Book 3: Step 6 – The Sixth Step in Rescuing a Princess: “Explore a mysterious underground cave”

*Disclaimer note: This is merely a translation of the original Chinese version. I do not claim any part in the creation of the original story.

 

I slowly blinked my eyes open, having not a clue where I am and what had happened. Just then, a throbbing pain in my head reminded me of my indulgence last night…… and the results of it - I had hangover.

'A hangover? I actually got drunk? How many bottles of wine did my teacher order? I shouldn't have bothered heckling history's strongest Sun Knight for an additional ten percent reward…… Just the money spent on my drinks last night should have cost him that ten percent!'

I looked around, trying to get my bearings, but the moment I looked down I immediately opened my mouth……

"Aahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" I screamed.

My feet weren't standing on firm ground as I had initially thought; instead, the ground was at least twenty meters away below me! How the hell did I get so high up?! (This is even higher than the top of the Holy Temple's tallest tower!)

"Ahhh!! Ahh!! O' Goddess of Light, I do not wish to be so tall!" I continued my screaming. "I promise I'll never secretly drink behind your back ever again!"

"What in God's name are you moaning about now?! You should know better than to be so noisy so early in the morning!" came my teacher's annoyed voice.

"Technically, it's already past noon right now."

And there was Alstier's voice too.

I twisted my head to the side, and there he was - my teacher. He, too, was floating in midair, yawning and stretching, looking as if he had just been awoken from a deep slumber…… I'm rather impressed by him! Even when floating in midair with nothing to support us, his admirable person can still manage to stretch so gracefully and with such ease, as befitting of an ex-Sun Knight of twenty years.

And now that I've taken a second glance around, I noticed the third person floating with us. I'm guessing that the figure completely covered in the cloak is none other than Alstier himself.

At the moment, Alstier was radiating an immense amount of wind aura.

"You can actually fly?!" I exclaimed in astonishment. I had assumed that Alstier would have been a master in dark magic; as a dark creature, dark magic should have come to him naturally, whilst the other branches of magic would have been harder for him to learn.

"Not at first." The hooded figure turned towards me, revealing Alstier's familiar face. He looked rather exasperated as he explained, "However, Neo insisted that wind magic would be immensely helpful when travelling and forced me to learn it. I had a hard time learning it until I finally mastered two wind magic techniques – Instant Teleportation and Flying."

"Ah, I see," I said, knowing by experience how he felt. "My teacher has always liked forcing others to learn strange things, so try to get used to it."

"I can tell you've also suffered," said Alstier sympathetically.

"It's alright. It's all in the past for me now, but now it's your turn to bear with it……"

"I'm right here," My teacher said icily.

Alstier and I smirked at each other, but kept our mouths shut.

However, I couldn't help speaking up once more to ask, "Teacher, where are we going?"

He slid me a look and asked doubtfully, "You haven't forgotten the quest I mentioned last night after all your drinking, have you?"

"Of course not."

He then nodded and explained, "Right now, we are on our way to complete the quest. With us flying, the trip shouldn't take us too long and you should be able to meet up with the rest of your party soon."

'That is true,' I thought. 'If this quest doesn't take up too much time I might even be able to make it back to them quicker than if I were to travel by myself.'

Having settled my transportation problem, I then turned my thoughts to the quest at hand.

"What is the quest about?" I asked.

My teacher gave me a small smile and said, "Don't worry. It's a pretty simple task, especially for someone like you."

"Ah, I see, haha!" I, too, smiled an equally fake smile. When my teacher had brought up training me in falling elegantly, he had spoken in the exact same warm and carefree tone…… I turned to look at Alstier; the latter had a look of resigned determination on his face.

I was already considering taking my chances jumping from twenty meters above ground, and then running for my life as history's strongest Sun Knight chased after me. Between this and following my teacher to my doom, which would give me a higher probability of surviving?

Hmm… both look to be equally unpromising……

~O~O~O~O~

After flying for a whole day and night, I was about to commend Alstier on his impressive powers for being able to keep up the Flying spell for so long, when we finally landed on the ground. He then slyly announced, "I've used up all my energy on Flying, so it's all up to you guys now."

