Chapter 45: Culprit

  In the sky above, bright white lightning flashed as it weaved through the clouds. It was immediately chased by a booming thunder, the two intermingling in a violent harmony that shook the heavens. Beneath the frenzied dance being performed above, stood a lone figure atop a pool of black blood. It was Damon, still wrapped in his gray cloak, preventing any power fluctuations from escaping his body. He reached down toward a severed head floating in the viscous inky liquid.

  Damon grabbed hold of the bright red jewel embedded in James’s forehead, twisting slightly as he pulled it free of the dried skin surrounding it. As he grasped it in his hand, a foreign yet familiar sensation being emitted by the jewel surged through his body. He gasped when he discerned what it was. It was mental power. Just as he discovered the existence of this energy, the jewel turned into a fluid form before being absorbed into his palm.

  “Arghh!” Damon stooped over as he clutched his head between his hands. The pain he was feeling was similar to when he performed his mind spike tempering for the very first time. Focusing within his own mind, he noticed the red fluid attempting to puncture through the outer shell of his Mind Node. It managed to partially dig into the border before hardening back into the jewel form. It looked as though a parasite had infested his node, settling in for the long term.

  With a pale face and cold sweat running down his back, Damon clenched his jaw as he decided to immediately try dealing with the foreign substance invading his mind. The air rippled as several transparent mind spikes formed around his head, before plunging directly into his consciousness. They crashed into the jewel, only causing it to tremble slightly. It had not done any damage. In fact, it seemed to do more damage to him, as his node shook from the impact. He felt his vision blur, and he stumbled as his legs almost gave out. He only remained standing by propping himself against his own knees.

  A few moments later, Damon felt the dizziness pass. He stood straight again, still monitoring the situation in his mind. The jewel did not show any sign of movement and remained rooted in the side of his node. He would need to continue observing it to see how it would impact him in the future, as it was not currently showing any threatening symptoms. However, it left a strange sense of dread in his mind, a constant presence of danger. He needed to find a way to remove it as soon as possible.

  Having finished taking all the valuables from James’s corpse, Damon turned around to leave. He still needed to find Dylan. When he took his first step, he almost tripped as his foot got caught on something hidden within the pool of sticky black blood. Unwilling to touch the blood directly, he used an arrow to lift the unknown object. It was one of James’s hands that had turned into claws. They still maintained their claw form.

  As Damon was inspecting the claw, a whooshing sound appeared from above, as a figure rushed over through the air. He was incredibly fast, a trail of flames dispersing behind him as though a fire was propelling him forward. He arrived at Damon’s location in several seconds, hovering directly above him. It was Senior Apprentice Alan.

  “Oh, it’s you, Damon? I heard some explosions from this direction, but I was already occupied with the situation over by the Mess Hall. Are you okay? This pool of black blood… Did you encounter one of those beasts as well? Is that the beast’s corpse? Why does it look somewhat familiar? What happened here, exactly?”

  Alan had been at the Mess Hall eating a scrumptious meal when a few Initiates from the Materials Handling department had suddenly flown into a mad rage and attacked their fellow students or even their seniors. He had managed to subdue the Initiates without too much trouble, binding them for the Security Hall to come and take them. However, a fellow Disciple from the combat department had rushed into the building and attacked him without even uttering a single word.

  The fellow Disciple was the current ranked two Disciple in the combat department, having never managed to defeat Alan. Alan had attempted to talk to him, but he had red eyes, dripping with blood, and a large red jewel embedded in his forehead. As the battle dragged on, Alan could no longer hold back and tried to disable him by force. This had backfired as it caused the man to turn into a monster formed of blood.

  This monstrosity was very difficult to battle, requiring Alan to pull out all of his stops to defeat it. However, even with its limbs torn off, it continued to try attacking Alan, even if it was just by crawling forward with its chin and biting with its jaw. The creature could only be killed when Alan destroyed the red jewel embedded in his forehead, finally breaking down into a pool of black blood and a dried-out corpse. The battle had destroyed half of the Mess Hall building, but fortunately, the students had managed to flee before it began.

  Now, Alan was floating above a similar pool of blood and dried corpse he had witnessed earlier. It meant Damon had also fought and defeated such a creature. That was an impressive feat.

  “Senior Apprentice Alan.” Damon nodded to him in greeting. “I had just come back to my dorm from the Legacy Hall when I noticed the scent of blood pervading the area. I immediately entered the building to investigate and discovered the bodies of many students. As I reached my room, I was ambushed, leading to a desperate fight. This is the result.” He pointed down at the shriveled upper body and head lying in the pool of blood.

  Alan observed Damon closely before inspecting the corpse. “Do you know the person who attacked you? How did you defeat him?” he asked while smoothing out his mustache.

  “The one who attacked me was Senior Apprentice James. At the time of the ambush…” Damon began explaining the situation when he was interrupted by an outburst.

  “What? You mean to say that this is James? He was an early stage Channel Weaving Disciple! You actually defeated him?” Alan shouted out loud. Though he was shocked, he wasn’t as surprised as his loud voice made it seem. He was willing to believe it after seeing Damon’s performance during the combat classes. At this moment, the skies boomed once more, and rain gushed down thunderously in a torrential downpour, drenching the two men in an instant.

  “Yes, Senior Alan. As I was saying, at the time of the ambush, Senior James had not yet transformed into this monster. He had also been wounded, but I was unable to ascertain who had injured him. His condition was already bad, so I believe he tried to kill me by relying on a sneak attack. However, I discovered him before he could do so, and then the battle ensued. I only barely managed to win by relying on a multitude of spell scrolls and absorbing the few second-tier essence stones I had been saving up.” Damon lied through his teeth without so much as blinking.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Alan stared at Damon for a whole minute, his thoughts not visible on his face. He was scrutinizing the gray cloak covering Damon especially closely.

