Chapter 34

Genius

To get used to it .

It was hard to do . The first one that he got used to was his voice . He couldn’t say anything . No screams, shouts, anything . Anything that he could make with his mouth was gone .

That wasn’t really a big penalty however . There was only Sogo that Sungmin met frequently, and Sogo also had the same penalty . Therefore, Sogo helped Sungmin get used to the penalty faster .

The silent conversations . It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t hard to get used to it .

But the other ones were different .

Sungmin’s weight that he was feeling was getting harder by the way . Especially after learning Shadowless, the weight carried his body down .

Shadowless was a speed technique .

Therefore, the weight that Sungmin had as a penalty became a huge problem for him . The technique in specific required a lot of skill, so it was harder for Sungmin .

‘If you want to move faster, the weight keeps you down . ’

That’s where he was stuck . He couldn’t get fast enough even if he followed the cultivation manual . He needed the strength and speed to overcome that .

‘Thinking is easy . ’

Thinking was always easy . Reality was not .

If the weight was holding Sungmin back, the taste and dream penalty was completely breaking Sungmin . Food wasn’t good at all, and sleep wasn’t a time of rest anymore . No, the taste penalty was probably better than his dream penalty .

He was afraid of sleeping . Sungmin begged everyday . To not let it be night, to not get tired .

But he always slept . HIs body tired out after swinging his spear so many times . And then… he slept like death .

And then he would wake up from his nightmare . Screaming a silent scream, he would sit up near the fire . He would sleep then wake up again .

“Crazy kid . ”

That was a thing that he heard a lot since he came to the mountain . He stopped and looked at Scarlet .

He was wondering why she was here, but it seemed as if Sogo brought her here . He glanced at Sogo beside Scarlet, but Sogo didn’t give an explanation .

“Why are you mute people looking at each other . You date?”

Scarlet grumbled as she came over . Sungmin put down the spear and picked up his branch . Scarlet’s face wrinkled at that .

“Don’t ask . I’ll tell you everything . Ah, Really! Why did you become mute? It’s hard to speak . ”

Scarlet grumbled as she scratched her head .

“Sogo . This mute girl . She came a few days before and begged for a while . To help you . ”

Scarlet spit out towards Sogo . Sungmin, surprised, looked at Sogo .

“I’ll teach you some magic . ”

Scarlet went closer to Sungmin . The stench grew as she came closer .

“You should be happy . Magic isn’t the easiest thing to use… but this world makes it easier . ”

Sungmin tried not to be bothered by the stench . She was grumbling, but Sungmin understood .

He was going to learn magic .

Sungmin never had any relationship with magic . If he wanted to, he might have learned few of the weakest spells, but to a mercenary like him, martial arts was always better .

Scarlet Resir . She wasn’t the great now, but in 10 years, she would be a master magician who would create the Resir branch of magic . This was a great opportunity for him .

“Look at this kid . ”

Scarlet pouted her lips .

“Hey! I said . It’s only a few types of magic . I’m not telling you everything . I live off of this . I can’t tell you this for free . This isn’t free . Sogo, that mute girl is going to pay for it . ”

[Payment?]

Sungmin put down letters on the ground .

“It’s nothing . Sogo is going to help me if I need help without any questions . ”

It was nothing . That was like a one time slave contract . Sungmin looked at Sogo . She didn’t have any emotions .

“I heard about you . You crazy kid . Getting two more penalties . Really . . . crazy . You’re foolish when you’re stupid . That’s you, kid . ”

Scarlet laughed .

“I’ll teach you 4 types of magic . Mental cleaning . You… have nightmares? Don’t think that they’re just that . They might harm your mental state . Mental cleaning helps for that . . . It’ll only be like an emergency aid for you though . ”

She pulled out a magic scroll from her pocket .

“Strength and Haste . Generic buff magic . Give strength and make your body faster . THe last one is Fatigue Recovery . It helps recovery stress . ”

Sungmin got 4 scrolls of magic . Sungmin blinked a few times and looked down .

