Chapter 125: Endless Night (1)

Chapter 125: Endless Night (1)

"Fuu."

While taking in a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused on his left chest.

—Deeply settled darkness.

Inside the darkness spread out like the night sky shone constellations of various shapes and colors.

'Stigma of Lyra.'

Ohjin stretched his hand out to the one that shone the brightest amongst them.

Blue mana flowed through the constellation and spread out across his entire body.

Bzzzzzzzzt!!—

Blue lightning covered his body and sparked out.

Click—

He took the spear from his belt and grasped it with two hands.

The theoretical basics of spearmanship flowed into his head from Lee Sihnhyuk's memories.

'I don't need to chain myself down to these rules.'

Ohjin got rid of the basic movements of spearmanship from his head. He wasn't a martial artist who dedicated his life to the spear, anyway. Simply knowing how to slash and stab was sufficient.

'And what's more important than that...'

Fuu—

He slowly breathed out and increased the pressure in the mana circuits around his body.

[ has been activated.]

[You will enter the 'Overload' state if you maintain the skill for an extended duration of time.]

Blue lightning coiled around his body and blazed fiercely.

Exceed had severe side effects when he'd first learnt the skill. In the past, it would cause him to go unconscious for a couple of days, but using it had become as natural as breathing.

'Though it's still hard to maintain for a long time.'

But still, thanks to his scheduled training, the duration started to increase a lot more ever since it rose from level 3 to 5. If five minutes was his limit in the past, he was now able to maintain the skill for fifteen minutes without overloading.

It was now no longer a self-harming skill that cut away at his lifespan, but just a skill that was the same as any other buff.

"Well, then..."

Ohjin approached a wall in the training room and flicked on a switch.

The laser pointers installed on the walls shot out thousands of lasers and spread out nauseatingly.

Needless to say, they were different from laser weapons that appeared in sci-fi novels. The lasers were completely non-lethal and basically no different from the dizzying lights used to spice things up in karaokes—

'I'll die If I touch those lasers.'

—but he lied to himself.

'My flesh will burn, fester, and tear.'

He imagined it...

The fluctuating lasers in front of his eyes weren't simply lights emitted from a machine but fatal feathers shot from the King of Owls.

Again and again...

Again and again...

Again and again...

He repeatedly told himself those lies.

"Hmpf!"

Crackle!—

Trails of lightning were left behind as his body moved.

Hundreds... thousands of lasers raved inside the training room in erratic patterns.

Swoosh!—

While avoiding the lasers, one of them grazed his left forearm.

Bzzzzt!—

Lightning suddenly scintillated, causing his flesh to burn black.

"Huff, huff!"

Cold sweat ran down his forehead.

Numbing pain spread out along with the sense of excitement.

It wasn't simply image training. The moment the laser touched his body, mana would move on its own and burn the place he got hit. As if he was brainwashed, his mana was subconsciously reacting to his 'lies' on its own.

'It's like I'm hypnotized.'

It was a training method Ohjin had recently devised.

After repeatedly lying to himself for image training, he had reached the point where he would actually injure himself, but even with that, it couldn't entirely replicate the same tension as real fights.

"Haa! Haa!"

Ohjin was able to achieve much greater results compared to thoughtless training.

'Stigma of Clepsydra.'

For a moment, the frantically moving lights stopped as if time had come to a halt, and Ohjin moved past them inside his slowed world.

'Cheon Doyoon...'

Ohjin recalled the old man he encountered.

The old man with wrinkles and a strange 'holholhol' laugh was created in front of his eyes.

Bzzzzzzzt!!—

Blue flames blazed up on the spear's blade.

The spear engulfed in Lightning Flames was thrusted at Cheon Doyoon.

-Holholhol. You are slow, Star of the Weaver Girl's wolf.

The imaginary Cheon Doyoon avoided his attack while mocking him.

With Cheon Doyoon's slight movement of the hand, black feathers shaped in the form of a long sword were created and shot at Ohjin.

"Huff, huff!"

Ohjin readjusted his grip on the spear and caught his breath. He swung his spear up at the black feathers that were aimed at his forehead.

Clang!—

Although the spear didn't clash with feathers in reality, a numbing shock ran up his palm.

'It's not enough.'

Currently, he couldn't face him with what he had.

"Fuu."

Ohjin focused on his left chest.

Black clouds were thickly spread out. He stretched his hand out to the dragon that was coiled up and hidden between the clouds.

He couldn't use the dragon vein's mana freely yet but was still able to use it to an extent.

Fwoooosh!—

The blue flames that were burning on his blade formed into the shape of a dragon and coiled around the spear's shaft.

"Huaaaaaaaa!!"

Bang!—

Ohjin roughly stomped his feet and struck down the spear's shaft.

The azure dragon that was coiled around the shaft spread out in six directions; they soon gathered in one spot and shot towards Cheon Doyoon.

-Holholhol.

With the sound of Cheon Doyoon's peculiar laugh, he disappeared into thin air after being struck by the azure dragon.

"Fuu."

Ohjin turned the laser pointers off while catching his ragged breath.

-Ring!

[You have succeeded in handling a portion of the dragon vein's mana!]

[You have learnt the skill . The skill has increased to due to the influence of the skill .]

[ has increased to .]

[ has increased to .]

"Oh, damn."

Thanks to the effects of his extreme image training, he was able to increase the levels of several skills.

'But the most important skill is still at level 9.'

