"S- stop it!"
I gritted my teeth when I realized that my consciousness was slipping, slowly shutting down.
"Kari, o- okay enough...!"
The pressure that caused to kneel down, to shake my whole body like crazy, and to support myself with my hands in order not to fall to the ground slowly began to disappear.
My lungs, which were struggling to get air into them, suddenly relaxed, and the sweat drops suddenly drained off as I took deep breaths.
I tried to stand up, to at least lean against the wall and drag myself to the nearest seat, but it was futile. My muscles insisted on not listening to .
'Hmm, you lasted twenty-three seconds this ti. Well fucking done, you're making progress.'
"T- twenty... three seconds...?"
It was hard trying to talk while I was out of breath, yet what felt like minutes to was only twenty-three seconds...
I looked at the sweat dripping from my hair onto the floor, feeling my organs, which were literally intertwined from the pressure, relax, and I turned my eyes to Kari in her tiger form.
She was the one who made this way. I was in this state despite the fact that she had done nothing more than simply concentrate the mana in her body on ...
I'm really improving though. It's not just a feeling, I'm actually seeing it. For example, when I first started this 'training' I only lasted nineteen seconds.
The only problem is... this is just one of the 'trainings' I've done. Just... just one...
'Now rest for about half an hour and tell Kari you're going to rest. Then I have sowhere I want you to go and sothing I want you to do.'
I finally gave up trying to get up and lay down on the cold floor, resigned to my fate.
"Where do I go, then...?"
'Oh, it's simple. You'll get your own food from now on. And I'll show you how to do it.'
I didn't say anything, I just slowly turned my eyes to Kari, who had already shifted into her cat form.
At the beginning of my journey, I had been eating from my stockpile, and after that, I had survived by consuming plants that Lithoa had introduced to as edible. And since the day I arrived here, I had been eating at from the creatures Kari went out and hunted.
Now... he says I'm going to make my own food.
"Will you starve if I fail?"
"Of course."
As my body finally began to recover, the pain slowly subsided. Thinking it would be okay, I tried to stand up again, and this ti I succeeded.
So I looked at the white cat, whose ice-blue eyes were fixed on .
I told her what Lithoa had said and Kari nodded her head in agreent. Then she stretched, yawned as if she was tired from dealing with so annoying matter, and curled up on the floor.
When Kari closed her eyes, my eyes twitched and a bitter smile appeared on my face at the thought that it was this white, frail-looking little 'cat' that had caused so much pain.
I plopped myself down on the hard seat at the far end of the huge space.
As silence quickly descended on the training area, I felt inexplicably peaceful. A strange, unexpected comfort washed over . Yet it was understandable.
Had it been five days? Or had it been a week...?
I had spent all this ti training constantly, never stopping, going from one session to the next...
Lithoa said sleep was important, so except for the six-hour sleep break I had, all the ti was spent in training. Lots and lots of training, each one more challenging than the other.
I took a deep breath, then opened my eyes and imagined a screen opening in front of .
I've really improved compared to how I was before I started this journey. Experience, battle techniques, spear use, mana use, stats, and so many things... I've improved in all of them, I've gotten stronger, I can feel it, I know it.
I looked at my stats, full of D and D grades.
And yet... why is it so hard to get to C-?
I know that from D- grade onward things beco extrely difficult, I'm experiencing it directly, but...
This ti there is sothing else. There is a wall that prevents from going directly to that grade. A wall that I can't get over no matter how many tis I get my stats to D .
I started thinking about the future for no reason.
This is only C- grade... I'm not even close to B-, which will be a completely different experience for compared to other people. I can't even remotely look at A- grade, where my body will slowly beco inadequate and I will have to cultivate other things.
And there is beyond that. And here I sit, struggling to get to C- grade.
I narrowed my eyes, closed my statistics window, and sighed again.
This ti a question popped into my mind, a question that ca to suddenly.
"Lithoa, you were eighty years old when Lunerra Awakened... right?"
'Yes.'
I fixed my eyes on the floor, even though I knew what kind of answer I would get before I continued.
"You told you were strong enough to stand on top of the world when you were alive. Don't get wrong, I'm not belittling you, but how did you do it when you were eighty?"
Again, an intense silence surrounded .
Lithoa was silent and so did I. So much so that after a while it started to feel uncomfortable.
Yet Lithoa's sigh in my mind broke the silence in an instant.
'Let tell you what happened back then, so you can get to know better.'
My eyes widened, then I reflexively straightened up in an instant and just stared at the wall.
Did I hear wrong?
'Listen to carefully, I won't tell you this again.'
As his words echoed in my mind, I realized that I was indeed not imagining things.
