Chapter 140 A Short Story

Number 12 head east and there you should find the flora of naki flowers, bring back 3 petals of a full-bloomed one, number 13…" the old man's voice droned on, calling out numbers, and reading out assignments while Rias handed them round like objects".

Where were the monsters and rewards," Seth thought while he embarrassingly lay embedded in the wall still unable to move a muscle.

Minutes later and the old man finally finished assigning the missions, the church was now almost devoid of living beings except for Seth, Roushi, and Rias.

"Aren't you getting a bit too soft, waiting for everyone to leave before you kill off the brat? I thought you would make fireworks with him as a lesson to the others" Rias said with a smile, not even bothering to look at Seth.

"I have some business with the man Rias, wait outside," Roushi said.

Hearing his words, Rias's smile froze as she looked at the old man to check if he was joking, but seeing his dead serious face, she sent Seth a nasty stare and then stomped out of the church.

After Rias left, the old man turned to Seth and with a shake of his head said,

"Are you that embarrassed that you decided to stay in the wall, or perhaps I scared you too much", but Seth gave no reply just quietly staring at the man.

"Come on, I felt your strength, and Rias's kick was far from enough to keep you down for more than a few minutes," Roushi said, looking at Seth with narrowed eyes.

"Far from enough "Seth grumbled as pushed himself out of the wall and landed on the ground, rotating his arms around to improve his stagnant blood flow.

Sure the woman's kick wasn't strong enough to keep him immobile for so long, but the problem was that he hadn't seen the woman move despite having kept an eye on her as he attacked, her incoming kick suddenly appeared before him, and his last memory of her as he was thrown away was the casual look her on her face, Rias not even thinking much of her kick.

For a few minutes he had been made immobile, but what had really kept him staying in that wall was the warning aura the ma had sent his way after he was sent into the wall, an aura that actually made his heart stop beating for a moment.

"Seeing your behavior, I must say that you are a very lucky man, having met me on what I presume must be your first entry into a special level 9 dungeon," Roushi said looking at Seth for an answer which never came.

"Are you stronger than Rias" Seth asked, his question surprising the old man.

"Yes," Roushi answered.

"What is your cultivation level?" Seth asked.

"Calamity level," Roushi said," it's the realm that comes after level 10 mortal"

Earlier the man had referred to him as a level 9 mortal, so Seth figured out that level 10 mortals were probably the overseers.

"So what do you want," Seth asked.

"Am here to tell you a short story, a story about the strongest man in the world" Roushi said, a gentle smile claiming his face.

"You see billions of years ago, the strongest man walked the earth undefeated by anyone, and with his boundless strength came his boundless arrogance, and why shouldn't he, he was the strongest man in the world.

The strongest man did whatever he wanted, and this caused displeasure in a lot of people, so these people went all around the universe, looking for a way to defeat the strongest man.

For millions of years they searched, but found no answer, but just as they were about to give up, they were approached by a woman who had been wronged by the strongest man, and she told them a way.

"Getting a solution, these people returned happily and held a feast for the strongest man, praises and cheers were sung to his name, but then during the feast, someone asked a question that sent the feast in murmurings and arguments, here is what he said,

"If the strongest man were to restart his cultivation from the bottom rungs, would he still become the strongest ".

This question was asked by someone in the lower rungs, but it caused an argument that slowly spread throughout the entire feast till it reached the strongest man, with more voices doubting the strongest man could achieve such a feat.

Slowly, the strongest man was riled up till he could take the doubts no more, and filled with confidence, he declared that he could easily accomplish such a feat, but this didn't end the doubts, it instead intensified it, with murmurs of the strongest man merely boasting began circulating around, and out of nowhere a dare asking the strongest man to prove his words were born, and the strongest man without hesitation decided to prove his naysayers wrong by relinquishing his cultivation and beginning from the bottom.

Since that day, the man has been trying to reclaim his position as the strongest but till this day he has never reached half the level of power he was once at, dying thousands of times as he struggled in vain".

"So you've heard my story, what can you say about it," Roushi asked Seth.

"The strongest man must have been really lacking in bed for a woman to have been aggrieved with him," Seth said with a chuckle.

"Hmm well here is what I think," the old man said," The reason the strongest man has been unable to become all powerful is because boundless arrogance has no place with a weak man".

"I don't know you, neither do I know if this story had truly happened, the only thing I know is that the day I took up position in this dungeon to supervise infant worlds, I was given this medallion," the old man said lifting up a round blinking purple medallion," and had this medallion not been blinking when I met you, then I would have killed you for the stunt you pulled earlier, the life of someone from an infant world is no more valuable than my fart," the man said staring at Seth and releasing an aura that had him dropping to his knees and desperately gasping for air

"Goodbye Evary Seth, hope we don't meet again," the man said as he walked away, his deadly aura leaving with him.

With the man gone, Seth tipped over and fell on his back, his mind a flurry of thoughts.

Seth would be a fool if he couldn't understand the meaning behind the old man's story, his experience with death had been a glaring lesson on the consequences of his arrogance, though this man's lessons were quite ominous, telling Seth of a bleak future.

"How troublesome," Seth thought looking at the ceiling.