Chapter 83

(Liners pov)

Damn it, I cant see ahead...!

Unable to see even a few meters ahead, Liner cursed at the poor view that was hindered by both the nights darkness and thick fog.

The previous day, he had dashed out from Bloche village around noon and had taken almost no breaks till he entered the fog valley. As for why he went there, it was due to a conversation he had overheard from two men who were sitting next to each other at a diner that Liner had gone to, due to having felt some hunger on the way.

What was the deal with those suspicious people dressed all in black earlier?

Who knows? Still, they were going to pass through the fog valley apparently, thats quite unusual at this time of the day.

Suspicious people dressed all in black. Upon hearing those keywords, Liner gave up on his meal, and as if flaring up at them, he forcefully asked the two men about those people.

Maybe due to how forcefully Liner asked them, the men were slightly shaken, but they still did answer his questions.

About an hour prior, just before sunset, they had seen two people dressed in black robes enter the fog valley; that was all the two men had to say.

The fog valley, as its name implied, was a valley shrouded by fog. There, even in the middle of the day, ones field of vision would be limited to a few meters ahead. Obviously, after sunset, the valley was dominated by a complete darkness that even the light of the moon could not penetrate through, regardless of any fog. Moreover, it was a rocky peak which made it difficult to walk through. No one would ever go there at night.

After hearing that story, Liner immediately dashed out of the diner. Of course, he was heading towards the fog valley.

He had no solid proof, but, given the situation and timing of it happening, it was highly likely that those two people were the criminals Liner was looking for.

Thus, Liner recklessly rushed ahead and managed to turn up at the fog valley as the nights veil of darkness was coming down, but due to the bad field of vision he had and the uneven ground, this was going to take him some time whether he liked it or not. With that, by the time the sun started to rise, Liners legs were slowing down due to the accumulated fatigue that came from having kept walking all throughout the night.

Feeling naturally tired, Liner sat down on a nearby rock to catch his breath.

While repeatedly taking deep breaths, Liner was thinking about just how long it would take him to catch up to the criminals.

Based on the talk Liner had with the two men in the diner, the pair of criminals had entered the fog valley one or two hours before him. So he had thought that if he hurried ahead and didnt take any breaks, he would immediately catch up to them, yet even though he had been walking without any rest so far, he had not gotten a glimpse of anyone.

Therefore, Liner decided to lay down on the rock that was under him. If he did not get a small break soon, he would have no stamina left.

This was a very peaceful place; aside from Liners own disturbed respiration and heartbeat, there were no sounds to be heard.

As he inhaled the clear air of the early morning, Liners heart gradually calmed down. That was not limited to his heartbeat and respiration, for it also included some of his emotions, such as his anger and anxiety.

By no means did he start feeling like forgiving the people who stole the sword from him. However, he felt that the impatience he had been holding onto for a while had now declined, to some extent.

(Right, I dont have to be impatient. I am definitely getting closer to them.)

Liner would sometimes be warned by his parents during his usual fencing training sessions about how he let the blood rush to his head too easily.

It was a bad habit that made him concentrate on one thing and ignore everything else around him. Thought it was not bad thing in a fair, one-on-one battle, it could make him expose a fatal gap in his defense when taking on multiple opponents at once.

Hence why his parents had instructed him to broaden his field of view, and for that purpose they were always telling him, over and over again, to keep his mind steady.

Clearly, keeping control over the mind was not a good field for Liner. However, that also meant that if he could overcome this weakness, he would be able to become stronger.

That was what Liner believed, therefore, whenever he felt his mind was excited or in disorder, he would engage in a spiritual training that he was not fond of, so as to calm his mind by his own will in order to be able to fight without any sort of hesitation weighing on his spirit.

Liner believed this was the right attitude to have. However, by nature, human beings had fortes and weak points, and one could not overcome them so easily.

Suddenly, Liner noticed his consciousness returning. This implied that, before he came to, his consciousness had actually faded away.

Liner felt like the sun was quite high up. He could not see the sky as it was obstructed by the thick fog, but he could still roughly tell the suns position thanks to the glimpses of light that somehow pierced through the fog. The sun, which was supposed to have merely started its rise a little while ago, was much higher than it should.

.... this is bad! I fell asleep for a moment there!

This was largely due to the fatigue Liner had accumulated. The clear air was not free of guilt either, as it lured Liner to sleep and allowed him to ignore the lack of comfort of his rocky bed.

However, the biggest reason was Liners total lack of control over his mind which got him to doze off whenever he tried too hard to calm down. Still, given how he was able to fall asleep in his current situation, it could at least not be denied that he had nerves of steel.

Liner jumped up with great vigor from his sleeping spot. Though he did not have any sense of time, from the surrounding air, he guessed, wishfully, that it was still around the early morning.

Ive probably been asleep for only a few dozen minutes, and at the very worst, it shouldnt have been more than an hour, right?

Liner wondered. At any rate, he had taken an unexpectedly long break. It would have been bad if he didnt get back to his pursuit immediately.

While seriously