Lifting up the pocket watch, he checked the time.
It was 6:10 in the morning.
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] alerts of the current time, [6:10 am].>
You’re late mate.
<Vintage Clock (EX): …>
The day broke. The sleepless night passed and it was about time to get up.
Now there were container blocks, a kitchen, a cooking living armour, large exercisers and a supervising nurse, but the underground labyrinth had been a rather boring place in the fifth iteration.
The floor and the walls were all rough and crudely built. There was a big void of emptiness under the tall ceiling and dust gathered with not a single breeze to push it away. The only decoration was the large and unfitting crystal decorating the air.
Smiling as if they had been intoxicated, the young dragons rolled around on piles of dust. There was no source of entertainment whatsoever but the dragons drunken with happiness and satisfaction did not seek any new entertainment from their lives. That was especially so when they were younger.
Thus if someone acted in a certain way while they were in that place, it would be a type of habitual act resulting from their remaining faint trace of aspiration.
The Gold Dragon, which did not have any habit or a sincere desire, remained still;
The Green Dragon was the only one that attempted to communicate with the Regressor;
And the Blue Dragon wished to leave that place and accompany the Regressor.
However, the Red Dragon was different. Stuck in a corner of the inner room of the labyrinth, it blankly began training in [Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art]. It started doing every training method that could be done with a bare body. At times, the dragon felt its own heartbeats with its eyes closed, and sometimes took a deep breath in and out. It even ran across the walls of the inner room in a distracting manner.
‘Please give Red a monster, or a human to fight.’
The Green Dragon often requested Yu Jitae but he refused it. He was not at all interested in giving a monster to a time bomb. But the Green Dragon continued asking him for a favour and even pleaded with him towards the end saying to please give the Red Dragon something to fight even if that was the last thing he would do for them.
The Regressor from back then ignored the request of the Green Dragon and violently rejected her pleas. Even then the Green Dragon did not give up, so he had to tie it up for some time.
After that, the Green Dragon did not request Yu Jitae in any way until the end of the 20 years of imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the Red Dragon began acting in a strange way. It struck the ground with its fists or smacked the wall with its forehead. The ‘inner room’ made by a magic engineering genius of another world was not broken by the fists and kicks of the dragon.
What broke instead were the hands and the forehead of the Red Dragon.
Back then, Yu Jitae discovered that the Gold Dragon had brought about the Apocalypse in the first, third and the fourth iterations and concluded that that was the only element causing the downfall. He was ignorant and stupid so he did not think much of it even when the Red Dragon began showing strange signs.
But in fact, the Red Dragon’s actions weren’t simple self-injuries and it was some sort of a training method. It destroyed its body to a degree that did not put its own life at risk as the Light of Paradise instantaneously cured it back up. The fractured bones and muscles became stronger after the rapid restoration but it was a mediocre change in the Regressor’s eyes.
He therefore ignored it and maintained his ignorant viewpoint.
He thought it would be fine to leave it be.
That was until 15 years into their life of imprisonment when he came back after fighting Noah for several months,
‘——!’
That was when he saw the Red Dragon strangling someone by their neck.
Back then.
After around a year or so from their imprisonment, when the Red Dragon’s dragon heart began resonantly beating itself for the first time,
‘There’s a hidden fissure in the south of Balkan Peninsula. The other side of the fissure should be connected to a dungeon in the North Hallyavan Mountain Range.’
That’s what the Green Dragon had said.
‘There are large tribes of orcs in that place. After discovering the fissure, the monsters sneak out and attack the nearby villages and devour humans. They’re brutal and aggressive.’
The young Green Dragon mentioned an exact name and a race, which was rarely the case when seeing Providence.
‘Orcs with three lines of black paint on their heads are the tribal leader and the great warriors. From them, Red needs Great Warrior Armarkrak.’
…So what.
‘Please make that monster fight Red.’
Don’t want to.
‘It has to be done.’
I’m warning you. Go back to your place right now.
‘Please.’
Since the dragon continued coming up to him, Yu Jitae slapped the Green Dragon on the cheek.
‘You always rejected me during the past year and I have never asked for the same thing more than once. This is the first time I’m asking you like this.’
