Chapter 36

Training

Effort .

Sungmin didn’t like that word too much . Even if he worked hard enough, he couldn’t do as much as the other geniuses . But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t working as hard as them .

Therefore, the starting line is different . Sungmin had a different starting line than the other geniuses . The geniuses started way in front of him . Even so, their speeds were different . If Sungmin crawled, they were running . If he ran, they were riding .

Therefore, he never liked that word . Effort couldn’t bring you success or anything .

He didn’t like it .

But he pitied it .

It wasn’t that he didn’t work hard in his past life . He practiced third rate martial arts and tried to level them up . He tried to survive .

But what about now?

He couldn’t say that he had a different starting line now . Sungmin had experience . He had Wijihoyun’s help . He had the Potion that helped him . He was now in Mush’s mountain with Sogo as his teacher .

It wasn’t a matter of the starting line .

It was a matter of the speed .

Strength . Haste . Amethyst Cloud . High Heavens . Shadowless . Everything was done with precision .

Effort .

That was what he needed now .

Everyday was like hell to him . Food and water was terrible . He was scared of sleeping . Dreams were terrible . Weight slowed him down . If it weren’t for Fatigue Recovery and Mental Cleaning, he wouldn’t survive in this mountain . No, he had to consider Sogo first then .

If it weren’t for her, Sungmin wouldn’t have survived .

Sogo said “You can forget grudges, but don’t forget kindness . ” That was etched in his heart .

He had gratitude towards Scarlet and Sogo . He was going to repay them in some way . That was another goal for life . He couldn’t die before repaying them .

One day, Two day . One week . One month .

Sungmin’s body was getting faster . The 3rd level of Shadowless was helping him forget happiness .

The basics ran, na, and zhe was perfectly etched into his body . Using that, he was getting to naturally mix the basics as well as the steps to High Heavens . When it was that time,

Sungmin dropped down and cried . It was as if a huge wall was broken down . It was a wall of limits .

He got to understand happiness .

He could use the spear like this . His body can be moved like this . Time passed . It became one month and then two months . His voice was gone, but he still made sounds . Sounds with the spear . Sounds with moving the body . Sungmin ran continuously through the heaviness . He used the Amethyst Cloud before he was scared of nightmares, and when he did wake up, he used the Amethyst Cloud again .

His energy supply was increasing . The energy from Wijihoyun and the potion was integrating faster into his body, and the nature of the mountain helped the process .

“You, you’re still here?”

It was about a year since he came .

Plam came over .

Sungmin put down the spear . He didn’t say anything and just looked at Plam . Plam seemed to not like Sungmin’s face . He walked towards him .

“I thought you wouldn’t survive half a year, and yet you survived a year . ”

He only stared at Plam but didn’t say anything . Maybe it was the year of training . Sungmin could somewhat feel the power of Plam .

‘Genius…’

That person . Sungmin couldn’t think of the plane that Plam was on . Instead of despair, that made Sungmin feel more in awe .

“You must have quite the spirit for a person without any talent . No, that’s not it . You don’t even have that much spirit . If it weren’t for Sogo, you would have already died before then . ”

Plam spit down, twisting his lips . Sungmin didn’t show signs of trying to refute that . It was true . What was the point of refuting it . One year . It was true that Sungmin was stupid and rash .

“Are you ignoring me?”

Plam said loudly . Sungmin kept swinging his spear . He started again from the ran, na, and zhe .

‘Look at this…?’

Plam’s eyes opened . The ran, na, zhe that Sungmin was showing was much cleaner than half a year before . It wasn’t just that either . The spear techniques mixed with the basics looked pretty decent .

“I guess even idiots can learn after a while . ”

Plam remarked . Remark all you want . Sungmin kept swinging, not caring at all . One year in this mountain was doing much more than 13 years in his previous life .

“But, is that only it for having 5 penalties?”

Plam laughed and snickered . The rewards increased with the number of penalties . Plam told Sungmin that .

