(Chapter 4) Hunger

This is strange, the last rope bridge only took me a few hours to cross but it has already been around half a day and I am still on this one…

Additionally, this time my pace while crossing the bridge is a lot faster too. Besides slowing every now and then due to the winds or complications with the bridge itself I was moving very quickly. I should have already arrived by now……. If the distance was the same as the first hill to the second that is….

Step after step, I slowly moved forward…. The only thing keeping me company were these mists and the howling wind…. These cruel bridges really did take a lot out of a person……

Finally after about 11 more hours I saw the mists part and a ledge appear in front of me, next to the ledge were stone stairs similar to the second hill.

As soon as I got off the bridge I slowly sat down, I knew I was close to the second guardian but after walking across a rope bridge for a whole day I felt really tired.....

Not to mention I was starting to get really hungry too, I had already finished eating the monster meat before leaving the second hill and a whole day of walking had naturally made me hungry.

It made me annoyed that I had to fight on an empty stomach but…. It seemed like I had no other option, and the sooner I fought and ate whatever monster is on this floor the better….

A few more minutes later I no longer felt tired and then began sauntering up the stairs.

I reached the top after a few moments and when I did I noticed that there was a small hut in the distance and the width from one end to other was about the same as the last hill, around 200 meters.

Carefully I walked forwards toward the hut with my spear drawn, being as silent as possible.

The hut had cloth curtains blocking the view of whatever lay inside. When I was close enough to touch the hut I dared not even to breathe. Then slowly, I grabbed the curtains on the Hut…… and threw them aside!

With my spear ready I scanned the area inside, there was a straw bed in a corner of the hut but besides that it was completely empty!

“Welcome to the third plateau of the Heavens Dungeon kid, I am the Third of the 5 witches of Calevra and the Second Guardian, now do me a favour and die!”

Shocked I quickly turned around and saw a fireball soaring through the air right at me!

I ducked out of the way and rolled under it, a second later and I would have been dead!

“Oh? For such a small brat you’re pretty fast, entertain me kid, I’ve been terribly bored ever since I arrived here.”

“Wait, more importantly what do you mean by the third plateau? What’s a plateau?” I replied, trying to stall for time so I could better assess the situation.

“Plateau? Boy do you not know what a plateau is…… ha, I suppose you haven’t been properly taught by your parents, a plateau is a mountain or hill that’s leveled out at the top…”

I felt surprised, so that’s what these are called……she’s also right about my parents………

While she was talking I was able to look at her closely, this……...witch……. was a tall woman with a staff in her hands, she looked really bland, or rather….she had a very average face that you could not help but forget…. Bland features, small eyes, and a face not aged but neither young…. She also wore a black robe that covered her entire body.

She could use magic, and based on that magic that she just used…. A true leg sized fireball with decent speed……..this was going to be hard. The only thing I could count on was my strength, if I could get close enough to her and strike her vitals with my spear…….I could win!

Trying to take advantage of my quickness to surprise her I charged at her with my top speed!

Surprise did appear on her face as I had closed the distance between us in just a matter of seconds but she muttered something under her breathe and in a flash of light she disappeared!

“wha… what?”

Bewildered I looked around but I couldn’t find her anywhere, until suddenly I heard a loud crackling sound coming from above!

Just half a meter away was a fireball headed straight at me!

This time I wouldn’t be able to dodge completely so I used more mana to make my body strengthening magic stronger and braced myself.

The fireball collided into my shoulder and I felt searing pain shoot through my arm! I looked down and noticed that part of my cloak had burned and I had burns on my shoulder.

But I had gotten lucky! The fireball only managed to clip me and then soar past and hit the ground harmlessly. Although if I had taken the hit directly, then…. I might have been too injured to continue!

Forcing myself to forget about the pain I looked up and noticed that the witch had teleported and was hovering in the air above me. This filled me with fear, this witch knew both elemental magic and law magic…. Which meant that fighting her would be very difficult!

I ran away dodging the fireballs she kept chucking at me and hid behind the hut to buy some time to formulate a plan.

Just like I suspected, she stopped throwing fireballs because she didn’t want to burn down her home.