Kneeling down with injured legs, the Green Dragon cried as it resentfully gazed up at him.
‘Can’t you just, do it once…?’
Then, it twitched its bleeding lips.
‘Even though I’m asking you like this…’
She laughed while crying.
So when the fifth iteration came to an end and when the world began moving away from him once again, he had regretted it tremendously. How difficult could listening to a request like that have been?
It probably would have been as easy as it was right now.
“Kuruk…! A human dared to come here with their own feet? Kuruk, kuruk!”
Of course, that was all in the past.
“…Kuruk? But you, are you a human…?”
It was a changeable future for him.
“Krrrr, that should be fine. Kuruk kuruk! I am the great warrior of the Great Mountain ‘Hallyavan’, Armarkrak.”
The past had dispersed like an illusion and no longer remained.
“Kururuk! Let go! How could a mere human…!”
“…”
“W, what are these hands! Kururuk! No! Krararara–!”
Raa— raa… raaak……
After pushing the great orc warrior into the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)], Yu Jitae turned his feet. Leaving the dungeon, he raised the pocket watch and checked the time.
It was 7:12 in the morning, with a lot of time to spare.
“…”
He stopped his feet.
While he was closing the pocket watch, a group photo that Bom had inserted entered his sight.
Bom with a gentle smile; Yeorum smiling after placing a bug on Kaeul’s hair; Kaeul innocently smiling without knowing anything; and Gyeoul blankly staring at his face from his arms.
They were all smiling. Why were they so happy…
When ending the iterations with his own hand, he hadn’t thought of that act as a sin.
But now, he slowly began to understand that his past life had been full of sin. The closer he got to daily lives, the larger such thoughts became.
“…”
Of course, this was but a passing thought. He was aware that it was too late to atone for them, nor did he have the right to. Thus, his current actions were not for an atonement and were just a continuation from his inertial life – he decided to think like that.
There was no self-pity within all those thoughts. He just had to continue what he was doing until this life came to an end.
After condemning himself for his sins, the Regressor moved his feet forward.
***
“…You want me to fight that?”
[Shallows of the Abyss (S)]
After entering the alternate dimension, Yeorum stared at the great warrior locked down by the hands while shouting.
“Yeah.”
From what he could see, the great orc warrior was probably a Named Monster with the rank A- which was never defeatable 1 on 1 as a normal cadet. One would usually need a local ranker at least in order to fight that on equal terms.
Therefore, Yeorum appeared slightly nervous as well. Under the Taboo of Amusement, she had to fight with a human body.
“But seriously, that guy looks like crap for real.”
“…”
“Did he draw black lines because there was nothing on his head? If he was gonna draw some, why not just draw more than three… What a frugal guy. Or is it because he never had any?”
Kururuk– kurararak–!
The great warrior, who had been remaining silent, suddenly wriggled its arms around in fury. It was shouting something along the lines of, ‘My hair is the pride of a great warrior–’.
“Ready yourself.”
She nodded.
The first hurdle into ‘Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art’.
[Pulsation]
It was the door allowing the caster to be reborn as a warrior and was a process unlocking a portion of the energy limit that had been set by the physical body. In other words, it would allow a red dragon to control their mana in a slightly better way.
Due to that, Yeorum’s fighting prowess increased by more than 20% compared to yesterday. It was an extremely big development even considering the talent of a dragon.
However, there was still a long way to go until she could fully incorporate it into a real battle. She resonated her dragon heart over and over again throughout the night, due to which there were big bags under her eyes.
“You don’t look very fine.”
“Because of sexual frustration.”
Her word choice was always like this.
“Then can you fight that right now? I know it’s hard to maintain the resonance. You don’t have to push yourself…”
“A piece of cake. I’m going!”
She ran in after unsheathing the sword artifact. Perhaps due to exhaustion, her feet weren’t travelling straight and although Yu Jitae wasn’t very content, he nonetheless untied the control of the ‘hands’.
Bamm–!
One strike.
Yeorum rolled across the floor of the abyss before lying down spread-eagled on the ground.
He walked up to her.
“…What.”
“…”
“What’s with those eyes, huh?”
“…”
“… Ah fuck. I meant I was the piece of cake. Damn it.”
