Forty hours after Edgar got crippled and experienced a near-death situation after consuming the thunderbird’s core.
Edgar had just dodged the stinger and claws of a giant gray scorpion and struck its head with his heel. The drive that leaked out through his leg crushed its head and separated its pincers from the rest of its body. It wobbled for a while before crashing helplessly, as gray blood painted the ground.
The blood stank pretty bad. Edgar had to quickly move away from there.
He didn’t have a stone necklace to lead his path, but he wasn’t in as bad of a situation as he thought. Though he couldn’t see much in that darkness, he could still smell things a lot better than before. It was as if he could feel every scent flowing through his blood, helping him discover everything around him.
And this helped him realize that the air down in that valley wasn’t flowing from one side to another. It was absolutely still, unless one stirred it. So he had no way of telling which way he should go. This was why he was constantly climbing up, hoping he’d finally see light or the much familiar blue sky, which he hadn’t seen in months.
Also, Edgar was completely naked now, though he had covered his skin with a layer of dirt to hide his scent. He couldn’t find a single piece of cloth or a broken sword or anything that would help him better survive.
Though walking around naked in utter darkness was weirder than the weirdest dream he ever had, he didn’t even have anyone around to complain, other than the worms, vipers, and the likes of them. But he did wonder how his sister would giggle at him if she were to see his current situation. Just thinking about her made him want to urgently find something to cover his private parts.
As if all this wasn’t enough, he didn’t feel any major change in his body after consuming the thunderbird’s core. After all the hellish experience it put him through, it had completely gone silent. It was like he had never consumed a core.
Edgar clenched his fists in a bit of frustration. “Why can’t I release lightning yet? The core I took isn’t a faulty one, right?” he shook his head as he remembered the horrifying pain he had to go through. “No. That can’t be a fake. There’s no way.” He felt shivers all over.
Though he was healed by the mysterious plate, his body still remembered everything it went through. And he felt his spine aching for some reason. “Is it because this plate meddled in the process?” his heart beat in a strange rhythm. Whether the copper plate spoiled his chances or not, he couldn’t get mad at something that saved his life.
He still held the worm’s core in his hand, and some part of his mind kept bugging him to consume that as well. He wanted to throw that away, but he held it on. He wanted to give it to someone special, so he couldn’t throw it.
As he kept walking and walking, with a lot of things going through his mind, his ears caught a faint nose. He immediately lifted his feet so that he now stood on his toes, and he hugged the wall, slowed his breathing, and waited.
Seconds passed. He did nothing. He didn’t even blink.
About forty meters away from him, the ceiling of the tunnel crashed. Two giant vipers burst through and kept wrestling against each other, and there were blue-skinned men with glowing skin riding those vipers and fighting each other. And they were laughing as they savagely attacked each other.
Edgar could barely make out their shapes because of the glow, and he could see that they had six arms and held six different weapons. But it was that blue glow that reminded him of his Master's words to run if he saw anything blue move in the valley.
However, if he were to run now, they would surely spot him, so he pressed himself tightly against the wall and waited, while trying to keep his breath under absolute control.
The snakes kept destroying everything around them, including the base under their feet, and they took their wrestling fight to the lower levels.
Edgar breathed a sigh of relief, but his eyes still contained a great deal of surprise. The vipers were quite large, yet these blue-skinned men were riding and fighting on them in a place of utter darkness. It didn’t seem like the lack of enough vital air was affecting him. Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice him, or…
“Hihihi.”
A mischievous voice reached Edgar’s ears, skipping his heartbeat. He looked up. A blue-skinned little girl was crawling on the ceiling like a lizard and had her yellow eyes right on Edgar. She was glowing, but there were no fumes like with a flame torch.
Edgar’s heart skipped many beats. Two thoughts conflicted with each other. Should he attack or not? Should he? Or not? This was just a little girl.
He was holding a beggar’s plate in one hand, and a core in another. And the plate covered his genitals, almost involuntarily. And his movement of the arm made her look toward his crotch, now shielded by the copper plate. He could see this stranger growing more interested in the items in his hand than in him, while staying just out of reach.
A long tongue like that of a lizard slowly slipped from the little stranger’s mouth. Edgar’s heartbeat spiked. A rush of lightning burst out of his body and burned the incoming tongue. The little stranger jumped in surprise, and so did Edgar in response.
One hit the floor, and the other hit the ceiling.
Both felt their heads spinning for a little while.
The blue-skinned girl hurriedly crawled away like a scared little lizard. Edgar also briefly crawled in a similar way before getting up to his feet and running down the opposite path butt-and-ball naked.
