Chapter 39

Descending Down the Mountain

When Sogo left the mountain, Sungmin was completely alone . His body was still heavy and was plagued by noise . The nightmares were constant, and then Sungmin started to remember them as well .

They were unique . There was one that he was fighting with monsters and finally succumbed to his injuries . There was one where he wandered a labyrinth with a monster . Just running away, just falling, just getting tortured, there were many .

There was no pain in dreams . If someone said that to him, Sungmin would have slapped him hard .

Sungmin received pain in nightmares . It went away when he woke up, of course . Dreams were dreams, and reality was reality . But his memories still stayed the same . Nightmares didn’t hurt less even when he knew that they were nightmares .

The hardest one was .

“You didn’t change at all . ”

The meeting with Wijihoyun was a nightmare . 10 years passed, and they met in Tobes . Wijihoyun was… just as he expected .

But sungmin didn’t change at all . If Wijihoyun was what Sungmin expected, Sungmin wasn’t what she expected .

“What did you do during 10 years?”

He answered . He did everything . He tried his hardest . But Wijihoyun wasn’t convinced . She looked at Sungmin coldly .

“That was your limit,” she muttered .

It wasn’t physically painful, but the emotional pain was heavy . It was something that he was afraid of in real life . He felt horrified at his own weakness and uncertain future .

What if… that actually happened .

Fatigue Recovery . Mental cleansing . Magic was only just a short prevention method . It was impossible to completely overcome nightmares . And they continued .

He couldn’t stop Sogo’s death .

That dream .

It was horrible .

He wanted to stop it . He didn’t know what happened in that dungeon . He wasn’t there . But what was true was that in 7 years, Sogo went in there with Wijihoyun . And died .

Sungmin didn’t think that WIjihoyun was a bad person . But she wasn’t a good person either . She was a neutral . Wijihoyun would kill without hesitation .

He didn’t know what happened in there . But most likely, WIjihoyun had no choice but to kill the others .

‘I . ’

Sungmin rubbed his headache . Mental Cleansing . Maybe his mind gotten used to magic . Or the nightmares got stronger . HIs mind didn’t get any better .

‘He needed to be as strong as her . ’

That couldn’t be the answer . The answer… was to stop Sogo from entering . But Sungmin knew that not everything went how people thought it would . So he needed to prepare for the worse .

Not even to win against her . Just to stop Sogo’s death . He only had 7 years .

Too short .

Summer came . The Cicadas started to cry . Sungmin couldn’t hear them, but… he could see them on the trees . The noise in his ears could sound similar to their cries .

The cicadas lives 10 years underground to become a full grown cicada . Yes, even bugs used that much time to grow .

7 years . Isn’t that a short time for a larva to grow into an adult . What could he do in 7 years . No, not what he could do . He had to .

The noise that he felt in the mountain was not quiet . His heavy body and terrible food was not comfortable . Nightmares made days longer . There was no one there . There could be more trainees coming in or trainees leaving, but he didn’t care about them

The world changed when Sungmin changed . There was no limit to his energy supply . The spear techniques were getting better, and his HIgh Heavens skill level was getting higher . He felt freedom when he used Shadowless .

But it wasn’t enough .

He wanted more . Therefore, Sungmin started to work more . He slept less . He couldn’t sleep much anyway . He trained harder instead of sleeping . His body’s weight became heavier everyday, but his spear techniques and Shadowless became sharper everyday .

And then the next penalty .

He prepared for this . He became used to his surrounding to the point where he could walk without seeing . He put in food inside of his pocket, and prepared smoked meat so it wouldn’t rot as easily .

He had gotten the penalty of his two eyes .

The world turned black . He couldn't rely on his senses . All he had left was his touch . He felt the wind against his skin . It wasn’t as easy as it seemed . He had to be sharper than his sense . He used the Amethyst Cloud . He survived by eating his provisions .

He could finally move after a week . His branch became his way of transportation/ . He used it to walk around and swing it around the place .

After a month, he succeeded in hunting . He was happy . There was no one who could compliment him, but Sungmin was happy that he did it . It was a meaningful hunt, but the food still talked terrible .

Memeem .

Memmem .

The voices that were in his ear was the cries of the cicada . It was their screams as well as their cries . Screams felt like Sogo’s while the cries sounded like Sungmin’s . His two eyes made up a black world filled with nightmares, and Sungmin forgot time’s flow . He wanted to be a machine . A walking machine . A martial artist machine .

In his darkened world, he couldn’t see the form of his spear techniques . Where does the spear head . The target of the spear . Where does his body head when he used Shadowless .

Do I want to be a cicada . Do I want to come out after a long period of staying underground only to cry loudly and die . No . Sungmin didn’t want that . He wanted to something more . He wanted something way more .

What is that?

What do I want to become . Why am i doing this . Why am I here for . What reason did I come back for .

I .

The wind’s temperature changed . It was winter, but Sungmin’s daily life didn’t change . Sungmin always moved in the world . He prepared for winter . Hunting wasn’t hard at all . Sungmin was lonely in his world, but he didn’t stop practicing or surviving .

And then half a year passed, and Sungmin received the penalty of not changing clothes . The only way of telling time was the wind’s temperature and Mush’s arrival .

And then 3 years passed .

It was time . Mush . Sungmin called her to him . What was it . Mush asked to Sungmin’s mind . Sungmin breathed slowly and said .

I want to finish my training

Mush didn’t answer right away . The ragged God looked at the trainee that was standing right in front of her .

3 years .

The reason why it was so hard to survive 3 years was because the penalties add up . Plam kept adding emotional oppression, while the trainee tried to survive through these penalties .

Not everyone who comes in this mountain leaves before they get what they want . They usually give up before that . They can’t survive .

That human… that human who defied the principle . He was hardened . Sungmin’s recent one year in this mountain was almost impossible to survive .

But he held on .

“Did you get what you wanted?”

Mush asked . Sungmin didn’t answer . After a while, Sungmin mouthed .

If I was a genius, maybe .

He didn’t get what he wanted because he wasn’t genius . A bitter reality . Perhaps, it was impossible to surpass his limits .

But he saw something .

Sungmin muttered . He wasn’t content with that though . More, more things he wanted . Sungmin was happy that he came back . He was happy that he surpassed death .

So he could feel something like this .

“Do you think the training was useful to you . ”

I wouldn’t have became this me if I didn’t come here .

Mush liked that answer . She waved her hand and took away all the penalties that Sungmin had .

When all the penalties were removed, Sungmin felt strange . 3 years . 3 years of heaviness disappeared from his body . His light body seemed awkward . The smell that he felt disappeared . The noise in his ear was gone .

His eyes opened .

“ . . . ah . ”

Sungmin felt his own voice .

“It’s a nice feeling . ”

Sungmin looked at Mush and smiled bitterly .