The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Droplets of water trickled down the ceiling and fell on Oscar's face, which twitched and began to show reactions to the sudden stimuli after hours of being like stone. Oscar slowly opened his eyes, looking like two thin slits, and could only see darkness, not the darkness from losing his mind, but the darkness of a place that had not a flicker of light to brighten his world. His mouth felt dry like sand, and his hoarse voice barely exited with the air of his lungs.

"Where…am…I? Uhh!" Oscar coughed for a few minutes, clutching his chest, which did not let up the severe pain from his heart. His heartbeat was so faint, like a candle nearly melting down with its weak flames that flickered, about to fade into smoke. But each heartbeat sent out a wave of unbearable pain, making Oscar throw up blood each time.

'Calm down. Calm down. Master and Aunt Rosett said I wouldn't be in danger of dying at this stage. Just let it pass.' Oscar rubbed his tired and pained face to relieve some of the tension on his brow and cheeks, but instead, he felt more stress from the sharp sting from his hand. There was also a wet sensation from his hand along with the fresh smell of blood, and Oscar remembered the Omnireus had torn the skin off his hand, exposing the messy flesh underneath to the open air. Exposed flesh was considered particularly sensitive to the outside, and anything slight prick would send pain straight to the brain.

"Dammit," Oscar's voice echoed across the darkness. He regained his composure and steadied his breathing to get a grip as this was no time to wallow in his pain but to get up and keep moving. He commenced a reassessment of his injuries, a torn hand with exposed flesh, internal injuries from the overwhelming Reis and Orden's horrifying strikes, fractures in his ribs, and blood loss. "None of this looks good. What a day."

"True."

"You're alive?!" Oscar shouted, coughing out more blood. This voice came from Orden Aesn, who was also somewhere unknown in the darkness. Oscar struggled to get up, but each movement made his ribs quake, causing pain to lurch his body back into place. "How the hell are you alive?"

"Even I'm shocked at that. Your last move overpowered me, and I blacked out. I can't get up, you monster." Orden Aesn laughed and coughed, like Oscar, very telling of how much damage he had suffered. "What was that last move?"

"Not telling." Oscar coughed and reached into his space pocket, pulling out a grade-two heal elixir. He bit onto the cork, and his mouth quivered as his teeth struggled to pull it out. With a strained groan, Oscar popped the cork open and shakingly brought the elixir to his mouth.

Some of the contents spilled onto his clothes and the ground but most poured down his throat. The elixir worked, and a refreshing warm feeling rose in his chest, sending a liberating feeling to every fiber of his body. The torn hand showed improvement, and the pain diminished in his ribs.

With a firmer grip, Oscar brought out another elixir and had an easier time popping the cork open, drinking the entire solution. He let out a loud grunt as the healing took effect to close up his wounds, and a fresh layer of skin had formed on his torn hand. However, despite the healing, his stamina and Ein were still depleted to nil, and it would take some time to be up and running.

"Healing up? Same." Orden said.

"I guess it all depends on who heals up first." Oscar forced down another elixir, and his body finally healed to a point where it no longer ached. His clean hand felt around the ground, feeling a cold, craggily, and uneven floor. The rocky floor and the water dripping down on his face made certain that this place was underground. "How deep did I fall?"

Crawling on the rough floor, Oscar pulled himself to a more comfortable position, leaning back on a cluster of rocks, uncomfortable but better than being on the floor. He closed his eyes and started to meditate, trying to poke and prod his Exolsia core to awaken from its dim state and absorb more Ein. However, for the time being, his core refused, and his deer anima was asleep within its shell.

"Stingy core." His grumblings reached Orden's ears, and an unwanted response came back.

"We're both fresh out of Ein. Besides, even if we recover, what will you do? This whole place may collapse from our battle, and we'd be buried for real. I thank my luck for being dropped into this spacious cavern without being crushed by the rocks." Orden sighed as the sound of rubble falling echoed across the cavern.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Oscar pondered on Orden's words but could not find the words to refute. Orden spoke truthfully about their situation, and Oscar felt he could trust Orden to be somewhat honorable, unlike Maia, who used his unconscious allies as bait and trap. After thinking deeper, Oscar nodded. "Allies for now until we get out of this place?"

"Agreed," Orden said as something crashed onto the ground like glass shattering, prompting Oscar to tense up.

