Chapter 144 - 140: Blood River
After walking for some more time, they reached a river that was blocking their path.
The strangest thing was that it was a river that seemed to be filled with blood to the brim. It was impossible to see how deep it was.
"There was no mention of this river in that Ancient Hobbit's book. Did it also appear after his time? Strange."
Ryder looked at the river with a frown on his face.
"The time of his trip here was too long ago. Maybe the topography changed, or something else happened here," Rale responded.
"Yeah, it's true as well. It's just the blood that shocked me. Blood shouldn't appear out of nowhere," Ryder muttered as he shook his head.
"Anyway, do you have any idea about how we can cross this river? That book did talk about the taboo of flying, and I don't wish to test that personally," Ryder said as he glanced at Rale.
"How about we jump to the other side?" Rale suggested.
"Really? The width of this river is 100 meters. Can you jump that far without flying?" Ryder asked Rale.
"Yes, Your Highness. You don't have to worry about it. We can all jump that far. We won't drag you down," Rale replied smilingly.
'I'm not worried about you dragging me down. It's me that can't jump that far,' Ryder thought as a wry smile eclipsed his face.
"Really? Let me test that. I'm sure that you can jump that far, but I want to see if you can jump that far while carrying a person with you or not," Ryder said to Rale as he looked at Rale suspiciously.
"Ahh, Alright."
Rale started looking to the back to select the person he would carry with him.
"You don't need to disturb them. I'll do that. You can carry me there," Ryder suggested.
Rale nodded his head as he walked first and sat down on his knees in front of Ryder. Rale's back was facing him.
"I'll prove it to you. You can hold onto my neck so that you don't fall," Rale told Ryder.
Ryder walked ahead and wrapped his arms around Rale's neck as he held onto him from the back.
Rale was taller than Ryder, thus when he stood up, Ryder was raised to the air.
Rale faced the river and got prepared to jump.
Rale didn't do a run-up and simply jumped ahead. He jumped so fast that Ryder's body was almost horizontal when they were mid-air. Ryder would've fallen in the river if he wasn't holding onto Rale tightly.
Rale landed on the other side of the Blood River.
He sat down on his knees. Ryder released Rale and stepped back.
"Not bad. I don't expect anything less from my Royal Commander," Ryder praised Rale.
Rale stood up and bowed down slightly as he thanked Ryder for the praise.
"You guys can come here as well. Don't worry; you can do it. Just jump like Rale and me."
Ryder looked towards the other members of the team of his guardians.
The other guards also jumped over the river. They seemed as if they were flying. If Ryder hasn't known that these guys were jumping, for a moment, he would've thought that they were flying.
"There's something in the Blood," Ryder let out as he abruptly raised his bow and aimed towards the Blood in the river.
He again felt a movement in the Blood. He pulled the string of the bow. An arrow made of Mana appeared in the bow.
He waited to see another movement, silently. As soon as he saw another movement, he fired the arrow.
The Arrow disappeared into the blood. He didn't know if the arrow had hit its target or not. He didn't even know what the target looked like if there was actually any. There was also a possibility of it being something that wasn't what he thought.
After some time, he got a notification.
<Hundred Thousand Exp Added>
<Absorption Activated>
<+30 Strength>
<Skill Absorption Activated>
<Skill Received: Underwater Breathing>
"Looks like it was indeed a beast. Most probably a specter of water type beast," Ryder muttered as he looked through the skill that he had received.
[Skill: Underwater Breathing
Level: 1
Description: Ability to breathe underwater without losing HP
Duration of the Skill: 20 minutes without coming to the surface]
"Wait a minute, shouldn't this ability be called Underblood Breathing? That beast was swimming in blood and not in the water unless what looks like blood is actually water," Ryder muttered as he looked towards the blood river.
He started wondering if he should check if it was actually blood or not.
'Nah, there's no need to waste time on that. Even if it's water, so what," Ryder shook his head.
"Let's continue ahead," Ryder told his men as he started waiting further.
They traveled for 4 hours without a break. During these 4 hours, they came in contact with quite a lot of specters. Some of the Spectres were low level and good enough to be in Ryder's range of the Beasts that he was able to kill. He killed them all as he found them. Rale and his team killed the other beasts that were stronger.
After these 4 hours of hunting, Ryder had managed to increase his level by 3.
He was now a level 43 player.
Ryder looked at his level up notification as he smiled.
'Tomorrow should be the day when the Level Ranking becomes public. I wonder how much chaos my ranking is going to cause. I might even become an overnight sensation.'
'It would be a good thing to brag about. Shu should be the one who will be most shocked. He had been asking me to tell him my true level, but I kept telling him that he will know soon. Tomorrow should be the day it becomes public. I'd also love to see how the number one player of the Last timeline is doing. His level should be around the 15-20 by now without the Scythe,'
Rale watched Ryder looking ahead blankly. He didn't understand why Ryder was in a daze.
"Your Highness? Is something the matter? You've been standing there in a daze for quite some time now."
Rale tapped on Ryder's shoulders to bring him out of a daze.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking about something. Let's continue on our journey."
****
Outside the Valley of Wandering Soul, a person was standing. His deep blood-red eyes were looking at the border of the Valley of the Wandering Souls.
After some time and some consideration, he moved his foot forward and stepped inside the Valley of Wandering Souls.