Chapter 72 — Disciple of The Northern Gladiator Guild
....
The electric bell fell over Socrates, trapping his already dead body inside of it...
Yes... This is not a near-death experience just as you might have thought...
Socrates, the son of Trueblood, was already dead...
He had fallen unconscious since a while ago, and now every part of his system had shut down... His limbs, liver, kidney, brain, and even his heart were no longer pumping blood through his system...
He had fallen into the state of the parasympathetic nervous system, and every part of his body was pinned down by energy blades that caused him to be covered in a pool of blood...
But the human body is designed in such a beautiful way that one doesn't just die completely...
Take for instance a cockerel whose neck was slit with a knife... Even after being slit or rather decapitated, its body still struggled for a while, and if nothing is done to it, it will completely shut down...
That was the kind of situation Socrates was in, and if nothing was done to him, he'll die completely...
And that was why Mr. Brown used his treasure to make sure he killed Socrates completely...
Electric arcs surged out of the bell and concentrated into Socrates' body, descending directly onto his back...
The first arc came tearing through the blades as the five blades pinned into his back lit up brightly...
Another surge descended into his body as it was transmitted into the five blades, forming circular bolts that connected into the blade buried in his back...
Jerk—
The bolts penetrated into his system...
Jerk... Jerk...
SPARK—
Another rush of electric bolts descended, and all five blades were destroyed instantly, including his clothes, leaving his body exposed to the electric arcs...
BOLT—
Another terrifying bolt struck him, and this time it was absorbed directly by his body, flowing straight into his system...
His body jerked upward...
Once... Twice...
BADUUM...
BADUUM...
His heart, which had stopped beating, resumed beating once more under the constant sparks of electricity...
The electric bell, upon sensing that its target hadn't been destroyed, hummed loudly as electric arcs descended from everywhere...
The crazy bolts struck Socrates from all directions as every arc of lightning jolted awake every part of his system...
His muscles, limbs, joints... They were all violently awakened as steam started rising from his body...
And then suddenly—
His eyes snapped open...
GASP—
He sucked in air before coughing violently as blood spilled out from his mouth...
A blinding light shone above him as he looked up to see terrifying bolts descending upon him when he blocked them with his arms...
The golden bracelets around his limbs were good conductors of electricity as the bolts were transmitted into the bracelets before spreading into every part of his body...
Socrates didn't say a word, nor could he speak, as bolts descended upon him from all corners, but his physique could withstand these terrifying arcs...
Socrates had absorbed an electric power core from a bot almost a year ago and had gained an Electric Steam Physique... So these electric arcs felt more like a tribulation for him...
"A perfect chance to evolve my physique..."
Socrates didn't resist nor did he fight back as he allowed the electric bolts to pour into him while steam started rising from every part of his body...
The heat was so intense that the combination of it and the destructive nature of the electric arcs melted the bracelets around his limbs...
Socrates didn't hesitate... He grabbed his left wrist with his right hand and forcefully removed the melted bracelet from his wrist before throwing it toward the electric bell...
BANG—
A loud impact struck the bell as even the electric arcs paused for a brief second... Its glow dimmed as a visible dent appeared on the treasure...
He pulled out the second one and flung it at the bell...
BANG—
The bell shook vigorously as cracks started appearing across its surface...
This was the weight Socrates had been carrying all this while...
A weight that could rival a boulder...
He did the same for the other two on his legs as it became easier to pull them off after they had been melted by the heat and electricity... Then he flung them toward the electric bell, which shattered instantly from just the weight of the bracelets Socrates had been carrying around...
SCATTER—
The debris flew everywhere as Socrates stepped out from within the destruction, orange electric bolts crackling wildly around his body while waves of heat rolled outward from him...
Steam rose continuously from his skin...
He was almost naked with what remained of his trousers barely enough to cover his private parts as he slowly opened his bright ocean-blue eyes, staring directly at the terrified Mr. Brown...
His body recognized this man instantly as his mind and body synchronized once more...
"Thank you for the gift..."
The words drifted calmly into Mr. Brown's ears, causing the man's mouth to slowly fall open in disbelief...
Not only had Socrates survived, but the aura he was exuding was now that of a Peak-Level Energy Condensation Realm expert...
Socrates had thanked the man for the gift... But what gift exactly? Was it for helping him remove the golden bracelets that had weighed him down all this while... Or for further evolving his physique?
"How... How did you manage to survive?" Mr. Brown asked in shock... Everything about Socrates simply wasn't making sense anymore...
"Let's just say..."
Socrates stepped forward...
And then he appeared directly before Mr. Brown...
