That was the only thing. He didn't want to die. He could not die. There was no reason to think about why at this point. He couldn't die already. He just couldn't. Sungmin heard Scarlett's warning in the distance. Gripping his spear, he lowered his stance.

Aine's fist techniques were unrefined. She was able to use all the martial arts that Xeon was capable of using, but that didn't mean that she was as proficient as him in using them. She had the same level of skill as him, but Aine herself was unused to using the fist.

However, her style of battle was one that made her cover up those deficiencies with enormous magic energy and the transformation of her body. If Scarlett did not support him, Sungmin would have died by her hands already.

No, perhaps right now.

A tentacle grazed past him. Sungmin's strength was too lacking to deflect Aine's attacks using basic moves; everything sounded distant to him; he forgot to breathe and charged forward; the tentacle changed shape and now rushed at him from behind; he could feel that with his sixth sense.

Shadowless Phantom, second move – Shadowless Step. His shadow danced around. Sungmin's body produced afterimages. With his forward momentum, he attacked with the first move of the Nine Skies Infinity Spear – Soultracer.

Aine did not avoid this. She met it head on with her armor-clad body. Claaang! Along with a metallic sound, the spear in Sungmin's hand trembled. Even though he exerted so much of his internal energy into it, he was incapable of penetrating Aine's armor-like body.

He didn't have the leisure to exert more strength and try to penetrate through the armor. Sungmin retracted his spear retreated. When he moved out of his place using the Shadowless step, Aine's fist struck where he had been.

Even the slightest of mistakes weren't allowed in this battle. Just like the time with the ogre chimera; no, even moreso. When he fought the chimera, Sungmin had some leisure to think, but nothing like that existed now.

'If Miss Scarlett wasn't here….'

That was what he thought – that he was so powerless. He realized this in Prescan's dungeon. How puny and weak were peak-level experts. He thought to himself that he had grown somewhat, though not so strong, but in actuality, he was just a puny existence.

The opponent was freakish enough to make him feel that.

Even though she possessed the same heart that Sungmin had, she was incomparably stronger. She killed Xeon and drove Lloyd almost to death.

'Would I be able to do it?'

Against Xeon, the leader of Corona Mercenaries? Or against Lloyd?

What would he gain from thinking such things? What would change from it?

He wanted to see the limits of martial arts.

He thought that. When he just left Mount Msh, Sungmin was under the a.s.sumption that he was walking on a lonely path of martial arts. He packaged himself, his lack of talent, his luck, and his encounters all as effort. Yes, back then, he was like that.

However, right now.

His weakness – What if it was Wiji Hoyeon, or Baek Sogo instead of me? – Thinking about other people was just running away from reality. He had half-given up putting in effort as well. Even though he resolved himself see the limits of martial arts, that he would exert the effort to do so; even though he resolved to train himself, he tried to break through his bottleneck relying on something like the magic armor.

Even though he never attempted to break through by himself.

This was because I now know reality – he said to himself several times before he slept. Doing missions was easy, but at most, they were S-rank. His skills did not improve, and neither did his achievements in martial arts. Outside of Mount Msh, hard effort wasn't rewarded the same. That was why, he ran – from effort; from training.

So, would he die now?

Boom! Sungmin's body rolled across the ground. The magic armor on Sungmin's body, albeit without its original function, still played a splendid role as a defensive item, fortunately. Without it, rolling on the floor wouldn't have been the end of it.

Despite that, his injuries were heavy. Although it didn't show on the outside, his internal injuries were rather critical. Aine jumped towards Sungmin rolling on the ground, and Scarlett hurriedly cast magic to interfere.

The internal pain, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, the sounds of destruction all around, his aching head… the pounding of his heart in his chest.

Sungmin heaved a breath and stood up. His waist ached, be it was because he was. .h.i.t, or from when he rolled on the floor, or both.

Night arrived, and the surroundings were dark. The magic that Scarlett was casting seemed amazing even from Sungmin's view, who was practically clueless about magic. Every time Scarlett's hands waved through the air, unknown characters filled the air and invoked magic.

Seeing that, Sungmin felt that the bitterness in his mouth was like poison. The thing coming out under his tongue was no saliva, but poison. He hated it. He hated himself for being powerless. Sungmin dragged his feet.

