SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will - Chapter 357 Returning to the Second Sanctuary

Chapter 357  Returning to the Second Sanctuary

Moon kept the output low. He was sitting in the middle of his living room, and the last thing he needed was to burn the house down or crack the foundation beneath him. He certainly didn’t want to his new home to become a smoking crater.

He held the elements steady and turned his attention to the acupoint. He could feel the spiritual energy inside it responding to the skill, a faint pull, like two magnets slowly drifting toward each other. But the connection was weak and fragile. Every time he tried to push the skill deeper into the acupoint’s foundation, the thread slipped away.

Moon adjusted his approach and tried again. And again. Each attempt brought him a little closer. He could feel the rhythm of it now, the way the spiritual energy needed to be coaxed rather than forced. The skill had to settle naturally, like sediment drifting to the bottom of still water.

Half an hour passed. Then an entire hour!

Progress was there, but it was slow. The foundation had barely begun to form. A thin, incomplete layer that wouldn’t hold if he stopped now.

Moon opened his eyes.

‘I’ve hit a plateau.’

The problem was obvious. At this level of output, the skill wasn’t generating enough energy to properly bond with the acupoint. He needed to channel more power, push the elements harder, let Advanced Elemental Body operate closer to its full potential. But doing that here would destroy everything around him.

He looked at the walls, the furniture, the windows.

‘I can’t do it here.’

Moon stood up headed for the door.

‘It’s time to return to the Sanctuary.’

The Sanctuary was the only place where he could use his full power without worrying about breaking or destroying something of value.

Moon made his way to the nearest Second Sanctuary gate. The journey was short, and within minutes he was standing at the entrance.

“Entrance fee, please.”

Moon paid without complaint, though his eyebrows rose at the amount.

‘A thousand dollars per entry isn’t exactly cheap for an average Evolver.’

For someone scraping by on a standard salary, visiting the Second Sanctuary regularly would drain their savings fast. It was yet another barrier that kept weaker Evolvers from leaving and entering as they pleased, trapping them in a cycle where they couldn’t afford to enter the place they needed most unless they were willing to spend majority of their time their.

Moon swiped his card and walked through. He wasn’t an average Evolver, so he didn’t care.

After a brief moment of lightheadedness, Moon found himself back in the cave.

Everything was as he remembered it from the first time he arrived here hours ago, but there was one issue…something was different.

Moon’s eyes narrowed as he caught the presence of a man was sitting against the cave wall a few meters from the portal. The man was alone, his hair hung in greasy, tangled strands past his ears. Dark eyebags carved deep hollows beneath his eyes, so pronounced they looked like bruises. His skin was pale and waxy, stretched thin over a frame that had clearly lost weight it couldn’t afford to lose. His armor was scuffed and poorly maintained, and his sword rested across his lap like he had forgotten it was there.

He was one of them. One of the people Joseph had described. The ones who had given up. The ones who sat in the cave and rotted.

The man looked up at Moon with dull, empty eyes.

‘Why would someone wait here?’

Moon’s thoughts sharpened. The portal area was a transit point, people passed through it when they arrived or left. There was no reason for anyone to sit here unless they were waiting for someone to emerge.

‘Unless they were told to wait.’

Moon activated his Eye of Truth.

[Class: Warrior] [Order: Second] [Skills: Slash (Uncommon), Guard (Uncommon)]

The man had a common, basic class with two Uncommon skills. It was nothing remarkable or threatening.

This man was bottom of the barrel in terms of combat potential. Moon could deal with him in seconds if it came to that, especially since he didn’t feel like the man had many acupoints opened, his aura was very weak.

But that wasn’t what concerned him.

Moon’s gaze lingered on the man for a moment longer. A person this weak, this broken, wouldn’t be sitting here on his own initiative. He had no reason to, there was no ambition left to act on or drive to do anything other than waste away.

‘Someone had put him here.

Is it Joseph?’

The name surfaced in his mind immediately. The friendly guide and helpful stranger who had conveniently appeared the moment Moon arrived.

‘Or someone else?’

Moon walked past the man without a word, his footsteps steady, his posture relaxed. But his senses stretched outward in every direction, probing the tunnels ahead for anything that felt wrong.

“Hey, you.” The man whispered.

Moon’s steps seized, the sound of his foot striking the floor stopped echoing in the chamber. He stood still for a moment, then turned around slowly to face the man.

The man hadn’t moved from his spot against the wall. His sword still lay across his lap, untouched. His dull eyes were fixed on Moon.

“Being born with talent must be nice, huh.”

His voice was quiet and raspy. Like he hadn’t used it much lately.

“That look in your eyes, that hunger for power.” A sad, broken smile crept across his cracked lips. “I’m so envious of it.”

He tilted his head back against the stone wall and stared at the ceiling. “The world is just so terribly unfair. Try as you might, and there are still things you can never achieve or control.”

The words seemed to echo in the walls around them. They weren’t directed at Moon, not really. They were the words a man says to himself after repeating them a thousand times in his own head.

Moon looked at him before saying, “Who sent you?”