Chapter 33

Genius

Regular chapter for this week . It's a bit late, but I was a bit busy this week .

You will fear falling asleep everyday .

It was as Mush said . Sungmin screamed and lifted his body . How long did he sleep? His time senses were all wrong . His memories were tangled up . He felt like he slept… very little . It was still night, and the moon was still up . He didn’t remember the position of the moon when he slept, but it didn’t seem that it moved much .

No .

Was it?

Sungmin lifted his shoulders . His shoulders were shivering like crazy . It was the first time he had had such fear . The fear of something unknown that he would never know . Sungmin pulled his cape towards him and wrapped it tightly around him . The fear slow disappeared and Sungmin tried to calm down .

Just for a bit .

The dream… he didn’t want to think about it . Sungmin dreamt about his younger self . To think of that, he had to go back 1 year of this life, then 13 years of his past life to the point of his regular self before Eria .

He had parents .

There was no one without parents . Sungmin had one as well . He had parents . They… he didn’t remember much . He didn’t want to have any memories of ‘parents . ’ He wanted to forget .

He didn't’ want to be sad over them

Anyway, like every young kid, Sungmin was afraid of ghosts . He was afraid of the darkness that came when he needed to fall asleep, and he used to fear the little sounds in the dark .

He didn’t want to feel it though . Ghosts . If he thought about them, he felt that he would have nightmares about ghosts .

It was the same now . He didn’t want to feel the nightmares that he had .

It didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to have nightmares . Mush told the truth . Sleep wasn’t a time of peace anymore . Dreams were harsher than his penalty of taste .

But humans had to sleep . They had to .

He didn’t know how many times he woke up . Everytime he woke up screaming, his body was filled with sweat and mind tangled . The freezing cold of the mountain shivered Sungmin’s body . Sungmin put up a fire . He pulled the cape close and sat down .

And slept

And woke up .

And slept .

And woke up .

The sun came up .

The nightmares were terrible . There weren’t any rest from the constant nightmares . They changed every time . It was barely a day, no, half a day . A bit less? Sungmin looked up at the sky .

It was still night . He needed more sleep . But he couldn’t . He didn’t want to . Sungmin lifted himself up .

Sungmin took his spear .

[Crazy . ]

Sogo came up to him after the sun came up . Seeing Sungmin’s pale face and his closed mouth, she guessed what crazy thing Sungmin did .

[How many more penalties did you get?]

Sogo wrote down . Sungmin put down his spear . He looked at Sogo’s face . She sighed and gave the branch to Sungmin .

[Two . ]

[Crazy kid . ]

Sogo pointed at the first thing that she wrote .

[What penalty . One must be voice . ]

[Dreams . ]

Sungmin answered . It was uncomfortable trying to talk using the branch . Therefore, his words were short .

Dreams… Dreams… . Sogo whispered the word to herself .

Sogo had 3 penalties . Her left arm . Voice . Telepathy . Those were very specific . She couldn’t use her left arm . She couldn’t use her voice . She couldn’t use telepathy .

Those were the same for the other trainees in the mountain . Same for Scarlet and same for Bejun . But Sungmin . Weight, Dreams, taste… they were subjective .

Those were incredibly harsh .

[Was it on purpose?]

Sogo asked .

[The rewards are better as the penalties are harsher… why are you so rushed?]

[Because I don’t have talent . ]

Sungmin answered .

No talent .

Sogo looked down at the words and closed her mouth . She couldn’t say anything, but it seemed as if she was oppressed by Sungmin’s answer .

No talent . It was nothing that Sogo could relate to . This world . Sogo knew that she had talent . It was only after she came into this mountain and met Plam that she felt despair about herself . It was only because of the presence of a true genius Plam that her talent was overshined .

[Talent . ]

Sogo wrote down . The lack of talent . . . did she feel it . When she met Plam, Sogo felt despair about herself . That wasn’t just Sogo . Everyone, Scarlet, Bejun, everyone felt that way .

Those were people with talent, however . Even those people were overwhelmed by Plam . How would Sungmin who was nothing compared to those magnates feel . Sogo couldn’t imagine easily .

Sogo looked at Sungmin . It started from just observation . Since he was the same age as Plam, she thought Sungmin was a genius like Plam .

However, Sungmin was better than his age, but he was not a genius . It was obvious that he was better, but he increases his skill so slowly .

Sogo felt the lack of talent and skill from Sungmin . But she knew now . The lack of talent that Sungmin said was true, and his face was filled with despair .

But his eyes weren’t dead yet .

[Your goal is very high up . ]

Sogo wrote down . Sungmin looked surprised at that . He had never said anything about Wijihoyun to Sogo .

[Don’t be surprised . I can see it in your eyes . Everyone has a goal in their mind . But there aren’t that many people who would work that hard to reach it . ]

Sogo muttered and stopped writing . She looked like she was thinking and kept writing .

[My goal was to become the best of the martial artists . It changed when I was summoned here . To become the best of the entire world . ]

Sogo wrote down and gave the branch to Sungmin . Sungmin tilted his head . He didn’t know what answer Sogo wanted him to give .

Sogo’s face kept changing as Sungmin hesitated . Then finally, Sogo nodded her head . Her hand went inside her pocket .

She pulled out an old book and held it out to Sungmin .

Shadowless .

Sungmin looked surprised as he looked at Sogo . Sogo looked nonchalant . Sungmin wanted to write something, but Sogo didn’t let him . The book that she gave touched Sungmin’s chest .

[You told me before . To tell me a speed technique . ]

Sogo took the branch from him and wrote down .

[Shadowless . That is all my technically . My footwork, everything . It’s Shadowless . Now you learn it . ]

[Why me?]

Sungmin wrote down . He did ask her once to teach him a speed technique, but that was just a suggestion . He didn’t really think she would give him one .

[Pity . ]

Sogo wrote down . Sungmin’s face hardened .

[I have talent unlike you . So I don’t know how hard your despair is and how harsh your goal might be . I want to give you this, but I want to help you even if I don’t understand you . ]

Sogo was honest . Pity . Pity… Sungmin laughed .

[And I’m a nice person . ]

Pity . Maybe she thought it was embarrassing that she said that because she added that .

But Sungmin didn’t feel bad about Sogo’s pity . If it was like this, he was happy about it .

[Do I have to call you Master?]

Sogo shook her head .

[I’m not the one who created Shadowless . There’s no reason to call me that . Just call me Teacher . ]

To think that he would be Sogo’s pupil .

His life was definitely going a different way than before .

Sungmin read the book that she gave him right away . He wasn’t skilled enough to understand just how great the skill was, but he still knew that it was a great technique

‘It’s good enough to be compared to the High Heavens and Amethyst Cloud . ’

Sungmin swallowed . There was no opportunity like this before in his life . The only thing like that was that he was reborn .

But how was this life . He had gotten so many things from Wijihoyun and gotten Shadowless form Sogo .

‘The problem is me . ’

Would you like to learn Shadowless .

Yes .

Sungmin closed the book .

‘9 years . . . no…’

8 years