Those scrolls were very important to Sungmin right now . Mental cleaning . It would help Sungmin’s mind from nightmares .

Strength and Haste . These would relieve the stress given by his weight penalty . It wouldn’t be a perfect solution, however . The weight penalty was getting harsher everyday .

“Remember this . Magic isn’t a panacea . ”

Scarlet warned .

“It’s comfortable, but it’s not a panacea . Strength and Haste my help the body, but your body will have to take the burden of it . Same for the other spells . If you use it too much, your body suffers . ”

Scarlet shut her mouth . After a brief silence, Scarlet let out a small sigh .

“ . . . Well . If you were intelligent enough to keep your body healthy, you wouldn’t have taken those penalties . Anyway, it will help . In holding out at least . ”

Scarlet said that and went back to her resting place . Sungmin read the scrolls and added them to his skill list .

Then Sogo appeared . Sungmin put away the scrolls and looked up at her .

[Teacher . Because you’re a nice person, you did this all for me?[]

[Yes . ]

Sogo said confidently . It was the expected answer, but it felt bad to hear it . Sungmin looked at her .

[It’s my problem . Why?]

[You’re not friendly with Scarlet . But I am . So I can ask . ]

It was a simple answer . And it was the truth . If Sungmin tried to ask Scarlet, she wouldn’t have responded to it . The reason why he was able to learn magic was because Sogo knew Scarlet and Sogo had the ability to help out Scarlet .

[Relationship are important . If I see… you seem to be afraid of relationships . Or no . You don’t seem like you trust people . ]

It was direct . Sungmin made a surprised face and looked at Sogo . Sogo laughed as if she knew it all along .

[It’s not bad to be careful . But if you’re too careful… you can’t have relationships . You can’t live alone . ]

That made Sungmin feel many things . The past Sungmin…

Had no companions . Had no friend . He didn’t trust . No Classes . He was a cynical guy who wanted to survive . He lived like that for 13 years . He died alone .

But this life .

He had relationships with Hans and Jack . It could have just been because of his talent, but they cared for Sungmin . Lula helped him as well . Wijihoyun was always there for him .

And from Sogo as well .

People couldn’t live alone . Relationship were important . That was true . But was being careful bad? What was bad about not wanting to be betrayed . Sungmin’s mind swirled in confusion . His experiences were colliding together .

[That must have been a hard word for you . ]

Sogo wrote down on the ground .

[Don’t think about it too much . You and I are two different people . My words can’t always be right . We’re different . ”

Sogo erased the words she wrote before .

[It must be the first time using magic? Try it . ]

Sungmin nodded and thought about magic in his head .

In this world, like martial arts, magic was easy to perform .

However, it depended on the person as well to increase the magic levels .

‘You use your inner strength . ’

His inner strength rumbled . Sungmin tried to use mental cleaning first . He could feel his head becoming clear and lighter .

And then the fatigue recovery . The fatigue made his heavy body lighter . HIs stress from lack of sleep all disappeared .

‘If you use it too much, it hurts the body…’

But this was the best way for now . Sungmin made a refreshed expression as he stared at Sogo . He wanted to try the other ones, but first he wanted to thank Sogo .

[Thank you . Teacher . ]

Sungmin wrote it down and bowed his head . Sogo scratched her cheek at that .

[Just remember this . I just think it’s moral to help people . Don’t forget it . ]

Sogo wrote .

[So it’s like this . When you receive help from someone, even if you can’t do anything for them now, just keep it in your mind . Grudges… I won’t say to throw them away . If that was true, why would people learn martial arts . I’m a nice person, but I don’t forget grudges easily . I don’t forget kindness definitely . [

Sungmin nodded . He could understand Sogo’s logic .

Sungmin would not forget the kindness that Sogo showed him .

‘Even after 8 years . ’

In 8 years, Sogo would die to Wijihoyun .

Sungmin wanted to stop that .