Ch-95
—
But every time spear and sword clashed, he grew stronger at a staggering pace.
In an instant, he caught up to him, overtook him, and even drew out sword-aura.
ââŠAnother genius.â
He was of the same breed as the geniuses who had crushed him time and time again.
Once again, someone had appeared who would mock all his painstaking effort.
Even after years of struggle, a genius would surpass you in a mere moment.
No matter how much he clawed and scraped, they would reach realms he could never touch, as if it were a joke.
To them, it was trivialâwhy canât you cross something this small? They never understood the slowness of the mediocre or talentless.
No matter how desperately you yearned to follow, you simply couldnât. And geniuses would never know the sorrow of those left behind.
It would be the same this time too.
Theyâd snicker, scoff, point fingers.
âShow me.
âShow me your limits.
But this man was different from the other geniuses.
He continued to receive Balteâs spear.
He wasnât overwhelming him, nor toying with him.
He was savoring pure skillâadmiring the spear techniques Balte had honed and polished with his entire being.
ââŠFine then. Iâll show you.â
A stubborn spark flared in his consciousness.
He didnât want to lose.
He didnât want to define the boundary of his limits.
Using every ounce of strength, he unleashed a flurry of attacks.
He swung until his hand blistered and the flesh tore away.
And the manâhe opened the way, allowing Balteâs spear to fly even farther. He did not grow bored, did not click his tongue, but observed everything with sincere attention.
As though he were a master.
And when Balte had burned himself down to his very last emberâ
âAhâŠâ
At some point, external energy had wrapped around his spear.
He couldnât believe it.
Yet the vivid sensation of that energy was unmistakable.
It was a realm he had never reached, no matter how desperately he tried.
Tap.
Someone approached and gave his shoulder a gentle pat.
It was him.
That geniusâ
The one who had given him guidanceâ
The benefactor who had pulled him out of the cage of his own unconscious.
âAh.â
At the same moment, Balteâs body slowly collapsed.
His whole body felt as heavy as iron.
His eyes closed on their own.
Yet a smile lingered on his lips.
It was a release he had not felt in so very long.
How long had it been since he felt something like this?
Long enough that he no longer remembered.
âSo this is what it feels like⊠to be acknowledged.â
Perhaps all he ever wanted was simple recognition.
A single phrase affirming that his efforts were not wastedâ
That was what he had longed for the most.
That heâd worked hard.
That heâd done wellâŠ
Balte bowed his head toward the invisible benefactor.
*
*
His entire body screamed.
âI overlooked the fact that Saintess Seia isnât here.â
He had pushed his body past its limits without any treatment.
Of course it would be like this.
It was a miracle he hadnât fainted.
But from here on out, he would have to climb alone.
âAbove this lies the Celestial Realm.â
Only those who had crossed into the realm of external energy could ascend this part of the mountain. They called it the Celestial Realm.
And upon reaching it, training beyond level 20 mastery became somewhat easier.
Leaving the fallen spearman behind, he climbed the mountain.
âSomeone is watching.â
Ever since he left the Chaos Trainee Zone, he had sensed eyes fixed on him.
He didnât feel immediate hostility.
But those eyes were far from ordinary.
The fact that the other made no attempt to hide their presence meant they were interested in him as a person.
âNo hostilityâonly curiosity. They want to fight but are holding back. Waiting for me to get stronger?â
Highly probable.
He didnât mind.
They wouldnât be able to follow him where he intended to go.
âThere it is.â
His destination was the Celestial Realmâbut not exactly.
A hidden path within the Celestial Realm.
ăHidden Trait âMutantâ illuminates a hidden path.ă
ăYou have discovered the path to the âSanctum of Training.âă
He threw himself over the cliff.
*
*
âT-thatâŠ!â
A trainee shrieked.
A man who had reached the Celestial Realm had suddenly hurled himself off the cliff.
He rushed to the edge to look down, but the man had vanished.
âA-Aria-nim!â
The problem was that Aria had also leapt off the cliff.
But in the next moment, she stood right beside the trainee.
Of course, this wasnât strange.
This was the Celestial Realm.
What you saw was not always what existed.
ââŠEven if you jump, youâre supposed to return like this. So where did he disappear to?â
ââŠâ
Aria wondered the same.
The Celestial Realm had no paths except the ordained ones.
If you deviated, you would always return.
But the man who jumped had vanished.
While Aria, jumping from the same spot, had returned.
âWhere did he go?â
Someone like herâanother genius.
Someone she believed could finally understand her in this lonely world.
But he was still weak.
He possessed brilliant talent, but was still growing.
He needed to become stronger as he climbed.
Her plan had been to challenge him once he reached the summit in a somewhat completed state.
If that happened, she was certain the stagnation of her own skills over the past year would finally break.
And yetâhe was gone.
Like a ghost.
âŠWhat was this strange sense of loss?
âHeâll return.â
Someone of her kind would inevitably crave the conquest of the summit.
He would not give up midway.
So when they met again, she would never let him slip away.
Casting one last glance over the cliff, Aria headed toward the summit.
*
*
ăYou are the first to enter the âSanctum of Training.âă
ăAll restrictions are removed by the Sanctumâs effect.ă
ăHonor +50.ă
When he opened his eyes, he was inside a sanctum.
âThe restrictions truly are gone.â
What surprised him more was that the limits he imposed while climbing the Mountain of Trainees had vanished.
His vision was clear, his body light enough to float.
Perhaps this sanctum was superior even to the Mountain.
âThere must be a reason they removed the restrictions.â
But he could not afford to relax.
He slowly surveyed his surroundings.
The place seemed ancientâworn, decaying in many placesâbut the remaining symbols made the identity of the sanctum unmistakable.