  Damon grew anxious as he realized he was still masking his cultivation realm with his gray cloak. I forgot to deactivate the cloak’s function. Senior Alan definitely noticed. Is he going to confiscate it, too?

  Soon Alan’s trademark smirk appeared. “Regardless, it is still an incredible accomplishment. You have also prevented many deaths by dealing with this situation on your own. I will report your deed to the higher-ups. It is deserving of merit, but you will need to wait until the entire crisis is behind us. I will be taking this corpse with me as evidence. That includes the claw in your hands.”

  Just as Damon began to sweat, Alan glossed over it and began collecting the evidence. Though he was interested in the claws, he still reluctantly surrendered them. He watched as Alan collected the remains, including the lower body that had fallen further away, before flying over to a different area of the Academy. He actually felt it was fortunate that it was Alan who had arrived after the battle and received his report. If it were a different Senior Apprentice, they may have questioned him further, as it was quite rare to see an Initiate, especially an early stage one, defeating a Disciple.

  Now that everything was behind him, Damon cleansed his clothes of the filth that had gotten on them before heading toward the Materials Handling department area. It was the day Dylan had his compulsory class there. While walking, he took off his cloak before stowing it away in his storage pouch. He also cast heal on his chest repeatedly, soothing the burning pain radiating from within.

  When Damon arrived at the Materials Hall, he saw a relatively calm environment, with no obvious signs of destruction or battle. However, the occasional apprentice he passed revealed signs that they had experienced the terrors of the recent disaster. They were all keeping their backs to the walls and throwing wary glances his way.

  This was the first time Damon had come here, so he had to look through every unlocked door to see if he could find Dylan. Unfortunately, he scoured every corner of the building and was still unable to find him.

  Damon exited the building through the back entrance and arrived in a large fenced area containing a few essence beast corpses. This must be where they learn and practice how to harvest materials. As he was thinking this, he noticed a group of students huddled together at the far end of the area. One of them was Dylan, chatting with someone he had not expected to see with him. It was Samantha.

  Walking over, Damon noticed some minor details on the ground indicating a skirmish had taken place. There were traces of blood, both red and black, mixing in with the puddles of water formed here and there. The stench of rotting blood had also perfused this place. When he neared the group, a bulky man standing at least seven feet tall came forward and prevented him from getting any closer.

  “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.” The man growled with a fierce voice. In his hands, he carried two large knives with gleaming edges.

  Damon glanced at the sharp knives. Is this man an Auron? No, he’s emanating arcane fluctuations at the late stage of Node Awakening. Those weapons must be for skinning the beasts. He opened his mouth to respond when someone else cut in first.

  “Older Brother Damon! Wait, Senior Dale, I know him! I’ll vouch for him!” A small figure bounced forward, getting in between Damon and the large man.

  “You know him, Dylan? That’s alright then. But don’t linger around for too long. It’s not the best time to socialize. You should also head to your department and report to your Seniors.” Dale walked back to the rest of the group after leaving his word of advice.

  Grabbing a hold of Dylan’s shoulders, Damon looked him up and down. He appeared to have managed to escape completely unscathed from whatever dangers took place here.

  “Looks like you are fine. I’m glad. I was worried about you.” Damon smiled at Dylan.

  Dylan’s eyes teared as his emotions burst forth. He quickly wiped them away before smiling back at Damon. “Yes, Older Brother. Actually, Sam was the one who saved me. Two of the Initiates in my class suddenly began attacking Senior Dale, and one of their stray attacks almost hit me. But Sam jumped in front of me and blocked it with a barrier. Turns out she’s not a mean person. She apologized for what happened in the combat class, and told me she didn’t do it to bully me. She’s also helping me out with my combat and materials classes in return.”

  Damon was surprised. He looked up and glanced at Sam, who was gazing in their direction. He saw her quickly turn her head away. He smiled and looked back down at Dylan, who continued to excitedly chatter on about how he had more in common with her than he expected.

  The rain suddenly stopped, as abruptly as it had come. Damon looked up at the sky. A single ray of sunlight squeezed past the dark clouds and illuminated the Academy. It seems the storm has passed.

  Deep within an underground area, a few men and women stood around a pile of desiccated corpses. The floor to the walls, even the ceiling, was paved in large black stones covered in runes shimmering with multicolored light. The area was illuminated by some burning lamps levitating in the air, but there were too few to cover the entire area. Therefore, the room was still saturated in darkness. Some additional shadowy figures were standing silently and respectfully at the sides of the room, barely visible at the edges of the illumination.

  “These are the corpses of the defeated monsters? There isn’t much information I can gather from them. How about you?” A tall and lean man asked another man standing next to him.

  The man responded in a commanding tone, “No. The corpses don’t tell us anything. The claws, however, are a different story. They remained even after the transformation was undone, and are incredibly tough. They reached the point of a high-grade third-tier material, but they were left behind by Initiates and Disciples. Through this, we can surmise that the one behind this must be a Warden, or at the very least, a late stage Adept.”

  The room settled into a cold silence as everyone contemplated the words spoken by the man. At this moment, a large bang sounded out from the large metallic doors at the end of the room. They opened inward, as a group of armor-clad guards dragged in a disheveled man. He was wearing a black cloak, his long, unkempt hair flowing down and covering his face. He was being dragged by his restrained arms, his limp legs trailing behind him.

  “Lord Adepts, we finally caught him. This man is most likely the culprit.” The leader of the guards spoke before grabbing the chained man by his hair and forcing his head up to reveal their identity.

  A man standing at the side abruptly muttered, “Hm? Is that…”

  Damon seems to be in trouble!

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