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WHIT 14 - LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
As darkness, devoid of love and warmth, incessantly endeavored to sink into the furthest depths of his mind, Edgar was learning things, bit by bit.In a place where light rarely ever shone, the creatures living there moved and hunted in a lot of intriguing ways. Worms used the sense of touch to not only detect the vibrations to spot the prey, but also figured out which rocks were easy to pass through. As Edgar used the holes made by these worms, he began to unravel more and more about their proceedings.He had seen shrimps feed on snails and worms at sea shore, but it was the opposite in these underground tunnels. The worms ganged up on the cave shrimps. The predator would become the prey itself more often than not.Back in shushui mountains, great-backed sloths also used to swing on healthy tree branches and avoide
WHIT 15 - FEARFUL EXPLORING
There were many holes in every pathway, and having fallen through many such holes in the past, Edgar had already learned how to avoid falling.“Damn, there’s no light in sight,” he lit up his hair with lightning and looked up at spaces or holes that took him higher, toward the surface.“How many days has it been since I made a viper retreat?” While keeping watch on holes beneath his feet, especially by not going any closer to those that leaked out gasses, he continued to explore.He walked on delicate pieces of random rock joining rifts, hearing his own heartbeat more than anything, for falling from such a spot would take him hundreds of feet deeper, assuming the fall wouldn’t kill him. So, he was extremely careful, as some of these rocks were creaking and moving.
WHIT 16 - ONE-EYED WATCHER
About a month later.A bald fair-skinned girl, Fabby, was carrying a small vegetable basket, and though she looked lean, her stomach was bulging more than usual. And a one-eyed man dressed in uniform was right behind her, full of smiles, as he sang the song he himself had written or so he said. He was tall and sinewy, and he reeked of alcohol.“Wherever you goI’m right behind youWherever you areI’m not far from youWhat can I do?My heart is selfishAnd it doesn’t want to be aloneSo please fulfill this lover’s w
WHIT 17 - OVERFAMILIAR VOICE
As the big bat hovered crazily in the sky, the human who was dangling by its feet was clearly struggling. Not only was its speed too much, its flight force was out of his expectations. All he could do was wait for the right opportunity to jump.After some patient yet hurtful waiting, when the bat came close enough to the surface, he let go of the beast. Though he tried to land gracefully, his roll was rather clumsy, and he ended up hitting his head to the nearest boulder.“That hurts…” his whole head felt dizzy.This person standing in his leafy underpants was Edgar. The mysterious copper plate was still stuffed in the back of his underwear.There were cuts and bruises all over his legs, arms, and back, but his face and chest were clean. Though Edgar&r
WHIT 18 - BURN
Bittu’s back slammed against the wall before his body slid and collapsed on the floor. His eyes grew open as wide as they could from the impact, but his sight was still blurry. Blood rushed through his sedated veins, and with every fraction of a second, his sight bettered.The young man in green, Edgar, was walking straight toward him like a beast whose shackles were on the verge of breaking. The peeping heads that were looking in slackened jaws couldn’t recognize him at all, as they couldn’t quite get a full view of his face.However, that wasn’t the case for the one lying on the floor.The moment he regained his sight, Bittu’s eyes grew as wide as they could. “It can’t be…” Time slowed down from the extreme tension he felt upon slowly but surely recognizing th
WHIT 19 - DEAD WEIGHT
Bittu’s future was all set in stone with that one act of gouging the eye. Like a wood tossed in fire, all he could do now was burn.Seeing that pitiful state Bittu was in, Edgar’s anger softened a tad. “Your eye is gone.” He spat out the truth.Those four words crushed all of Bittu’s hopes. “No!” he cried and sobbed. “You’re lying. No!” If he had his eyeball, there was still a slightest chance of him regaining his sight, but without it, he lost that last ray of hope, as transplanting someone else’s eyes would be a lot more harder.“Take it however you want,” Edgar coldly said. “Just as much as I want to kill you, I also want you to suffer. Repent for your sins and change your ways, otherwise, the next time we meet will be your last d
WHIT 20 - TEMPTING WOODS [VOL 02 - OUT AND ABOUT]
Tempting Woods, the name, as per popular belief, was solely given from the slaves’ perspective, for they had always seen the woods as their means to escape. Still and all, the creatures dwelling in those woods weren’t something regular humans could hope to intimidate, let alone defeat. The only hope the slaves had was that they could somehow get through those woods without getting seen. Till date, no one knew if any slave ever made it out of the woods and stepped in the world on the other side.Currently, in the morning, Edgar and Fabby were resting outside a rather small cave tucked away in tall bushes, eating roasted meat of a boar that Edgar had caught and killed.Though Edgar was right next to her, Fabby was feeling tense. After all, there were tall trees around her in the distance. And from high up in the trees, a few monkeys were looking right
