After using apocalypse as a prop, Viers mended the White Flowers Meadow to its former appearance as if nothing had happened.

“Now listen up, all of those damages and injuries are true. To an ordinary Pathseeker, such a massive setback might cut their future short and drive them to the pits of despair but not me. I have a way to recover from all of that. It was actually just a matter of time before I got wounded to this degree. It happened a lot sooner than I expected but no matter. I’ll be back in tip-top shape soon enough. Including this,” Viers waved his missing left hand in front of the girls.

Looking at Viers’ usual self, the girls started to calm down.

“Here’s the plan. I will hunt a lot of monsters… then eat them. The mountains and forests around this village should have no lack of monsters. Their flesh shall be my nutrition.”

“Oookay… and?” Clarissa wondered what his next step was.

“That’s it. I’ll be just like new after I eat enough monster meat,” Viers had a hand on his chin and looked upward. Perhaps imagining the taste of monster steaks.

The girls looked at each other with confusion. Basically, Viers’ plan was to eat and feast and dine until he was healed.

Insanity.

“If all goes well, I will be fully recovered in a month.” Viers confidently said. “Well, it also depends on whether the Silver Legion busybodies can follow us here or not. I’ll scout the area later. But I think there’s a good chance we can peacefully recuperate here. In the meantime, I might have to stay in this village and do villager stuff.”

“What are you going to do about the two years of lifespan remaining?” Clarissa was puzzled. Viers was too calm for someone about to die and she knew him well enough to know Viers didn’t plan on dying in this century or the next.

“Aaah yes. Well… Fine, I’ll tell you girls about one of my secrets.” Viers was torn whether to tell them one of his special abilities but decided it would be fine telling them.

After all, they had accompanied Viers through many dangers. Sharing is caring.

The girls were listening intently. Viers was too mysterious for them and kept a lot of things hidden. Clarissa leaned forward inside her golden birdcage.

“I can raise my life energy by eating something rich in vitality such as monsters.”

The girls were stunned.

“I can feel my life energy. The higher my life energy, the longer my lifespan… I think. I never actually lived that long so I don’t know the specifics. My current life energy is very meager. I have used too much of it for healing various wounds and during the battle with Freya. If converted to lifespan, there are only about two years remaining. That’s the life energy of a decrepit grandpa.”

While Viers knew there were monsters that have lived for hundreds of years, not all monsters were so lucky. Most monsters didn’t live that long. Not because of their short lifespan, but because they were hunted. By people and other monsters. To evolve and rise in Rank, monsters needed to eat other monster’s cores as a consequence, they were usually hostile against other monsters of different species than themselves.

The world of monsters was a place where the strong eat the weak. Eat or be eaten. The purest form of the law of the jungle.

Nevertheless, generally, monster meat was rich in vitality and a luxury item. There were Pathseekers who made a living by hunting dangerous monsters to sell their meat.

That was why Viers insisted to eat the Cockatrice he hunted with Lena and the others. The small portion that he ate from the Rank 1 Cockatrice added about a week’s worth of lifespan.

Naturally, other people couldn’t reap such benefits from eating monsters. What Viers could do… it was an inhuman feat.

“Long story short, you know I can regenerate abnormally fast, right? That’s because I used my life energy to boost my regeneration. Since the well is almost dried up, my healing rate is also slowed. All will be fixed after I eat lots of monsters… Okay then, got things to do. I mainly came here to tell you that there’s no need to worry. Treat it as if you’re riding on a big ship and relax. See ya.”

“Viers… is this ability related to how you transform into monsters?” Paina dropped the question bomb.

He was stunned, he didn’t expect this. He saw Farley and Clarissa also had the same look of inquiry.

They must have seen it during the escape…

Six days ago, he escaped Freya by jumping off from a 150 meters cliff to the river below. Despite his heavy injury, Viers used his full capacity as a water Pathseeker to survive the fall.

And then, when he was underwater, Viers transformed into a fish with red scales as if it was magic. In a similarly magical fashion, his fish body had no wound on its body. The pain and tiredness he felt with his human body disappeared like a drop of water on a sizzling frying pan.

