Chương 46: Chapter 45: Checking His Loot!

Ben clutched the holding bag to his chest and stared at his arm. Flooding his entire body with mana, he prioritized his shredded flesh and immediately activated [Regeneration]. He watched the torn skin and weeping muscle slowly start to knit back together. It was definitely working, but it was way too slow. Tugging at the drawstrings of the pouch with his good hand, he tried to yank it open to check his loot. Nothing happened at all.

He didn't have the time or the focus to figure out the security mechanism on this thing while hovering like an idiot. I need to get the hell out of here. Decision made, Ben rocketed higher and blasted away from the nobles. But apparently, nearly blowing that blonde's head off hadn't been a strong enough deterrent. Another blinding beam of mana sliced through exactly where he'd been a moment before. Cursing, he dodged as two more beams whizzed past him. So the crazy bitch really wasn't giving up.

Pushing even more fire mana into his legs, he zigzagged through the air to avoid the incoming attacks. He needed to break their line of sight before they sniped him out of the sky for good. He squinted through the rushing wind and scanned the forest ahead for anywhere quiet to crack this bag open. It took him several minutes of flying to finally put enough distance between him and the angry nobles. Once he was sure they wouldn't spot him from the ground, he angled downward and dropped into the forest.

Navigating the forest on foot was going to be a nightmare for them with all the monsters around. So that gave him plenty of time to figure out his prize. He found a secluded spot nestled behind two massive boulders and dropped to the dirt with anticipation coursing through him. Leaning against the cool stone, he held up the small pouch. Alright, time to see what all the fuss was about. He yanked on the strings again, pulling as hard as he could with his good hand, but the fabric refused to give even an inch.

Knowing what he was doing was futile, he stopped and thought about it. It was obviously a magical item, right? So if he were going to design a magical bag, how would he use or unlock it? By using mana. The answer was so obvious he felt stupid for not thinking of it immediately. Smiling to himself, he pushed a tiny amount of mana into the holding bag, making sure it wouldn't damage it in any way because it was going to be incredibly useful to him. A soft mental click sounded in his mind.

Suddenly, a completely new 'sense' blossomed in his head. It was like looking into a room without using his eyes. The inside of the bag was huge, definitely way bigger than it looked on the outside. He didn't know the exact specifications, but it looked at least as big as a single bed, but quite high vertically. He saw what looked like the pond water sloshing around in a transparent glass section. Jackpot. But that wasn't all.

Looking past the water, he spotted a wooden staff, some chain mail armor, a few waterskins, a small pile of gold coins, and wrapped packages that smelled faintly of food.

"Hehe." This was exactly the kind of loot he needed! Looking past the weapons and coins, he immediately focused on the small pile of leather waterskins. Checking them through his new mental link, he realized more than half were already full of regular drinking water. Which was a bit annoying, but whatever. Finding a completely empty one, he pulled it out of the storage space. Tipping the magical pouch over the empty waterskin, he mentally willed the pond water from the glass container to pour out.

It worked flawlessly, filling the skin to the brim in seconds without spilling a single drop. Not wasting another heartbeat, he lifted the opening to his mouth and gulped the entire thing down. A warmth spread from his throat into his stomach and from there washed over his entire body. Then, a massive flood of incredibly high quality mana and essence exploded through his entire body. Ben felt energized. Electrified and jittery. So much energy inside him. Holy shit.

Quickly dropping into a cross legged position, he fired up his cycling technique to handle the rush. He pushed his senses outward and let [Mana Sonar] run continuously just in case they actually managed to track him through the woods. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. And he made sure to keep [Regeneration] running to heal his body and mangled arm, too. Settling his mind, Ben focused entirely on his breathing. [Focus]. Breathe in. Breathe out. In and out.

Guiding the wild essence through his body and shoving it in his core, he began absorbing and refining it all. So this was what rifts had inside them, huh? Treasures full of mana and essence? It was absolutely incredible. He hadn't even found any essence shards yet! Ben wondered just what else the rift had in store for him. He grew more and more excited for whatever rewards he would receive after he completed the objective and exited the rift.

It was going to be based on his performance, so he was sure to get something good. Exhaling a long breath, Ben finally opened his eyes. The jittery feeling in his veins had settled down. Checking his core, he couldn't help the massive grin stretching across his face. By the time he was done cycling all that dense mana, his core had been saturated significantly more! He was already 3/4th of the way to Tier 2! Late Tier 1. Hehe. Looking down at the waterskin in his lap, he gave the leather a little shake.