But soon, a bright flame roared into existence and burned brightly, illuminating the entire cavern. Oscar shut his eyes and rubbed them because of the sudden burst of light after a long time in the dark. When he opened them again, he saw Orden sitting by the flames with some meat cooking, and the aroma made Oscar drool.

"Do you have any more food? I'm almost out." Orden gulped at the glistening meat. "I need a lot of food, or I'll get tired easily. But this is all I have."

Oscar dragged his body to the flames, feeling his tiredness burned away by the rejuvenating fires. Sitting opposite Orden, Oscar reached into his space pocket and pulled out some of the Sergantis meat and the swamp lizard meat in large quantities. He took out some sharp armaments he had collected from previous dead enemies, using them as skewers to hold the meat.

"Oh~" Orden drooled while seeing the many pikes of meat cooking. He noticed his portions had finished cooking and handed some to Oscar. "It's not poisoned. See?" Orden bit into his chunk of delicious morsels and devoured it all in an instant.

Oscar followed suit and finished his share as fast as Orden did.

"A heavy eater too? That should be expected from your incredible strength." Orden relaxed his shoulders and took out some jugs from his space pocket. Tossing one to Oscar, who caught it, Orden said, "This is some good pumpkin juice, can't have this meat without some good beverages."

The drink had a refreshing taste that Oscar never expected from a pumpkin. He didn't have many opportunities to eat or drink pumpkins, and the few times he did, they were roasted and had a peculiar taste. However, this juice was not too sweet but gave an amazing feeling of satisfaction.

Within the nice feeling of relief from the pumpkin drink, Oscar heard his pikes of meat start to sizzle and pop, indicating they were ready. He grabbed half and passed them to Orden, who stared with hungry eyes. Within a few moments, the two insatiable beasts cleaned out all the meat in Oscar's space pocket.

"That was good!" Orden patted his stomach and downed his entire jug.

Oscar sipped his juice, wanting to save some for later, and stared around the large cavern. One side looked to be completely caved in by countless rocks of varied sizes, but they all piled up to form a wall that impeded them from moving in that direction. On the other side, he noticed the cavern continued to an unknown area, obscured by the dark.

"Our battle must have caused this cave-in. We tossed around and dropped the rocks into this area. Look at the other boulders scattered around the place." Orden pointed out the rocks that surrounded him and Oscar.

"You're right about being lucky. We could have died if not for landing safely in this place." Oscar shuddered at the thought of being buried under the rocks. If he died, he, at least, wanted to have a proper burial and a send-off from his loved ones. Stopping his mind from thinking about useless futures, Oscar turned his attention to the unknown area of the cavern. "What do you think is in there?"

"Hmm." Orden rubbed his broad chin. "I can't say anything for certain, but if we're in a system of caverns, there must be a way out or a place closest to the surface where we can dig out. What about you? What was that gate?"

Oscar stared at Orden warily but ultimately decided to tell him. "If we dropped in the general area, we might be close to Tectusen, the Underground City."

"There is such a place?" Orden's eyes widened.

"Well, I'll explain more, but we should recover our Ein first." Oscar fell into meditation, and his core finally responded. The abundant Ein of the cavern flowed into Oscar to feed his hungry core. After a long session, Oscar opened his eyes to gaze at Orden.

The two remained silent as their eyes locked onto each other. Their hands fidgeted as if not knowing what to do. Although Orden and Oscar agreed not to fight, they would take the chance for an easy kill if possible.

"Despite the gift of food, I'll still have to kill you," Orden said.

"It's natural because we're enemies, but I have a proposal." Oscar's obsidian eyes glinted orange from the flickering flames. "We won't fight each other until we return safely to the surface."

Orden crossed his arms and pondered. A few minutes passed until Orden nodded to give his agreement.

"Then, let's set out." Oscar got to his feet but refused to go in the front; the same went for Orden, who did not want to expose his back. In the end, the two walked side by side, each holding a torch to light up the way. When they passed into the other section of the caverns, Oscar could not contain his shock.

"An underground city? Quite astonishing." Orden laughed.

In front of them was a large entrance built into the cavern walls with beautiful stone sculptures of the five-clawed dragon holding two stones in their mouths. The ground they stood on became smooth and tiled. All blatantly carved out by people.

"Tectusen."

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