The pain in his hand subsided and the cut slowly started to clot.

“Ahhh!! I feel so refreshed.” Noy blissfully closed his eyes and lied down on the dry ground as if it was the luxurious mattress that he slept on back in his mansion. “I should rest for some time.”

Now that he had gotten his much-needed rest and had also retrieved the Gammiagrass, he wanted to head back. So, he thought about Akriel and waited for a while. But the white light that led to Akriel didn't appear like before. He was confused.

"What the hell happened?" he wondered.

Noy felt something wasn't right. The feeling of happiness that he got from the moment he retrieved Gammiagrass was gone. He felt uneasy.

He again tried thinking about Akriel but nothing happened.

“Why won't the light show up?" he became frustrated.

Now trying to think rationally about how to get out, started mapping out this place. He first touched the right wall and just followed it to gauge the size of the room like he did when he first dropped from the surface. Slowly he walked as he touched the right wall and suddenly a slightly blueish rat jumped from the bottom-right corner of his right eye. It seemed like it came out of a wall.

He got confused even more and checked to see where it came from. He placed his hand on the wall but nothing happened. That rat had appeared out of nowhere as if a ghost had passed through the wall.

"Maybe I should run towards the wall and jump to pass through it?"

If he didn't see a rat coming through the wall, he would have thought of himself as a maniac but now it was not so sure. He backed up a little and got ready to run up to the wall.

Taking a quick breath, he got into the running position and straight up ran to the wall without thinking of any repercussions and jumped as if he would pass right through it.

"Oww... that hurt" he hit the wall and fell back to the ground, and landed on his butt. Now he looked like a complete idiot but thankfully there was no one else to see.

Noy touched his head to see if there was any injury from that. His face was hurting and he had a little knot on his forehead.

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"I'm still alive though" he continued.

He slowly stood up and decided to follow the rat which was now gone.

He hastily looked around for the rat and eventually found it hiding behind a rock. It was peeking at Noy from there.

It seemed like the rat was afraid of him. He then glanced at the huge rock where the rat was hiding and saw a big opening in it. He didn't know how such a rock had a huge hole but he didn't question it.

The rat went inside the opening and seemingly disappeared from sight.

Noy couldn't resist anymore. He entered the hole and found a path that had a light coming from its end. Hoping it would get him out of there, he took the path and after a few minutes of walking, he was at the end of the light.

He eventually arrived at the place that seemed like the surroundings of the forest that he first came to when he left Akriel.

Sigh

Noy pressed his head with his hand and then concentrated hard, and thought about him. Minutes passed and a smile came out of his mouth. This time white lights came out from him just like when Akriel demonstrated it. This was the happiest he has been in the past couple of hours.

He started following the white light. But, there were many wolves around the surroundings. So, he hid the Gammiagrass that he had deep in his pocket while making sure to keep his hands in the pocket so that it doesn't break down.

There were wolves roaming all over the place. He carefully went from rock to rock and behind trees to avoid them. It was strange that so many wolves didn't roam before when he first came, but now there are so many wolves everywhere. He deduced that they were likely searching for Gammiagrass.

Subsequently avoiding many wolves without directing any attention seemed impossible at first, but Noy had proved it incorrect. He had dodged them so many times carefully and stealthily going from one object to another that it seemed like he was born for this.

No more obstacles were stopping Noy from returning to where Akriel was. At that moment, he remembered that Akriel had also asked to get some fruits. So on the way, he made a detour and picked up quite a lot of them while simultaneously hiding from the wolves.

Pluck Pluck

Now he was finally ready to go back to Akriel, so he followed the white lines and it flawlessly guided him.

He now slowly made his way and when he finally made it to the room, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Akriel had made another bowl of stew for Noy to eat and had placed it where it was the first time.

"You seem like you went through a lot in these couple of hours."

"I almost died, you know. Why didn't you say wolves are protecting Gammiagrass?" Noy asked with a dead voice.

"You wouldn't have gone otherwise. Experience is everything in the world. If you don't venture out, then you will be confined in your cage and you will never grow strong. Looks like you have also learned quite a few things from that encounter."

"I wouldn't have survived if I didn't." Noy went on as he took the stew.

"Anyway, here are the fruits. Why did you need it?"

"I just wanted to eat some fruits." Akriel replied with a devilish smile, "Oh! feel free to have some if you want to."

"Huuuuh?" Noy became angry that he made a detour just for that.

“Sigh… I am too tired to be angry for now”. Afterward, he just silently ate his stew with his nose closed...