Chapter 325: An Opportunity!

Uhtred wasn’t buying it. He stared at the man with distrust clear in his eyes despite the pressure pressing down on him.

Suddenly, the man withdrew his aura and scoffed.

"You don’t strike me as someone who’s had a tough life, yet you’re so cynical and distrustful, it makes me wonder..."

The man said those words and nothing more. He proceeded to ignore Uhtred and continue with the herbs he was previously grinding. He left the matter of Elion Silverwood alone too, no longer forcing Uhtred to take him along.

Uhtred, seeing there was nothing more to be said, turned and walked away. He found that the cottage stood atop a mountain — the climb down was steep and arduous. Still, he continued. He had his own objective and wasn’t going to be sidelined by whatever the Awakened Realm powerhouse had going on here. He would see for himself whether this "Beast Wave" was real.

.

.

As it turned out, it actually was.

Uhtred had only descended the mountain for no longer than three hours before he came rushing back. He was beset by a horde of easy picking Nascent Realm beasts at first, using them to rack up a good amount of Scenario points. But the more he progressed, the more the "easy-picking" grind became exponentially more dangerous.

Before he knew it, he was being chased down by a pack of Killer Apetitans. They shot their projectiles like bullets, peppering him with unending volleys. By that point, Uhtred realized there was no way he was crossing the Brutal Wilderness safely — grinding for free points was one thing, purposely courting death was another.

Dejectedly, he swallowed his pride and sped back for the Awakened Realm powerhouse’s mountain. Despite his initial will to leave hours ago, he’d still been pragmatic enough to memorize the exact way back on his way down — just in case.

Winding through the dense Brutal Wilderness, he was thankful he’d done so. He found the mountain and sped all the way up, panting heavily when he finally reached the top.

The Awakened Realm powerhouse was outside, chewing on a stalk of grass when Uhtred returned.

"Are you satisfied now?" the man asked, his tone thick with undisguised schadenfreude.

Ah fuck. I probably deserve that...

Uhtred couldn’t even be mad. He only sighed and stepped forward, thankful a sarcastic remark was all he was going to get. The man could’ve turned him away if he wanted, and rightfully so, but he didn’t.

Uhtred took a seat on an open chair adjacent to the man. He slumped heavily into the chair, still panting heavily. He began cycling healing essence to parts of his body that had been riddled with holes.

Under the gaze of the Awakened Realm powerhouse, he went on to heal himself in intermittent cycles, recovering his essence in cultivation, then resuming again. He knew there was a healing bed right inside, but he couldn’t bring himself to use it after everything that’d just happened.

.

.

Hours later, Uhtred finally healed all the major wounds he’d suffered. And within that timeframe, the elf, Elion Silverwood had also finally woken up.

Despite his terrible shape, somehow, he’d forced himself to step out just so he could speak to Uhtred. He waited the whole time Uhtred was focused on healing himself — using that time to get a similar breakdown of how he got here from the Awakened Realm powerhouse.

Finally, once Uhtred was done, Elion Silverwood spoke:

"Human Uhtred, I Elion Silverwood, son of the noble Silverwood clan, mate of Highborn Eifrith Ra’Elis, challenge you to a duel!"

Uhtred blinked.

"Huh?" He turned and looked to the Awakened Realm powerhouse, who simply chewed on his grass stalk, content to watch. "What the fuck is this, the medieval ages? You want to challenge me to a duel?"

Elion Silverwood nodded, his eyes firm. "The first fight was a fluke! I don’t believe you would beat me if I am well prepared!"

The confusion on Uhtred’s face morphed into a tired exasperation. "So let me get this straight," he said, massaging his temple. "You risked your life to enter the Brutal Wilderness during a Beast Wave all so that you would have a chance to fight me again...?"

"That is correct," Elion Silverwood nodded, his expression remaining firm, as though he saw nothing wrong with what Uhtred had just said.

"Are you a fool?"

"Not at all. This is simply my pride as an Elf. I can never accept losing to a lesser like you," Elion said calmly. "I’m sure you can understand this. Even as a lesser, you must have things you are prideful and unbudging about, like your freedom for example... While you were cultivating and healing yourself, Awakened Otis told me about your short trip down the mountain. To me, that is nothing but foolish, but to you, it must have felt reasonable... That is what I mean by pride."

Uhtred didn’t know whether to be offended by Elion’s speech, or to marvel at his logic. He’d just insulted him — more than once, in fact — but at the same time, there was some sense to his words when his speech was taken as a whole.

In the end, Uhtred could only look up at the sky and sigh. "Fuck me and my terrible luck for always getting into shit like this..."

He remembered those words he’d said right after entering the city...

It turns out I really did jinx myself...

He had come into this Scenario with a plan, yet nothing had gone according to how he expected so far. So instead of continuing to lament, Uhtred accepted his fate and reoriented himself, thinking of how to take advantage of the current situation.

For better or worse, he was stuck here for a few days, at least. But there was a fully fledged Awakened Realm powerhouse, who for some reason, wasn’t hostile toward him — at least based on what he had seen so far.

Not only that, but there was also a full-blooded, prideful elf — powerful, and at Level 58 of the Nascent Realm. And this elf also wanted to fight him.

A willing, powerful sparring partner with a unique affinity that I wouldn’t mind learning at all...

The expression on Uhtred’s face slowly changed, turning wicked. He glanced at Elion’s prideful face.

Hold on... depending on how I play my cards, isn’t this an opportunity to gain two terrifying affinities, learn how elves behave, and if I’m lucky, also gain pointers from an Awakened Realm powerhouse?!