Vincent looked at the old man calmly without saying a word before walking out from the water and heading towards the old man.
Upon seeing this, the old man shouted, "Who the hell are you!? And what do you want!? And cover yourself! I don't want to see that."
Vincent slowly stopped upon hearing the old man's enraged voice.
He looked down at himself and weakly smiled.
He was so used to being naked in that cave that he completely forgot where he was.
With it, he placed the bag on the shore and took something out covered in old fabric.
After unpacking the book hidden within the fabric, he placed the book into the bag while using the fabric to cover his lower body.
It looked very out of place, but at least it covered the sensitive part so Vincent was satisfied.
With a weak smile, he spoke after looking at the old man, "My apologies, senior."
The old man also calmed down.
"Who are you? And what are you doing here naked? I was here in the morning and don't remember seeing you anywhere nearby."
Almost instantly, Vincent responded with a wry smile, "I'm a bit ashamed to talk about it. I got drunk yesterday and was kicked out from my home after the ruckus I've made, so I went here to the lake to clear my head a bit. I was not careful with clothes and left them somewhere and forgot."
The old man found this story somewhat out of place, but in the end he shook his head.
He doesn't care enough to pry any further. Even if all of this was a lie, so what? It has nothing to do with him.
"If you don't need anything then I'll be going on my way. Don't drink so much next time. You're too young for this crap."
The old man turned around and left.
Vincent wanted to stop him and ask some questions, but after a brief pause, decided to not.
He doesn't want to bother this elderly man any longer.
Soon he was left alone on the shore as the sun gradually disappeared on the horizon.
'I hope my mother is doing well. I don't know how she handled my disappearance, so I better go back as fast as possible and explain to her what happened. I just hope they didn't proclaim me as dead. But if they did…'
With this though, his desire to meet mother became even stronger.
But there was an issue.
Vincent looked down at his almost naked body.
'I can't go back like this.'
Suddenly, a slight possibility of something appeared in his head.
Vincent looked at the shore around him.
Seeing nothing unusual, he wasn't discouraged and searched the entire shore.
After around 15 minutes, he stopped.
A warm smile appeared on his face and he walked towards a certain place.
After arriving, he bent down and picked several pieces of clothing.
'Who else could it be if not mother,' his heart warmed upon this discovery.
His mother had probably left those clothes in case he'd come back. Though the chances were slim, she didn't abandon hope even after all those years.
Vincent slowly wore the clothes and figured out that they barely managed to fit on him.
Vincent's body, on one side looked somewhat malnourished, while on the other, clear and vivid muscles were covering his body, making his body look quite impressive.
Vincent's new physique was not only the result of his dedicated work on improving his chances of leaving the cave through constant workout, but it also was the result of something entirely else.
He looked at his new clothing and weakly smiled as it tightly stuck to his body. It was a bit uncomfortable, but still bearable.
Afterwards, Vincent threw the bag onto his back and then picked the wooden stick.
He was wearing fingerless black gloves for some reason.
Vincent took one last look at the lake.
'I hope your soul rests in peace. And please be sure. I will complete the mission you've set on me, regardless of how long it might take,' he thought with an expressionless face before departing.
'Time to go home.'
…
Around an hour later, a young man was standing in the tree's shadow at the night forest while calmly looking ahead, but inwardly his emotions were a bit chaotic.
The Mirkwood village was just a few hundred meters away. He can clearly see the entrance and the sole guard that he doesn't recognise.
'I would have liked to go and simply enter, but this will definitely cause quite a ruckus which I don't need.'
Vincent contemplated a bit on how he should approach this before a sudden idea appeared in his head.
'Why not try this? This will actually be a perfect test. If it fails and in the end it exposes me then so be it. But if it succeeds…'
Vincent became quite curious and eager to try it out.
After he made up his mind, he casually stepped forward on a main road.
…
"Eeaa~" the village guard yawned as he lazily sat on the chair beside the wooden gates.
'Tomorrow I will be replaced and will finally be able to get a proper sleep,' thought the middle-aged man as he yawned again.