He didn't run...
He didn't charge...
He simply took a single step and crossed a distance of ten meters within a fraction of a second, the ground beneath his feet exploding apart from the pressure...
And in that instant, his hand had already condensed into a fist...
"I got lucky..."
He concluded as the fist traveled toward Mr. Brown's face...
The Guild Leader couldn't move...
Couldn't dodge...
His pupils shrank violently as he stared helplessly at the incoming fist...
BOOOOM—!!!
It sounded like an explosion detonating inside the arena itself...
QUAKE—
QUAKE—
QUAKE—
BOOM! BOOM!!
The terrifying sound wave destroyed layers of air as even the windows of the arena shattered instantly under the pressure...
Cracks spread across the pillars and walls of the second and third floors while spectators screamed and rushed away from the raining debris...
The first floor became completely swallowed by dust as nobody could tell what was happening anymore...
People were only concerned about surviving the aftermath of the collision...
Only Judas remained seated calmly as though completely unaffected by the chaos...
The flying debris didn't even reach his direction...
But the moment the dust slowly cleared away, even his eyes widened in shock as he stared down toward the arena ground...
There was no arena floor anymore...
The entire ground had been completely destroyed, creating a massive crater nearly ten feet deep...
And at the bottom of that crater lay a man whose head had been completely shattered...
"What terrifying strength... Who in the world is he?" Judas muttered in genuine shock...
Not even one of his own punches could produce such an effect... Yet this youth's single strike had not only shattered a Peak Energy Condensation Realm cultivator but had also created a ten-foot-deep crater and cracked the entire building above...
Judas slowly lifted his gaze as he sensed several powerful presences awakening around the arena...
Their eyes were all fixed on Socrates, who stood silently before the massive crater with electric steam rolling off his body...
Some carried evil intentions...
Others stared with greed...
While some already wanted to recruit him into their faction...
Then suddenly—
A man appeared beside Socrates without warning...
No sound...
No pressure...
No movement...
He simply appeared there...
The man wore a sparkling white robe and had a calm expression on his face with both hands placed behind his back...
Socrates hadn't even noticed the man's presence until he was already beside him...
And the moment he recognized him, his eyes widened in shock...
It was the same white-robed man who had sent him into the Underworld...
"You seem to be having a nice time here, Young Socrates..." the white-robed man whispered softly into his ear...
'Elder Hestruin...'
The name lingered within Socrates' mind, but before he could even turn around—
THUD—
A straight jab landed against the side of his neck...
Socrates' pupils trembled violently before his entire body instantly went limp as darkness swallowed him once more...
The strike had been delivered with nothing but the side of Elder Hestruin's palm, yet Socrates didn't even have the time to react before he fell unconscious...
The terrifying electric arcs around his body faded instantly...
But before he could collapse onto the ground, Elder Hestruin casually grabbed him by the hair with one hand while waving his free hand lightly through the air...
The golden bracelets lying scattered on the ground immediately trembled before flying directly into his grip...
The spectators watched the scene with widened eyes...
Nobody dared to speak...
Nobody dared to interrupt...
Even the powerful presences hidden within the arena remained silent the moment the white-robed elder appeared...
Then without saying another word...
Elder Hestruin vanished exactly the same way he had appeared...
No footsteps...
No energy fluctuations...
No traces left behind...
He simply disappeared from sight while dragging the unconscious Socrates away with him...
The silence within the arena became heavier than before...
Only after several seconds did voices finally begin erupting across the floors once more...
"Who was that?"
"Did you feel his presence?"
"I couldn't even sense his cultivation..."
"That old man... He took Socrates away..."
Although many hadn't recognized the white-robed man himself...
A lot of people had recognized the insignia on his chest...
The insignia of the Northern Gladiator Guild...
Fear and shock instantly spread through the spectators...
"An Elder of the Northern Gladiator Guild..."
"For him to personally come and save Socrates..."
"Doesn't that mean..."
"That youth is a disciple of the Northern Gladiator Guild?"
The information spread wildly throughout the arena as people hurriedly contacted their superiors...
A terrifying new monster had just appeared within the Glacier Dungeon...
And that monster had a terrifying backer behind him...
Judas remained seated quietly as he slowly grabbed a cup of wine from the table before him...
"The Underworld will witness a new change..." he muttered with a slight frown as he raised the cup toward his lips...
But before the wine could even touch his mouth—
CRACK—
Tiny fractures suddenly spread across the surface of the cup...
Then it shattered instantly within his fingers...
Wine dripped slowly down his hand as the frown on Judas' face deepened even further...
'He just keeps spoiling everything...'