'You shameless sneaky Dark Elf……'

After silently cursing Alstier, I then turned my attentions to the dark cave behind us. There was not a single thing growing within a hundred meters of the cave and the cave itself was giving of heavy waves of dark aura. As if not satisfied with how ominous and intimidating it looked and felt, screams of terror and moans of agony could be heard from within, and I could even hear sounds of bones grinding against one another……

My teacher drew his sword and said excitedly, "The quest's mission is to permanently rid this cave of any and all undead creatures."

At that, I turned to him with a wooden expression. "Teacher, this is a Dark Land."

"I'm aware of that."

"Teacher, a Dark Land is an area of land that, for some unknown reason, would continuously give off a dark aura, and coincidentally also happened to be the site of some great battle or a cemetery; thus, the number of the dead buried under this land could rival the number of stars in the sky, continuously turning into undead creatures and crawling their way back up."

"I know that. Why are you spouting of all that for? After three years you've become even more of a nag," my teacher complained with impatience.

'Do not get angry, do not get angry. Even if you get angry you can't fight and win against him……' I focused on breathing in deep breaths before finally managing to turn the ends of my mouth up into a smile.

"If you already knew all this then you should also know that even if we were to rid the cave of all the undead, the cave would be filled with them once more two days later! It's impossible to permanently rid this place of the undead."

He smiled at that and replied, "Of course I knew that. Why else did you think I brought you along for?"

I should have just jumped down earlier and taken my chances with my teacher's pursuit! But it is now too late for regrets. Still, I struggled for a way out of this. "…… teacher, even with my holy aura at its most powerful it's impossible for me to completely cleanse this place of its dark aura."

"We can still try. And don't forget about the Holy Sun Blade and me."

Even though all this was said in a calm manner, I knew that the more calm and collected my teacher appeared to be, the more determined he is to do something.

"Why are you so set on purifying this place?" I asked in curiosity. "There are countless of Dark Lands around, why this one in particular?"

He smiled faintly as he asked, "Do you know why the surrounding area has not been negatively impacted by this Dark land despite it continuously producing countless undead creatures?"

I shook my head.

"This is because a long time ago, a group of very powerful mages used an incredibly strong Water Crystal called "Eternal Serenity" and set up a barrier around the cave, thus stopping any undead from venturing further than a hundred meters from this cave.

'I see.' I nodded my head to show my understanding.

These Dark Lands are a constant source of worry and headache for every country. Nations would try anything and everything to stop the negative impacts stemming from the Dark Lands, and one of the easiest and quickest ways is to work with mages and priests to set up a barrier to seal the undead in.

Again, my teacher smiled faintly as he calmly announced his shocking objective. "I want that Eternal Serenity."

I was stunned. 'So that's what this is all about. He wants the Eternal Serenity. But once he removes the Water Crystal, the barrier would instantly collapse and the undead would venture forth from the cave, wreaking havoc and killing innocents……'

But I knew that my teacher would never allow such a thing to happen, hence he would have to first cleanse this cave of its dark aura before he can take the crystal.

My face turned gloomy at this thought, but still I turned to look at my teacher with a shred of hope. "Do you really have to have that crystal? Can't any other do?"

He shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Only if you can find another crystal as powerful as this one... but I've been looking around for quite some time and nothing would work better than the Eternal Serenity."

I thought to myself dejectedly, 'Even if there is one, it'd probably be harder to get. Otherwise, it would have already been taken by others.'

'Looks like there's no way out of this.'

As I turned back to peer into the dark gaping mouth of the cave, I prayed fervently that it wouldn't become my final resting place……

But I really felt that going in unprepared like this was not a very smart thing to do, so I hurriedly turned to the mission's leader. "Teacher, do you have any plans on how to go about this?"

"Yes," he replied immediately.

As I looked on at his confident bearing, I was filled with such high hopes as I asked eagerly, "Well? What is it?"