Looking at the bright moon high in the sky, his thoughts drifted away from the village matters.
Suddenly, he heard an odd weak sound not far away from him.
He lazily looked at the empty road without standing.
'Hmm, must be some rat,' he thought and moved his gaze away without much care.
Suddenly, his side vision saw something odd and after turning his head, a bit of confusion she dejectively shook his head.
'I'm already seeing stuff. Can't wait for tomorrow,' he thought, mocking himself before yawning again.
…
After passing the gates, Vincent stopped on his tracks near some random tree.
He looked at his hand with a calm face, but inwardly he was joyful.
'It worked. Not perfectly, but it still worked.'
Right now, something odd was happening with his body.
Several odd looking black lines were appearing on his entire body for a short moment before disappearing and then reappearing again as if they were pulsating.
They looked like blood vessels, but of a black colour. Most of those odd veins could be seen on his chest near the heart as side parts of them spread to the head and limbs.
This oddity continued for several seconds before gradually vanishing, turning his body to normal.
But that wasn't the only odd thing about his body.
If someone will have a very closer look into him, they'd be able to see that around his green pupils were something weird. It was hard to tell what it looked like, but the first impression will be a transparent fire. Truly an odd sight.
Vincent calmly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the odd phenomena were gone as if never happened in the first place.
He looked at the bright moon and slowly exhaled.
'Combining the darkness essence with soul force is not that easy, but not that hard either. It surprisingly has quite a sufficient concealment property at night time. Not sure it will be as effective in day time. Need more testing. Moreover, If there were two guards instead of one, would I still be able to sneak past them unnoticed? After all, though the activation of black essence did require constant concentration, the soul force does. I had to constantly maintain the sight of that guard to further disrupt his sensory perception. If I had to use it on two people at the same time, I'm not sure that it would be as effective,' Vincent contemplated.
Even if his concerns were true, he was still inwardly joyful.
After all, he had only stepped onto three paths of cultivation a few years ago and yet it already gave him such a unique advantage against common people.
As he stood under a tree shadow, Vincent calmly moved his eyes from the moon down to a certain house in the distance and a warm smile appeared as he thought about someone.
'I'm finally at home.'
…
As morning sun slowly appeared on the horizont, various birds started chipping, waking up the villagers as they usually do.
*Crack*
Suddenly, a door of one of the houses was opened and a beautiful middle-aged woman walked out.
After closing the door, she headed to the back of the house.
She entered a small garden and began her daily working routine.
After around half an hour, she straightened up and looked up.
There was a clear exhaustion on her beautiful face as she looked at the sky, but also something else.
After she took a short break, the woman resumed her work.
Suddenly, she heard a loud and familiar voice from the back that made her heart jump.
"Vanessa! Come and meet me. I have something to discuss with you."
When Vanessa recognised the voice, her face darkened.
"We have nothing to discuss. Leave," she replied with a cold tone as she dug out potatoes, clearly not treating that person with respect.
"Vanessa. You know this is inevitable. Why do you need to be so stubborn?" A young male voice rang again from the front of the house.
"Keep your delusions to yourself and fuck off from here," Vanessa coldly exclaimed while placing potatoes in the basket before crouching to another spot.
"..."
There was no reply afterwards, which made Vanessa inwardly rejoice.
"You'll regret talking to me like this."
Vanessa's eyes narrowed upon hearing it.
Afterwards, some tranquility was brought back to the garden.
Several hours later, as the sunset was approaching, Vanessa deeply exhaled, wiping her forehead with a piece of fabric.
Looking at the sunset and then at the work she did in the garden, she nodded slightly in satisfaction.
After picking up the tools, she went back home to make dinner and prepare for the next day.
With a *crack* the old wooden door opened and with a click she closed the lock.
After placing aside the hat and changing shoes, she went to the kitchen as her thoughts had drifted towards something else.
When she entered the kitchen, she didn't even notice that there was an unfamiliar old bag and a wooden stick lying on a table.
After briefly washing herself and putting unpleasant thoughts to the side of her head, she turned around.