Because his fish form was smaller than his human body, his tattered clothes, Power Treads, and other things came off but Viers grabbed them using water control and swam upstream.

Anyone with a brain would think to search for him downstream. Viers was truly on his last legs, Freya would not miss that fact. Even if Viers survived, the general area he would be was the area down the river. However, she didn’t know that Viers could transform into a fish.

Thus, to deceive all of his pursuers, Viers swam against the currents. The salmon-sized fish kept swimming vigorously. He didn’t know how much time had passed, Viers was very frantic at the time. If he got caught then his fate might be worse than death so he swam like there was no tomorrow.

When he got to a branch in the river, he moved to the other stream and this time, followed the current. For days he put in great efforts of moving his tail and fins to be as far away as possible from his hunters. He was up against a Level 5! The peak of mortal prowess. In the end, he got too tired and washed ashore unconscious.

Then Luca found him.

The girls must have seen me transform and swim as a fish. After that, they fell asleep because I didn’t supply them with Victa. At that time, my head was too preoccupied with Freya, the old man, and escaping so I made an error. It seems they found out another one of my secrets.

“Perhaps. To be honest, I do not completely understand my powers yet,” Viers spoke plainly. Since the secret was out then it was out, but he had no obligation of sharing everything.

Paina had her left hand gripping her right elbow. Her body language looked so anxious and defensive in Viers’ eyes. “Who are you? Are you really human?”

Viers answered in his usual tone. Carefree with a touch of playfulness, as if there was nothing in the world that troubled him. Or was it simply because he had no concern about what other people thought about him?

“I’m more human than you could have ever imagined.”

***

Character development.

Viers knew what it meant, what its significance was in the novels he liked so much. The character grew during the course of the story, becoming ‘more’ than they were before.

For example, an untrusting man decided to extend a little trust. Or, a coward chose to do a valorous deed to save someone he loved. Or, a power-hungry youth with a misguided idea of seeking strength at all cost realized the error of his ways.

If Viers was in such a novel then this would be the perfect time for his ‘character development’ moment. Viers might realize his coldblooded action of killing Sigma and the others almost resulted in his demise therefore starting to rethink the entire philosophy driving his actions from the ground up. Turning a new leaf and becoming a heroic figure.

Saving people left and right like a saint. He would become a paragon of good, champion of light and justice.

On the other end of the spectrum, instead of positive character development, Viers might get a negative one instead. Like those popular stories with revenge formulas on modern Earth.

A hero betrayed by his companions after saving the world then was resurrected and started his revenge.

A cultivator got betrayed by his fiancée, became crippled, and abandoned by his clan. Then he started thousands of chapters long journey of revenge.

A god of war started his roaring rampage of revenge against a whole pantheon.

A guy started his roaring rampage of revenge because of a car and a puppy.

A bride in yellow spandex wanted to kill someone named Bill for revenge.

A healer got ravaged and humiliated then turned back time and swore revenge.

A black berserker who sought revenge on a white hawk.

A titan who attacked the world as revenge by rumbling it underfoot.

A guy who wanted to exterminate all goblins for revenge.

A younger brother who wanted revenge on his older brother because he killed their whole clan but the older brother turned out to be a good guy instead. So the younger brother began another revenge plot against his home village, armed with new badass red eyes to boot.

Revenge this… Revenge that…

Actually, doesn’t almost everything have revenge in it nowadays?

As interesting as those stories were, Viers didn’t stray from his ‘Path’. He had his own way of doing things.

It began with a quote: Living well is the best revenge.

Viers didn’t know who first said that but Viers remembered those words very clearly.

So Viers would not jump into a whirlpool of revenge. While he felt bitter because of Freya, he fully acknowledged the entire situation was his fault.

Because it was his karma for killing many people? For doing bad deeds?

Nay.

It was because he simply was not strong enough. He got wounded because he was weaker compared to Freya. He lost his stuff because he was less skillful than Freya. Why blame the bigoted Silver Legion brat when the fault clearly lay on him?

So he would live well while getting stronger in the process. He already had very suitable abilities for that.

Well, I still wouldn’t say no when given the chance to punch her in the face. Hey, that’s part of living well too, right?