He raised a finger and pointed at the cave. "We make our way into the deepest parts of the cave, killing every undead we see. Then after a day of resting whilst we wait for you to recuperate your holy aura, we purify the cave, take the Eternal Serenity, and thus conclude our successful mission!"

I stared at him in silence. If you can call that a plan then 'Find the enemy, defeat the enemy, rescue the princess and marry the princess' would be The Perfect Plan for Princess Rescues. There would be no need to alter a single word of it.

"It could have been worse."

Just then, Alstier spoke up airily, "Do you know under what circumstances we had to complete a mission to infiltrate a dragon's lair and steal a crown from its treasure trove……?"

"What circumstances?" I immediately asked. I desperately needed to know how much worse it could have been. It was the only way I could convince myself to accept my fate and take on this Herculean task.

Alstier had tears in his eyes as he recounted their past misfortunes. "The priest hadn't gotten enough sleep the previous night as he was busy being entertained in the brothels, and so he was left with less than one-fourth of his holy energy; the warrior's sword had broken and was still with the blacksmith for repairs; whilst scouting the situation ahead, the thief discovered a treasure chest and ran off with it; the mage had accidentally burnt half of their magic scrolls whilst cooking; and the holy knight had a hangover from drinking too much wine the previous night……"

"Hold on, who is this idiot mage who had burnt half the magic scrolls?" I interrupted, sensing something was not right.

"It was me," Alstier admitted quietly, lowering his head in shame.

"And the hungover holy knight?" I had a really bad feeling about this.

"That would be me." This time the answer came from Neo. He shot me a look and said threateningly, "Do you have anything to complain about history's strongest Sun Knight? Hmmm?"

"No! Of course not!" I refuted hastily. "But teacher, your hangover……"

"Hmph!" He gave a snort and waved impatiently, "I didn't drink that much last night."

I felt relieved at that.

"So I'm only a little hangover."

"……"

'Holy Light! Michael, Alston, Ann and my dear Leaf! You are the best party members anyone could ask for. I was wrong to have scorned you, please rescue me! Take me back to your party, I wouldn't mind being a priest!'

Unfortunately, Leaf and I weren't able to communicate telepathically, so he didn't come to rescue me. I could only follow my teacher into the cave with reluctance, knowing that my future was as dark as the cave I entered……

The moment we stepped foot into the cave, a line of white skeletons standing on each side of the entrance greeted us. These skeletons were probably some of the 'fresher' corpses – maybe even the unlucky adventurers who had lost their lives in this cave, perhaps – for these skeletons still had some 'meat on their bones' and weren't completely rotten away. Because of this, the visual impact was rather frightening; and other than the visual impact, I felt that my nose, too, suffered greatly.

My teacher immediately pinched his nose and cried out, "Why aren't you burning them away?! It god-damn stinks in here!"

I gave him a hum in reply and carelessly flung out a blast of holy light. The sound of bones clattering to the ground could be heard all around us, and when the holy light had faded away, the forest of white skeletons had turned into powdered ash, carpeting the entire floor in white as if inviting us to proceed further.

Although he claimed that he had a slight hangover, my teacher was still able to slash away all the undead in our way and clear up the path for us. Sometimes he even used too much force and ended up widening the cave. I was rather concerned about the cave collapsing around us, but after thinking about it I decided that even if the cave was to collapse around us, my teacher would still be able to blast a hole out for us, so there was no need to worry about it.

As for Alstier, even though he claimed that he had exhausted all his energy Flying us, when I 'accidentally' missed a skeleton heading for him, he hadn't even bothered to look at it as he released a very advanced level dark spell – Hell's Fire – and burned it to a crisp.

Because Hell's Fire is a large-range spell, the fire accidentally spread to the other skeletons, causing a huge 'bonefire' that could not be controlled.

I then cast a Wind Blade…… and fanned myself. Ho boy! It sure is hot in here!

But with this I was finally able to get a real idea of just how strong my teacher and Alstier really were. It was not just plain luck that they managed to escape from a dragon's lair unscathed even in such extenuating circumstances.

Alstier rolled his eyes at me upon seeing my actions and asked exasperatedly, "Aren't you a little too relaxed?"

