Vritra closed his eyes for a moment, searching with his senses. It wasn't long before he too found a small stream, its water flowing clear and cold, glimmering under the weak rays of the sun filtering through the trees.
Without wasting any time, he ran towards the stream and instantly his body became a blur, with his current agility points his speed was already very fast. It took him less than a minute to cover a large distance, and soon he found the clear stream of water.
He crouched by the water's edge, drinking greedily, feeling the liquid slide down his throat in a sweet rush.
More than five months had passed since he had the luxury of drinking water, even the tasteless liquid seemed incredibly tasty.
He hadn't realized how desperately he had longed for it. The water seemed to rejuvenate him, washing away some of the grime and the fatigue.
As he stood, he unwrapped the ragged cloth that had clung to his body, peeling it off, revealing a delicate and chiselled body that was free of any marks and scars despite his bloody time in the labyrinth.
His body was lean, toned, every muscle sculpted by the brutal trials. He washed himself quickly, scrubbing away the blood and dirt, his reflection briefly catching his eye in the water.
His hair had grown quite a bit in the last five months and now looked like tangled strands. His eyes—pitch black and hollow eyes— also seemed to have changed but it was hard to point the change.
"You've have changed greatly from the time I first noticed you enter the canopy," Yasmine remarked, she still couldn't understand how a weak human like him had managed to survive all this time, his resilience was truly deadly and as a human he even devoured the demons, the dragon lady had no words.
He smiled faintly, though the gesture was empty. "More than five months had passed huh… it feels like I have been there for dozens of years."
Yasmine was silent for a moment. Then she spoke again: "The time inside the Death canopy is different from the outside world, by a little over five times. So only around a month had passed outside even if you had been inside for more than five months."
"A month…" he muttered, he remembered hearing something similar from the commander who had brought them inside the labyrinth, the situation wasn't as bad as he thought.
But looking at his hair he decided to cut them a bit since others might suspect that his hair shouldn't have grown so much in just a month, so he formed a blade of dust and without any hesitation he cut his hair short, but it still looked quite long and messy.
"Seriously, even among the dragons or the demons, I have never witnessed anyone level up so quickly. Your growth and the mythic aura are bound to grab too much attention and danger; it would be better to remain hidden for the time being." Yasmine advised, she enjoyed finally being able to talk with someone after so long.
"Yeah, I understand, anyway tell me in your current state how strong are you?" Vritra asked, cleaning his clothes a bit.
"Hmm…" after a slight pause, Yasmine's confident voice sounded in his head: "Even in this state, I can guarantee that I can at least allow you to escape even against the strongest opponents from this kingdom." She answered, if she was in her prime, she could easily destroy the entire Dunshire kingdom.
"That's good to know." Vritra no longer had much worry though that didn't mean he was going to be careless, but some people were going to have it quite rough.
With a final glance at the stream, Vritra stood and put his ragged clothes back on; then started making his way back towards the city. He didn't know the way after all he was sleeping the entire ride, but Yasmine seemed to have sensed the presence of some people not too far, she guided him towards them her voice sounding in his mind.
Vritra wasted no time he was too worried about his mother; at full speed he ran into the direction that Yasmine indicated and turned into a flash. The people who were busy running away frantically were scared out of their wits as they suddenly found this strange man running beside them out of nowhere.
His hair was long and messy and his clothes were in such bad state; blood stains were still present all over them. But as Vritra questioned, they simply answered his question and told him the direction back into the city.
So, changing his direction, Vritra headed towards the capital at his maximum speed, he wanted to make sure that his mother was fine; he didn't even want to think about any other case.
Just after a few minutes another thought came to his mind.
"Wait, won't the others be able to see my level; especially that damn goddess?" Vritra questioned, pausing for a moment.
"…" Yasmine was deep in thought for a few seconds then she sighed and replied: "Sorry but even I can't hide your status."
Vritra frowned; this will be a big problem. Even though his strength had increased miraculously but it was enough to challenge just anyone, even inside just the kingdom there must be many powerhouses who can easily kill him.
'I have to find a way to hide my status window or I really might end up dying but not going back isn't also an option.' Vritra frowned, no matter how much he racked his brain he couldn't think of a way.
Just then…
[Mutamorphis: Analysing the environment…]
[You have acquired the passive skill: Fake Status.]
"…" Vritra stared at the messages that suddenly popped then glanced at his status window and without a doubt, his status was back to what it was at level 1.
"Huh? How did you do that? Even I can't see through this illusion, just what kind of hidden skill do you have that is so terrifying?" it took her a while to calm down, despite her long life she found him to be an anomaly.
"So, you are from another world?" Yasmine asked and her question surprised Vritra, instead of answering he asked: "How did you come to this conclusion?"
"There is a legendary story about a group of people who had come here from another world, one among them had somehow managed to awaken a dormant ability and his strength increased to the level that he had defeated many demon lords. Your situation seemed similar." Yasmine explained.
"Oh? You mean to say all the people who had transmigrated to this world have different kinds of dormant abilities?" Vritra questioned in surprise.
"I don't think so, I believe only a few among them have such strong abilities but awakening such a skill is an almost impossible task so only one person before had accidentally managed to awaken it, there must be some hidden conditions set for it." She added.
"Yeah, I am from a different world and just after arriving here I was almost murdered." While answering Vritra thought about his Mutamorphis skill.
It was related to survival and adaptation to the environment so he wondered if him getting used to that situation, fighting, devouring demon flesh and all that was the precondition for its awakening.
There was a lot of things he wanted to know, but for now reaching the castle was more important so he while talking to her he began running again.
"What else do you know about this summoning thing?" Vritra asked, after his killing intent was hidden, he could feel that the restless beasts had finally started to calm down.
"From what I know, although summoning like these are rare but they aren't too rare otherwise a medium sized kingdom like this wouldn't have been able to do so. In the past, several groups of people had been summoned to this world, some from your earth while other who weren't humans."
Yasmine explained patiently, now that they have to spend a long time together so she planned to help him get stronger as soon as possible.
"Hmmm I see, then do you know anything about a goddess named Diana?" he asked another question without slowing down his speed at all.
"…" there was a momentary pause as if she was searching through her memories after almost a minute, Yasmine replied: "No, if she was something of significant strength or role, I would definitely know her, is she the goddess that summoned you."
Vritra replied with a… Uh huh
"She must not be a true god, otherwise she wouldn't be staying in this kingdom." Yasmine spoke after a moment of pondering.
Vritra had heard the word true goddess for the second time so he asked: "What does this true god means? And what difference does it make?"
"Hmm let me explain it in simple words… Gods and demon gods are entities that are-" she paused suddenly and maybe it was a coincidence the sky suddenly began to turn dark as thunder began to rumble in the dark clouds.
Vritra was surprised since the weather was fine just moments ago but all of a sudden there were such loud thundering in the sky, he felt a bit uneasy by the sight.
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