Effort.
Sungmin didn’t like that word too much. Even if he worked hard enough, he couldn’t do as much as the other geniuses. But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t working as hard as them.
Therefore, the starting line is different. Sungmin had a different starting line than the other geniuses. The geniuses started way in front of him. Even so, their speeds were different. If Sungmin crawled, they were running. If he ran, they were riding.
Therefore, he never liked that word. Effort couldn’t bring you success or anything.
He didn’t like it.
But he pitied it.
It wasn’t that he didn’t work hard in his past life. He practiced third rate martial arts and tried to level them up. He tried to survive.
But what about now?
He couldn’t say that he had a different starting line now. Sungmin had experience. He had Wijihoyun’s help. He had the Potion that helped him. He was now in Mush’s mountain with Sogo as his teacher.
It wasn’t a matter of the starting line.
It was a matter of the speed.
Strength. Haste. Amethyst Cloud. High Heavens. Shadowless. Everything was done with precision.
Effort.
That was what he needed now.
Everyday was like hell to him. Food and water was terrible. He was scared of sleeping. Dreams were terrible. Weight slowed him down. If it weren’t for Fatigue Recovery and Mental Cleaning, he wouldn’t survive in this mountain. No, he had to consider Sogo first then.
If it weren’t for her, Sungmin wouldn’t have survived.
Sogo said “You can forget grudges, but don’t forget kindness.” That was etched in his heart.
He had gratitude towards Scarlet and Sogo. He was going to repay them in some way. That was another goal for life. He couldn’t die before repaying them.
One day, Two day. One week. One month.
Sungmin’s body was getting faster. The 3rd level of Shadowless was helping him forget happiness.
The basics ran, na, and zhe was perfectly etched into his body. Using that, he was getting to naturally mix the basics as well as the steps to High Heavens. When it was that time,
Sungmin dropped down and cried. It was as if a huge wall was broken down. It was a wall of limits.
He got to understand happiness.
He could use the spear like this. His body can be moved like this. Time passed. It became one month and then two months. His voice was gone, but he still made sounds. Sounds with the spear. Sounds with moving the body. Sungmin ran continuously through the heaviness. He used the Amethyst Cloud before he was scared of nightmares, and when he did wake up, he used the Amethyst Cloud again.
His energy supply was increasing. The energy from Wijihoyun and the potion was integrating faster into his body, and the nature of the mountain helped the process.
“You, you’re still here?”
It was about a year since he came.
Plam came over.
Sungmin put down the spear. He didn’t say anything and just looked at Plam. Plam seemed to not like Sungmin’s face. He walked towards him.
“I thought you wouldn’t survive half a year, and yet you survived a year.”
He only stared at Plam but didn’t say anything. Maybe it was the year of training. Sungmin could somewhat feel the power of Plam.
‘Genius…’
That person. Sungmin couldn’t think of the plane that Plam was on. Instead of despair, that made Sungmin feel more in awe.
“You must have quite the spirit for a person without any talent. No, that’s not it. You don’t even have that much spirit. If it weren’t for Sogo, you would have already died before then.”
Plam spit down, twisting his lips. Sungmin didn’t show signs of trying to refute that. It was true. What was the point of refuting it. One year. It was true that Sungmin was stupid and rash.
“Are you ignoring me?”
Plam said loudly. Sungmin kept swinging his spear. He started again from the ran, na, and zhe.
‘Look at this…?’
Plam’s eyes opened. The ran, na, zhe that Sungmin was showing was much cleaner than half a year before. It wasn’t just that either. The spear techniques mixed with the basics looked pretty decent.
“I guess even idiots can learn after a while.”
Plam remarked. Remark all you want. Sungmin kept swinging, not caring at all. One year in this mountain was doing much more than 13 years in his previous life.
“But, is that only it for having 5 penalties?”
Plam laughed and snickered. The rewards increased with the number of penalties. Plam told Sungmin that.
