Chapter 24: Maria Alone(Maria POV)

Maria POV

"What do I do now? Should I use the talisman my Dad gave me? No no. If Mira knew that, she would definitely beat the crap out of me then leave probably never talking to me again. I don't want that! If I was stronger this wouldn't have happened and I could've fought it head-on! Yeah! Strength, I need strength." I said trying to assure herself, but something felt off.

"What the hell am I saying?! Mira would've killed me herself if she heard that. But why do I feel like something is off about this whole situation? Nothing happened like it normally does. Why did Mira let me choose? Why did she make me come up with the plan? Why did she follow through with the plan?" I began to think about this.

"Hmmm. Mira seldom does anything without some sort of plan in mind. She's ruthless not only to others but also to herself. She also says that she needs to be able to reach the peak. That's the second time that she mentioned it. She also said that if I want to be her friend, then I need the resolve to join her at the peak by watching family and friends die while I live. Ah! The reason she let me choose! She probably guessed that I would choose to fight it after giving her little speech beforehand. Then she must've known that when I would come up with a plan it would be terrible. But the reason I don't understand is why. It almost feels like she is raising me and setting up trials for me to grow up and get stronger. This trial is to make me understand that my actions have consequences. That I might have to watch as those around me die either by someone else or through my actions and/or orders. Is she putting me on a path to become strong? Strong enough to be her friend and join her through the passage of time. How badly does she want someone like that?"

"Well Mira, since you want me to become strong then I guess I can't disappoint you." I said to the unconscious Mira.

I couldn't help but let out a tear. Why did it have to turn out like this? We literally just got here and now you are in a half-dead state. Don't worry Mira. By the time you wake up, I won't be the same naive little girl as before. I promise.

I took out the blue and fire flower that I found earlier and planted it. Hopefully, it'll get to Rank 2 before Mira wakes up. It seems like it might be useful. I just have no idea what it actually does.

I guess I will make some food for the time being and rest up.

I begin to cook up the snake meat. I will have to cut it up into tiny pieces in order to feed it to Mira. Oh well, I can just cook a lot of meat at the same time so I don't have to continuously spend time on it.

After a couple of hours, I finally finished making all of the food and cut it all up. I then began essentially forcing the food down her throat. Luckily her body accepted it and didn't choke on itself.

"This is all I can do for you right now Mira." I said and got up to go to sleep.

The next morning I got up and decided that I need to do my best to get stronger. Not just physically, but mentally as well. I need to get smarter. I ate my breakfast and went out of the cave to go hunting.

I went out to search for beasts to challenge. I don't know how deep we are in the forest as I didn't look where I was going when I took Mira to a cave. Hopefully, we aren't too close to the core region of the forest.

After a couple of hours of creeping through the forest, I spotted something nostalgic. It was a Low-Stage Rank 2 Dark Moon Bear. The Moon Bear was the bear that almost killed me back then and if it weren't for Mira saving me, I probably wouldn't be alive. I guess it's time for a little payback even though the other guy already died. I don't want any tricks other than facing them head-on.

"Oi! Bear!" I yelled out to it. The bear turned around and roared. We charged at each other and I started slashing at the bear, but the bear just blocked my attacks with its giant claws. This bear was freaking huge. It was 3 meters tall when it stood and a full meter wide. Whenever my attacks collided with him, it felt like I was fighting a fortress. Occasionally his long nails would dig into my skin and tear off bits of flesh.

'Light Sword' I thought in my mind and my blade turned into a huge light greatsword. I started slashing again. My sword was starting to leave gashes on his claws. If it tries to keep this up then it will only lose its claws. He might try to go for a big attack soon.

The bear then started to collect what seemed like dark energy around its claws. The bear slashed its claws at me and the dark claw sent what looked like a dark slash from its claw toward me. I was able to block the attack, but the bits of remnant energy seemed to still cause minor wounds on my body and starting to almost corrode her skin like poison. The bear kept using those dark slashes and I decided to just try to dodge most of them as even blocking it is annoying.

After trading back and forth for about 10 minutes the bear started to run out of energy. When the bear started to slow down I used my Triple Draw decapitating it. I then stored the corpse then collapsed on the ground out of energy. I used a Rank 1 Rejuvenation Pill since my injuries weren't life-threatening, just a bunch of scratches with the occasional gash. I decided to restore my energy and return to hunting. I will then return to the cave at night to feed Mira.

