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 didnât hurt less even when he knew that they were nightmares.
The hardest one was.
âYou didnât change at all.â
The meeting with Wijihoyun was a nightmare. 10 years passed, and they met in Tobes. Wijihoyun was⌠just as he expected.
But sungmin didnât change at all. If Wijihoyun was what Sungmin expected, Sungmin wasnât what she expected.
âWhat did you do during 10 years?â
He answered. He did everything. He tried his hardest. But Wijihoyun wasnât convinced. She looked at Sungmin coldly.
âThat was your limit,â she muttered.
It wasnât 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 couldnât stop Sogoâs death.
That dream.
It was horrible.
He wanted to stop it. He didnât know what happened in that dungeon. He wasnât there. But what was true was that in 7 years, Sogo went in there with Wijihoyun. And died.
Sungmin didnât think that WIjihoyun was a bad person. But she wasnât a good person either. She was a neutral. Wijihoyun would kill without hesitation.
He didnât know what happened in there. But most likely, WIjihoyun had no choice but to kill the others.
âI.â
Sungmin rubbed his headache. Mental Cleansing. Maybe his mind gotten used to magic. Or the nightmares got stronger. HIs mind didnât get any better.
âHe needed to be as strong as her.â
That couldnât 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 Sogoâs death. He only had 7 years.
Too short.
Summer came. The Cicadas started to cry. Sungmin couldnât 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. Isnât 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 didnât 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 wasnât enough.
He wanted more. Therefore, Sungmin started to work more. He slept less. He couldnât sleep much anyway. He trained harder instead of sleeping. His bodyâs 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 wouldnât 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 wasnât 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 Sogoâs while the cries sounded like Sungminâs. His two eyes made up a black world filled with nightmares, and Sungmin forgot timeâs flow. He wanted to be a machine. A walking machine. A martial artist machine.
In his darkened world, he couldnât 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 didnât 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 windâs temperature changed. It was winter, but Sungminâs daily life didnât change. Sungmin always moved in the world. He prepared for winter. Hunting wasnât hard at all. Sungmin was lonely in his world, but he didnât 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 windâs temperature and Mushâs arrival.
And then 3 years passed.
It was time. Mush. Sungmin called her to him. What was it. Mush asked to Sungminâs mind. Sungmin breathed slowly and said.
I want to finish my training
Mush didnât 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 canât survive.
That human⌠that human who defied the principle. He was hardened. Sungminâs recent one year in this mountain was almost impossible to survive.
But he held on.
âDid you get what you wanted?â
Mush asked. Sungmin didnât answer. After a while, Sungmin mouthed.
If I was a genius, maybe.
He didnât get what he wanted because he wasnât genius. A bitter reality. Perhaps, it was impossible to surpass his limits.
But he saw something.
Sungmin muttered. He wasnât 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.
âDo you think the training was useful to you.â
I wouldnât have became this me if I didnât 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.