'I.'

…Need to change. He wanted to change. He knew that the world changed as 'he' changed. He learned that in Mount Msh. At that time, he had definitely changed. The him before he entered Mount Msh and the him after he left Mount Msh had changed.

It was just that he was lacking. Some people, like, for instance, the so-called 'geniuses' have an easy time doing anything they do. Whether it was progressing forward, or being changed. Every step that a genius takes was equivalent to several or perhaps several dozen steps for an ordinary man.

As someone who's not a genius, Sungmin had to keep walking forward. One realization was not enough. He had to come to several realizations.

About himself; and about reality. He needed to know how different his ideals and the reality in front of him were.

'I do.'

Connecting the disjointed thoughts he had, he gripped on his spear with whatever strength he had left. He knew that he was puny, that he was worthless, and that he was no genius. He also knew that the 'change' he experienced wasn't anything that great. Even though he acted like some hermit that decided to see the limits of martial arts, he fell too easily in front of a bottleneck.

Despite that, he was looking too high.

His goals were too idealistic.

He wanted too much.

Amidst his self-loathing, Sungmin quietly walked forward. Although Scarlett was an exceptional mage, her Spell Engraval was a field of magic that was incomplete. Thanks to that, the efficiency of magic energy consumption was not that good. Yes, the Qimendunjia and Onmyoudou-based Spell Engraval was an effective method of attack against Aine, who had magic immunity.

However, it lacked the decisive factor. With the firepower that the current Scarlett had, it was insufficient to deal a decisive blow. Aine possessed immense regenerative powers, and was enough to be called the ultimate lifeform. She recovered her injuries endlessly and pushed Scarlett back.

Sungmin watched that happen.

Amidst the disgusting self-loathing, he was pressed down by his own powerlessness. He hated it. And that dejection was what made him move. He didn't want to let Scarlett die. He didn't want to die either. There was a reason he couldn't die here.

He had not changed yet.

Aine, who was attacking Scarlett, suddenly sensed something sharp approaching behind her. Although it was a shallow attack that she could ignore, she turned around anyway. In the first place, what ticked her off was not Scarlett but Sungmin.

Aine did not know who Sungmin was. However, she didn't like him, and he kept ticking off her mind. She did not know how to solve these kind of troubles, and she had come to her own decision about this.

Wouldn't it stop if she killed him? Seeing Sungmin las.h.i.+ng out with his spear, she grinned. It was a light, and shallow attack, it wouldn't matter if she was. .h.i.t by it head on.

As she thought, Aine's light swing of her hand easily deflected Sungmin's spear upwards. his palms ripped, and his elbows could barely hold, creaking. He instinctively spun around his chest in order to dodge Aine's sharp hands. Screech – and the section of armor around his waist was torn apart. A shallow wound on his waist gushed out blood. Any deeper, and his innard might have fallen out.

He couldn't be relieved yet. Aine was the predator, and he was the prey. The predator was now about to play around with her prey. A fight between a rabbit and a tiger was impossible. No matter how desperate the rabbit is, it would die with a single swing from a tiger.

Sungmin ran like a rabbit. Or perhaps, it might be more correct to say that he was a flea instead. He ran from Aine to survive. He endlessly stepped according to the ways of the Shadowless Phantom, and forced his arms to use the techniques of the Nine Skies Infinity Spear. Scarlett was no longer able to support Sungmin. She gasped and calmed down her magic energy, and only looked at Sungmin with complicated eyes.

Sungmin wouldn't resent her even if she ran away. However, Scarlett had no thoughts of fleeing. She was seriously considering whether to use her last resort.

Of course, Sungmin was not aware of this. Nor did he think about it. Boom! Sungmin's body flew backwards from Aine's kick. He almost fell down without any power in his legs, but he forced himself up. Black blood gushed out as he bit down on his lip. Aine giggled out loud. Her transformed hands were ma.s.sive and razor-sharp.

His spear felt heavy.

This sense of heaviness was something he hadn't felt in a long time. He hadn't felt this way since Mount Msh. His body was heavy as well. His ears were being tortured, and the metallic scent of blood pervaded his mind.

Death.

Was this it? He wasn't able to meet Wiji Hoyeon again, he wasn't able to save Baek Sogo, and he got even Scarlett involved in it all too. A sudden death, like always. He still had some internal energy in his dantian. His body just didn't live up to the task. Sungmin suppressed the urge to laugh in self-loathing and pulled out his internal energy. He circulated… the Purple Cloud Divine Art. He circulated his energy. Watching as Aine ran towards him. He thought that, it still wasn't time for his death, just yet.

Why? Because he could still move.

There aren't many people that accept death as a joyous thing. If someone had the slightest bit of longing left, then they would not long for death. Even someone without any desire wouldn't be calm in front of death. Most people struggled in the face of death. Sungmin included. He struggled. He had numerous reasons he could not die here, and that became a longing for him which made him move.

There was no one that could save Sungmin here right now. There was no WIji Hoyeon or Baek Sogo. There was no Lloyd. To survive, he had to rely on himself. He could not rely on someone else. Like how the world changed with him changing, everything was up to him.

He felt that his had head cleared up a little.

Scarlett came to a decision. She only had two conclusions she could come to. Either she fled, or she fought. Of those, fleeing was no option. The reason she still hesitated, was because it was too much of a waste.

However, she couldn't care about that in a situation like this. Scarlett clicked her tongue and reached inside her chest. But at that moment.

Purple fog was released from Sungmin's spear. Aine instinctively realized that it was dangerous, and immediately stopped to retreat.

The fog swirled around and was compressed into the spear. It became a lingering light around the spear. No, it also looked like a burst of flames. Aine, who saw that scene for the first time, watched as it happened with her eyes wide open. Sungmin, who had become pale after losing all that blood, looked down at the purple flames surrounding his spear.

He wanted to cry.

When he lashed outwards, he was not moving according to the Nine Skies Infinity Spear, but the first of the three basic moves, pierce. Yes. It was just a simple piercing action. Although it was not that fast, Aine was no longer able to ignore that attack. She met it with a stiff expression. Her hands, clad in armor, approached to defend against the spear.

She could not defend. The moment the spearhead came into contact with her armored hands, the armor scattered apart, and her hand was penetrated before the tip of the spear reached her. Speed and strength didn't matter any bit here. The spearhead pierced her right shoulder.

Aine screamed out loud. Although she did not know of pain, the feeling she had right now was strange. The wound was not regenerating. Aine changed her scream into a shout and swung her left hand. Sungmin took half a step back and spun his spear.

Aine's left arm was caught in the rotation and it was ripped off. Sungmin didn't need to exert his strength that much, and Scarlett turned stiff in her position. Aine's eyes widened in shock. Sungmin was not thinking complicated thoughts. He continued to attack Aine in the three basic moves of the spear, and Aine rotated her body in fear. The spear grazed past her waist and the grazed waist split apart and spurt blood.

"Ah, ah, it hurts!"

Aine screamed. Even though she wanted to cover up her wounds, she had neither of her hands. Aine jumped backwards, and then started fleeing without hesitation. Sungmin tried to chase her, but fell down without walking a few steps. His head was spinning, and he had a nosebleed. Scarlett also did not chase her and came to Sungmin.

"…Ah."

Sungmin did not see Aine as her figure became smaller. He only looked at the spear in his hand. The flames that clad the spear was no longer there.

"I did it."

Letting go of his fading consciousness, he muttered those words.

What he used just now was spearforce.

T/N: I hate these stream of consciousness-like chapters, it has no consistency… (yeah it's not my fault, it's the author's.). Actually, I hate this novel in general. It's too much of a pain to translate…

He crawled.

He walked.

He ran.

His movement was slow. His body wasn't heavy, but he couldn't exert any strength. It was unknown whether it was time or his consciousness that was being dragged out, and it was a continuation of something strange. From one moment, Sungmin crawled, then walked, then ran, and wished to run faster.

However, he couldn't. The scenery around him pa.s.sed him by slowly. No, in the first place, there was nothing like a scenery. The world that Sungmin was running inside was colored in pitch black. It was like the night without a single shred of light, and was similar to the darkness that Sungmin got used to back in Mount Msh.

He knew that he was running. He wanted to fly, but he was unable to. From one moment, Sungmin no longer ran and stopped. He started swinging his spear. From the three basic moves to the Nine Skies Infinity Spear, he moved according to the ways that he already had gotten used to.

