Seth Chapter 74

Chapter 74

If Seth had to make a count, it was the third time he was fighting these creatures in the past month and they were very much like a jealous ex he used to have during high school who used to make him sick whenever she would interfere in his matters because he broke her dream of having a perfect high school romance life.

At least, she was a stupid teenager then and her face didn't consist of a large floating eye with tendrils that looked heinous.

Seth ducked to dodge a tendril that whipped past his hair before using Flickering Step to appear right in front of a lesser abyssal horror. It hissed at him and tried to move around him to grab him by the ankles, but he cut all its tendrils before piercing its eyeball.

It cried out as blood dripped out, but Seth didn't care and moved as soon as the lesser abyssal horror stopped twitching.

Using his Void Blades, he cut several tendrils coming towards him and dug the blades into the monster's eyeballs. As he had gotten used to controlling the blades, it had gotten easy for him to manoeuvre them around the tendrils.

As more and more lesser abyssal horrors fell, his eyes looked for anyone in the bushes or around the stone slabs who might be responsible for summoning them, but he found no signs of anyone.

Grabbing a tendril, he pulled a lesser abyssal horror towards it before finishing it off.

Another pair of tendrils came from the back, but Rebecca's barrier protected him. Standing right in front of a stone slab, she was protected by barriers all around her as her forceball slammed into a lesser abyssal horror.

Since ranking up and getting more battle experience, she had learned how to handle the tide of a battle and even dozens of pesky abyssal creatures couldn't scare her.

“These things are extremely annoying,” Seth muttered and he swung his dagger to cut up a tendril, but something grabbed on his leg and he lost his balance.

Falling on the ground, he quickly turned around to see three lesser abyssal horrors heading towards them, whipping their tendrils down at him.

The barrier protected him from the first three lashes, but on the fourth, it broke and hit Seth's shoulder.

He winced and conjured up a few blades, making them crash into the lesser abyssal horrors who cried out in pain as blood spurted out.

Despite their nimbleness, these monsters were extremely vulnerable at the eyeball. He couldn't blame since he would be screaming like a banshee if an attack hit his eyes.

Some things were just far too fragile.

His blade hummed to life again as he pushed more mana into it, litting the tip.

More and more lesser abyssal horrors swung their tendrils in a wild swing, but he used Savage Flurry to dice them off before swinging his blade in a wide arc, hitting one of them straight at the killing spot.

He flickered away next and appeared on top of a stone slab, right behind a lesser abyssal horror who didn't see him coming and died a quick death.

“Look out!”

Rebecca's voice made him look behind him and he saw a small boulder heading his way. He slashed it with his blade and with a shrieking sound, the boulder cut into two jagged halves, chunks of rocks flying around him.

Looking ahead, Seth saw more and more lesser abyssal horrors using the stone slabs and boulders around the ruins to fling them at it.

Frowning, he used Flickering Step to dodge in between them and get closer to the abyssal monsters before killing them off

Their defences were almost non existence and since his blade worked wonders against them, he was like their natural nemesis.

From time to time, he would get whipped or a boulder would hit him right in the face, but he still kept killing. The numbers of the lesser abyssal horrors dwindled as Seth saw more and more notifications in the corner of his vision.

Finally, he dug his blade into the eyeball of the last living horror and it winced in pain, slamming it's tendrils around the ground, but a notification soon rang, signalling it's end.

You have defeated a Lesser Abyssal Horror!

You have gained experience!

Once it was over, he shook his head. Although they were handful, the lesser abyssal horrors didn't gave him enough experience to level up. It was something he had expected since he had levelled up twice just today after the skirmish with the golem.

He turned towards Rebecca who slowly removed her barriers from around her before glancing around the ruins. Her eyes raked around the bushes where the lesser abyssal horrors have popped up, but there didn't seem to be anything there.

“Abyssal creatures won't pop out of nowhere here, right?” Seth asked as a matter of fact, heading towards the bushes.

“Not until the boundary between the dimensional planes are breaking, but if that was the case, then I think that the sky would have been full of those monsters right now. It's pretty clear.”

Seth raised his head to look up at the sky. He could see a few colouds, but no monsters. It seemed like that wasn't the case and someone had deliberately summoned the creatures.

If so, was it Gabriel or someone else from Seven Seals? He couldn't be sure.

Both of them scanned the bushes and the ruins for the next hour. Despite being tired, they wanted to see if they could find a clue, but there was nothing.

