basically be blind and would bleed out from their ears and die.

Kazuki grabbed a handful of rocks and found the cliff wall. After that, he started to run alongside it. Stretching out his ki and using his heightened sense of hearing, Kazuki ran deeper into the trench in search of resources.

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