Chapter 87: Skill Issues
As Quash was just walking around, minding his own business in the hallway-like section, he felt a flicker of Natural Energy coming from a patch of dirt. He used his hands to brush away the debris and found a wall behind it.
After moving the dirt away entirely, Quash could see the Natural Energy seeping through that small section of the wall extremely slowly.
"...Holy shit, this dirt has Natural Energy blocking properties! This is definitely not normal. Just who did these guys offend? The Dirt God? Bruh."
Quash couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. He wondered if anyone else had noticed it yet. But since the dirt hadn’t been mined or tampered with, it meant no one had—or if they did, it was very few people.
Quash could already see many applications for this. Even though the Natural Energy blocking effect was subtle, if he could somehow inject this dirt into his enemies’ energy pathways, it would be game over. For them, of course.
But that was an extreme case. A subtle effect like this could only be used to its maximum potential by an Alchemist. Since he didn’t have any Alchemist he trusted yet, he decided to throw those ideas out the window for now.
The bigger issue was breaking the wall itself.
That thing was tough. He could not break it. Even if he punched it with his fists coated in Aura, it would barely make a dent.
Quash sat down on the dirt because he felt like it. His clothes were already ruined anyway. And if he cared about his clothes while coming out here to literally mine, he would need to at least own a few servants who would do the heavy lifting for him while he worried about his outfit.
He started to think of ways to break this wall. But before that, he wanted to test something; he wanted to know exactly how thick the layer of dirt needed to be to block the Natural Energy completely.
He cleaned out another section of the wall, but only that original spot was leaking Natural Energy, probably because there was no dirt on the other side of it as well.
So he started to pack the dirt back over it layer by layer, until he concluded that nearly three inches of dirt were needed to completely mask the leak.
That was a lot of dirt. But he couldn’t conclude yet if it could hide a person’s Natural Energy signature as well. Still, that was a mystery for later. For now, he needed to get back to thinking of a way to get to the other side of the wall.
He could buy a pickaxe, but he would need one of Rare Grade at the very least to do any real damage to these structures. To get that, he would have to go back to the main plaza. That was not only time-consuming but also very expensive. He thought about what to do.
He suddenly remembered Attribute Superimposition. What could he do with it that would break the wall?
There were many options. He could superimpose the Vibration Attribute onto his Aura to try and shatter the wall by concentrating the force into one focal point. But that was a matter of skill, and currently, he had a skill issue since he couldn’t sense and control things at that micro-level yet.
Maybe he could use some other Attribute like Decay to erode the atomic bonds. But once again, he was limited by his current skill level.
Trying to alter the environment by taking away oxygen was part of the same struggle. Finding no other option, Quash decided to head back and return tomorrow with better preparation. He carefully patched the place where the Natural Energy had been leaking from to keep it hidden.
Another matter of concern was that he suspected someone was following him. Though he had managed to shake them off since he wasn’t using any lights, that person hadn’t used any either.
He might be acting paranoid, but it was better to be safe than sorry. So, he had taken many twists and turns, making it look like he was just lost in the dark and trying to find his way out.
The shadow had started following him when he first tried to exit the area. To create a distraction, he did the exact same routine in many random locations. He would suddenly stop, use his hands to dig down to the wall, sit down on the ground, and just stay like that—sitting for a few moments before patching up the removed dirt and moving on.
He was sure that this person had not seen him in the actual section where the Spirit Water was hidden. He had definitely thrown them off by repeating this routine of removing dirt and sitting down to think for a couple of moments at least twenty different times.
He did not want that person to find out about the treasure at all.
And after nearly an hour of playing this game, he could still feel that distinct feeling of being watched.
He couldn’t actually sense the person. They were either completely outside of his Proprioception range or were extremely skilled at hiding—so much so that he wanted to believe he was overreacting. But even then, he kept up the act anyway.
He could feel a subtle worry in his heart, a lingering instinct that someone was watching. That was it. But he acted based on that instinct, just to make sure his heart was at peace.
Quash was still in that section of the 10th floor. He pulled off his Gojo build, brought out his last Light Magic Scroll, and tore it. He didn’t open his eyes right away, taking his time to let them adjust to the sudden illumination.
After a while, his vision fared better, though it still stung a bit. But it was getting manageable.
Then, he started to make his way towards the surface. He needed to get back fast because he realised it might already be dusk or late afternoon on the surface.
Quash emerged from the ruins a while later. He had timed his journey to perfectly match the duration of the light ball. The moment he walked outside, the light flickered out and went away completely.
Outside, the sun was setting. He made his way towards his hired transport and started his journey back to the city.