After releasing her anger, she stood up from the spot.
“I don’t feel bad. I didn’t lose.”
“…”
“This is just training.”
I don’t feel bad, I don’t feel bad… She murmured that to herself like an incantation before closing her eyes again.
Indeed he was planning to drive her beyond her limits while teaching her during the holidays but he thought that taking rests were also necessary.
Kung.
But Yeorum was more enthusiastic than himself.
“Huu…”
With a deep breath, she calmed the beating resonance. Her red eyes shot open as she dashed in.
Bamm–!
She then rolled across the floor again.
*
On the third day.
It was around the 100th time that Yeorum ended up on the floor. Blood was running down from her nose, her lips were torn and her clothes were all in a mess. Her ragged training clothes were ripped near her shoulder and chest, and black bruises could be seen through the gap.
“…”
Lying down on the ground, she blankly stared at the sky of the shallow abyss. It was all black with nothing to be seen so her unfocused eyes were looking at nothing.
“Are you alright.”
“…”
He didn’t get any reply back.
The dragon’s mana being emitted out with the resonance was recovering her body in real time. Yeorum did not rest for the past three days. She resonated her dragon heart throughout the night and fought the great orc warrior during the day.
Recently, even the great orc warrior was showing signs of exhaustion despite it being a monster existing solely for the purpose of fighting.
Yeorum however did not show any signs of giving up.
Tch.
While spitting out a phlegm mixed with blood, she raised her body up. She lifted her shirt which now resembled a rag to wipe the blood near her mouth and raised her sword.
“Fucking annoying, this piece of trash. This fucking piece of trash… Drooling everywhere. Fucking disgusting…”
She swore along with a sigh.
“Is that ink on his damn head waterproof or what… why is it not going away! He’s fucking sweating like shit as well!”
She got angry as she spoke and began fuming because of something random.
“How about you properly rest for a day. It should be more doable if you’re in a better state.”
“It’s not like I’ll always be fighting when I’m feeling good.”
“…”
“I might fight on a good day but I could also fight when I’m sick. Isn’t that the case for you as well?”
For Yu Jitae, that was naturally the case. From the third iteration to the end of the sixth iteration, he could count his actual ‘rest days’ with his fingers.
“But I’m making quite the progress right? At the start I was pushed back a lot, but now I’m fighting for at least five minutes.”
That’s probably because the great orc warrior was tired but… Yu Jitae deliberately did not say that.
The reason she couldn’t manage her [Pulsation] properly is because she was entirely focused on resonating the dragon heart that it did not contain a single killing intent.
Should he wait for her to overcome this herself, or should he start helping her now. The Regressor, the imperfect teacher, was pondering about it.
“You don’t have to help me or anything. I’ll do this by myself.”
“…”
“I’m gonna dash in until I win. Don’t stop me okay?”
As if she read his thoughts, Yeorum gave a firm statement. She looked like she would dash out straight away but once she was actually ready for the fight, she began murmuring to herself on the spot.
“I don’t feel bad.”
I don’t feel bad. I don’t feel bad…
She morbidly repeated those words. Her voice sounded obsessive as if she was controlling her own mind in order to suppress her anger from surging forth.
Suddenly, he remembered her small shoulders that twitched when she was crying after being crushed by Javier. He also remembered how she had been depressed for over a week after being one-sidedly defeated by BM.
Was there a need to dishearten her?
So he decided to secretly help Yeorum.
It wasn’t that unique of a method.
Thump–
He just resonated with his own [Pulsation] by adding killing intent to it. Even with just this, it should definitely be helpful for a dragon that received emotions and thoughts.
“…”
After noticing something, Yeorum gave a frown but did not do anything apart from that.
“I’m gonna go at it until I win. Huu…”
Heaving out a deep breath, she once again began dashing in at the great orc warrior.
*
Her loss streak continued even after that but after another week.
Baam! Kururak!
The great orc warrior laid on the ground after being smacked by Yeorum’s fist.
“Hah! I finally won–! You fucking piece of…!”
In excitement, she ran up and started rubbing off the black lines on its head with her fingers.
Kurukk! Kurururakkk!
A sorrowful scream of an orc echoed across the shallows of the abyss.