It was completely empty now, but he still had that entire glass container sitting inside the holding bag. Peering back into the storage space through his mental link, he gauged the volume of the sloshing magic water. There was a ridiculous amount of it left in there. Calculating his recent gains, he figured he had more than enough essence to push himself all the way to the next Tier. It would have to be done slowly, of course. Chugging it all at once would probably blow his internal organs out his ass.

But spacing it out would definitely get him to Tier 2. Though, there was a catch. Frowning slightly, he sighed. After using the water now, he had realized the water's potency had already started dropping off near the end of his cycling session. Once he actually broke through to Tier 2, this stuff probably wouldn't do much for his core anymore. Which was totally fine, to be honest. Because whatever he didn't drink, he could just lug back to civilization and sell to the highest bidder.

Liquid of this quality had to be worth quite a bit right? Rubbing his chin, he pictured the fat stacks of coins he was going to make off this. Or, well, he still wanted a proper dip in it, maybe it'd help temper his body. Opening his eyes, Ben blinked against the sudden glare of orange light. Someone was sitting across from him, casually poking at a small crackling campfire. Jerking upright, Ben frantically took in his surroundings. The forest was completely pitch black.

And the ground around them was absolutely littered with corpses. Dead, oversized monkeys and massive beetles were piled up in a loose, bloody circle around them, and between all of that sat the stranger, poking at the campfire with a stick. What the fuck? The rift has day night cycles? No, forget that, who is he?! Ben stared at the stranger, stunned, as adrenaline pumped into his veins in preparation for saving his life. Had he completely lost track of time?

Ben swallowed, realizing that if this guy actually wanted to attack him, he would already be dead. The stranger had a massive window of opportunity while Ben was entirely defenseless and busy cycling essence for who knows how long. He'd completely lost track of time. Which immediately brought up a much more concerning problem. His [Mana Sonar] had been completely and utterly useless. Again.

He hadn't sensed this guy, and he definitely hadn't sensed the literal army of monsters that had apparently tried to ambush him in the dark. Was I really that deep in my cycling? Noticing his sudden movement, the young man across the fire offered a warm smile.

"Oh, you're awake." He sounded like they were just two buddies hanging out on a weekend camping trip. Ben didn't relax at all. Keeping his guard up, he quickly clamped down on his mind with [Focus] to suppress the shock from showing anything on his expression. Tossing another stick into the fire, the guy gestured loosely at the night sky.

"I saw you flying earlier when I was scouting an area with potential resources and maybe a high tier enemy or two. You were making quite the noise up there with those explosions of yours." Resting his chin on his hand, the stranger looked at Ben with mild amusement.

"And it seemed like someone was hunting you. Then you came down, scanned the area with that skill of yours, and just started cycling." Leaning back, the older boy gave a small sigh.

"But unfortunately, that scanning skill seems to be pretty limited in scope, even if you seem to have tried scanning quite a big range of frequencies." Ben just stared at him. He actually didn't know what to say to that. So he remained completely silent as his mind worked out potential escape routes and avenues of attack. The stranger shrugged off the awkward silence.

"It seems like your skill is set to a certain frequency range. If someone is concealing themselves using another frequency range entirely, you won't see them." Pointing a burning stick at Ben, the stranger smiled.

"Unless, of course, you actively change the frequency you're trying to sense, eh?" Poking the glowing embers again, he casually nodded at the slaughtered monsters surrounding them.

"I saw you cycling, so I thought I'd just stick around a bit in case you needed any help. And then these guys showed up." Dusting off his hands, the stranger stretched his legs out with a long yawn.

"So I just had to create a barrier around you. I didn't want you sensing them and breaking out of your concentration, especially because you seemed to be trying to break through a minor stage." Flashing another brilliantly bright smile, the guy clapped his hands together.

"Congratulations by the way on reaching the late stage of Tier 1. You're pretty young to have already done that." Ben blinked. Tilting his head, the stranger raised a curious eyebrow.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" Frowning deeply, Ben finally found his voice.

"You haven't even—nevermind, who the hell are you?" Blinking in surprise, the older boy's eyes widened slightly before a look of realization dawned on his face.

"Oh, my apologies. I completely forgot my manners." Standing up smoothly, he placed a hand over his chest and gave a polite bow with a light smirk.

"I am Ethan Lionheart, pleasure to meet you."