It was so... strange that Lithoa was talking about the past, let alone saying anything annoying.
Still, I recovered quickly and focused on him, not wanting to miss a single word he had to say.
'I was a weak, feeble old man when Lunerra, as the elves call it, had the Awakening.'
He paused for a mont, as if rembering the past. Yet he continued.
'With dungeons and creatures everywhere, there was no chance for an old man like to survive. There was nothing I could do anyway, I was just soone who had difficulty even lifting his arm. I couldn't even run away from the creatures, let alone fight them.'
Not only him, but everyone was like that at that ti. There was no system, other races that could help people had not yet co to Lunerra, and people who had nothing but the knowledge of the existence of mana were completely helpless.
That's exactly why I'm curious. How did Lithoa survive such a ti?
'Then the most absurd thing you can imagine happened, I was at ho accepting my death when a dungeon opened before my eyes. Before I knew what was happening, it expanded to engulf the whole house, swallowed , and sent to the world inside.'
Lithoa let out a hoarse laugh. It sounded like he was amused by what he was describing, sothing out of the ordinary.
And it actually was.
'It was an Aen-type dungeon, full of deadly traps, frightening creatures, complex puzzles, and endless labyrinths. I don't know what grade it was because no one had the system at the ti, but it must have been at least A grade. I wouldn't be surprised if it was higher.'
I swallowed, not even thinking about the difficulty of the dungeon made flinch.
Aen-type dungeons were the least combat-intensive of the four dungeon types. Still, that didn't an they weren't deadly.
I an, if Lithoa had actually entered an A grade dungeon and survived... and at the age of eighty years old and unable to use mana... It's such an absurd, impossible feat that it's frightening.
'Anyway, so...'
He paused abruptly at the beginning of his sentence.
'Uhm... so things happened and I decided to live. In a long, long ti I not only completed the dungeon, I went down into its heart. I didn't stop there, I accidentally destroyed the dungeon, not knowing what I was doing.'
He said this as if it was sothing so simple that I couldn't react until I thought it over.
Then my eyes widened.
'The rest is simple. I gained a skill that allowed to beco immortal. I managed to get out of the dungeon and then the system ca into being. When the world was on the verge of collapse, with the help of the system, everyone beca stronger. And I, with my rejuvenated body, my immortality, for years...'
He paused again.
'Hmm... well, for so reason I did everything I could to get stronger. I spent years, almost forty years, trying to get to the top of the world. And in the end, I did it.'
What... that's it?
'In short, I didn't get to the top of the world in ten years. While most people reach the top in twenty years, I was always behind. It wasn't easy for to fully empower myself, even in those tis when it wasn't even safe where I slept. I want you to understand that.'
A marble of light slowly floated out from my chest. It slightly took the shape of a tiny sphere, then stabilized and flew right in front of my face. It was Lithoa, of course.
'It took that long to rise even when I was always facing difficulties. You work the sa way. Just like... like before, you have a goal. You are trying to grow stronger to achieve that goal and you are already at D .'
The marble of light, not too different from an energy form, trembled as if jealous.
'It's only been a little over a year and a half since you gained access to the system and could really start to grow stronger. So you are extrely fast, frighteningly fast. So don't compare yourself to .'
Ah... I get it now.
When he finished his story like that, I thought he didn't even take it seriously, but no... He told that even though he was really talking about his past, he was not as perfect as I thought he was.
He understood that I was uncomfortable with my progress, that I was hungry for more. By adding a piece of his own past, he made give myself completely to him, to his story, so that I could think and understand.
'Anyway, I was a bit bored. Rembering the past like this...'
Her voice trailed off for a mont, but she recovered quickly.
'It was kind of nice, I guess.'
Before I could say anything, I looked at him, at the marble of light form.
His reactions just now, his behavior...
So things are different from what he says. He deliberately hides things about the past; about himself. I'm not very smart, but I'm not so naive that I can't see that.
Lithoa... it seems he's been through things too.
He's a human being like too, after all.
'Anyway, enough fooling around! Get up, we're going out!'
Suddenly he moved, his spherical form quickly entered my chest, and then his voice echoed throughout my body.
'We're going to hunt so dinosaurs...!'
"Huh...?"
I found myself staring into space for a mont.
"Sorry, what are we going to...?"
Lithoa took on a playful tone, as if he enjoyed my reaction, as if he wanted to make fun of even more.
'We're going to hunt dinosaurs, or rather you are.'
"Dinosaur...?"
'That's right.'
I tilted my head slightly to the side.
"What is that...? Is it a powerful creature?"
'...'
A deep deathly silence fell over the room. Lithoa accompanied this silence as if all his excitent and fun had disappeared.
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