WHIT 21 - DAYS IN THE WOODS I
Wee~!! Cree~!! Boo~~!! Six monkeys sat on the side and played the audience role in the fight between Fabby and the leader of the troop. The leader actually played with her in the beginning by making her run around. Then it had her arm in its mouth and bit her hard enough she thought her arm would fall off. And then it got rough with her in many other ways through scratching and kicking. Even though she kept trying, she couldn’t even get an inch closer to the monkey, which always seemed to have heightened senses. And she could see the cockiness the leader exuded, as though suggesting to her that it could eat her alive if only her brother wasn’t around. If anyone were to ever tell her that animals didn’t have a soul inside them, she would surely reject that idea and show them the expression the leader was making. T
Latest Chapter
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273 - CRAZY BEAUTIFUL GIRL
After bathing in the mud pool created by Elder Gavin, Edgar came down the mountain to bathe in the river, as per his sister’s orders.“My Fuzzy Step has gotten much lighter,” Edgar found himself smiling. “I don’t feel any soreness in the muscles. The pain in the toes and shin is also completely gone.”He felt so refreshed, he jumped off tall, thin boulders that were hundreds of feet apart.And he jumped in the river with full energy.He swam underwater like a fish and shot himself out of the water like a fish and landed on the shore.To his surprise, there was a girl who just covered herself with clothes. Her hair and body was still wet. Her thighs and below were still uncovered.Her skin was so white. He had never seen someone so white before. And her blue eyes were striking.“I-I’m sorry,” Edgar turned the other way. “I didn’t know you were in the river.”“This has never happened to me before,” she uttered in a cold voice.“What never happened?”“Someone disturbing my peaceful bathin
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272 - CLOSED BOOK
Edgar woke up, only to find himself in a pool of mud. He could feel that he was being healed by fish that were swimming in the mud and were nibbling at his skin.At first sight, it might look like they were eating him, but they were actually taking away the negative energy from his body, though he was not able to feel that.Edgar tried to grab one of those fishes, but they turned into pure mud, pleasantly surprising him.He looked at Fabby who was sitting in the distance, by the cliff. “What are these fishes, sis?”“Elder Gavin made them with his drive. He said they can suck away impurities from your body and make you stronger,” Fabby explained. “He said even your drive will get smoother and faster afterward. Also, the negative effect the beast cores have on our bodies can also be reversed, or so he said.”“Such a thing is possible with drive?” Edgar was both surprised and doubtful. “These fish are biting me, but I don’t feel any pain.”“Yeah. Just stay there until all those fish are
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271 - DAY BY DAY
The eagle brought the siblings to a mountain range and dropped them next to Gavin who was weaving gloves with drive.He wasn’t surprised to see the position the siblings were in.“Here,” Gavin handed the gloves to the eagle, and it put the gloves on its feet and then screeched in happiness.“Haha, you like them, huh,” Gavin smiled. “They are durable as I knit them with my drive. So, don’t lose them.”Scree~!The eagle replied in a confident voice and then began to walk around happily in its new footwear.“They look like gloves, but they should be called socks, I guess?” Gavin wondered. “Ah, well, whatever…”Gavin then looked at the siblings, out of whom only Fabby was still conscious. She was trying to sit up, and it was taking her a while.“You don’t seem to have any external injuries. You are probably tired from using too much energy,” Gavin said. He sent a bullet of energy into her forehead, which didn’t hurt her but went straight into her brain and melted into it. This suddenly ga
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270 - A DIFFERENCE TOO BIG
“Surfing Strike!’ Edgar’s foot viciously struck Ryu’s face and sent him flying high like a rotating paper fan. Any normal person would have had their head separated from their shoulders from that kick, but Ryu’s neck was flexible as well as sturdy as rubber.Ryu grabbed his head and stopped it from spinning before somersaulting and landing in the distance.“Huh?” Fabby was quite shocked by it. “Why is he not dead? Is he even human?”“His body is a bit special, you see,” Anarga smirked and then looked at Ryu. “But, hey, how could you get hit by that brat like that? You should be glad that there isn’t anyone else around, or it would have brought such shame.”Blood leaked from Ryu’s ruptured upper lip. He licked it and faintly smiled. “It’s been a while since I tasted my own blood.” His eyes turned red.“Oh, crap…” Anarga skipped backward. “You guys brought a disaster on yourself. When he goes into that frenzy mode, he’s unstoppable. Even I wouldn’t dare stand next to him because he can
