CHAPTER 31 CANTEEN

"F*cking Hell!" The pain only continues to grow stronger as time passes.

Seeing his friend writhing in pain, Aranold's expression changes drastically, and he quickly approaches him, only to be punched accidentally by Cleo.

BANG! He quickly reacted and grabbed the rope, he nearly fell down at a height that many consider a death sentence.

He is shocked, he then hears rumbling inside the cave, his face once again undergoes a drastic change, he returns to the hole and stays in the entrance.

With this much commotion, there is a high chance that they might attract some unwanted attention.

ROAR! ARGH! Screams, roars, and cries of anguish can be heard inside the cave.

Cleo is trying to vent his pain by punching the walls around him, and his eyes become bloody red as his body unconsciously revolves the dragon-tiger body manual.

BANG! BANG! BANG! As his strength increases, the commotion only intensifies. Aranold clenches his fist tightly.

He might not know how much pain his friend is experiencing right now or can imagine it, but one thing that he knows is that his friend is currently vulnerable to outside attacks.

He will not let anything harm him, he guards the entrance dutifully, he senses something and raises his head, and he sees three flying beings circling just above him.

"You beasts will not pass!" He roars as he sees one of the creatures swooping down towards him.

He roars and summons his spear, preparing to engage the enemy.

Cleo wakes up after sleeping for so long.

After the fusion, he was forced to sleep by the system for his safety.

It seems that the experience will truly scare him for life, his eyes are lifeless.

It was the most painful experience he had in his two lives.

Suddenly, the memories of his parents dying and his grandpa passing away wake him up.

His eyes start shining once again, and he stands up.

He is angry at the system, but he knows that he was only trying to vent.

He closes his eyes and starts chanting the mind-tempering technique that Pure had taught him in order to calm the turmoil in his heart.

Standing up unsteadily, he turns to his surroundings and can see the destruction that he has caused.

Even though the walls are extremely tough, there are multiple marks around them, as if they had experienced a great battle.

'I hope that the result of the fusion is worth it; I am not going to use this method once again!' This is the thought that flashes in his head.

The system had told him that this is the safest mode, if this is already the safest method, he does not want to experience the normal method.

"I wonder where Aranold went?"

Seeing that his friend was not present, he immediately went outside, but when he saw the current scene outside, he became pale.

His friend is now pale and is bleeding everywhere.

Besides him were three corpses of giant birds.

He quickly comes to his side and asks. "Aranold, are you awake!?"

Seeing that his friend is unresponsive, his expression becomes paler.

He quickly summons his new pet and has it guard the hole while he grabs his friend and jumps.

He activates [Dragon Flight] instinctively, he starts gliding through the air, as if he were flying, he does not care about it, the only thing on his mind is to bring his friend into the clinic of the academy.

His figure can be seen rapidly flying out of the Nightmare Valley, multiple students saw him carry Aranold with a panicked expression.

Once they arrive at the clinic, he quickly brings his friend in front of the nurse.

Seeing Aranold's condition, the nurse was a little bit surprised.

She smiles and summons her soul blessing.

With a flash of light, Aranold was instantly healed.

His eyes widen from this scene.

He cannot believe that his friend, who was in a near-death situation, recovered instantly from just one skill.

"Your friend is lucky that you managed to arrive here on time, if not, I might not have been able to rescue him." She says, chuckling, as if talking about a life-and-death situation is normal for her.

He quickly bowed to her and thanked her.

"Thank you for saving my friend!"

The nurse chuckles once again.

"I am only doing my job, do not worry, I get handsomely paid by the academy to take care of you young ones."

Since Aranold is no longer at risk of dying, he brings him back to their room.

When Blake saw the two of them, he heaved a sigh of relief.

He knows just how dangerous a forbidden ground is and has been worrying about the safety of the two.

In fact, if not for him trying to fix his problem regarding the stagnation of his technique, he would have joined the two in their training.

"Thank goodness the two of you are still alive. I was worried sick the entire time, but fortunately you two have not forgotten about the exhibition match."

Cleo shakes his head.

"Sorry Blake, but Aranold and I are too tired to talk with you. We have plenty of time tomorrow, for now, both of us are going to sleep."

Throwing his friend into his bed, he quickly jumps into it and instantly falls asleep.

Blake was not angry by this and actually felt that he was the rude one.

He glares at Sophia and says. "I suggest that you continue reading and not disturb these two, unlike you, the three of us risked our lives to train on the forbidden grounds to grow stronger."

Sophia quietly reads his book.

He knows that Blake was right, but he just cannot throw his life away without any lingering regret.

He is an Aphrixian, their race is known for their strong elders but weak juniors.

They are actually one of the most prestigious races because of the number of powerhouses they have, but as of late, the number of their powerhouses is dwindling.

If this continues, their race might become a slave race to another prestigious race.

