A bruised and battered young man made his way toward the temple.
His left arm hung limply by his side, while his right arm held a wooden spear in a vice grip as he relied on it to support most of his weight.
He could barely stand, and his face had lost nearly all of its color.
No, that wasn’t accurate.
There were traces of blood on his face, located at the corners of his lips and his right cheek.
Step by step, the young man pushed forward, barely clinging to consciousness.
If an Ash Hound or a Flame Scarab appeared now, it would definitely spell death for him.
But the very anxious and worried Dim Dim made sure to guide Alex to places without any monsters.
Although it would take them longer to reach the temple, this was still the safest route that the young man could take.
"Don’t worry... Dim... Dim.. I can... still walk."
Cairo had only given his disciple six potions, so Alex endured every hit until his very limit before taking one.
Having rinsed and repeated such a painful process a few more times, he soon ran out of healing potions, forcing him to finish his quest through sheer willpower.
And after taking exactly one hundred hits from the Mini Boss, Alex dragged his heavily injured body from the battlefield and made his way back to the temple, where he would be safe.
With his slow traveling speed, it would be night when they arrived at the temple.
However, that would only be possible if Alex’s strength didn’t give out before they reached their destination.
Unfortunately, he was already running dry. Despite assuring Dim Dim that he could still go on, his vision was already getting blurry.
He put all of his focus into taking one step at a time, enduring the pain and unwilling to stop until he could no longer walk.
And after doing just that for nearly twenty more minutes, his legs finally gave way and he ended up kneeling on the ground.
"Dim!" Dim Dim lightly patted Alex’s cheek, as if telling him not to fall asleep.
"I... don’t have... any strength... left. Let... me rest a bit... I’ll be fine after... I take a short... nap."
The young man collapsed on the ground and slowly closed his eyes.
He had truly pushed himself to the limit and could no longer take another step forward.
The Dim Sum God tapped Alex’s face repeatedly, but the young man didn’t open his eyes. Understanding that the young man truly no longer had any strength left, it was forced to make a decision.
With a loud shout, the Dim Sum God summoned bamboo steamers around the young man, covering his body and masking his scent so monsters wouldn’t know there was a human hidden among the pile of bamboo steamers.
When it was certain that Alex was truly concealed from sight, it ran in the direction of the temple.
Dim Dim knew it was racing against time, so the sooner it arrived at the temple, the safer Alex would be.
It was not only Dim Dim who was feeling anxious at the moment.
Cairo, Ramza, and the Elders of the Hartwell Clan all looked at the young man who was covered with bamboo steamers.
They had witnessed Alex endure the punishment of blocking a hundred strikes from the crimson fire salamander. None of them could deny that the young man’s determination had moved them.
Although they were not certain, they believed the young man had actually discovered a way to unlock the Oathkeeper Job Class.
They watched over the young man anxiously as the minutes passed by. Then, those minutes became an hour.
Suddenly, four Ash Hounds appeared in their field of view, and everyone who was watching from the secret room almost stopped breathing at the same time.
These hounds looked at the pile of bamboo steamers with curiosity, but they didn’t approach it right away.
Since their leader still didn’t make a move, all of them remained in place.
Two minutes later, the leader of the Ash Hounds was overcome with curiosity, so it walked toward the pile of bamboo steamers with its pack trailing behind it.
Cairo’s eyes turned bloodshot as he looked on. His fists were clenched so tightly that his nails dug into the palms of his hands.
When the hounds were about five meters away from the young man, Ramza’s heart was already beating wildly inside his chest.
He could still interfere one more time, but if he did, he would no longer be able to save his granddaughter later if the mutant spider went after the teenage Catkins.
Even though he wanted to save Alex, his granddaughter’s life was more important to him, so he could only apologize to the young man in his heart.
The leader of the Ash Hounds sniffed the pile of bamboo steamers and flinched when it smelled something bad that made its nose itch.
Out of anger, the hound swatted the bamboo steamers aside hatefully.
But as it did so, the pile shifted a bit, revealing a human hand originally hidden beneath.
As soon as the monster saw that, its eyes turned red. It could sense that the hand belonged to a living, breathing human.
As the hound was about to give the order to attack, a loud and powerful shout reached their ears.
"Dimmmmmmmmmm Dimmmmmmmmmmmm!"
When the leader looked in the direction of the sound, the first thing it saw was a basketball-sized rock heading straight for its face.
A second later, a pained grunt escaped the hound’s throat before the force of the blow sent it flying backward.
The blow was so strong that the monster dissipated into particles of light before it could even hit the ground.
The other Ash Hounds didn’t fare any better as several flying rocks slammed into their bodies, eliminating them one by one.
Cairo and Ramza, who saw this scene, were both shocked by the unexpected turn of events.
However, after the shock faded, it was replaced by relief and happiness.
They watched as two guardian golems ran in Alex’s direction, with Dim Dim perched on top of one of their heads.
The Dim Sum God had gone back to the golem to ask for their help. Although Ramza and the Elders had no idea how Alex’s pet had succeeded in getting the golems to cooperate, they were just happy because the young man was now safe from harm.
"Dim Dim!" With a wave of Dim Dim’s hand, the pile of bamboo steamers disappeared.
One of the golems raised its hand and used some kind of levitation magic to gently lift the young man off the ground so it could carry him back to the temple.
Dim Dim crawled down the golem’s arm until it reached the young man’s chest.
It then closed its eyes to better sense Alex’s heartbeat.
Although it was faint, it assured the Dim Sum God that everything was going to be fine.
Cairo watched as his unconscious disciple was carried away by the guardian golems before telling his grandfather that he planned to rest for a few hours.
He had been awake for nearly thirty hours. Now that everything seemed stable, he decided to sleep so that by the time he woke up, he’d also find his disciple conscious.