Her calm face suddenly froze as she saw those unfamiliar things on the table.
Her brows narrowed and her heart skipped a beat as she hastily looked around.
"..."
The kitchen was quiet.
Seeing no one, a brief thought suddenly appeared in her hind and her heart dropped.
She slowly picked a knife and hid it behind her back.
'You lustful son of a bitch. You finally decided to act, yeah?' Vanessa thought as her heart was racing.
But looking at these things on the table, she can't get rid of the feeling that something was off.
If that bastard finally decided to act, then why is he exposing himself like this? Though she hated him, she knew that he wasn't that retarted to do such a mistake.
She contemplated silently in high alert.
"Looks like you'll have a lot of explosions to do."
*Crash!*
Several pieces of furniture fell from the table and broke apart.
Vanessa unconsciously moved back in shock and almost fell down herself while unintentionally sending down a few glasses cups.
Her heart jumped in horror as she suddenly heard this calm voice right beside her.
She looked with wide eyes at the source and saw the back of a man standing beside an open window that was looking outside.
'How the hell did he appear there!?' Vanessa became truly frightened as she gripped the knife behind her back.
"The clothes you had left behind were a bit small. But I can't complain. After all, so many years had passed," calmly spoke to the intruder before slowly turning back his head and looking at Vanessa with a warm smile.
Vanessa stared at this man in fright before her eyes narrowed.
She found the face of this man somewhat familiar. But when she heard what he had just said, she froze.
With a *thud* the knife behind her back fell onto the floor.
Vanessa's heartbeat intensified like never before as she stared in utter disbelief. Tears soon covered her eyes and began to fall down on her beautiful face.
Without saying anything, she sped towards this tall young man and tightly hugged him.
"I knew… I know you're alright!" Vanessa sobbed into his chest as her hand tightly held the man's back and cried without holding back as all her worries and fears were washed out with those tears.
Vincent didn't say anything as he gently looked down at her. Though from outside he didn't show much emotions, inwardly they were overflowing as he hugged his mother without interrupting her outburst.
The kitchen became filled with women's sobbing.
Only after 5 minutes, as Vanessa let out all her emotions that she was suppressing all those years, she gradually managed to calm dawn, though only a bit.
After her outburst of emotions somewhat settled down, she moved back and wiped her red-eyes before taking a closer look at her son.
"I almost can't recognise you. You've not only become taller than me. Your body and hair…" she spoke with astonishment upon observing the physical changes in appearance that her son undertook after all those years.
Her eyes then spotted something on his finger and she asked in shock.
"You get married!?"
Vincent's brows rose in surprise before he understood the reason for her words and raised his hand that was wearing a several colored ring on one of his fingers.
"You're talking about think? This isn't what you think. And I don't plan on getting married any time soon, so you'll have to wait a bit longer," Vincent chuckles in amusement upon seeing his mother jumping into such a conclusion straight away.
Vanessa blinked a few times before cursing herself inwardly for speaking without thinking first.
"We have a lot to talk about. But before that, were you hungry? I was planning to make dinner anyway," she spoke with a bright smile that didn't appear on her face for years.
Vincent also smiled in return, "Whatever you make, I'll eat with joy. I'll help you."
Vanessa's heartbeat was racing.
Finally, the old and happy days are back in her life.
After the dinner was made, they both sat in silence to eat without uttering a word to each other.
As Vanessa ate, she couldn't stop looking at her son and the changes that he undertook.
Vincent found such an intense gaze on his body even a bit uncomfortable, but he didn't stop her only inwardly chuckle at her mother's actions.
Soon, when the food was eaten and dishes washed, they too sat in front of each other.
Vincent was first to break the silence.
"I guess I should start first."
With those words, Vincent began his long story as Vanessa carefully listened, not wanting to miss a single word.
Vincent started when he arrived at the lake, how he searched a hidden underwater pathway and how he almost drowned in the process which made Vanessa's heart squeeze.
Then his story followed to the actual underwater cave where everything happened.
