Chapter 22 - Stagnation (1/2)
The villagers looked at Gravis with fear, unsure if he would slaughter them next, while the middle-aged man looked at him with a stern look. Sarah walked around the man and towards Gravis. The man wanted to stop her but decided that she probably knew what she was doing.
Sarah arrived in front of Gravis and looked down at his hand. The armor on his hand had broken and showed his skin. Sara smirked slightly, ”So, you were human after all,” she lightly commented.
Gravis followed her gaze at his arm and noticed that his armor had broken. He wasn't sure how to react since he went all-in on the Earth Spirit thing. Yet, he didn't know how to continue his disguise.
Sarah chuckled lightly. ”Don't worry. I was pretty sure that you were human when you said you were an Earth Spirit. Elemental spirits don't appear in human form. Also, if you were actually that strong to make the volcano explode, then why would you need our help to get your 'spirit weapon'?”
She couldn't see it, but Gravis' face went completely red under his helmet. He was going all out with his disguise, but he didn't know that he never fooled Sarah. He was basically a clown dancing in front of her. Gravis searched desperately to find a way to save his dignity.
The middle-aged man slowly pieced together what had happened. The 'Earth Spirit' had scammed the hunters, telling them that he was an 'Earth Spirit'. While the man didn't like scammers, he acknowledged that Gravis saved the village, so he wanted to help him. This situation was probably very embarrassing for the 'Earth Spirit'. The man couldn't see Gravis' face due to the helmet, but he was sure that Gravis' face was entirely red right now.
The middle-aged man walked to Gravis. ”It doesn't matter what you are, but you have saved our village. For that, I must thank you sincerely.” The man bowed deeply. ”If there is anything we can do to repay this debt, please tell us.”
Gravis felt like the man had given him coal in a cold winter. He silently cleared his throat. ”I have repaid your help, and all debts have been paid. I shall leave now,” Gravis shouted imposingly and turned around. He walked away but stopped suddenly. He turned around. ”Where is the next town?”
The man smiled wryly. ”The nearest town is Wilderness Town to the northeast. It is about a day's march away from here.”
Gravis nodded and quickly fled from the village. He didn't want to remain any second longer since it was just too embarrassing. Sarah looked at his fleeing back and laughed. The middle-aged man put his hand on her shoulder. ”You shouldn't humiliate our savior.”
She laughed more. ”He started with all this bullshit. He could've just said he was human in the first place. When we found him, he was buried in obsidian, only his head sticking out from the middle...” Sarah talked with her father and told him all about their interaction with Gravis.
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Gravis was running to the northeast. He had already thrown away his useless armor a while ago. It looked nice but was useless otherwise. Now, he only wore a black shirt and some black pants. He finally got a direction for a town, and there, he could surely buy pills to temper his body.
He learned in his preparation school that the body tempering stage was mainly dependent on pills. Finding a different way to temper one's body was difficult, especially in a low-rank world. He could theoretically temper his skin by training, but that would take years.
While running, he was thinking about what happened to him in this world, up to now. He had arrived, and his 'luck' was doing its absolute very best to kill him. Yet, after that, there was silence from his lack of Karmic Luck. He met no enemies in the two days, where he was regenerating, and the enemies he sought out himself weren't even worth a warm-up.