After hunting another Low-Stage Rank 2 magical beast it was dusk outside. I decided to return to Mira and start feeding her. After feeding her I took out one of my Low-Grade Spirit Stones and started cultivating.

I continued this for over a month. I would feed Mira, Hunt, feed Mira, cultivate, sleep, and repeat this every day. After a month I was able to feel that I was about to break through to Stage 2 of Qi Condensation. I have been cultivating and refining the energy in my meridians making it purer and denser. My Qi has finally reached the Peak of Stage 1. I grab a handful of Spirit Stones and start cultivating. I gathered energy into my meridians like a black hole. I didn't notice, but there was a small vortex above me collecting Qi and sending it into my meridians. My meridians reach a point where they felt like they would explode, but I was able to absorb just a bit more Qi. After an unknown amount of time, I stop collecting Qi. I then started to refine the energy within my meridians, compressing it, making it purer and denser. It felt like hours since I continued this process. After refining it, I started circulating my cultivation technique. The purer and denser Qi was then being sent to the rest of my body filling me with energy. I finally opened my eyes after what seemed like many hours.

When I got up I saw that it was morning, but I knew that it took me more than a day to do this so that means it took me around 36 hours to complete this breakthrough. Not only that, I feel like I am around 50% stronger than I was at Stage 1. Now I understand why crossing ranks is so difficult. Just like how it would be impossible for me to kill someone in the Foundation Realm. It may not seem like a lot now since strength at the Qi Condensation Realm is limited, but I can only imagine the difference in strength in the later Realms.

Crap! I need to feed Mira!

I ran to check on Mira.

Phew! It looks like she's doing okay. Well, let's not keep her body waiting. Her complexion and breathing look much better than a month ago, but it seems that her body still needs time to repair itself.

After feeding Mira I decided to go test my strength on some Rank 2 magical beasts.

12 hours later...

I came back that night exhausted and covered in blood and wounds. The first 2 fights weren't that bad. I came across another Night Hawk and almost got seriously injured by the stupid thing, but just did the same thing that we last time and killed it.

The next beast I found was the Black Cloud Panther. They are pretty rare in the forest as they are mostly waiting for assassinations and or hiding. Luckily these freaking Night Hawks love to dive bomb me as of late so my senses are constantly on edge. The Black Cloud Panther created a black cloud in front of me then attacked me from behind. I barely dodged that attack but he still left some nasty gashes on my back. Since I survived that attack it lost its main element of surprise and fell to a disadvantage. We fought for a while until it tried to escape after learning it couldn't defeat me, but just as it turned to dash, I used Triple draws and broke its spine and then walked over to its head and chopped it off.

But this last beast wasn't exactly a beast. It was a Low-Stage Rank 2 Insect. I had no idea what it was called other than it was a centipede. It was disgusting. It shot poison out of its mouth and its carapace was like metal. I could barely leave a mark on it when I slashed it. Its weakness seemed to be its belly, but how was I supposed to attack that. The only thing that it did that would allow me to attack its belly is he would lift its head and neck to shoot the poison blob at me. I tried to attack it then, but some random tiny poison blobs hit me and started burning through my skin. I had to pop in a Rejuvenation pill just to stop the poison. Not to mention it constantly swung its tail at me which had sharp barbs on the end of it. I decided to pick a spot near its head and just keep attacking that same spot over and over again until I cut into its head. I kept getting thrashed by its body and thrown across the forest until I finally saw that the gash on its neck reached the skin. I used my Triple Draw to stab my sword into its brain. After destroying its brain it finally died. This was such an arduous task just to kill this thing that isn't even edible. I still stored it so that I might be able to sell it or turn it into some sort of equipment when I get back to the city. After I killed it I returned back to the cave full of wounds, but in high spirits because I was able to kill it.

That's how I ended up full of wounds and blood. I kept this schedule going every day. I wasn't sure when Mira would wake up, but I wanted to at least show her that I have the will to get stronger and try to brave dangers. After doing the same thing over and over again, I didn't realize how many more days have passed, but I think it has been around a month and I feel like Mira might wake up at any point now.

After a day full of hunting, I came back to the cave with a couple of scratches on my body, but nothing too bad like in the previous months. I've been getting hit a lot less and have started to become more efficient in killing Rank 2 magical beasts. As I walked into the cave, I noticed something different. Mira had awoken.