"If we are already this deep in the shit, take everything they have!" Ruby pointed out. "We might find something valuable, just be quick."
Following her advice, Arath and Ben collected everything that was laying around them, weapons, pouches, armor, literally anything that looked as if it could be sold. Just as the steps of reinforcements were getting too close to ignore, they got out of the tunnel and run in three different directions in order to confuse any pursuers. Just before splitting off, they decided to meet the next day in Ruby's shop and until then keep their heads down.
Meanwhile, a turmoil was taking place inside Arath's head. Too many things had happened recently, his head felt too small for the information it had to process at the same time.
'Let's take it slowly, one thing at a time.' He thought once his blood calmed down a little. 'This man said he could feel my being a Hero, I really don't know what to make out of it. Sure, I have incredible abilities, I cultivate at an amazing speed and it all really began after Awakening Ceremony, but it still doesn't make sense. How?'
Questions kept appearing like mushrooms after rain. Although his mind was preoccupied, his body acted on it's own, he hid the equipment he stole in a pile of garbage in dark alleys in one part of slums he had lived in, and avoided any suspicious gazes by staying in the dark. His ability to detect and observe his surroundings, without a need to use his eyes, came in handy on a few occasions, when some drunk thugs almost run into him running away from an angry innkeeper, who shouted something about payment.
'All right, there is no point in contemplating over things outside of my control. I have the Hero's Seal, what of it?' He said before realising the terrific truth. 'Wait a moment, does that mean I will share the fate of Heroes when the gates of the Tower open? That all beasts will hunt me until they feast?'
At that thought, he shuddered in horror. He had been scared many times in his life, to be precise it was something he thought he had gotten used to. But this thing, the vision of certain, impending death, it was mortifying. Suddenly. it was no longer about making end's meet and becoming stronger, it was a matter of life and death. If he couldn't beat the dungeon, he would be dead, there was no doubt, no room for discussion or negotiation, just plain facts.
'I guess I need to put my all into it and stop being lazy.' He sighed heavily and looked for a place to spend the night. 'Going back home would be as stupid as attacking an underground organization, oh wait, that's what I have done.'
Smiling bitterly at his own, terrible joke, he decided to find a quiet place and cultivate for as long as could. The best option to improve, in his opinion would be to learn a spell or two. Remembering the conversation Elizabeth arranged for him with the old Space Elementalist, Hanzo, he knew his best option would be teleports of all sorts. But this is for the future, he first needed to grasp the basics of spells and how they work, after all he had no experience in this field. All he knew was the most basic knowledge of all, which was that certain body movements can help control the magic energy and if one had awakened their tongue, specific syllables allowed the caster to mold their power much easier.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
There were three ways to learn spells, one required a master who could teach and pass on their knowledge, the second one was to buy a very expensive book with everything explained in it, and last but not least - learn them yourself by experimenting. Only the last option was suitable in his position, as he had no money and no experts within his reach.
He decided on learning the most basic Space spell - dimensional bag. It had many names and techniques but there was one, fairly simple, goal, which was to distort space in some sort of bag so that as many items as possible could fit inside. Arath had already achieved a similar construct before, although much bigger and more chaotic than an enraged blestol. It was during the fight with Heroes and their ass-kissers, the one which resulted in Leafer's dissolution.
The first step towards his goal was awakening the tongue, this way he would be able to start practising in a matter of hours. Having done that, he began something that resembled dancing lessons for begginners, his feet would often entangle and he would lose balance but every time he failed, the flame of resolve within him, would not only stay strong without flinching, it would grow bigger and bigger. Pitying himself and lamenting over the fate would do no good, he had to live with what he had and get the best out of it. In his mind, mistakes were just a part of the learning process, how could he overcome problems without first encountering them?
When the bells signaled the arrival of morning, and bags under his eyes were bigger than the eyes themselves, Arath finally decided it was time to go back. He didn't sense any enemies despite being awake the whole night, which gave him some assurance that it was safe. On the way back, he picked up whatever items from the day before that hadn't been noticed and stolen, and arrived at Ruby's with his hands more than full. The others were already waiting for him, but Anga was nowhere to be seen.
"Good morning everybody, any problems on your way?" Arath sit down on a chair and massaged his muscles.
"Two guys were trying to follow me but they won't be a problem anymore." Ben declared.
"How about Anga, how does she feel?"
"She is getting better. She had some bruises and cuts, but nothing a good amount of sleep couldn't deal with." Ruby smiled and pointed at the room in the back.
The group discussed their plans until first customers arrived, and Ruby promised she would dig and find out more about the Free Underground, while the boys should spend their time getting stronger in the Tower. None of them even mentioned the leader's words about Arath and seemed to not have heard anything of what he had said.
"Hey! This is for the weapons and stuff." Ruby threw a heavy pouch filled with gold at Ben and smiled. "Use it wisely, I'm not rich enough to give you another."