“Ok young man”

“First things first”

“What is your name”

The old man says this while Yasu’s back

“My ...name… is….Yasu” as I struggle to say my name as I was doing pushups at the same time, having the old man on my back

“Why have you tried already, Yasu, you haven’t even done 1 yet” he looks down to talk to him

“Well, old man, you’re heavy then you look”

“Now, now, don’t be rude to your elders” as Yasu felt more weight pushed upon him

“How are you getting heavier?” laying flat on the ground as I couldn’t even lift the old man and myself anymore

“This is a secret that only those who master the arts of the unseen blade”

“How does getting heavier help you with your sword skills?”

“...”

“Alright that is enough of this for today” ignoring the question and getting off of Yasu’s back

“Oh thank god”

“Now we move on to endurance training”

“Wait, what!?” as I said that I felt a strong gust of wind hit my stomach

Being launched due to the impact of the hit, I lost health

HP: 150 → 75

“Ouch” as I try to get back up, but can’t as I have run out of energy to move

“Well, done still surviving the first blow”

“We will start the rest of the endurance test with weaker blows now”

And that was the start of my day in hell

“Well done, well done indeed”

“We will now start the agility training” as he left me on the ground

With every part of my body in pain, I passed out

HP: 5/150

NRG: 0/100

Yasu was probably knocked out for an hour before the old man realized that he was at the top of the mountain for his training, which resulted in a 10 minutes walk down for the old man

I felt slaps across my face, they were painful and were in very quick succession, which allowed me to wake up and the first thing I see was the old man ready to slap for once more

I quickly dodged, thinking I dodged it, letting my guard down and at that moment I got the last slap across the face

“What the hell are you doing, old man!?”

“I was just waking you up” he replied calmly

“Do you do this to all unconscious people?”

“...”

“We will now continue with our training” as he started to walk back to the mountain

“I am not doing this no more”

“If I continue I’m going to die”

HP: 25/150

NRG: 30/100

“Oh really now” as he picked me up, like was a piece of cloth, and carried me up to the top of the mountain

“Well then, good luck” as he quickly went back down

“Wait, come back, you old man!” but before I could say that to him, I could already see him at the bottom

“How is this old man so fast?”

I then sit on a rock to rest up to start head down the mountain, but upon sitting down I hear a crunch

Standing back up and see what I was sitting on

I found a paper that the old man probably left behind:

Make sure you get to the bottom of the mountain in one piece, since this mountain is full of monsters of unknown origins as well as ‘normal’ monsters. This place is perfect for wanderers to get agility, intelligence, and/or luck since this mountain is well known for getting people lost and killed, which is why this mountain is called Dead Fog’s Mountain.

I wish you the best of luck,

The Old Man

“You gotta be kidding me, Kate sent me here on a death wish”

“If I come back alive I will teach her a lesson” as a clench my fist and raise it

“I guess I will start making my way down”

“Man, Dead Fog’s Mountain...I got to tell the other about this when I get back down...If I make it down that is…”

As I make my way down the mountain, I began to be more anxious

It seems that every time I took a step, the night gets darker quickly as well as this fog seems to get thicker as I make my way down

The fog then became so thick that I could even see what was around me anymore, the light from the moon couldn’t be seen anymore, but there was still light

“So this is why it is called Dead Fog’s Mountain”

I continued down, not knowing what was lies ahead of me

As I ventured down, I notice that the fog then started to clear up

“This is too easy” as I continued walking as the fog complete cleared up

But something was a bit off, it wasn’t that I landed in another area, it felt like I just went back to where I started, confused I sat at a rock

I hear a crunch when I sat at the rock and there was a letter:

Make sure you get to the bottom of the mountain in one piece, since this mountain is full of monsters of unknown origins as well as ‘normal’ monsters. This place is perfect for wanderers to get agility, intelligence, and/or luck since this mountain is well known for getting people lost and killed, which is why this mountain is called Dead Fog’s Mountain.

I wish you the best of luck,

The Old Man

But the only difference was that there was a message on the back page:

P.S. You may have realized that you started back to square 1, but rest assured you haven’t since this is a different note than the previous one

I probably realized that there is a sort of barrier or illusion around me that I wasn’t aware of

Though there is no proof or evidence that I am in one except for the fact that I possibly have landed back in the same place where I started. I also didn’t have a way to get rid of this

I started to walk down the mountain once again to see if anything has changed, but it was the same process though and though as there was no end to the walking

Everything there was a note repeating the same thing:

Make sure you get to the bottom of the mountain in one piece, since this mountain is full of monsters of unknown origins as well as ‘normal’ monsters. This place is perfect for wanderers to get agility, intelligence, and/or luck since this mountain is well known for getting people lost and killed, which is why this mountain is called Dead Fog’s Mountain.

I wish you the best of luck,

The Old Man

Make sure you get to the bottom of the mountain in one piece, since this mountain is full of monsters of unknown origins as well as ‘normal’ monsters. This place is perfect for wanderers to get agility, intelligence, and/or luck since this mountain is well known for getting people lost and killed, which is why this mountain is called Dead Fog’s Mountain.