No signs of any footsteps, patterns or other things. He did notice claw marks on trees far away from the ruins, but they were more likely from the scatterers than the lesser abyssal horrors.

Finding nothing, they decided to move back to the city.

“Who do you think ambushed us?” Rebecca asked as they made their way up the mountain. “Gabriel?”

“I don't think so,” he replied after deliberating on it. “If it was him, he wouldn't have to send lesser abyssal horrors after us. He already did it once and it didn't work. He's strong enough to just defeat and drag us away.”

Rebecca gulped and nodded. “Then?”

“Either it's Gabriel and he's playing some kind of sick game with us, or it's someone else from Seven Seals. It's not one person we are dealing with. It's a whole organisation and they are everywhere. It can be very likely that maybe who we are against is in the Nightshard City at the moment. It's a big city after all.”

“I think we should rush to the guild then. Even if Seven Seals are strong, Nightshard City Guild is extremely big and full of higher ranked adventurers. They won't dare to do anything there.”

Seth sighed and looked back at the ruins. A cold wind hit the back of his neck and he pulled his cloak.

He just hoped they would reach the city soon enough.

***

They didn't reach the city soon enough, but it was more because they didn't find any carriage back to the city which was willing to stop and hear them out. So, they had to walk their way till the gates.

It was already late night when they arrived in the city.

Fortunately, the Adventurers Guild wasn't far away from the gates.

It was situated just ten minutes away from it and Rebecca told him that it was because the Guild was the first organisation to act if there's a monster attack on Nightshard City.

Since the whole place was surrounded by a lot of dungeons, ruins and other habitats of deadly monsters, it seemed like it had happened in the past.

Once they reached the Guild building, he couldn't help, but marvel at it for a few seconds. The Sacria City Guild was a large wooden building, but the one in Nightshard City was a massive metal spire that pierced the skyline.

It was a construction of several floors, its base covered in perpetual shadow due to how tall it was. Seth could always hear the voices coming from inside from adventurers laughing and talking while having their dinner after a day's work.

As they walked inside, Seth saw hundreds of people just on the ground floor, sitting in groups in between comfortable looking wooden furniture and talking loudly while drinking their share of ale. A large reception area was in front with lots of staff standing there, looking exhausted, but smiling politely at every customer.

Servers and cleaners moved around everywhere to make sure the place was running and every customer was fed well on time.

His eyes lingered over to the resting adventurers and their equipment. They looked way better than most of the gear he had on him, barring the Dark Blade.

Rebecca nudged him, so he didn't stare for long and started moving.

“We need to go to the third floor. That's where people associated with the academy can get free food,” she said, passing by the reception to move towards the stairs on the back.

“Free food?”

“Yes, every graduate can eat free food there. You won't have to pay if you are with me. Even students get lots of discounts. I stayed in the city for a while after my graduation and the only reason was the food at the guild.”

Seth nodded and followed her through the stairs. They were wide with lots of people coming and going. He hadn't seen any lifts in this world yet, and he wondered if they were in use. Noah briefly talked about trains once that were active in certain places, so maybe lifts would be a reality too.

“I’m wondering if I should enrol in your academy for all the privileges. It feels like an academy graduate can live pretty easily in this place,” Seth commented and Rebecca smiled back.

He was about to talk about his college life when Rebecca started speaking.

“They can. Lots take a job here for a reason, but it's also because only 20 percent of the students graduate on time. Over half lose a part of their bodies in some experiment or during an expedition and need years to heal while a lot of people leave because they don't want to deal with danger every other day. They only give us privileges as an incentive to not drop out.”

He blinked his eyes, realising the weightage in her words.

“Well—”

“We are here!”

She grabbed his hand and they stepped on a floor which was divided into three parts. Lots of people were sitting at tables on one side, eating their dinner while on the other side, beds were laid out and a few people were dragging those who had passed out from drinking there.

A reception area was in the centre and a kitchen seemed to be on the back from where servers were coming with food and beer.

A nice scent hung in the air, of good roasted meat and orange juice.

“It’s like a lounge area for a lot of academy graduates, so it's big and comfy. Tons eat and sleep here since it's treated as a dine and sleep place. You just won't get any privacy. Oh, if we stay here, we should just take a room on one of the upper floors. I asked my master for some money before we left.”

He nodded, “That would be good, but first, let's do what we came here for.”

He pointed at one of the empty tables and Rebecca promptly smiled, her stomach rumbling.

They haven't eaten since morning and with free food, there was no holding Seth back.