âThis is Baalâs sanctum.â
Carvings of black goats.
Without doubt, it belonged to Baal, one of the Four Malevolent Fiends.
But how could the âSanctum of Trainingâ be the âSanctum of Baalâ?
âEither Baal trained here himself, or left it behind for future generations.â
It was not a place created for human training.
If not for the Hidden Trait: Mutant, one could never have entered.
It was unmistakably a place Baal built for his own training.
He had good reason to believe so.
ăCursed Celestial Stoneă
A massive boulderâfive meters tall!
A stone of special material that could only be damaged by sword-aura.
He had never seen one this large.
ăThe âCursed Celestial Stoneâ only responds when curse and external energy are used simultaneously.ă
ăStriking it a thousand times deals one millimeter of damage.ă
ăEach successful strike greatly increases curse and external-energy mastery.ă
ăDestroying the âCursed Celestial Stoneâ grants the immense mastery experience Baal left behind.ă
âŠNo one but Baal, the Fiend of Calamity, would call this training.
To require curse and external energy simultaneously, and a thousand strikes for a single millimeterâŠ
To break it would take hundreds of millions of blows.
To break it alone could take years.
He might spend his entire life on this one boulder.
But it was undeniably attractive.
âExternal-energy mastery!â
External energyâsomething that only manifested after surpassing level 20.
For its mastery to increase meant sword mastery itself would rise.
From level 20 onward, sword-aura governed everything.
âAnd if I destroy it, I get a massive amount of mastery experience.â
He didnât know how massive, but if Baal left it, it would hardly be small.
Destroying it alone was impossible.
But what if he wasnât alone?
Squelch.
After swallowing the core of a corpse crow, his entire body expanded and transformed.
Thenâ
Caw! Caw!
Cawaaaaah!
Over a hundred corpse crows were summoned at once.
If he struck it alone, it would take an eternity.
But over a hundred corpse crows pecking at it simultaneously would drastically shorten the time.
Not merely a hundred times fasterâperhaps far more.
His ultimate evolution into the Baal Helm proved useful here.
The summoned corpse crows were fundamentally curse-based, and could mimic the skills he used.
External energy includedâsince sword-aura had been classified as a sort of skill in the game.
âThis is practically arranged just for me.â
A smile naturally formed.
That he would train external energy like thisâ
Truly, the creature called Baal thought on a different level.
It almost felt as if this had been left behind specifically for him.
Caw!
A moment later, the swarm of corpse crows infused with curse and faint external energy began pecking at the stone.
*
*
ăExternal-energy mastery has greatly increased.ă
ăSword Mastery has reached Level 21.ă
ăAdvanced Corpse Crow Summoning has reached Level 11.ă
Caw!
Cawaaah!
Cawaaaaaaah!
As time passed, the number of corpse crows multiplied exponentially.
Soon over two hundred were flying.
And the more they grew, the faster cracks spread across the stone.
Craaaack!
Without rest, they pecked at the Cursed Celestial Stone.
Thud!
Before long, the stone split perfectly in half.
At that momentâ
ăYou have destroyed the âCursed Celestial Stone.âă
ăYou have obtained the immense mastery experience Baal left behind.ă
ăSword Mastery has reached Level 25.ă
ăHidden Quest completed.ă
ăReward declined.ă
ăYou challenge an even higher mastery level.ă
ăAll constellations of the Hall of Heroes widen their eyes in shock at you.ă
ăInside the stone, you discover the âBaal Talisman.âă
ââŠâ
A ruinous option.
He momentarily lost words at the reward that far exceeded expectation.
With the enormous mastery experience Baal left behind, his Sword Mastery had leapt from level 20 to 25 in an instant.
He had never experienced such *hyper-acceleration*.
Noâcalling it hyper-acceleration wasnât enough.
It was growth at a bug-like level.
âFrom a single stone, I reached level 25 from 20. Who would believe that?â
Even having lived it, he himself struggled to believe itâothers certainly wouldnât.
A mere stone.
What someone might reach through relentless, lifelong disciplineâ
He surpassed in a moment.
âThe constellations of the Hall of Heroes must be shocked.â
Enough to make **all** of them refocus on him, despite the reluctance theyâd shown ever since seventeen of their number were cut down.
They simply couldnât ignore this bug-level growth.
âTheyâve never given mastery experience as a reward before.â
Not once.
They had given âhuge amounts of EXPâ before, but that was ordinary level-up EXPânot mastery experience.
So yes, he had tilted his head a little when he first read the stoneâs description.
âBaal left it personally⊠not as a reward, but to pass down his mastery.â
Perhaps the mastery experience embedded in the Cursed Celestial Stone was not a ârewardâ at all.
But Baalâs intention to *bequeath* his âmasteryâ to a successor.
If so, he was an uninvited guest.
âThe Baal Talisman.â
Baal was a tree that gave without restraint.
He had arranged things so that once the Cursed Celestial Stone was broken, the Baal Talisman could automatically be retrieved as well.
I understood his intent.
Baal likely wanted his successor to shatter the Celestial Stone only after enduring *every imaginable hardship*, and then claim both the mastery experience and the talisman as a reward.
If Baal had witnessed the way I broke the stone, he would probably have clutched his neck and collapsed.
âLucky, arenât I.â
In any case, I was fortunate.
I had suspected there would be a hidden area within the Mountain of Trainees, but I hadnât expected to actually obtain the Baal Talisman here.
I closed my hand around the small, gleaming essence nestled between the rocks.
It was shaped like a round bead.
A black pearl-like radianceâ
That was the Baal Talisman.
âHow brilliantly it shines.â
I let out a quiet murmur of admiration.
—
Nice