Just once more.

He dearly wished for that. He remembered the spearforce he had managed to bring out, and tried several times to use it again. He exerted his internal energy in attempt to wrap his spear in purple flames.

Alas, it wouldn't.

He just didn't get how it worked. He didn't remember how he did it. He tried several times, only to fail. The internal energy in his dantian didn't move as though it was solid rock.

Just why? Was the spearforce at that time just a simple coincidence? Amidst the continuation of failures, Sungmin felt despair. From one moment, he was no longer holding the spear, nor was he moving. He was sitting on the floor, and the despair crushed his motivation. He thought that he would rot away like this.

When he opened his eyes, the sound of rain could be heard. Sungmin looked upwards. It was not the ceiling of the carriage. Sungmin breathed out, and realized that everything he had experienced until 'just now' was naught but a dream.

"You up?"

He heard Scarlett's voice. She was sitting down by a chair next to the window. She took off the gla.s.ses she was wearing and closed the book she was reading.

"You were out for 3 days. I thought you were going to die."

"…W-where…?"

He couldn't voice out properly. It seemed that it was true that he was out for 3 whole days, from the fact that his body was heavy. Not that Scarlett would lie about it.

"It's just a village that exists anywhere. Time was lacking to go to a city."

"Did you drive the carriage then?"

"I can drive the carriage too. Though, I just hate to. But what could I do? You had collapsed, so I had to do it."

Scarlett grumbled and stood up. She gazed at the rain outside.

"It's been raining since the morning. I think it'll stop by tomorrow… but the ground isn't too good after rain. I'm thinking we would be able to depart by the day after tomorrow at best. You only opened your eyes today too."

Saying those words, Scarlett approached Sungmin.

"I did call for a doctor of this village… but he wasn't that skilled. It's not like there's a healing mage, or a priest in this village. I did take care of your outer wounds with potions… check yourself out first."

He felt slightly dreamy even now, but Sungmin decided to move his arms like what Scarlett said. The wounds he remembered were on his palms, elbow joints, left waist, and some ribs.

Sungmin's arms were supported by a splint. When he looked at Scarlett, she answered as if it wasn't much.

"I did that. I know emergency treatment."

Sungmin tried to move his arms carefully. Although it was rather tiring, there wasn't much strain in moving them. Potions didn't cure injuries perfectly. It worked very fast with grazes and cuts, but it was impossible to restore internal injuries and broken bones with them. The fact that the bones were put back together without much pain was a stroke of luck.

'No, perhaps it's the heart's ability.'

Sungmin did not know what kind of capabilities the Black Heart inside him had for sure. The things he confirmed were that he was able to lead the energies in spiritual pills directly into his dantian without refinement. Other than that, he knew nothing.

Aine, who had the same heart as him, was different to him in many ways. Aine possessed abilities that Sungmin could not use. From how she used the Hundred Steps Divine Fist, she probably stole that art from Xeon by eating his heart.

Sungmin didn't know how that was feasible, but Aine had many other abilities as well in her possession. Her limbs kept transforming in shape, while her body was capable of being covered by scale-like armor. Her physical abilities were beyond his, and she was able to recover from wounds instantly. Any of these were beyond normal human abilities.

She was different from Sungmin. Sungmin neither had the ability to transform his arms and legs, nor did he have an incredible regenerative capabilities. Although, he might have regenerative capabilities, albeit not the the extent of Aine.

"I think I'm fine."

"What about your internal injuries?"

Scarlett approached him and untied the splints on his arms. Sungmin moved his arms a little before going into a meditative stance. He thought that he had received large internal injuries battling Aine, but they had already recovered during these 3 days. This kind of speed was strange even considering that there was the help from the potion.

"Why didn't you run?"

After circulating his internal energy slightly, Sungmin asked Scarlett. Scarlett dragged her chair and sat next to Sungmin, before laughing.

"Because I didn't want to."

"Wasn't it a dangerous situation? If something went wrong…."

"Not really. It wasn't any danger either. …I also didn't want to run, that's all. I didn't want to abandon you either."

It looked as though Scarlett didn't want to talk about it anymore, so Sungmin didn't pry any further.

"Rather than that, what was that freakish kid? Why did she suddenly appear and attack us?"

"…It is probably because of me."

