Everything was black as if he was blind, unable to open his eyes, and partially active senses, he could only sense a few things. He heard the sounds of a raging fire, and water boiling.
He then heard a sound as if someone was moving a huge stone, then he also sensed someone walking around him and then heard the sound of footsteps that were going away. The soft whispers of flowing water echoed in his ears as if flowing through his mind, Rudra moved a little and the wound on his back sent out a sharp pain in his body, causing him to suddenly open his eyes.
Rudra tried to get up, but his back was again and again jolting with the waves of pain. He moved his head around to spot a female with a mask, and a black coat tied around her body, and there were some blood stains on that cloth, and some dirt marks too.
That female removed her mask and took a bite of the apple in her hands. She had a beautiful face and her hair was a little wet making them stick to her skin. She had a beautiful, light skin, as smooth as butter. Rudra kept staring at her.
That young woman again bites the apple, and then her eyes fell on the young boy Rudra staring at her.
"So, you are finally awake?", the young woman asked as she stood up and walked towards Rudra.
"Ms. black… cloak?", Rudra seemed to be confused about the young woman in front of him.
"You have got it right, but right now you should take proper rest.", Ms. black cloak takes out a pill, wraps them in a few medicinal leaves, and shove it down Rudra's neck.
Rudra still not listening to Ms. black cloak managed to get up but wasn't able to stand up. Ms. black cloak then takes out a clean cloth of white strip and starts to wrap it around Rudra's back.
"So, did we manage to get the supply cart?", Rudra directly asked the first question that came to his mind.
"Yes we knocked down everyone, I brought the cart here, I have taken my share of stuff from it, you can take yours too and the rest will go to the shopkeeper boy.", said Ms. black cloak.
After that, slinece remained within the cave for a few moments before. "So, why did you betray your organization?" Rudra asked in curiosity.
"Actually I betrayed them for a personal reason.", Ms. black cloak cleared herself.
"Done, now you can also go and check the cart.", Ms. black cloak said as she completed the bandage and stood up.
Rudra looked around him and spotted the cart, he struggled to reach the cart, as his whole body was aching a lot. The cart was filled with packed wooden crates. Some of the wooden boxes were even sealed with mantras. There were a total of eleven boxes sealed with mantras with some numbers on them.
Rudra then looked around and spotted some keys hanging on the horse's saddle. He went to the horse and carefully took the keys. There were some symbols made on the key with a series of numbers on them. He then took out the key of the same number and inserted it in the key slot of that box. The box made a click sound as the signs made upon it shone for a moment and the box was unlocked.
Upon opening the box, Rudra got a Leaf tablet. Rudra carefully opened it.
"Medicine recipe rank 2", this heading made Rudra even more excited.
He read through the contents and he realized that this recipe was suitable for him, which could be made with affordable ingredients. Therefore he decided to keep that medicine recipe.
He searched the rest of the boxes and in one of them, the stuff he found stunned him, inside that box, there were a lot of medicinal ingredients and he decided to take that box too.
As Rudra opened the last sealed box, he found a fruit wrapped in a cloth, "Mystical fruit?"
Rudra brought it closer for identification and found the same type of leaf above it that he had seen in the book. It was the fruit that had all the physical traits of a mystical fruit. This was the third and last box he kept with him, in total he took three sealed boxes.
Now, Rudra didn't need the location of the mystical fruit, as he had already gotten one. He was very excited as he kept the boxes in the spatial bag, now he just had to unlock the first chakra, and his struggles wouldn't be in vain.
"Since you took your share, now I am planning to take this cart to the shopkeeper boy tomorrow morning, right now it's nighttime, and danger would be lurking in the dark shadows outside," Ms. black cloak explained her plans.
"The plan is alright, but I won't be able to come with you to give this supply cart to the boy, as I think this place is quite better for me to cultivate," Rudra explained his reason.
"As you wish, but I suggest you should be careful, because since I betrayed my organization and stole their supply crate, they will investigate, and search everyone I am connected to, therefore we better forget each other after separating ways," Ms. black cloak warns Rudra about her organization.
Rudra asked a question. "What's the organization that you worked in?"
