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Return of the Fallen Volume 6 Chapter 85

Author: Blue_Rat

ch85

After leaving ape city, Kazuki had to traverse through a large mountain range. Once past that he was once more out in a vast open underground cavern. Putting a bit of ki into his fingertips, Kazuki snapped his fingers producing a loud clack noise. It echoed out as it bounced off the floor and ceiling. Using this echolocation, several images flashed in his head, giving him a layout of the area around him.

(A few miles up there’s actually a ceiling. I could go through it with brute strength but who knows how long that would take me. Plus I would have no clue where I’d end up at. If I accidentally tunnel into a lava pool or the bottom of an ocean, that’s obviously bad. The best thing to do is retrace my steps up to the river.)

Kazuki had been working on a map a long time ago but after a few misfortunes he fell into the underground river with the goat-headed monster and it became utterly useless. Trying to find a map from Oren also lead nowhere. Everything Oren had, all of the records were tattered and faded messes that dated back thousands of years. Kazuki couldn’t make heads or tails out of them and not only that but even if the maps were fine, it wouldn’t be easy to trust them. After thousands of years of Oren and his apes being cut off from the rest of the world, the changes in terrain and other factors, such as outdated maps would most likely be useless as well.

At one point Kazuki had simply asked Oren if he could make a tunnel out of the orichalcum. One that would lead directly to the surface but Oren gave him a definitive no. Saying that the amount it would take to create a tunnel from his city to the surface would require all of the orichalcum in his entire city, at least a hundred times over. There was no way he would inconvenience all of his people for a single person and even if he did he simply didn’t have enough for such a selfish project. Even though the two had become friends by now, Oren put his apes first and foremost. Kazuki understood this and didn’t ask a second time, especially after receiving all of the gifts Oren had given him. One can only be so greedy.

Speaking of gifts, Kazuki circulated a tiny amount of magic into his new ring and a large fruit appeared in his hand.

Oren had gifted Kazuki about 2 months’ worth of food and water for him. He took into account Kazuki’s large appetite and made sure there was an adequate amount for his new friend’s journey.

Kazuki scarfed down the large fruit in seconds. Licking his lips he savored the sweet and sour taste that followed.

Even though he now had access to some of his magic and therefore could satiate most of his hunger in that way, having a full stomach of magic, something about it just wasn’t satisfying.

(At least I won’t have to worry about starving now. Still, I shouldn’t run through my supply too quickly. It would suck to consume magic for food instead of real food.)

Looking at the path beneath his feet, Kazuki stood on the orichalcum pathway. It stretched out further than his sense allowed him to detect. Although he couldn’t see its end, he knew this was the right way.

Using his memories, he could retrace most of his steps. First things first was for him to follow this path back to the shore he washed up on. Kazuki wasted no more time. Kicking off the ground, he raced forward like a comet. Feeling the air tear as he ran through with a terrifying momentum and speed was an exciting feeling. Hearing the air scream as he ran, Kazuki felt his blood boil.

(MORE! FASTER!)

Kazuki circulated his ki through his body and his speed increased several folds. He could feel the resistance of the wind climb and it became like a wall and actually caused a strain on him. To get past this, Kazuki released some of his aura and changed its flow. Wind aura gathered around him and flowed out in front. It forcefully pushed the blocking wall of wind to the sides and made the obstacle wind blow around him. This made Kazuki’s speed increase that much more.

Every step he took brought him well over 10 miles. This speed shocked Kazuki and he wondered what would happen if a wall of orichalcum formed in front of him. He didn’t wonder long though as he knew he would turn himself into meat paste was that to actually occur. Still, even with that lingering thought, Kazuki’s speed didn’t drop in the slightest.

The scenery around him blurred as he ran past it. The feeling of moving past the world with such blinding momentum was freeing in some senses. It felt as if nothing could stand in his way and nothing could stop him nor touch him. Kazuki’s curiosity and excitement made him want to try and go faster. Kazuki reached inside and split his aura in two. One for the wind aura and the other for strengthening aura.

The thought was by adding even more strength to himself he could then pull out more power and kick off the ground harder thereby increasing his movement to a whole other level. The problem though, as soon as he tried to control two different aura techniques, the balance was thrown off. The wind aura became too weak in replacement with his strengthening aura. Because of that, the wind wall that had been redirected around his body came crashing down on him, or rather he crashed full-on into this wall of wind which caused him to trip like an idiot and tumble ass overhead almost a dozen times before his face skidded the rest of the way, bringing him to a full stop.

Kazuki slowly sat up and found himself covered head to toe in cuts and bruises but not even a second passed and everything was healed.

*HAHAHAHAHA!*

One moment he was full of wounds the very next it was as though they were never there.

Kazuki felt stupid for a few seconds because he fell but at the same time, he was also a bit giddy from the power stored within him.

(The difficulty in controlling multiple aura techniques is still out of my reach. That though is just another challenge for me to overcome. Once I can master all of them, the power I’ll hold…)

Kazuki sat on the ground covered in dirt laughing like a lunatic for almost a full minute before he remembered that both his brother and Danny were most likely observing all of this and he quickly shut up.

(Damn, I forgot about those two. No doubt they’ll be laughing their asses off at my foolishness. Ah, fuck it. I don’t care right now. The way I feel is like stepping onto a heavenly cloud.)

Kazuki stood up and kept a wide grin on his face before racing forward once more. Along the way, he changed the flow of his aura multiple times as he ran. He practiced trying to use both at the same time. Though he never succeeded, and he seemed to fall more times than what it seemed to be worth, he was definitely gaining something from this. Small insights here and there and those insights came with adjustments. Sometimes his adjustments were over adjustments and those of course came with more adjustments. Because of all of this though, Kazuki was growing better and better at using his aura.

Like this, Kazuki ran for days straight. Sleep never touched him, he needed very little he could go weeks without it now. His stamina as well, even after running for days on end only a small amount of it had been depleted. His muscles did not tire like before and if they did, Kazuki could draw in magic and resupply them with magical energy.

The boon he had received from the baptism had been a large one indeed and Kazuki realized it as well.

With a stupid grin, he ran and ran until finally, he could hear a rush of water slamming into the shore, mixing with dirt and sand. Coming to the end of the path, Kazuki had reached the water’s edge.

Kneeling down, he cupped a handful of sand admiring it for a moment or rather admiring how far he had actually come. Letting it flow out between his fingers, he looked out over the water. His sight still limited in this darkness but now he could see almost 50 feet in this pitch-black world. He could see wave after wave of water rolling into to meet his feet.

(Let’s see how far this river flows.)

Kazuki sent some ki to his fingertips once more and snapped loudly.

*SNAP!*

The sound was like a small clap of thunder. Listening to it, Kazuki was a little taken aback by the flash of images he received.

Kazuki could hear for hundreds of miles with ease and in his mind, he saw hundreds upon hundreds of miles of nothing but open water.

Retracing his steps he knew he would have trouble once he made it back to the shore but he thought he would at least have a clear direction. As things went, he was barely better than his starting point.