章 38: Mountain
Chugum was completely baffled when he heard Beta laughing like that. It was a laughter that made him feel as if cold water was running down his back. What surprised him even more was that Beta's precision was rising even more rapidly now. He barely made any mistakes and whenever he did so, he always managed to get back to the rune within a few minutes. He also noticed that Beta's hand movements became smoother, just like what he felt before as Beta emitted a kind of a cold, mechanical feeling. It was as if he wasn't watching a human being anymore.
"If he perfects his technique... alone seeing him create a rune might scare people away already. If he uses that while fighting as well... sigh... that's a technique, a child definitely won't be able to create out of thin air. His background can't be simple at all. But why is he alone? There's not even a soul of a protector hiding somewhere or even a hint that someone is teaching him behind the scenes. Or is it that I'm just not strong enough to notice their existence? If they are that strong... I definitely should be careful of what I do. The reward can't be anything which is worth less than his results either. Erm... Looks like I'm going to be poor if this continues...", Chugum thought with an everchanging expression.
Soon, Beta finished all fifty stones. He was a bit disappointed when he didn't get another one. But he also knew that he would need to learn more than just this. What use did it have to be precise if one doesn't deal any damage? Even weak spots have a certain defense. If you can't break through that, it doesn't matter whether one managed to hit or not. There are also some other factors that play a big role in becoming strong. If one neglects any of those, one won't be better than any random guy on the same cultivation level. To be outstanding, one has to work a lot. Only never-ending effort puts one above the masses.
Beta sat down cross-legged again and started cultivating. He needed to replenish the used up soulpower and refine it at the same time. It was a process that hit two birds with one stone, replenishing energy to continue the training and train to have an even purer quality of soulpower. It has also become a habit for him to do multiple trainings at once to conserve time, progressing even faster. But of course, the effort was twice as much as the usual training regimen that others go through, yet for Beta, it wasn't new to him and just thought of it as something normal.
Everything progressed smoothly but Beta noticed a difference about his soulpower. He finally was able to see an improvement as it was more than before. His soulpower felt more stable and it was easier to guide. If he tried to form an arrow now, it would surely be much stronger than before. In addition, with the improvement to his Surgeon's Rule, the arrow would look much more detailed and defined.
"Congratulations! You've reached the next level! How does it feel?", Chugum said with a smile.
As soon as Beta opened his eyes after cultivating he was greeted by that remark.
"It feels quite good. But it's not as satisfying as I had hoped it to be.", Beta answered with a shrug.
After a few seconds he then continued, "So, I should get my reward now, right?"
"That's correct! You were pretty alright, so I'll let you choose what you get."
"I want twenty kilograms of a certain metal that can resist the void element."
"What do you need that for? And why so much? This will block your void elemental power as well, you know? As long as there's a small gap it won't even be good as an armor..."
Chugum originally intended to let Beta choose because that way he wouldn't have to pay as much. He expected Beta to not be too well versed in such matters, so he risked it. But now, after hearing his request, he became pale. It wasn't impossible to get the material, actually, he had it. But it was worth quite a substantial amount of money and him being a hermit made him reluctant to part ways with some of his treasures. But, nothing helped though as he made random excuses and questions to make Beta change his mind. The boy was stubborn so, he unwillingly agreed to Beta's request and promised him to get it ready before they finished the training session.
Beta, of course, knew nothing of Chugum's troubles. He thought that a measly twenty kilograms of metal can't be worth that much and thought that he was even being quite generous. If he knew that void element resistant metal was extremely rare and that it's hard to acquire it even in bigger cities, he might not have asked such a ludicrous reward. He had a clear goal in mind and hoped to get all of the materials he needed within the training period. Plus, knowing that his teacher was a powerful being, it shouldn't be a problem to take advantage of this opportunity. All he needed was to rile up his teacher, Chugum, to make a bet with him and then do everything in his might to accomplish his goals. This might sound easy but being able to impress someone of that caliber was a truly hard feat.
"Alright, unto the next training. We should go to the next location for your test, the mountains.", Chugum said indifferently as if nothing happened.
Beta didn't mind the change of topic but he was also aware of the time passing by so he nodded right away. Another thin door appeared in front of Beta, leading him to a new area. He passed through it and was quickly followed by Chugum. They arrived at the foot of a mountain that had even more mountains next to it. If compared to the other mountains, the one they were currently facing was quite small. But it didn't mean that it was that small of a mountain. The other ones were just too gigantic.
Beta couldn't see anything but rocks as he looked forward. Behind him was the endless forest he saw earlier when he stood on the plains. Seeing the distance from where he was previously, it made him realize even more that the teleporting ability was really convenient for travelling far distances.
The top of the mountain was covered in thick snow and there were birds flying around it on all levels. But there was one strange thing about this mountain. It had a ninety-degree slope which was completely flat. This slope looked as if a part of the mountain was cut off, just for the purpose of training him. Beta asked himself if this theory was correct but he just couldn't imagine how a human being can be that strong.
"Your next test requires you to climb this mountain.", Chugum stated with a self-satisfied smile.
"W-What? How am I supposed to climb this up? Will I get any ropes or use other equipment?", Beta asked with a frown.
"Such things are needless. This time, you will have to completely rely on your soulpower.", Chugum said. He then placed his hand on the wall and used his soulpower. The void elemental soulpower easily carved a mound into the mountain which was just perfect to hold on to. He then continued, "If you put in too much soulpower you will make too big of a hole and might slip away. On the other hand, if you create a dent too small, you'll end up getting stuck and not gain any progress." With that, Chugum sat down next to the mountain and relaxed.
Beta looked at him and didn't know what to say. He then put his whole attention to the mountain slope in front of him. He brought his hand near the wall and used his soulpower. Suddenly, a part of the wall disappeared and left a gaping hole. It was too slippery to get a good grip on it, so Beta had to do it another time. Now, he didn't put in as much soulpower. The result was a smaller hole, but still not formed in the way he needed it to be. If he wanted to be able to climb, he would need a cuboid kind of hole. Creating that wasn't easy at all though.
After a few times of trying, he figured out how much soulpower he needed but, he was still missing the ability to control exactly what he wanted to disappear. Though after several hours of trial and error, Beta finally accomplished his goal. He made the perfect hole for climbing. The tens, maybe even hundreds of holes on the mountain, show exactly how much effort it took him to order his soulpower to do what exactly he wanted to. But once he got the hang of it, he didn't find it as hard anymore.
Climbing actually started to feel fun for Beta. Not only was it strengthening his soulpower, but it was also a good body training. The body that had not moved much ever since he started learning the runes felt much better after this workout. Like this, Beta's climbing continued on for a while. Whenever he was tired, he would go down again and rest. He didn't choose to make a cave on the mountain wall since he wants to repeat from the bottom again to exercise his body more.
When he was hungry, he would eat something Chugum reluctantly gave him after asking him a few times. By a few times it means, begging excessively and a couple of guilt-trip lines to make his master give in to his requests. He also found it amusing to see Chugum's reaction every time he did that, so he couldn't help but add that to one of his favorite past times.
The next day, Beta was already approaching the halfway point. That's when he decided to not go down to rest anymore. Instead, he created more cuboids in the wall, creating an entrance, and finally, a small cave. After creating the slightly tilted entrance which was build that way to not let any rainwater in and cover himself from hungry beasts' eyes, he built a small room that barely fitted him inside. He made sure that it was a bit lower than the entrance so that he wouldn't fall down while resting.
"Caw!"
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット