39- Old Statue  

Seeing that her apology did not work and anger was still clearly visible on my face, Armelia could not help but continue,  

“I swear that it was not intentional. I accidentally used 50 % of my strength and thought you could handle it. As you were able to kill the man earlier who was fighting me and your speed is also much faster when compared to me. So, I accidentally hit you and thought that it would not do anything to you. But I made a mistake. I am sincerely sorry.”  

With that Armelia started sobbing, and the built-up water in her eyes started flowing.  

‘Heh! This little girl has started to cry. I don’t know if it is truly an accident or not. But one thing I know is that now I am in no position to fight with her. I might be faster than her, but I am not stronger than her. So, if I confront her head-on, then I will only get injured and even my ‘Resistance’ stat might decrease again, which I don’t want to happen.’  

So, for now, I can only tell her,  

“Stop crying and listen to me. From now on you and I will maintain a distance of 5 meters. You are not allowed to get close to me.”  

Listening to my words, Armelia wiped her tears and nodded quickly. Then she asked  

“Did you forgive me?”  

Armelia looked at me expectantly, but I sneered at her  

“Do you seriously think, I will forgive you? I just saved you from a wolf who was going to sneak attack you and I killed it.”  

“And then there was a Pack of wolves and its leader was a ‘White Fang Wolf’ nearby, and the wolf’s shriek alerted those guys. And to save yours and my life, I ran carrying you desperately, and as the wolves were about to catch up with us, with no other choice I had to jump.”  

“You might have been scared but if I did not jump then we would have become dinner for those pack of wolves.”  

“And what did you do? You punched me and I got injured. Is that how badly you want to become dinner for wolves or is that how you say thanks to someone who saved you?”  

“It is already a big deal that I did not fight with you or leave you here. But I just told you to maintain some distance. After we get out of here, you go your own way and I go mine. That’s it, don’t expect anything else.”  

After that I did not wait for Armelia’s answer nor looked at her face, I entered deep into the cave with the flashlight in my hand.  

---------------------------  

As I was walking deep into the cave, I observed the surrounding walls. To see if there is anything I can observe or if any monster is hiding in the cave.  

After walking for a few minutes, I saw that the walls came to an end or to be precise walls, were like a tunnel and I reached a wide area. Like, I walked along a semi-finished corridor which brought me to a wide area or a semi-finished hall.  

With the help of the flashlight, I observed the surroundings and concluded that the place is about 15 cubic meters in volume.  

I observed for a few moments and I saw there was a statue that was barely discernable from the surrounding walls. But I could vaguely see a human shape, and when I got closer to it, I confirmed that it was a statue.  

The statue was covered with spider webs and dust. So, I removed all those to have a clear look at the statue.  

The statue looked very old and was broken in some areas. The statue depicted an old man, with a long beard, wearing some robes and holding a book in his hands. The facial features of the old man are not clear, maybe the one who made it was not so skilled.   

The statue depicts an old man reading the book in his hand, sitting cross-legged.   

The old man did not have any accessories or ornaments. The old man was bald but had a long beard. The old man was extremely simple and it looked like he was a normal old man who wanted to spend his last days peacefully in his village.  

I looked around the statue but did not find anything. I got extremely disappointed.  

You know in novels, when a character enters a cave like this and there is a statue, then he surely gets a treasure, inheritance, or something useful. It is almost a cliché mini-story in the novels.   

But I can only sigh and smile wryly for expecting something good and believing in those novels.  

Looks like my luck is seriously bad and I need to increase it in the future.  

Shaking my head, I once again confirmed that I am safe here and there is nothing I missed like a treasure or some writing or a monster. (Still expecting those treasures part)  

I looked for a place and sat down to relax and decrease my fatigue.   

As I ran a lot, my fatigue also increased.   

Earlier I felt, that the more my fatigue increased, the more dangerous my situation became. Because, it felt that if I ran for a few more minutes, my speed will slow down and I will be extremely tired. And the ‘Agility’ stat will not help much.   

So, I realized that I need to increase my ‘Stamina’ Stat, and automatically my ‘Fatigue limit will also increase.  

Otherwise, if there is a situation similar to a few minutes ago, and if my ‘Stamina’ stat and Fatigue limit are not enough then I can only wait to get caught by enemies and be killed by them.  

So, I added 5 ‘Free stat points’ to Stamina. And started having some rest. But I was suddenly startled by the sounds  

‘crumble’  

‘crumble’  

‘crash’  

I immediately grabbed the flashlight and looked in the direction from which the sounds came.  

I saw Armelia covering her head with her hands and sitting on the ground, it seemed she was scared by the sounds.  

Then I looked next to her and saw that the old man’s statue was breaking and crumbling.  

When I used the flashlight on the Old man’s statue, I saw something shine and reflect.  

I immediately came near the Old man’s statue, and I saw something was visible inside the Old man’s chest where some cracks were formed. Little by little, the Old man’s statue was breaking and pieces were falling.  

So, I used some force, and the Old man’s statue completely broke.   

I saw that the thing inside the Old man’s statue was a scroll made of gold.