Before I could retort to this, my teacher placated him. "Alstier, you have to think of him as a priest."

"Ah!" a look of understanding passed over him and he turned to me apologetically, "I apologise. The priest should stay at the back in situations like these. But could you please spare a few Wind Blades in my direction? It's quite hot in here."

"Sure." I sent a few weakened Wind Blades at him before reminding him, "Next time, don't use these kinds of spell in an enclosed area. You'll not only harm the enemy (which is fine), but also yourself (which is not)."

"He's right." My teacher agreed as he fanned himself with one of his shoulder armour.

"Yes, yes. I'm sorry for causing all this heat and inconveniencing everyone," Alstier apologised. A Dark Elf that admits his mistakes and learn from them, how admirable.

Following that, as the fire didn't seem to be going out anytime soon…… probably because of the constant supply of fuel - undead creatures, the three of us decided to sit down and wait it out. We then turned our attentions to preparing lunch, making use of the ready supply of 'fire' to cook our food.

"It can't be good to use fire that burns from corpses to cook our food, can it?" asked Alstier as he gave the cooked meat a disgusted look. He then continued on worriedly, "Not to mention that it is fire made from dark magic; it might not be safe for human consumption."

"Even if it isn't safe for human consumption it shouldn't matter to you," I said self-righteously. "You're not even human!"

Alstier turned my words over in his head before agreeing, "You're right!" He then began eating the meat without reserve.

By the time we had finished with our meal, the fire had grown smaller. We made our way forward, passing still-smouldering piles of ashes, and continued on our journey. We didn't really have any idea which direction to go in, so we did as my teacher suggested –

We headed in the direction where the undead got stronger and more powerful.

We advanced from the lowest level of undead skeletons to the even smellier Corpse Eaters. (Death Eaters? LOL.) These creatures are corpses half rotted away with lots of rotten scraps of meat still clinging to their bones. Although they cannot move very quickly, they carry a deadly poison on them, and with just one touch one would be poisoned. If there isn't a priest or any Healing Potions in the group, well, you might as well start digging your grave now.

But even without the knowledge of its poisonous attribute, I wouldn't go anywhere near it. Even standing ten meters away from them, I could still smell their horrid smell. If I were to get within reaching distance of them I think I would rather cut off my own nose; who cares about how poisonous they are!

"Urgh! You horrid stinking corpses! Go meet the God of Light and repent your disregard for basic personal hygiene to Her!"

With one hand pinching my nose, I threw out volleys of Wind Blades in an attempt to fan away the stink. I then radiated an immense holy light, so bright that the entire cave was lighted up as if a small sun had just exploded in there. When the holy light finally faded away, the whole cave was clear of all undead; even the air smelt clean and fresh.

I finally released my nose and nodded in satisfaction, "I knew it. Holy light is the ultimate disinfectant/air freshener."

Following that, we encountered zombies, rotted Hell Hounds, blood-sucking corpses (I think they are more commonly called vampires?), some creature that looked more or less like a giant eyeball, the inky black shadow monster……

Well, all sorts of monsters and demons were popping up left and right, but they were all easily dealt with by my teacher. And when some of the corporal creatures gathered in large groups, I was treated to the sight of Alstier unleashing all sorts of dark magic on them, whilst learning a few tricks from him myself. As for me? Well, I dealt with disinfecting the spiritual undead – like the shadow monster – with my holy light.

On our way through the caves, we stumbled upon another group…… the five of them were being beaten back by a gigantic Skeleton Warriors and it was only after my teacher had hacked away at the Skeleton Warrior that we saw the five of them.

They were a pretty standard party, with a warrior, an archer, a thief, a warrior priest, and a less commonly seen druid. Druids are sometimes called Children of the Forest, and their specialty is transforming into various animals, as well as healing.

The moment we saw them Alstier immediately pulled down his hood, hiding himself from them to avoid unnecessary conflict.

The five of them stared at my teacher in a daze. My teacher, while a little surprised to see them too, immediately let out a 'Sunny' smile and said warmly, "My apologies. I didn't see you there and stole your kill. Why don't we just treat it as your kill and you guys can take all of the spoils from it."