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269 - KNIGHT OF NIGHT
Anarga squeezed Edgar’s chest down, but when Edgar saw Ryu step toward his sister, he uttered, “Thunder Knight…”The ground beneath them cracked, and the air around them crackled. The very cliff itself vibrated in resonance with Edgar’s heartbeat.Anarga lost her balance just for a second. A double-edged lightning spear appeared in Edgar’s hand, and he thrust it right through her abdomen.She thought it would leave a hole in her, but it didn’t. However, it then electrocuted her to the point her clothes were half-burnt, and she looked like a semi-roasted grizzly bear.Ryu immediately clawed through the middle section of the spear and then took Anarga and jumped a few feet away. “How could you be so careless?”Anarga fell on one of her knees. Blood leaked from both corners of her mouth, even though she tried not to leak any blood.“Does it hurt that much?” Ryu asked.She gave him a glare.“I see…” Ryu then looked at Edgar, who was rising off the ground without the use of his hands, as th
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268 - DRAGON THAT DEVOURS ALL FLAMES
Anarga’s body went into the rock, causing cracks all around her to spread for over thirty feet.Ryu’s feet were still locked by the earthen boots that Fabby had created, but he forcefully broke through them and whipped his leg at Edgar. “Dragon Knock!”“Ngh!” Edgar raised his left arm and blocked the kick with his forearm.Ryu’s foot forced its way through Edgar’s flame drive and struck his forearm and hit a nerve, sending a jolt of shock through to Edgar’s brain. On top of that, Edgar’s forearm got dislocated near the elbow.Ryu’s kick still sent a gust of energy over into the distance, which ended up blasting away a part of the cliff, shocking Fabby and Edgar.Fabby’s heart shook at that moment because if Edgar hadn’t deflected that kick, he wouldn’t have just got his arm dislocated. It was Edgar’s hunter-like instinct of parrying the kick at the last second was what saved him from experiencing a crushing defeat.Ryu didn’t even use drive. Whether he could even use drive or not, Edg
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267 - HOTTER THAN FIRE
“Is this the best you can do?” Ryu said disappointedly. “I know you can do better, bald brat.” He treated Edgar as nothing more than a kid because he was much older than him. “Why don’t you show me what you got, or I’ll kill this bald girl.”Edgar, who was bleeding profusely from the chest, felt his soul stirring madly after hearing Ryu’s words.“Don’t listen to him,” Fabby said in a low voice. “We are not their match. Fighting them will only put us at a disadvantage. And there’s no one else here to stop the fight in case things go bad. It doesn’t benefit us in any way no matter how I look at it. Moreover, you are already badly injured.”Fabby’s words made total sense, but there was one thing that she didn’t consider. Edgar just couldn’t digest let alone accept the fact that Anarga Utsav had used her wind attack and pushed Fabby off the cliff. What if Fabby died from that?Edgar utterly disliked Anarga as well as Ryu. He didn’t want them to leave with a sense of victory.“Sis,” Edgar
- WHIT
266 - PERSONAL MISSION
“AHHH!” The siblings cried out in horror, mostly because of the pure shock value. Their eyes sprang out of the sockets. They totally didn’t expect that the eagle would do such a thing.Edgar was about to use his skill, but Fabby quickly said, “No, wait.”“Huh? Wait for what?” Edgar asked her back as winds viciously whipped at their faces.“Just wait,” she replied. As both of them kept getting closer to the ground, Edgar’s heart raced fast. “Screw this. I’m-” he was saying, but then the eagle suddenly came swooping down and caught both of them when they were about 100ft close to the ground and took them away with him.Edgar and Fabby held onto its talons so they wouldn’t fall.The eagle stopped by another mountain top and acted as if everything was okay.“You think I’ll thank you for saving our asses, you shitty bird!” Fabby punched the eagle hard in the face. “I thought I was going to die! You were the cause for scaring me near to death.”Even Edgar looked angry. His heart jumped in
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265 - LOVE AND DUTY
Coming back to the present.The eagle had no idea who Edgar was, so Fabby had to do all the work except for flying. “Where is he?”She was worried for many reasons.The eagle even flew over the colosseum grounds, and she shouted for him, “Are you there, Eddie?”“Who’s that?” some masters and disciples wondered as she wasn’t clearly visible from below. “How rude of her to be flying over this place when the competition is still going on?”“He’s not here, either,” Fabby told the eagle to keep flying.As she kept looking around, she noticed someone bathing in an open pond. Just when she looked at him, he also looked up. She remembered his face mask. This was the same guy she met in a cave not long ago.Numo was not wearing a shirt right now, and his body was pristine white. It wasn’t muscular, but it still looked athletic and toned. It was very attractive, especially because he was a tall man.“Ahem,” Fabby looked away.After the eagle flew out of his sight, Numo continued rubbing his body