1181 Becoming Stronger 3 (2/2)

Three hours later...

Yuria was on the verge of dying...

Five hours later...

Yuria was really about to die...

It's dark...

Yuria was...

”Eh? It's already dark...” He opened his eyes as he realized he had fallen asleep.

There was a person squatting beside the pond. It was Garen.

”Are you awake?” Garen said calmly. ”How's the sleep?”

”Pretty comfortable. Despite it being rather smelly, it was the best sleep I have had for a long time,” Yuria responded truthfully.

”Have you realized?” Garen asked calmly.

”What?” Yuria was shocked as the horrible memories came back to him where he was still inside a leech's pond!!

”Ahh!!!!” He started screaming again.

”Stop screaming!” Garen slapped his head. ”If the leeches are able to suck your blood, do you think you would be still alive?”

”Uh.... that makes sense,” Yuria reacted. He raised his hands up and looked at his arms, where all the leeches were still densely attached. However, none of them were swollen and it was obvious that none of them had sucked his blood out at all.

”What is the meaning of this?” He finally calmed down and asked.

”What's going on? You'll have to answer it yourself.” Garen stood up. ”Feel it carefully. Your body is currently rejecting the leeches from sucking your blood and the leeches seem to see you as some sort of a host. A host that they can attach onto.”

”A host?” Yuria did not understand the situation.

”Yes. Try and feel it. Feel your body's abilities. This is the essence of your training,” Garen walked away slowly as he ignored him. Yuria was gifted with this ability and all he had to do was to awaken it.

The sky gradually became darker and dimmer.

The water had become colder as well but Yuria was not able to perceive it as his entire body was covered in a thick layer of leeches.

”Ability? I have a natural ability?”

He muttered softly as he realized that something was off since the leeches were not sucking his blood at all. They were just hanging by his skin as if they were a bunch of short ropes.

*********

”Will he succeed? With this idea.”

Kong Xinxue asked softly as she and Garen stood near the pond, peeking at Yuria who was in the pond.

”Perhaps he will. Perhaps he won't,” Garen did not have a definite answer. ”He had already awakened this ability from the previous battle and all I'm doing now is to making him realize how to utilize this ability.”

”However, it sure seems very disgusting,” Kong Xinxue covered her nose. ”I couldn't help but have goosebumps just by seeing him with so many leeches attached on his skin.”

”You'll get used to it,” Garen sat on the floor. ”I'll take a rest. Just give me a shout when he realizes that he could use the ropes to escape to the shore.”

”Sure,” Kong Xinxue nodded.

Garen had something planned for himself as well, where he planned to take this opportunity to use the Soul Ring to forcibly increase his Saber Art.

From the moment he had decided to increase it until now, he had accumulated enough Soul Energy to increase his Saber Art by one grade.

The amount of Soul Energy required for this upgrade was actually very little. However, since this world's restriction towards this pure energy was so great, it took Garen a very long time to accumulate to this amount.

If it were the past him, he would not even bat an eye to spend this small amount of Soul Energy as the amount of energy that could not be sensed meant that he had only spent a very minute amount of it.

He then stared at his Skill Pane and locked his sight on the Saber Art option.

'Unnamed Saber Art - Third Grade. Thorough Comprehension Realm. Full Completion.'

It was a simple introduction since it was a foundation of all the Saber Arts that he knew. Hence, it was just a simple derivative technique.

Garen attempted to guide the Soul Energy to connect it to this skill slowly.

The Soul Energy then slowly but surely moved towards the Skill Pane in the form of transparent threads.

Pew!

The vague noise started ringing inside Garen's ears as he witnessed the Skill Pane absorbing the Soul Energy greedily and crazily.

He was still sitting on his knees with his eyes closed on the outside. Kong Xinxue leaned against a tree as she looked at Yuria from afar and did not notice Garen's situation at all. She could not realize, to begin with.

There was nothing strange going on in Garen's body.

The Soul Energy's Threads were soon absorbed completely by the Skill Pane and disappeared.

Hence, there was a new modification to the Saber Art in the Skill Pane.

”Unnamed Saber Art +1 - Unnamed Realm, effect: All Saber Art techniques would have a +1 in speed, strength, precision. Has an unknown effect.'

Garen was looking forward to it as his body had already reached the pinnacle of this world. Only the Ancient Endor's civilization had this unique ability to forcibly enhance his Saber Art by a grade and caused an unknown effect, forcing a mortal's power to a realm where one had never seen before via the Soul Ring Energy.

”It's unfortunate that I couldn't find any Potential Points here since it is also one of the ways to increase my skill,” Garen stood up remorsefully.

He saw that Kong Xinxue had already fallen asleep as she leaned against the tree.