Waking Up

Upon opening his eyes, a wooden ceiling greeted Akt along with blinding rays of sunlight flashing on his eyes. He blinked a couple of times and tried to raise his arm to block the illumination lighting his face. But when he did so, he found that he could barely move his body. Even a slight twitch of muscle brought him tremendous pain when he insisted. He could only stare at the ceiling and wait for someone to come and realize that he had gained consciousness.

'When was the last time I was put in this kind of situation?" He pondered as he stared at the ceiling.

In the past, he never had to suffer injuries as bad as this and feel long lasting pain due to his superhuman body. With a master as a teacher, he was able to become strong enough that no one on Earth could casually damage his body. And if someone managed to do so, his innate recoverability as a superhuman would immediately come to his rescue. The worst that he had suffered was during training. But of course, it was not as hard as this time.

Despite this, however, he was relieved to discover that he was still alive at the very least. This was a stern reminder that he was no longer at the top of the food chain in this world. Whether his swordsmanship was good or not, it would not matter much against enemies with stronger cultivation. Although he very much would have preferred to not experience this kind of thing, he was glad to encounter such situation early on and not have to suffer in the future by using this experience as a reference.

Looking back, he really did not have any recollection as to how they made it out of the forest. His consciousness was long gone after enduring the mind breaking pain he had to endure to activate his [Analyze] at its maximum capacity while moving his wound ridden body at the same time.

And him making it out of the forest also meant that the others managed to survive as well. Although he barely knew Dalt and the others, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth if they did not survive.

As he was lost in thought, the door to the infirmary opened. Soon after, a lean figure walked in.

"Oh! You're awake, Akt?" Kark exclaimed.

Looking at him from the bed, Akt was suprised to see that Kark did not have any bandages on his body. His wounds were already healed. Akt thought that It was either because he had fast recovery speed or a long time simply passed by when he was unconscious.

Although Kark was not a superhuman like himself, he was a cultivator in the Meridian Opening realm after all. It was bound for him to recover much faster, but Akt knew that to recover from the injuries he had on the forest would also take a long time to heal.

Inferring things from this, Akt already had a hunch as to how long he stayed unconscious. However, he was just too tired to calculate anything further and simply asked, "Senior, you also made it out. How long was I gone?"

"Uhm... It has already been two months since then.... more or less."

To be honest, Kark was also astonished. With the injuries Akt sustained at the forest, it would not be surprising for him to stay in coma for much longer. However, this young man woke up in just two months.

'A monster, indeed.'

Still, even though Akt expected to receive such answer, he was still dismayed. Far too much time had already passed. He wasted two precious months of cultivation. Although his recovery from his injuries would benefit him tremendously, it would still not be par with cultivating continuously for two months while earning money in the process.

He realized that it may be the best to temper the body to the point that one could still recover from only a day of rest or two. He clearly went overboard this time and went past the limit the Body Tempering realm could tolerate. The trade-off this time was not worth it. He could have done much more during that time. However, he did not feel bad for long as he realized that he would not have made it alive if not for him pushing himself past his limits.

Akt shook his head and changed the topic.

"How about the others?" He asked.

"Well, fortunately, we all made it out alive," Kark explained. "Also, the reward we received this time was truly huge. It was much higher than what was stipulated in the request contract. It was probably hush money though."

"Hush money?"

"That's right. Apparently, the Guild did not expect demons to be a part of the mess inside the forest. And it seemed like they did not really want this news spreading outside, so they gave out quite the generous reward. Although that did not seem to be effective as the rumors are already floating around. There were just too many adventurers who managed to gather evidence after all."

"Were they also chased like us?"

"Yep. Some even got chased by stronger demonized beasts but not as many as the wolves that went after us though."

"It's surprising that many still made it out after all that..." Akt chuckled.

"By the way, how did we make it out of the forest?"

"Wait... You don't remember?"

"Yeah... I was already out at that moment."

Kark could not believe it. He clearly saw that Akt was still kicking and swinging his sword around until they reached the outside of the forest. He looked at the young man with scanning eyes, but he really did not seem to remember. He sighed as he replied, "Honestly, we did not think we'll make it even if we were able to make it out of the forest. But as soon as we reached the edge, the wolves stopped chasing us. "

Akt's eyes widened, "Okay... That's weird."

"I know, right?"

Inwardly, Akt felt strange. Everything just felt too contrived. First, no other beasts but wolves went after them. The forest was filled with different kinds of monsters and animals, so how could it only be the wolves present the whole time. In addition, these were not ordinary wolves but contaminated ones.

Akt could still let it slip if it were only that, but according to Kark, the wolves stopped chasing them after they exited the forest. Wasn't that too strange of a happening? It was as though there was a hand behind all of these moving with some kind of purpose.

However, Akt did not want to think about it now. He could barely take care of himself and had no time to care about other matters. If there were strange things going on behind the scenes, there naturally would be others to take care of it. After all, if he could think about this, others could also do.

As Akt thought about all this, Kark's voice sounded, "Ah! Speaking of rewards. Although you did not receive any from the Guild because you were not registered for the mission, Dalt and the others decided to give you a fair amount. After all, you also contributed when we were escaping from the forest plus your porter work."

For this, Akt was not surprised. He thought that this was the only expected outcome considering Dalt's personality. He also knew that he would not be getting any from the Guild because the group only hired him from the outside. It was a boon that he had money to spend while he was injured like this. Otherwise, he would definitely suffer.

"Alright, thanks. I'll get into that after I recover."