“That’s trash. Should I tell you? Hmm?”
Plam’s laughter became louder. To Sungmin, he didn’t really hear anything. Sungmin’s mind was already focused on the spear techniques.
Seeing that Sungmin was ignoring him, Plam’s face had irritation plastered on it. Quickly, he stretched his foot. Before Sungmin even stopped his spear, Plam moved his hands. Tap! He grabbed the spear.
“Why are you ignoring me?”
Plam spit out, looking at Sungmin. Sungmin sighed and moved back. Before Sungmin pulled out his branch, Plam shook his head heavily.
“Just say. I can understand by seeing your mouth.”
‘What skill’, Sungmin thought and moved his mouth.
Why are you bothering me?
“That’s what I want to do.”
Then I can ignore you as well.
“No, you can’t. A person like you can’t ignore me.”
Great personality. Sungmin sighed.
I don’t want to talk to you.
“Why? Because your talent is nothing compared to mine?”
Not really. That’s your talent. There’s no reason to be sad about what you have.
“Why do you sound like you understood something? It doesn’t suit you.”
Plam smirked. He put down Sungmin’s spear that he held in his hand and moved back a few steps, and he held up his hands.
“See. You can’t do this?”
Plam’s hand twirled around. It was something that he had seen before. It was a sword dance.
“Isn’t the world unfair? You and I have the same age, but I can do everything that you can’t do. Even if you work hard, you only have the speed of a snail. Maybe just a little faster.”
Plam laughed loudly. Sungmin looked at Plam’s face. This b*tch. Saying this stuff. Sungmin looked at Plam irritatedly and moved his mouth.
I don’t care.
“Lies.”
Plam laughed loudly at Sungmin's answer. Plam put away his spear and shook his head.
“Useless effort. If you keep working, you’ll only fall in more despair. Yes. Go ahead. I like when you fall in despair.”
Plam turned his body. Sungmin didn’t care about Plam anymore. He left, and Sungmin kept swinging.
It was quiet after the sounds were gone. The surroundings weren’t lonely but normal. He focused on the targets of his swinging. His spears had no talent but had longing. Sungmin longed for faster and lighter. No, what he wanted was complete freedom in his spear.
He didn’t care about weight. He didn’t care about speed. He just wanted to put the High Heavens in the spear.
It felt trivial.
His goal was so small and trivial. Beating Wijihoyun. Yes. When he beat her. What afterwards?
That thought quickly disappeared as well.
Finally, nothing was left in his mind. No, just one. The martial arts that he didn’t have in his past life were left. High Heavens, Amethyst Cloud, Shadowless… these three filled his head.
A day went by. Two days went by. A week went by. A month went by. Mush came over. To a new penalty, Sungmin answered immediately.
Hearing.
He started to hear random noises. It was a terrible penalty that made sleeping worse. Sungmin kept starting to work harder on his spear technique. It was better that way. The annoying noise went away when he was swinging.
Scarlet and Bejun left the mountain. They must have gotten what they wanted in just a year. Sungmin's’ world became even quieter. There was only a few times when he wasn’t alone. With Sogo, and sometimes, with Plam.
Plam didn’t seem to like Sungmin. He kept trying to fight with him on weird things, and Sungmin ignored him. It was easy. Sungmin couldn’t hear anything. When Sungmin started to ignore him, sometime later, Plam didn’t come over anymore.
Silence.
Sungmin woke up from his sleep
It was a nightmare. He couldn’t scream, but it was the same as before. Sungmin picked up his spear. He walked the forest and stopped at the place where he always trained. Sogo was there. The year that they spent together. Sungmin grew for a year, but Sogo didn’t. She felt a bit more gaunt than a year ago.
She lifted herself up. Like Sungmin had 2 more penalties, she did too. Her left eyes didn’t work anymore and she started to hear noises like Sungmin.
[Did you have nightmares?]
Sungmin nodded his head, and then he lifted his spear.
And like he always did...
He swung it.