Sungmin replied in a small voice. Scarlett's eyebrows flinched at those words.

"What do you mean?"

Sungmin was indebted to Scarlett. She could have left Sungmin and just ran away, but instead chose to remain and help Sungmin. Without her help, Sungmin wouldn't have been able to hold out against Aine.

Sungmin sighed and explained his relation with Aine. Scarlett bit her lips and listened to his story until the end. The matters at the dungeon, as well as the Black Heart that was now inside SUngmin's body. And Aine, who probably possessed the same kind of heart. After listening to all that, Scarlett sighed and scratched the back of her head.

"…No wonder you met with that Kim JongHyun psycho frequently. It was because of that heart?"

"Oh… yes."

"You are really unlucky. No, I guess you are very lucky in this case? In any case, your body is now better than before, isn't it? I think that's a suitable compensation to pay."

"Even though I almost died?"

"There are plenty of people who want to gain opportunities like that risking their lives. You just need to not die in the future."

Scarlett grumbled before standing up.

"Consider yourself lucky. You just got a h.e.l.l of an easier life thanks to being with me."

"…You mean you will come with me from now too?"

"What? Did you think that I'll stop going with you just because I heard your story? Looks like you got me completely wrong. I'm not that heartless, you know?"

Scarlett laughed. She picked up her gla.s.ses and book on the table by the window.

"Anyway. It's good that you don't look too bad. Originally… I was planning to leave after the ground dried a little after the rain, but it sounds like we don't have such a leisure. Let's go immediately once the rain stops tomorrow."

"Ah… okay."

"You don't have to be considerate of me. I have a way to save my own life no matter how dangerous it is."

Get some rest, she added, leaving the room. Naturally, she had another room to herself. She only stayed here to look after him.

When Scarlett left, Sungmin was left alone inside the room. He thought back to the words that Scarlett had said to him. He didn't know why Scarlett was undertaking so much danger to be with him. Scarlett also didn't seem to have any intentions on telling him, so asking her wouldn't do any good.

It was just that, from how he felt it, Scarlett's att.i.tude had an affectionate reason behind it. It wasn't like the affection between a man and a woman.

Sungmin stopped thinking about that and carefully propped himself up. As he had been laying down for a long time, his whole body was stiff. It felt similar to the heavy feeling he felt back in the dream, and it brought the same discomfort with it.

He reached out to the spear on the wall, and thought about a lot of things, most of them about what he experienced in the dream. When he grabbed the spear, Sungmin took a deep breath. He calmed down his mind, and then…

He thought about the things he felt just before he fainted. Actually… he didn't know how he did it. He didn't use spearforce while knowing how to. He felt as though his head had cleared after all that self-loathing, and then.

He was suddenly able to use spearforce.

Tracing back to the things he felt back then, Sungmin agitated the internal energy inside his dantian. The energy he exerted into the spear became a purple fog and whirled around the spearhead. However, this was not enough. Sungmin kept exerting his energy. The fog became gradually thicker and started clumping up. Even more – trying to bring back those feelings back then, Sungmin exerted even more energy.

And at one point, the fog was completely compressed into one before becoming a lingering fire. Although this was much thinner and smaller than the spearforce he used in the battle with Aine, it was still true that he had reached the level of being able to use spearforce and not just enveloping his spear with energy.

This meant that Sungmin had overcome one of the st.u.r.diest bottlenecks of the peak-level. Although using spearforce didn't make him an exceed-level expert, all exceed-level experts were able to use weaponforce. In other words, this meant that he was one step closer to the exceed-level.

'But it's still immature.'

This was an undeniable truth. The time he needed to create the spearforce was too long, and it required full concentration. It used up a lot of his energy as well, so it was impossible to maintain for long. Sungmin's first priority was to get used to forming spearforce.

Sungmin put down his spear. And then… cried a little. When he first used spearforce, he felt that he wanted to cry. He became touched that he had reached a level he had never even dreamed of in his previous life. Have I progressed a little? If so, then how much? One step? Or half a step?

That didn't matter. What mattered was that he took a step forward.

Sungmin kneeled down on and kept crying.

The rain was thinning out outside the window.

ED: So it looks like basically anyone that doesn't want to kill him is attracted to his MC aura or whatever, as usual. Wonder how long before that's explained?