“That’s trash . Should I tell you? Hmm?”

Plam’s laughter became louder . To Sungmin, he didn’t really hear anything . Sungmin’s mind was already focused on the spear techniques .

Seeing that Sungmin was ignoring him, Plam’s face had irritation plastered on it . Quickly, he stretched his foot . Before Sungmin even stopped his spear, Plam moved his hands . Tap! He grabbed the spear .

“Why are you ignoring me?”

Plam spit out, looking at Sungmin . Sungmin sighed and moved back . Before Sungmin pulled out his branch, Plam shook his head heavily .

“Just say . I can understand by seeing your mouth . ”

‘What skill’, Sungmin thought and moved his mouth .

Why are you bothering me?

“That’s what I want to do . ”

Then I can ignore you as well .

“No, you can’t . A person like you can’t ignore me . ”

Great personality . Sungmin sighed .

I don’t want to talk to you .

“Why? Because your talent is nothing compared to mine?”

Not really . That’s your talent . There’s no reason to be sad about what you have .

“Why do you sound like you understood something? It doesn’t suit you . ”

Plam smirked . He put down Sungmin’s spear that he held in his hand and moved back a few steps, and he held up his hands .

“See . You can’t do this?”

Plam’s hand twirled around . It was something that he had seen before . It was a sword dance .

“Isn’t the world unfair? You and I have the same age, but I can do everything that you can’t do . Even if you work hard, you only have the speed of a snail . Maybe just a little faster . ”

Plam laughed loudly . Sungmin looked at Plam’s face . This b*tch . Saying this stuff . Sungmin looked at Plam irritatedly and moved his mouth .

I don’t care .

“Lies . ”

Plam laughed loudly at Sungmin's answer . Plam put away his spear and shook his head .

“Useless effort . If you keep working, you’ll only fall in more despair . Yes . Go ahead . I like when you fall in despair . ”

Plam turned his body . Sungmin didn’t care about Plam anymore . He left, and Sungmin kept swinging .

It was quiet after the sounds were gone . The surroundings weren’t lonely but normal . He focused on the targets of his swinging . His spears had no talent but had longing . Sungmin longed for faster and lighter . No, what he wanted was complete freedom in his spear .

He didn’t care about weight . He didn’t care about speed . He just wanted to put the High Heavens in the spear .

It felt trivial .

His goal was so small and trivial . Beating Wijihoyun . Yes . When he beat her . What afterwards?

That thought quickly disappeared as well .

Finally, nothing was left in his mind . No, just one . The martial arts that he didn’t have in his past life were left . High Heavens, Amethyst Cloud, Shadowless… these three filled his head .

A day went by . Two days went by . A week went by . A month went by . Mush came over . To a new penalty, Sungmin answered immediately .

Hearing .

He started to hear random noises . It was a terrible penalty that made sleeping worse . Sungmin kept starting to work harder on his spear technique . It was better that way . The annoying noise went away when he was swinging .

Scarlet and Bejun left the mountain . They must have gotten what they wanted in just a year . Sungmin's’ world became even quieter . There was only a few times when he wasn’t alone . With Sogo, and sometimes, with Plam .

Plam didn’t seem to like Sungmin . He kept trying to fight with him on weird things, and Sungmin ignored him . It was easy . Sungmin couldn’t hear anything . When Sungmin started to ignore him, sometime later, Plam didn’t come over anymore .

Silence .

Sungmin woke up from his sleep

It was a nightmare . He couldn’t scream, but it was the same as before . Sungmin picked up his spear . He walked the forest and stopped at the place where he always trained . Sogo was there . The year that they spent together . Sungmin grew for a year, but Sogo didn’t . She felt a bit more gaunt than a year ago .

She lifted herself up . Like Sungmin had 2 more penalties, she did too . Her left eyes didn’t work anymore and she started to hear noises like Sungmin .

[Did you have nightmares?]

Sungmin nodded his head, and then he lifted his spear .

And like he always did . . .

He swung it .