"The black mask mostly involves in illegal activities, robberies, illegal supplies, assassination, and many more, for your kind information this cart too was an illegal supply passing this city, these illegal activities are also one of the reasons I left it. Therefore, you need to be careful", Ms. black cloak explains.
Rudra just nodded. He sat down and began to meditate, he circulated his kundalini to recover fast so that he could later consume the Mystical fruit. Ms. black cloak also slept down on the rock. He kept meditating for a few hours until he again felt a weird pain in his chest.
But still, he kept meditating, resulting in the pain increasing, and for some reason, at the same time, the pain in his back got triggered suddenly causing him to faint. After a few more hours, when Rudra woke up, he again spotted Ms. black cloak.
"You are going?"
She had already worn her mask and Armor,
"Yeah, the time can't be stopped, and neither should we.", she said as she removed the huge rock from the cave entrance.
Rudra just nodded as this was the moment he was waiting for.
Ms. black cloak then mounted upon the horse at the cave entrance and then the horse ran at its highest pickup pulling the supply cart with it and just in moments both of them disappeared out of vision. Rudra put the huge rock back at the entrance sealing the cave and he went inside.
Rudra sat down on the ground as he prepared to consume the Mystical fruit. Rudra took a deep breath and took out the fruit from the box. Rudra mentally prepared himself, he closed his eyes and gripped the fruit tightly.
In the very next moment, he took a bite of that fruit. As soon as he bit it, a lot of liquid flooded his mouth and flew down his throat. It seemed as if the fruit was turning into a liquid, he instantly engulfed the whole fruit. Very soon the whole fruit melted into liquid going down his throat into his body.
Rudra began to meditate immediately, but even after a few minutes, nothing happened. But then suddenly there was a burst of energy in his body. His kundalini began to circulate in his body at an insane speed. Rudra felt that his chest pain was triggered again. The sensations he felt in his body were weird. Suddenly all of his cells started sucking fragments of cosmic energy at a tremendous speed.
All that cosmic energy going through his channels reached the base of his spine and began to be absorbed. It accelerated and increased his kundalini making it reach the first chakra. He kept absorbing the cosmic energy.
Rudra kept on absorbing the cosmic energy, that mystical fruit was acting as a vacuum sucking all the cosmic energy into Rudra. That fruit also concentrated all the cosmic energy towards his spine base increasing his kundalini.
Rudra could sense the chaos going on inside him, but the problem was that the amount of cosmic energy being absorbed into his body to such an extent was creating much more power. As the force was very much, he had to control his kundalini and ensure that it goes through the main energy channel to unlock his first chakra, otherwise, he could fail too.
As Rudra collected all the cosmic energy in his body and accelerated the rise of his Kundalini, he began to pay more attention. His kundalini was circulating through all the energy channels and began to rise through his main channel reaching his first chakra.
Rudra had to do all of this very attentively and carefully otherwise even the slightest mistake in such a stage could threaten his life. Now he just had to focus enough cosmic energy that would lead his kundalini to rise up exerting enough force to break his chakra barrier.
Rudra focused all the cosmic energy, and as he released control, the pressure caused the cosmic energy to be launched at immense speed. Causing his kundalini to push through the chakra barrier. Rudra was feeling as if his body was being heated to an immense temperature, at the same time he also felt as if he was being frozen down with a cold.
This was all because of fluctuations generated by the collision of the kundalini and chakra barrier.
But now Rudra felt as if he couldn't resist the pain in his chest anymore, the weird feelings at the same time, made him feel as if he was going to faint right there. But he couldn't let that happen, because if he went senseless at such a stage, then he would never be able to cultivate in his life or he won't live to cultivate again.
But suddenly Rudra felt as if there was an explosion in his chest and a lot of kundalini appeared out of nowhere flooding his energy channels, creating an extra push for breaking the chakra barrier together with the pressure of the cosmic energy. This was all of a sudden for him, due to which he had to focus more of his energy and keep the belief that he could do it.
CRACK
After resisting all that for a very long time, Rudra finally felt there was a lock near the base of his spine, which was now opening. His spine started to make bone cracking sounds. That change spread all over his body, refreshing him.