Upon reaching the surface, some people had already come out, but there were very few of them. I'd say we went from a hundred people to just forty.
They looked defeated — after all, they had been kidnapped and forced to stay six months in an underground cave.
I looked around, searching for Joseph,
who was just coming out of the cave. He had that hard look in his eyes — it couldn't have been easy for him either.
As I approached him, Alice came out of the cave behind him.
She wasn't even supposed to be there, but considering who her father is, it wasn't all that surprising.
Her eyes were empty as she exited, and when she saw me, she glanced at me from head to toe — I could see she was surprised to see me.
So she knew I was supposed to be killed. I could kill her right now — she's only Rank One of the Human Stage — but I held back. This wasn't the time to settle scores.
I turned away from her and walked up to Joseph.
"Well, young branch, judging by your face, it was tough, huh?" I said.
"You're telling me... I only reached Rank One last week. That damn wall was so hard," he replied.
"And tell me — how do you feel the ather?" I asked.
"The ather? I'd say I feel it like oxygen. I know it's there, but I can't see it. To be honest, I just see it as a source of energy that boosts our abilities every time we rank up," he said.
To think they're all using ather wrong... I'm the only one who can see it — but only after spending a hundred years inside my consciousness, dying over and over again.
Isn't there another way to teach him, without making him go through what I went through?
"Hello everyone, and congratulations on making it out. As you can see, only half of you remain, but you are now all cultivators, and I have good news — all of you are assigned to Gérard Academy," he announced.
I was supposed to go there anyway, and now here's my chance to enter Gérard's stronghold.
"Classes will start on October 13th, in three months. As I said, everyone who made it out is required to attend," he added, trying to sound threatening.
I grabbed Joseph, who was still on the ground, and said, "It's time to go home."
At the top of his academy, Canou Gérard stared at the sky and asked,
"How is he still alive?"
"I don't know, sir," said a man kneeling before him.
"And the four pieces of trash I sent to kill him? Where are they?"
"They've disappeared, sir," replied the kneeling man, clearly fearing for his life.
"Very well… I'll see this as an opportunity. He's the only one who managed to survive the fifteenth floor. When he gets here, I'll interrogate him… then I'll kill him.
I've never let anyone go after beating my daughter like she was nothing."