Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 108

Chapter 108: Weakness
“Hey Ava….

Try to parry this”

An incredible amount of energy, that contained most of the aura of a peak A-rank, was gathered in a single punch.

Lost in thought up to that moment, the dean didn’t make it in time to dodge.

She could only try to defend it, and unfortunately, endurance wasn’t her strong point.

Bracing for impact, she waited for the blow to reach her arms.

And soon enough….

….

‘What? How come I don’t feel a hit?’ thought the dean before lowering her arms and realizing what had happened.

Jackson wasn’t there anymore, he had bluffed, threatening to launch a powerful attack before attempting to flee.

‘That f…’

Not intending to let him leave, Ava immediately began searching for him, and she found him almost immediately thanks to her skill {locate} (A-rank)

As soon as she got his location, the hunt was on.

Just a few seconds was all it took for her to catch up to him.

‘Fuck, she’s already here.

How damn high is her dexterity to move like that?

I have sacrificed ten years’ worth of life just to upgrade my speed, but I still can’t escape from her gasp.

That annoying skill of hers will also be a problem, what was it called? {locate} or something like that…

It’s a shitty situation, and the only way for me to get out of here is to increase my dexterity even more.

Should I do that? But… I won’t be able to live for so long after this.’

He stopped thinking when he felt an ominous energy coming towards him at incredible speed: it was the dean’s sword energy.

It was at that moment that he made up his mind, he still had the same idea as before: living ten years less is better than dying on the spot.

And so, the gruesome process of lifespan extraction started once again, and before the attack managed to reach him, he had already advanced into a brand new rank.

His muscles felt ready to contract, as his dexterity was now higher than ever.

It was a pleasant feeling, he felt powerful, and he felt like… he could finally take control of his life with this newly acquired ability.

That, however, was unfortunately for him, not the case, as he would’ve soon found out how bad of a match-up he had gotten against Ava.

He sprinted away, this time feeling confident in his ability to get away without being caught.

Sacrificing 20 years of his life completely into dexterity had raised it by 240, meaning that his dexterity stat had skyrocketed from 174 to 414.

An incredibly high amount even for an S-rank.

It was really incredible news for him If only it wasn’t for two things:

Firstly, his now-aged body had diminished his endurance by almost half, and his average/good-looking face and body were nowhere to be found.

Secondly… he hadn’t considered a really important matter.

Sure, his dexterity was extremely high, and it would’ve been difficult even for most of the top S-ranks to catch up to him, but the person he was going up against wasn’t just any normal person…

She was a ‘hunter’ who specialized in tracking and fast attacks, to add on top of that, her dexterity was… 422.

‘Huh? How is she her-‘

“Bam”

The man’s head was smashed into the ground ruthlessly.

His confidence, like his face, had been completely beaten up by the dean.

The man quickly turned around, trying to talk things out and make use of some of Ava’s weaknesses.

“Wait-”

Before he could even finish speaking, however, a punch came towards his mouth, shutting him up.

‘Splat’

That last punch had completely dislocated the old man’s jaw, making him spit blood on the ground.

“Why?” the dean’s broken voice asked.

But not even leaving the man any time to speak, another punch was launched.

“Why?”

And yet another punch followed.

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Why?” “Why?”

“Why?” “Why?” “Why?”

“Why?” “Why?” “Why?” “Why?” “Why?”

One after the other, her punches deformed his face, as his body sunk deeper into the ground.

When after almost a minute she stopped moving, the night forest seemed to cry for her.

The moonlight shining upon the dark leaves made it look like tears from heaven, and her body remained unmoved in the same spot for a bit.

Her hands, dirtied with blood and mud, remained hanging lifeless onto her arms, while her shoulders crumbled to the sides.

Her face was swollen by the shed tears, and her heart was aching, having to face the truth.

It was painful, but most of all… she felt lonely.

A feeling that brought her back to long-lost memories, memories that she didn’t want to remember ever again…

‘I had told myself I would’ve lived alone, selfishly, I had fooled myself, whispering to my own ears that I would’ve made it all the way up without needing anyone else.

And look at me now, disgraceful, defenseless, weak.’

There was no shame in the sadness of the strong.

The moon painted her face and her body, leaving out nothing about her, her pain, her grief, and even her weakness, they were all visible to the forest.

And yet… it felt lonely.

So, incredibly… lonely.

The next day…

Early in the morning, a notice was delivered to the teachers’ phones.

It was about the procrastination of the meeting until next week.

It was unusual for something to be changed at the last moment, but what was even more unusual, was the fact that both the dean and Jackson had disappeared.

Some simple instructions were left to Nora Hayes, who would’ve taken the spot of dean for the time being.

Some teachers thought they had gone to the place in advance to scan the area of the Improbable Gate, while others thought they had gone to request a seventh-tier barrier to the Immortal Construction.

Some of the students, even thought they had some personal reasons.

In the whole school, only Hans could figure out the truth about what had happened, but he was now tangled up with something else that needed to be taken care of.

In a solitary and dark room, which was only penetrated by a single ray of sunlight, a young man was sitting on the cold ground with his hands chained to the wall.

His lips were dry, and his cheeks were holed.

‘Water… food… please’

He kept dreaming about something to drink or eat, as his sanity was slowly drifting away.

But unexpectedly, he didn’t meet his end by starving or dying from thirst.

‘Clanck’

The metal bar that locked the door from the outside moved, hitting the metal door, that soon opened.

The man on the ground raised his head, barely managing to see a silhouette.

‘I… don’t care who it is… please, just..’

“Please… water”

Speaking his last few words, he closed his eyes forever….

That’s what he thought happened at least.

A couple of hours later, he woke up in a hospital bed, with a drip attached to his arm.

‘Where am I? Did master perhaps…’

“Hy”

Waved Hans from the side of the bed.

Seeing him, the man passed out once again.

‘This…. Am I scary or something?”

A few minutes later…

The man woke up a second time.

‘Where… am I?

Huh? That’s right, I woke up and found myself beside that monster, huuuu… luckily it was only a dream.’

The man soon had to correct his thought when seeing Hans.

‘Fuck! It wasn’t a dream?!’

Barely managing to stay awake this time, Hans finally managed to talk to him.

‘Ugh, this poor guy, he’s been locked in that basement for far too long, considering that it wasn’t even his fault…

I mean, he is arrogant and annoying, but he at least didn’t know anything about the Red Tyranny attack.

The only reason he was still down there was because the dean probably forgot about him with all the recent troubles.

But if it has come down to this… having a formation master with us won’t hurt’

Already frowning, Henricksson was calmed down by Hans’s words: “Don’t worry, I am not here to hurt you or to interrogate you”

‘Sighhh!!’ he was incredibly relieved when hearing this.

The monster in front of him had somehow managed to smash his master’s formation with a wave of his hand, it was definitely not good to find him as an enemy.

“May I ask what you are here for then?” he asked intimidated.

‘Woah! Look at that! It seems like passing some time under the dean did him nothing but good.

Now that his arrogant tone and behavior are gone I almost don’t feel like smacking him in the face.

Anyway, back to the point…’

“I know it might seem crazy what I’m about to say,

But there are two things you need to know right now…”

The man gulped listening to Hans.

“… first of all, Lans’s dead.

And second of all, I know a way to make you as powerful as him… no!

… maybe even more”