The other group continued staring at my teacher. The two females in the group – the archer and the warrior priest – were staring at my teacher with love and adoration; the warrior's stare was filled with idolisation and awe; the thief was staring at my teacher's priceless blade and impressive armour with a glint in his eye; and as for the druid, he was the most normal of them all as he merely stared at my teacher with suspicion, his body tensed with wariness.

Although the named leader of the group is most likely the warrior who stood at the forefront of the group, I'm pretty sure the actual brains of the group is the druid.

"You're a party group? A knight, an assassin, and a mage?" asked the druid as he took us in with a frown.

"No, he's a priest," said my teacher as he gestured towards me. He then clarified, "And I am a holy knight."

"A priest?" asked the druid doubtfully, "but he is wearing an assassin's outfit."

My teacher unleashed his trustworthy smile on him as he replied, "Oh, that's because his priest's outfit was burnt accidentally whilst cooking, so he had to put on the assassin's outfit."

Just then, I stepped forward and disinfected the remains of the Skeleton Warrior lying on the ground. With a wave of holy light, the Skeleton Warrior turned into a pile of ashes, leaving behind the spoils: some armour and a sword.

I nodded my head in satisfaction, but when I raised my head I saw that the five of them had turned their stunned attentions to me.

Alstier neared me and whispered in my ear, "You forgot to recite the incantations."

'Shit! I forgot about that.'

Well, after seeing this demonstration from me, even the druid dazedly nodded his head, the thought to question where I would get an assassin's outfit from when there wasn't an assassin in the group flung out the window.

However, I would like to stress that it is not an assassin's outfit that I am wearing, but one of Alstier's outfits that he normally wears underneath the cloak. But because it is black and a little more tight-fitting than normal, it is easily mistaken for an assassin's outfit.

At that moment, the druid spoke up, "This Skeleton Warrior belongs to you. To tell the truth, if you hadn't arrived just now, it was unlikely that we would have been able to leave this cave."

Upon hearing that I turned to look at them closely. Indeed, they looked rather battered and exhausted.

I kindly reminded them, "If that is so, you guys can go out now. We've dealt with the undead behind us, so there shouldn't be any more danger on your way out."

The druid smiled bitterly. "It's impossible. The undead here are revived within three days; the outer caves should now be filled with them once more, and unlike when we first entered here, we are no longer at our strongest. I don't think we'll be able to make it out."

At that, the warrior said regretfully, "I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't have brought you guys in too deep."

Hearing that, his fellow party members consoled him saying, "It's not your fault. No one could have expected to meet the Skeleton Warriors and the Hell Hounds; if not for that we would have been perfectly fine."

As I watched them speaking so despondently and resigning themselves to their fate, I couldn't help cutting in, "But we just killed off all the undead not too long ago, they haven't had time to revive yet."

The other group was stunned at that; the warrior asked, "You- How long did it take you guys to get here?"

Seeing that my teacher was keeping his silence and Alstier's indifference, I gave the question some thought. How long did we take to get here?

I finally replied tentatively, "About three…"

"What? Three days?!" the five of them were shocked. "Even with the five of us we spent a week to get here!"

"……" I had actually intended to say three hours even though we actually took 30 minutes. Thank goodness I hadn't answered clearly……

"If you guys took only three days then it's possible that the undead really haven't been revived yet!" They looked ecstatic at the news.

"That's right! Why don't you quickly collect all the spoils and get out. Don't worry, we'll be fine," said my teacher as he waved at them. He then 'kindly' reminded them, "Run quickly, or else the undead might revive before you get out, and that'll be bad."

I stared at my unscrupulous teacher, speechless. In reality, they had three whole days to get out; even if they had desired they could have crawled their way out and still make it.

When the other group heard my teacher's words, they hurriedly collected the items on the ground and followed his suggestion and ran out. They barely had time to shout out their thanks as they rushed away towards the entrance.

I stared after them as they made their hasty retreat. They probably wouldn't dare to approach this place again. "I didn't know we were that strong?" I muttered with disbelief.