It wasn't easy to raise Lighting & Thunder to level 10 as Riak had mentioned in the past.

"He said that I'll get something special when it becomes level 10..."

Ohjin didn't know what he would get since he had already learned how to use Lightning Flames, which was supposed to be the reward for attaining level 10.

'Let's think about this later.'

Ohjin scrolled down the status window and stared at the text that said 'Heaven Unfolding'.

'I still have no idea what this is.'

He had attempted various things during his training sessions but still didn't know how it was supposed to be used, nor what kind of ability it was.

"Tch."

He clicked his tongue and closed the status window. Continuously staring at something he didn't know wouldn't give him enlightenment.

"Ow... it fucking hurts."

Ohjin didn't notice when he was vigorously moving his body around, but there were quite a lot of burn scars around his body.

'I should heal myself before I go home.'

After recovering his injuries by going into a large bath he had prepared in advance, he returned home.

Click!—

"Ha-eun~!"

He approached Ha-eun, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room.

"...Did you finish training?"

"Yup."

"You must be exhausted."

Ha-eun looked away with somewhat of a bitter expression.

'She's acting this way again.'

After returning from the dungeon, she had continuously been in that state.

"Why do you have that agonized look again?"

"Mind your own business."

"How could I mind my own business when it's related to you?"

"Ah..."

Ha-eun's shoulders flinched. She cautiously looked at Ohjin with shaking eyes and soon got up from her seat.

"Wait a bit. I'll prepare you dinner."

"Spare me."

"What?"

"I'm looking forward to it."

Ha-eun puffed air out of her nose and headed to the kitchen.

Ohjin, who finished showering after eating dinner, lay down on the bed like he was about to collapse.

"Are you sleeping already?"

"I'm a bit tired after training so intensely lately."

With his body becoming a wreck ever since he started image training, his fatigue had built up in no time.

"...Yeah. Go to sleep."

Ohjin quickly fell asleep.

* * *

* * *

"..."

Silence settled in the room.

Ha-eun plopped down on her bed.

A hollow sensation remained beneath her right leg, as the prosthetic leg they'd ordered hadn't arrived yet.

"Sigh."

She looked up at the ceiling while exhaling a deep breath.

"...How pathetic. Grumbling and all."

Ha-eun mumbled in a voice mixed with self-reproach.

After absent-mindedly looking at the ceiling, she carefully got up.

Ohjin, who fell asleep within just one minute due to his fatigue, entered her eyes.

Ha-eun sat down next to Ohjin on the bed he'd fallen asleep in and carefully reached out her hand to sweep Ohjin's hair.

Stab, stab—

She felt a throbbing pain that felt like awls were digging into her chest.

-Ha-eun!!!!

The incident that took place in the dungeon crossed her mind.

—The collapsing floor.

—The way Ohjin urgently reached his hand out to her.

'Once again... receiving help is the only thing I did.'

Ha-eun bit her lips.

She wanted to be at least a little bit of help but ended up being a burden again.

'As always...'

Even when she dug through her old storage of memories, there were only memories of receiving protection from Ohjin.

Every single time, Ohjin stood next to her.

"..."

She felt anxious.

—From the possibility that he would get sick of it and decide to leave her behind.

—From the possibility that he would leave her, who was nothing but a burden, and go to somebody else.

'Somebody like Isabella...'

Ha-eun recalled the appearance of the beautiful woman with blond hair.

The esteemed daughter of one of the most distinguished families in Europe. Although Ha-eun had a higher 'Star' rank compared to her, it was unknown how long that would last with Isabella being a super rookie who garnered worldwide attention.

No, even if Isabella didn't surpass her, as a support-type that was treated like nobility in parties, she was already a big help to Ohjin.

But how was Ha-eun in comparison to her?

"...I don't want to imagine it."

Ha-eun closed her eyes tightly and shook her head.

When she had somehow managed to prevent splitting up, just imagining the possibility of Ohjin leaving her behind was scary to the point that it was unbearable.

'Ohjin...'

She became lost in thought while gently stroking his head.

Suddenly, the memory of when she had first met him resurfaced in her head—it was so old she didn't even remember when it took place.

'He was really gloomy.'

When Ohjin had first arrived at the orphanage, he was your average, quiet child who nearly didn't speak at all. Even when Ha-eun, who was basically the leader of the orphanage children at the time, spoke to him on several occasions, there was no reply returned.

But on the day she was severely beaten up by the bald director... Ha-eun, who secretly went to the rooftop in order to avoid the director, was able to share a conversation with Ohjin for the first time.

'What did he say back then?'

She couldn't even remember it all that well anymore.

All she remembered was that, on that afternoon, Ohjin had started to change little by little ever since he started to call her 'sister'.

"It really has been a damn long time ago thinking about it now."

With a faint smile on her face, she touched Ohjin's cheeks.

'I won't let him be stolen.'

Ha-eun gently bit her lips as her eyes shone.

It didn't matter if others said she had no shame...

It didn't matter if they called her selfish...

'Ohjin is mine.'

She clenched her fist.

Ha-eun got up from his bed and lay back on her bed.

There was one surefire method to seize Ohjin, who could leave her side at any second.

"Let's see..."

She took out her phone and opened the web browser.

"How... to... ask out... your little brother... what the fuck, not related, you psychos."

Ha-eun frowned and opened a new tab.

"How to ask out... a younger male..."

Tap, tap—

Only the light of the phone shone like the night stars in the room settled in darkness.