Right now my strongest, most effective method to kill her is…. Ineffective! This witch is taking care to stay away from me since she already knows about my speed, it is also going to be hard to get close to her with her teleportation magic!

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But from what I know of teleportation magic, it has a weakness! If something was physically holding her down, she would be unable to teleport!

Also, most likely she knows of many other spells. So although she would be easier to kill than the cyclops in close range, my chances on winning against her are looking grim.

Then….suddenly an idea comes to mind! Yes, maybe like this I’ll be able to win, I begin to focus on my mana and channel it to the soles of my feet and then visualized the magic I wanted and willed it into existence.

In front of me with a flash of light appeared the witch no longer hovering but with her feet planted on the ground and then she began chanting loudly!

“Not Good” I mutter

She is probably preparing a lethal wide ranged spell, I turn around and run away at my top speed!

“Too late!” I hear the witch shout

I look behind me and see a sea of ice covering the floor and coming straight at me! She probably means to freeze me and then finish me off!

I then turn around and run back towards the sea of ice and jump as high as I can!

Still, the wave of ice hits me and my legs get trapped. The witch seeing me trapped in ice slowly walks towards me.

“Well kid, looks like this is going to be the end of you, got any last words”

I stare back at the witch before slowly breaking into a smile and saying

“I win”

I easily slip out of the ice that seemed to have tightly trapped me before and rush towards the witch with my spear!

“WHAT?” the witch shouts and then starts muttering under her breath, she was trying to teleport away!

I am still a few meters away from her before suddenly her muttering stops and she looks confused….then she finally looks down and notices! Her feet are trapped in ice!

“You….You can use magic?!”

I was now in striking range and with a battle cry, I ran through her heart with my spear!

Just now back when I was still next to the hut I had started freezing and imbuing the floor with my ice magic, initially I meant to try and surprise her later if she walked over the frozen and slippery ground but after she used ice magic…another plan came to mind!

When I started running away from her I was still freezing the ground and leaving traces of my mana, but when I noticed the wave of ice coming towards me I stopped freezing the ground and turned around. Then I ran back to a spot where I had stepped on before and jumped up so only a part of me would get trapped.

Then had come the hard part, if the witch had decided to kill me from afar I might have died, but since she didn’t and even walked towards me slowly she gave me enough time to guarantee my success!

First I used fire magic to create a small steam effect around my legs to melt the ice and set me free.

Then using the traces of my magic under the ice I waited until she got close and then from where I had previously froze the ground I willed my ice magic forward to trap her feet. Because the ground was already ice…she didn’t notice the additional cold around her ankles!

As soon as I had accomplished that, I rushed forward and took the easy kill.

Now that I think about it, it truly was a strange coincidence that both the witch and I decided to use ice magic at the same time……….…Hmmmmm? Coincidence? Didn’t Death say something about Coincidence…..?

But now was not the time to think about those things! Finally, finally I would be able to use my death magic. As soon as I absorbed the soul of the witch I would be able to use Death Arts 2, soul sustain and start to take in energy from my surroundings. Using mana to create food was already a magic used by mortal mages. Death Arts soul sustain was very similar, only that the energy was directly absorbed without the hassle of eating!

I put the witch’s body on the ground and started initiating the necromancer’s ritual, taking a drop of my blood I put it on the witch’s body and then sent my spiritual energy inside her and began searching for her soul…..

What?  I can’t…..I can’t sense her soul what does this mean?

All of a sudden the witch’s body started shaking and then….. She started melting!

Slowly but surely the witch was melting! And after a few seconds all that was left of her……….. Was a puddle!

Horrified I stared at the body? What was going on? Where was the soul and why did her body melt?

Then a large wave of dizziness hit me……..I was…………. So hungry…….. So exhausted after using the enormous amounts of mana I had to use in the last battle…….

Feeling a sense of foreboding I looked into the distance and saw another rope bridge leading into the mist.

What if……. it took another day…..or maybe 2 days to get to the other side…………….

I was so hungry…………so hungry…………………..

-Yuzu here, thank you for reading the chapter <3, Next chapter is going to pretty cool, I am so excited!