Overhearing me, my teacher laughed and said mockingly, "Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? And how many years of experience as a mage do you think Alstier has?"

"But to be honest, this party group still can't beat your last group," chipped in Alstier.

He then continued on to explain, "The warriors are the Son of War and the famous Female Warrior - Princess Ann; the archer is one of the Twelve Holy Knights; plus you have a warrior priest who can boost the warriors' strengths, and with history's most powerful (in Divine Spells) Sun Knight as the priest…… even if you were to call yourselves the Dragon Slayers, no one would accuse you of overreaching yourselves."

Upon hearing that, I suddenly felt rather relieved. All the while I had been secretly worried about leaving my group, but now that I'm told that our group are on a level capable of slaying dragons, my worries were lightened. Even if they were to meet with some incident they should be able to deal with it fine!

But just as I was feeling relieved, my teacher's expression darkened and he lectured me, "But there is nothing for sure in this world, child. You never know when something or someone even stronger than you might appear."

I bowed my head in subservience, but I didn't really agree with him. I mean, is there really anything greater than dragons in this world?

He probably realised that he was worrying for nothing, but still his head was creased in a frown as he hurried us, "Let's go! The sooner we finish up here the sooner you can get back to your team. I have an uneasy feeling about this. No matter what, one shouldn't leave their team and go cavorting around. If it weren't because I needed you for this, I wouldn't have delayed your return to your group."

Even though I wasn't really worried about them, I nodded my head in agreement. I already knew that Ann would be trying to stall for more time so that her sister Princess Alice would be able to elope successfully. Even if I were to go back now I'd only be dragged around in circles! So I was in no hurry to get back.

Besides, I didn't really feel like playing the bad guy and separating a pair of lovers. When I met that super-hot (kill him!) Dark Knight, he hadn't even attacked me. Faced with such a reasonable person, I feel even more reluctant to force them apart.

My teacher let out a big sigh and said, "Let's go. We'll talk about it after our mission is over."

I nodded and followed him.

~O~O~O~O~

Following that, we spent a further three days circling around in the cave system, searching for the Eternal Serenity.

These three days were pretty fun and exciting. Alstier had countless stories to tell. He would tell me about his home and his experiences after he left home to explore above ground. He left out his personal details, but that is to be expected. Everyone has the right to keep their own secrets.

In return, I would regale him with interesting stories about the Holy Temple, and he would always listen with great interest. When I brought up the more recent happenings, even my teacher would laugh with us.

When I mentioned the incident regarding Roland, I was careful to watch for my teacher's expressions, worried that he would scold me for going overboard, and then order me to barbeque Roland on a stake.

But upon hearing my story, Alstier was the first to laugh out loud. "No wonder you had no prejudice against this evil Dark Elf. When you're already best friends with a Death Knight, what's a mere Dark Elf to you?"

My teacher, on the other hand, had a fondly exasperated expression as he said, "You are really getting out of control."

"Teacher, you won't expose this secret about Roland, will you?" I asked with no small amount of worry.

After a minute of silence, he looked at me in the eye and said seriously, "You have to swear to me that you won't let him leave the Holy Temple; and you'll have to exterminate him before you retire at the age of forty."

I was about to protest against killing Roland when my teacher cut in in a hard tone, "He'll already have had an additional twenty years, it's enough. Unless you wish for him to die at the hands of your successor, you have to kill him while you still have the God of Light's blessings. Otherwise, you might not have sufficient powers to kill him after you've passed on the Holy Sun Blade to the next Sun Knight."

I went quiet at that, and after a few long moments of silence, I nodded. Although, I felt that when the time comes I might not be able to do the deed…… but, I'll deal with it later when the time comes. No need to worry about something that'll happen years later!

"You've always been too soft-hearted. As long as they don't harm you, you would never raise a hand against them, even when they are the most dangerous of beings."

He sighed and patted my head. "I cannot say that this trait of yours is bad, for if not for this very same trait, Alstier would never have become friends with you. But, this trait of yours is also very dangerous. I worry that one day you will pay a hefty price for your trusting nature. "

I bowed my head, pretending to accept his teachings. 'Honestly, he's already retired, yet he still can't stop lecturing his student.'

