Since the caves had collapsed in many places, William and Carl's descent was greatly slowed the deeper that they went.
Their rate of movent was slowed even further when William's Illusionist's Cloak detected multiple Cultivators tunneling through the cave behind them. It wouldn't be long before the other thieves caught up.
William was forced to set traps to deal with the pursuers, consisting mostly of the Ice and Ti Elents to slow them down as much as possible. While this was mostly effective, it would only stop the weak ones. The Nascent Soul and Golden Core thieves, however, needed but a few minutes to break through.
William took the initiative to kill whatever thieves they ca across, not worried about the ever-diminishing Humanity Points when achieving a sneak-attack.
Since they weren't actively trying to kill him, it wasn't considered self-defense, but William didn't have ti to wait for them to unsheathe their weapons. His Humanity dropped bit by bit, until it bottod out at a flat 60 Points.
-Humanity has reached 60 Points. Your Humanity will no longer drop when killing mbers of criminal or evil organizations.
Good timing. Now I don't have to hold back against these fools! William smiled as he rushed towards the remaining group of thieves in the area. Now that they no longer dropped his Humanity, William treated them as if they were a pack of Magical Beasts waiting to gift him Potential Points.
Carl shuddered as a weak wave of bloodlust engulfed him. He didn't know where it ca from, but sothing about the environnt made him very nervous. His vision trailed towards Williams eyes, where he swore he could see a light red glow, but it disappeared when William blinked.
I'm just a bit nervous, or maybe it's one of William's abilities. Carl shook his head as he refocused on the fight. He used a cylinder of Earth to block the tunnel they ca through, then reinforced it with a few Basic Runes that he learned from William in the past few days.
It wasn't much, but Carl didn't have William's mory. He had to morize the Runes through repetition and practice, and there was no better ti to do it than during a fight where he had little impact.
William finished off the last thief in close-range, reaching forward and snapping the man's neck with a single fluid movent. Before the thief hit the ground, the body was stuffed in his Space Ring, stacked horrendously atop a pile of other corpses that laid inside.
He still hadn't added shelves to the Space Ring, but it didn't matter for now. It would have to be pushed to the next mont he had free ti. William grabbed a few weapons that had been dropped during the battle and threw them in the sa Space Ring, not worried that the corpses would suddenly co back to life and attack him.
Oh, speaking of which, I could use that Elent. William surmised, but then shook his head.
Now's not the ti, they'll slow down. Maybe later.
William looked backwards to see that Carl had already dealt with their entry route, so he added a few Advanced Arrays to reinforce the Earth Cylinder, nodding to his friend with satisfaction.
"You rember so Runes already, good job."
Carl nodded, "Thanks. Did I learn them faster than you?"
"Not even close. I morized six hundred in a few minutes."
"Okay I get it, you're a monster. No need to exaggerate so much though."
"No, I really did."
"Whatever." Carl wasn't interested in listening to William's rambling, true or not. Either way it would make him feel bad about himself.
They descended to the eighty-kiloter mark four hours later, while the thieves behind them were even slower. After taking out the few Nascent Soul and Golden Core thieves that caught up, the remainder were less unrelenting in their chase.
Not to ntion, no one but William had such insane Mana Regeneration. His SS-Rank Talent allowed him to recover Mana incredibly quickly when out of combat, which triggered just ten seconds after finishing battle.
That, combined with his Strength and Stamina Talents allowed him to destroy every obstacle ahead continuously and without any breaks in-between. William could do this for weeks if he wanted, now that he was a Cultivator and needed less and less sleep.
By the two-hour mark, only half of the thieves behind were still chasing, and thirty minutes later all movent from behind stopped. As of now, they were just under ten kiloters behind.
According to his Navigation Talent and Life Sense, five hundred thieves had set up a defensive periter in a single section and grouped together to rest. Rather than chasing William deeper into the cave, they opted to wait for his return and hope that the others could weaken him, or better yet, catch him first.
Good, it seems they're being smart now. William smiled.
This was exactly what he wanted, since even his Mana Regeneration had its limits. He still couldn't see the bottom of the cave, so William knew there would be plenty more battles to co. There might even be Soul Formation Cultivators left in this place, or the Thieves' Guild was calling them now.
"Let's take a break." William said as he set Carl down.
"Even you have your limits, huh?" Carl smirked, although he readily accepted the proposal.
In order to not feel useless, Carl had been using his Earth Mana to its limits, only stopping to rest for an hour every ti his Mana Reserves were exhausted. He didn't use any Mana Regeneration Pills to recover, though.
Instead, William had given him the Sword of Shifting Sands to hold onto while he casted his Magic, improving the efficiency and power of Carl's Earth Magic by ten percent. It wasn't much, but it helped him last a little bit longer than before.
He would have given out the Mana Gathering Staff as well, but it was too unique and precious, not to ntion linked to his original self. If it wasn't so risky, William might have considered absorbing these thieves' Mana before finishing them off.
-You've been abnormally cautious lately.
Well, that's because I've been chased down every ti I did sothing crazy. Isn't this what you wanted, System?
-Of course. Though it was fun watching the enemies pile up one by one. I'm glad you admit to being crazy.
You can have fun too, System? Are you sure you're an emotionless, all-powerful being?
-When did I ever say that?
True...Does that an you're not a machine or AI? What are you?
-You don't need to know these things.
The System sent ntal signals of warning to William, suggesting that he shouldn't ask further. It could have just erased his mory of the conversation, but that wasted a lot of its energy and wouldn't guarantee that William wouldn't ask again. It was better this way.
William nodded and focused on setting up a place to rest for Carl. It was only late afternoon and they had slept just the previous day, but Carl needed a break, and William could take this opportunity to collect so of the Greater Fire Shards that were spread around the cave.
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