As the days pass, the academy becomes more festive, and the date of exhibition matches between the rooms is nearing.

Most of the Aces and top rankers might not care about this event, but most of the students do.

After all, the exhibition match will reshuffle the ranking between the rooms, the higher their number, the higher their reputation and their chances of being noticed by top rankers or even teachers.

Aranold, Blake, and Cleo spend their time only sparring with each other, from time to time, the two friends would go to Nightmare Valley to absorb yin energy and gather some yin stones produced by the machine.

The two of them are becoming more famous, after all, not many students dare to go inside the forbidden grounds, but the two of them repeatedly do so.

Their repeated entrance has earned them some attention from the dark elves, succubus, and other dark races, after all, a blitzgher and a human should be unable to endure the onslaught of the yin winds and violent yin energy inside the valley.

Currently, Blake is pacing back and forth inside the room, he and Sophia are the only people in the room.

He is anxiously waiting for Aranold and Cleo.

According to the two, in order to prepare for any emergency regarding the mysterious dragon bloodline, they need to gather all the yin stones that they can get.

BANG! The door was swung open, and Aranold and Cleo went inside with heavy injuries, but they are nonetheless happy that they had once again survived the perilous journey inside Nightmare Valley.

"Finally! Do you know how worried I am about the two of you!?" This happens every time they return from Nightmare Valley.

He is no longer concerned about how injured the two are, they can easily recover with their abnormal regeneration.

"I know, the both of us are sorry; we did not expect that we would meet some Darkborn on our journey." Cleo sighs and lies on the bed after an exhausting day.

After what had happened between him and Ban, the Darkborns under him started to hunt or challenge humans.

Because of this, he felt guilty and angry, after all, he had implicated his fellow humans.

So when he saw a couple of Darkborns inside Nightmare Valley, without hesitation, he attacked them.

Aranold had heard the rumour regarding the fight between the two races and felt as guilty as his friend, possibly even more so, he had heard the story regarding his friend and the Darkborn named Ban.

Seeing the Darkborns also fuels him with anger, without hesitation, he joins his friend in attacking them, their targets, unaware of the hostility the two carry, for they were caught by surprise by their attack.

Cleo, who is now in his Malevolent Tiger form, does not look like a human but more like a beastman.

The five Darkborns quickly reacted, but with the addition of Aranold, their situation becomes dire.

The two had now become familiar with the terrain of the valley, the five seemed to be new in this place, and they did not know the danger that such commotion brought to this place.

After a couple more hits, both Aranold and Cleo quickly ran away.

They know what is coming, just like he had expected, the undeads arrive and attack the Darkborns, the latter easily deal with them, but the creatures that follow the undeads are not that easy to deal with.

The two, seeing that the situation was becoming more dangerous, knew that they should not stay and decided to stop watching the Darkborns get harassed.

The fight between their groups delays the task that the two had, causing them to arrive late.

Fortunately, they are not injured as heavily as usual, as the Darkborns seem to have attracted most of the creatures inside.

The next day, Blake wakes and grabs the two, he carries them on his shoulder as he goes into the cafeterias.

Today is the day the exhibition match starts, and since the two had not eaten anything since returning from Nightmare Valley, they are definitely famished.

They are too strong for their genes, causing the energy required for them to be drastically higher compared to their peers.

Both of them are lacking in gene enhancement, which is why they have become incredibly famous in the cafeteria.

"Hahaha! As expected, the two of you are definitely here!" Suddenly, a loud, cute voice was heard, it was Marionette. Besides her, the top ranker, Carefree, is waving her hand.

"Why are you carrying him like that?" Seeing how the two were being carried, Marionette was startled.

They scratched their heads in confusion, thinking that they might be seeing things.

"Hmph! These two idiots meet a couple of Darkborns inside the Nightmare Valley, because of that, they return late yesterday, and as usual, they return with multiple injuries." Blake explains angrily.

Carefree giggles.

"So the rumours regarding these two were true, they had been coming and going on one of the forbidden grounds."

Marionette nods her head.

"I forgot! You were training for your eventful rise to the Gold Rank, it seems that even the top rankers are now scrambling for their seats."

Carefree sighs, she does not know what happened, but it seems that all the top rankers are improving at a rapid pace.

She turns to her friend and asks. "I am actually quite surprised that you are not worried, after all, even though you are only at the bronze rank, you are still considered a top ranker."

She puffs her chest and says. "Hahaha! I had always been afraid of others seeing me eat, I was never full in any of the ranking battles, but now that these two started eating here, I no longer need to worry about how others perceived me!"

Her bloodline is basically similar to Aranold, it gives her power that boosts her strength and defence drastically, which makes her feared by those who fight in close quarters.

Unfortunately, the drawback that her boost gives her is also similar to the two, the heavy requirements in terms of energy.