I wish you the best of luck,

The Old Man

Make sure you get to the bottom of the mountain in one piece, since this mountain is full of monsters of unknown origins as well as ‘normal’ monsters. This place is perfect for wanderers to get agility, intelligence, and/or luck since this mountain is well known for getting people lost and killed, which is why this mountain is called Dead Fog’s Mountain.

I wish you the best of luck,

The Old Man

I did every possible method of trying to escape, using my demon’s eye, trying to use the coin to back me to the Abyss, running instead of walking, doing into different directions, asking for a hint, and calling for help

I am going to lose my mind

“Is there a time loop?”

“Is the old man going up and down constantly to place the note there”

“Is this an illusion that I am not seeing”

“Is there a barrier that is being looped?”

“Will I die here”

“How am I supposed to get down, if this keeps repeating”

Losing all hope I sat back down sitting on the same rock as if my body is doing this on its own will

I then heard a rustle in the bushes and turning to where the sound was I was met with a mystery monster

Name: ??? Race:???

Stats

???

Info

???

It was black and tall, and the darkness around the monster seems to be a separate entity as I say it swarm around its body as if it was a parasite

I was afraid and grossed out, but the first instinct that came to mind was to run, and so I did

I ran until I reached the next spot, the exact same spot, sitting down on the exact same rock, and hearing the crunch of the exact note that was given to me, but this time the monster was there

Until a couple of seconds passed as the possibly same monster came back from the exact same area it popped up

I give up, I was willing to let the monster eat me, but the monster didn’t eat me instead it was confused as to what I was doing as if it had intelligence and understanding of the human nature

The monster sat down next to me and spoke a few words, though I could only make out some of them

“I ____ let ___ ____ the life ____ I _____'_ have” is what I could make out, then silence came along

A couple of hours have passed and everyone was probably worried about me, but to be honest I think they aren’t

[This, sadly, is true as Mist and the other are enjoying their time]

I was hungry, even though I have run and walked for a long time

The monster stood up and started walking in a certain direction, it stopped and turned around and looked at me and he/she repeated the process

This made me realized that he/she wanted me to follow ever he/she was going

With no other choice left, I got up from the rock and started to follow the monster

Walking for a couple of hours and the monster then stopped and pointed at a specific area

To my surprise, it was pointing to a gap between the fog

Knowing that it was the way out, I started running towards it

I turned around to see if he/she was following, but he/she wasn’t, instead, it just stood there watching me run to the exit

I stopped, “Aren’t you going to come with me”

The monster shakes his/her head and then started to wave goodbye

I stood there for a brief moment as I watched the monster wave goodbye

Starting to feel sad, I steeled myself, and waved back goodbye, and continued running

“See you! If there will be another chance we can meet again!”

As I went through the gap, once I did I quickly turned around to see the monster for the last time as the gap between the fog closes

Once it did, I think I saw tears coming down from the monster’s eyes, though I could possibly be my imagination

“Ahh, you made it down,” the old man said as he came to greet me

“Hey… old man… can I ask you a question?”

“Since I see that you have made it back alive, I will answer it for you”

“Who is that black monster in the mountain”

“Black monster?”

“Did you say that there were many mysterious entities on Dead Fog’s Mountain on your note?”

“Entities? Dead Fog’s Mountain? Note?”

“Here this is the note you sent me” as I tried to reach for the note, I realized that it wasn’t there anymore”

“Uh? Was all this from my imagination”

“I am sorry that I couldn’t answer this question even though I promised to answer this one”

“No… it’s fine”

“How about, telling me what this mountain is called and what was it supposed to help me with?”

“Oh, that I can answer it is called Marie’s Mountain and this is a mountain where go up and enjoy nice scenery as well as an obstacle course, that has been set up for many people including you to train your agility, there are no entities besides peaceful animals and other people, which you should have seen along the way during your time on the obstacle course”

I was confused, as I never saw any people nor did I see an obstacle course

“Marie’s Mountain… why does that name sound familiar”

“Now that I have answered your question, we shall continue with our training”

“But wasn’t I gone for a couple of days?”

“Wait, do you mean days? You were gone for a couple of minutes.”

Name: Yasu Level 1 Attribute: Wind (Lvl 1)

Stats

Strength*[STR]: 11(+20) → 31

Perception* [P]: 10(+1) → 11

Endurance*[E]: 11(+30) → 43

Charisma*[C]: 4 (+10) → 14

Intelligence*[I]: 11(+1) → 12

Agility*[A]: 25(+200) → 225

Luck*[L]: 3

Abilities: Sweep (Lvl 3), Demon’s eye+ (Lvl 3 → 4), Whip (Lvl 1)

Equipped: Sun Cloak, Watch

Health: Uneasy, Slightly Insane

Info

Class: Wanderer (Lvl 7 → 10)

Title: Member of the Scarlet Guild

Inventory

Adventurer’s Card

Bag of Coins (1 silver bit, 25 copper coins)

Katana[???]

HP: 150 → 250

MP: 100 → 50[Temporary]

AP: 100 → 110

NRG: 100 → 300

Insane: Lowers intelligence gain, - 1 to 5 I [Temporary]

Wanderer (Lvl 10): Efficiency of A and I gain +100%

Passive: Gain Agility and Intelligence(depends on the situation) when wandering

Active: Gain Agility[Temporary] when in combat, varies between stats and skills of opponent [MAX 60 → 100 A]

Unlock: Katana Use