Chapter 497: Effects
Lynus raised the axe and plunged it onto the small heap of crystal in front of him, feeling the bloodthirstiness of the crystal lunge at him.
This time, his movement was quick, instantly tilting his head to the side to dodge it.
A small smile appeared on his face with the successful attempt.
'Finally!' His mind celebrated.
Then his smile slowly faded away, becoming a deep scowl.
He filled himself with thoughts of how Northern had taken him away from his home, fed anger and hatred to his mind so that he wouldn't get distracted from what Northern had done to him.
But in truth, time in this void hadn't been as dreadful as it had looked like it would be.
He had been brought to the red mountains to mine crystal, and indeed, at first, it had been very hard.
So hard that he had refused to do it, until one of the monsters reported him to their Taskmaster.
Which led him to think about the other thing that amazed him about this place. All the monsters in this place had a sense of intelligence.
They weren't communicating in human language, particularly in any language as a matter of fact, but they could understand each other with groans and grunts.
At first he understood nothing, but right now, he kind of already could tell what they were trying to say by piecing the grunts, groans, and facial expressions together.
They were like a community that was not so bad to be with.
He had to consistently fill himself with hatred and remind himself that they were monsters for him not to get carried away and start thinking otherwise.
With serious beating from the Taskmaster who had his eyes embedded in his maws, and after several futile attempts to take down the monster, he eventually gave in, with no choice but to mine as he had been instructed to.
He mined and mined and mined, until one day he began to realize he was being cut by the red crystals.
The cuts were so sharp that his dull senses had never noted them. Even though Lynus felt he was strong and perceptive, he was not perceptive enough to sense the cuts.
Only after getting used to them did he begin to perceive them. And because of it, his sense of perception reached a new height.
A realization dawned on Lynus at that moment.
He was weak!
He had all the fancy abilities and armor, and potential, had learned amazing heritage and gained their abilities, but faced with an ordinary crystal that turned its bloodlust into tiny invisible blades, he was utterly weak!
This caused him to humble himself and begin to learn; he began to pay attention to the cuts. After a while, he was able to see them coming.
Even though he could see them coming, he wasn't able to avoid them. He tried several thousand times, but it was to no avail.
He would give up at a point and just focus on mining, but would soon regain the resolve to continue.
Soon, Lynus became the most hardworking miner in the red mines. The only breaks he had were meal breaks.
Monsters would break a red berry fruit that grew towards the Void Palace, and it tasted really good.
He was growing tired of eating just red berry fruits, though. But he could understand why they didn't seem to care.
He and his buddies were the only ones they fed, and that red berry fruit was the only thing they were fed.
He questioned it but never really understood why the monsters were not eating. They were not eating themselves, nor were they eating the berries.
Amidst the wondering, he had focused on mining to the end that he would be able to dodge the attacks.
He had also witnessed several things in the process.
The sudden cleave of the entire soulscape, the devastating battle between Northern and a vicious-looking monster that he had no idea what was.
And he had seen Northern win each time. Which had caused him to question if he would ever be able to defeat a monster of that caliber.
At first, he felt hopeless at his situation; the only thing he was willing to do was mine.
But recently something happened in the Limitless Void that he saw happen.
Its ominously dark velvety blanket above the soulscape stretched seemingly endlessly. The monsters began to undergo a subtle change.
He couldn't even put his finger around it, but he knew that they had changed; they were more focused, less like monsters and more like humans.
They suddenly gained the resolve and reasonability that they never had.
It was easier to talk to them; they chuckled within conversation, could sympathize and empathize with themselves.
That was not so right. Lynus found it harder from that moment to regard them as monsters. To make things worse, plants began to grow on the soil of the Limitless Void.
He was taken on a stroll after working some other time, since the Void was an endless layout of the night it was impossible to tell when it was day or night.
In the red mine, it was always a crimson darkness; in the glacier, it was an azure darkness. The sky from that vantage point, at least, was starry and beautiful, but the cold was a huge bother.
And at the volcanic mountain, it was hot and dark, sitting somewhere between a crimson and
an azure sky.
The place that felt a little bit neutral to be was beside the lake. But the strange lake expelled anything that entered it with double the force of entry.
Even down to a stone. Ever
in the Limitless Void
utterly dangerous, and he had to
learn that by gruesome experience.
However, beside the lake, there was a little plant, slowly trying to fold out. It was too little and insignificant, but it had got Lynus thinking.
If it continued, this place could be suitable for agriculture.
And when that began to happen, common sense would not be able to justify what exactly was happening in this kid's soul.
Even with all these impressive things he had seen of Northern, he still refused to acknowledge
him in any way.
Northern kidnapped him.
Northern humiliated him.
Northern robbed him of his fate.
He would never forgive Northern, even if it was the last thing he would do, even if it would
turn everything against him, he would kill Northern.
He continued to feed himself such thoughts.
Meanwhile.
Jeci, since Northern left her in care of the Tower, had been doing nothing but fight.
Black Mamba was the one that often brought her meal, as usual, the fruit. And she wanted to go out so bad, but she just couldn't.
This place was like a world on its own; it was vast and different. Northern must have left her there for a reason, was her thought.
And because of that time she had, she began to ruthlessly invest it into training.
She would train till her legs gave out, give herself unreasonable drills, running helter-skelter up the Tower stairs while carrying boulders.
At some point, Black Mamba came very often, even times when he wasn't bringing her food. He would sit down and observe her.
Training under the watch of the strange and sinister being always made Jeci uncomfortable,
but she would try to do it regardless.
At first, it started with only watching.
Then one day, while Jeci was tired and out of breath, the being stood up, its skin stretched like
liquid, glowing out into its hand to form a spear.
Jeci leaned her back against the wall at the time, her eyes closed while she rested.
But the moment Black Mamba stood, one of her eyes opened.
With an expression of curiosity, she watched the monster form a spear from its own body.
Then slowly it took stance.
Black Mamba at the initial tryout of the stance looked clueless. He checked his feet, tilting his head in wonder if he got it or not.
Jeci had a strange expression on her face, which, when the monster eventually got it, settled
into a slight frown.
Then step by step-at first sloppy-Jeci watched Black Mamba begin to move the spear, striking into the air with soft and subtle leg movements.
His movement at first was large and outrageous; it caused his weight shift to be too much,
like his strikes were going to be devastating but not controlled and delivered as intended. The essence of her combat style is to be able to deliver a controlled amount of strike; what she was trying to do now, however, through improvising, is increase the momentum, speed, and power of her strikes such that she is able to skillfully diversify strikes in proportion to the
power of her opponent.
While she herself needed to be nimble and fiercely strong to pull off something like that, the secret was also embedded in her footwork.
She just needed to move and twist her body in a manner that would allow her not just to shift
her weight, but shift her weight in such a way that it would affect her speed, momentum, and
even timing.
Just as she finished thinking about it, Black Mamba moved in an uncanny manner, a manner
that caused her to widen her eyes.
"What?"
It seems the creature had figured out what she was trying to do. First of all, in few minutes
since picking up the sword, it had mastered her combat style, seen its flaw, and improved it just as where she thought it needed improvement-meanwhile, she had been trying to do the same thing for what felt like eternity.