"Child," he called. When I looked back up at him, he ruffled my hair as if I was still a small child and said softly, "No matter what happens, don't forget that I'm here."

"Remember to count me in," Alstier added casually.

My heart warmed upon hearing their words, but I couldn't resist complaining, "As if! Teacher, you disappeared the moment you handed over the title to me. If you had stuck around I wouldn't have had to go up against the king and princess! With you there they probably would have just shut up and do as they are told; I wouldn't have had to crack my head over the problem."

My teacher cuffed me behind my head at that. "You brat! You're already all grown up; you can't ask me to stay by your side, holding your hand all the way! Deal with such small problems yourself!"

"If that's what you call 'a small problem' then may I ask what exactly I can go to you with? Don't tell me I can only call for your help when I'm up against a dragon?......" I muttered as I rubbed the sore spot on my head. I only got an eye roll from my teacher and a muffled chuckle from Alstier. At that, I too started chuckling. If there really was any dragon slaying to be done, the Holy Temple would have mobilised a whole army, and my Twelve Holy Knights would have been by my side. With them there, I wouldn't need to trouble my teacher for anything.

And so, as we bantered back and forth, we steadily made our way around the cave. Right now, my teacher was dealing with the undead by himself; Alstier and I were hanging around at the back, chatting.

"Neo's so strong! Even amongst my people who are known for their fighting prowess, none can compare to him."

"Yes, he's history's strongest Sun Knight. With how strong he is right now, can you imagine how strong he was back then when he still had the divine blessings from the God of Light?"

"Having the God of Light's blessings shouldn't matter, should it?" asked Alstier cooly. "Even with blessings, would Neo's sword skills improve any at all?"

"Er……" I watched Alstier carefully. The latter doesn't seem to like the topic of religion? "It's true that his sword skills would not improve, but being the representative of the God of Light does bring some advantages."

This topic seemed to really bother Alstier, as he replied, "Increasing one's holy aura is not a good enough reason to devote one's self to the God of Light."

I tilted my head to the side as I thought about it. I then brought up what I felt was the best example. "I am currently the thirty-eighth Sun Knight, but did you know that of the thirty-seven Sun Knights that came before me, not a single one of them had died whilst holding the title?"

A strange expression flickered across his expression and he asked in disbelief, "Are you saying that the Sun Knights cannot die?"

"Of course not," I rolled my eyes at him and said exasperatedly, "just very hard to kill us, is all. Because we are filled with so much holy aura, our self-healing abilities are extremely strong. As long as we do not receive a fatal blow, it is very hard for us to die."

At that moment, my teacher chose to cut in with a laugh. As he continued hacking away at the undead around him, he added, "It's said that the tenth generation Sun Knight once received a slash across the chest so deep that even his heart was cut. Yet, he still lived."

Alstier only shook his head in amazement.

I smiled and said, "So you see, with how strong my teacher is now, if he were to still retain that amazingly strong self-healing ability, he would be even more invincible--"

I suddenly stopped.

Alstier shot me a look. "Creus?"

I took a deep breath before pointing ahead and saying, "I think we've reached our destination. I can sense an extremely strong water aura at the end of that turning!"

Hearing that, my teacher swiftly dealt with the last undead. He then raised his sword, held the position for about three seconds before swinging it forward……

My gold hair and Alstier's white hair were whipped back by the force of the blow. We stared on woodenly as the path ahead seemed to explode with a hundred explosive magic scrolls, one after another, until at last we heard a last loud 'boom!'

The entire corridor swirled with dust and debris……

My teacher turned to us and said brightly, "Alright, the undead have all been dealt with! Child, go in and have a rest, and when you're ready, purify the area. Don't worry; I'll be standing out here to make sure that no other creatures come in and disturb you."

Alstier turned to look at me and said stiffly, "I really don't think Neo needs any of the God of Light's blessings. Nothing can kill him as it is."

"I think you're right," I agreed wholeheartedly.

 

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