He spoke about his poor physical state, the narrow pathway, spiderwebs, the big cave, the pond and then arrived at the hooded skeleton at the end.
About the stuff he found that the ancestor had left behind for him.
"But when I tried to leave the cave, something complicated unexpectedly happened that blocked the entrance. I've tried all possible ways to leave. Digging the walls, the floor, but nothing worked…"
Afterwards he starts talking about how he almost lost his mind from hunger. In desperation, he started to search for any food he could eat, but all he found were spiders.
Vanessa's heart shook. Even Vincent inwardly trembled a bit upon recalling those memories.
But even after he pushed himself to overcome his fear, there weren't enough spiders to fill his stomach for the long term.
After two weeks of starvation, he became completely desperate and lost all reasoning and started to consume the bones of the ancestor.
Hearing this, Vanessa's body shook, but Vincent calmly continued.
"But to my surprise, those bones were quite easily consumed. But even that wasn't what shocked me. Just one bone was enough to settle the hunger for an entire week. If not for those bones, I don't think you'll be able to ever see me again."
Vanessa gulped with a pale face as Vincent's story progressed.
As the issue with hunger was suddenly resolved, and since he was unable to leave, he divulged himself into the context of the old book left by the ancestor.
Through that book, he discovered an entire new world.
He found about people that were called "cultivators" that controlled or absorbed the mysterious energy in the air that was simply called "essence".
There were also mentioned the three main cultivation paths. Its beginning phases, stages, requirements and benefits upon reaching them.
The tome didn't mention how exactly those 3 paths came to be, but the author assumed that it was a result of endless experimentation of ancient people.
After countless years, it was discovered that the human race was the most versatile race of all in terms of cultivation accessibility that theoretically could advance in all three paths simultaneously, but only if they were born with a so-called essence seed that allowed them to manipulate and absorb the "essence" in the air to certain extent.
It is said that approximately only 1 in 10,000 are born with an essence seed that allows the person to step into the Essence path. The only path that potentially, theoretically can lead to something that people call as Gods.
But there were so many dangers involved that the author decided not even to mention them as he didn't know anyone after his very long life who even came close to that point.
The book had described only the beginning phase.
But if the person wasn't blessed with essence seed by birth, it wasn't over for them. Though they couldn't walk on Essence path there were second option:
Body Tempering
It was stated that this path didn't have any such strict requirements as the Essence Path and was accessible to everyone.
But to advance on this path requires a strong determination, resilience and be ready to withstand horrendous pain that was hard to describe. And not only that. It will require a person to constantly walk on the edge of the knife, entering life and death situations.
Only after overcoming those obstacles, can one dream of further heights.
It is stated that the author once encountered a person who've managed to reach an intermediate phase in Body Tempering was able to crush rocks with a grip of his hand or even rip apart steel like a paper.
Through his observations, though this path didn't have accessibility requirements to enter it, very, very few were successful in it. Even in comparison to Essence Path.
And if this path wasn't suitable for someone, there was the last and the most mysterious path.
Soul Refinement
It is stated that this path focuses solely on self-progression as an entity.
It didn't require to be born with specific mutation to step into this path like Essence Path nor does it require high pain tolerance and constantly fight for own survival like Body Tempering, but instead it is heavily reliant on person's mental state, emotions, perception and self-reflection to the point that one mistake in meditation can lead to disruption of mental and emotional state or even entire the collapse of the entire soul.
The author mentioned how he often met people who failed in their mediation and turned into empty shells of who they once were.
Those people that become like that are often put out of their misery and killed out of pity by close relatives or family members if they even have such.
Truly pitiful ending.
Overall, the author described those 3 paths such as:
Body Tempering: They do not use power — they are power
Soul Refinement: Where Power fades. Identity endures
Essence Cultivation: Reality obeys only those it accepts
Even as a young 10 year-old boy, Vincent was able to understand the context relatively easily.
Whoever wrote that old tome, he or she had truly put a lot of effort and time into it.
…
"I've already taken the first step into that path and only god knows how far I'll be able to reach," Vincent calmly said as he sipped the hot tea.