Chapter 85 Time-Skip (2)
Alexander had a big choice to make , as continuing to explore the ruins would mean that he would be unable to return to his territory for a long time . However after making up his mind to turn back he realised that his heart would simply not allow him to turn his back on a happy future for Ronan.
He tried to be an upright king , he tried to do his best for his citizens who were like his own children for him. However compared to his own flesh and blood they finally paled in comparison.
Reason suggested Alexander to go back , however when he thought about Ronan’s struggles and Sierra’s tears when she missed him , Alexander knew that the only way to make his family whole again was by getting that ring.
Finally the family man Alexander won the duel over king Alexander and he decided to delve deeper into the ruins , even if it meant that he would be gone for years.
Writing a letter on the special paper , he informed Sierra of his choice and burnt it using his fingers once he was done .
His resolve strong , and his will to improve unshakable. Alexander had decided to retrieve the ancient ring for Ronan and decided to improve himself in the process of getting there.
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( Ronan’s POV)
After 3 months inside the cave of penance , Ronan was visited by Vishvakarma once more as he was granted his first reward , which was to write a letter to his family.
However reaching the 3 months mark also meant that he needed to give up one more of his senses should he wish to stay for 3 more months inside the cave ..
This time the choice was his own , and he decided to give up ‘ Sleep ‘.
After vishvakarma left , Ronan wrote along and heartfelt letter to Sierra with trembling hands .
Although he had beleived that it would be a joyous occasion to write to his mother , and would feel like a hard-earned reward. When he actually picked up the pen his emotional state crumpled .
For Ronan his mother was his safe haven and the one person he shared everything to , so when he tried to write a letter to her all the pent up emotions over the past few months washed over him at once as he could not understand what words to put down in his letter.
In the end , Ronan summarised everything that had happened so far and he tried extra hard to make it sound adventurous and happy , eventhough he was devastated inside.
Ending with a don’t worry , i will be home back soon . Ronan told her how he won’t be able to write for a while after this and told her to not worry.
Although Ronan put a brave front in his choice of words , internally , writing that letter was the hardest thing he had done in the last 3 months.
Having to relive the horror of the death of his sensei and craving the affection of his mother and family , Ronan felt an unprecedented low as he looked at the empty white surroundings and truly felt alone in life.
No teacher , no family and no friends.
In the wide continent of Everlon , Ronan Draco was a loner and it was all because of some stupid power that he did not even ask for.
Somedays he wished to be born without any talents , and without any elements . To just live a normal life of a happy kid , but fate did not have such plans for him.
Banging his fist on the wall , Ronan let the stream of tears flow unchecked as he cried his heart out .
He had been eating dirt and drinking muddy water for 3 months now and his new choice now left him without a moments peace even at night-time.
For the next month , Ronan was tormented with horrors at night as his dreams were riddled with nightmares that would make him sweat a litre of water every night.
It became so bad for him , that he could no longer fall asleep naturally and only by training till his body went into shut-down , could he ever catch a wink , but even that was filled with nightmares.
Every day was the same monotone routine for him. Eat , train till his body felt asleep , wake-up and eat before training once more.
His will was tested each and every day inside the cave , as with every passing day his thoughts kept revolving around how hard it was to stay inside and how good it would be to just leave.
A part of Ronan’s brain that abhored the torture tried to seduce Ronan into leaving the cave by saying things like ‘ I’m a genius , i can gain those levels without suffering so much ‘.
However Ronan never gave into such desires as he tempered his will and trained like there was no tommorow.
Soon 6 months passed and Ronan gave up the sense of communication , as his voice was taken away from him in return for being allowed to stay 3 more months .
Ronan gained 5 levels as his reward to stay 6 months and levelled up once due to his training , as he started to perfect the martial arts taught to him by Karna.
The endless Whitefield and the uncanny silence left Ronan with nothing but training to do to keep himself sane , as there was literally nothing else to do inside the cave of penance.
Although he did not realize it himself , the environment made it so that his mind was always 100% focused in what he was doing as there were literally no distractions or options for his mind to wander to.
Alone with his goals and his burning desire of revenge , Ronan’s growth speed increased 3 times his normal rate , as he did extremely effective training inside the cave.
At the 9 months mark , he had perfected the Suryavanshi clan martial arts uptil the third level and was able to create his special move the Flaming lightning wheel with the golden thunder element as a substitute for normal Thunder.
The move was already an A rated technique with devastating power , however with Ronan increasing his own levels and substituting the thunder inside with golden thunder it became an S ranked technique of death and destruction.
Extremely dangerous the move could even kill a level 120 warrior in a split second. However it was mastered by a measely 10 year old boy.
At the 9 month mark Ronan realized that he needed to start weapons training as it was a field that he was severely lacking at the moment compared to his martial arts and his elemental attacks hence he decided to ask for a battle-axe from vishvakarma.
The axe that vishvakarma was called ‘ Wind-Cutter ‘ and was a legendary axe forged from one of the strongest ores known to mankind , the black mithril iron.
The handle of the weapon being made from the leg bones of a dead dragon , it was an ultimate weapon that was extremely light weight and sturdy.
Making a noice of ‘ Shua ‘ , everytime it was swung , it got the name of Windcutter as even wind itself split when this axe was swung.
Ronan also wanted a good weapon technique to train with , however it was a luxury that had to wait for another 3 months.
Having to sacrifice ‘ Smell ‘ , Ronan paid the toll to stay another 3 months inside the cave of penance.
At first he did not even notice the absence of the sense of smell , however after one day he realised how atrocious it was to lose the sense of smell.
Everytime he inhaled air , he felt funny as although there was a cool sensation in his nostrils , his mind could not figure out what he was breathing in , giving him a sense of choking at all times.
Ronan thought that losing the sense of smell would make no difference but he was wrong!
The human body was so attuned to the smell of air that it no longer paid any attention to it , however if that was suddenly removed one would go crazy without the familiar smell in their nostrils.
His senses became on edge at all times , as his training became extremely difficult without him being able to breathe normally.
There was no rhythm to his movements and he got tired extremely quickly after short excercises without oxygen to replenish his muscle strength.
Every passing day became a more and more brutal torture for him inside the cave of penance , as Ronan was carefully molded under this intense suffering that he was undergoing.
He no longer cried or complained , but accepted his sufferings and made it a part of himself and his sense of reality.
Suppressing his emotions instead , he filtered everything that made him weak and kept only the parts which kept him motivated to work harder and survive in this harsh place.
Inside the cave of penance , the cute , funny , sweet loving and kind child that Ronan Draco was slowly and steadily died and a cold , ruthless and determined young man started to emerge.
Growing stronger , he steadily worked towards achieving his goals.