Chapter 186 :

Episode 36 : Upskilling (5)

Giving it their all, half of ‘The Rebels’ Guild's members were tackling a ruthless routine that was made by a merciless man with a villainous face named JoonChul.

Despite the intensity of the routine, everyone did their best in developing themselves into the finest conditions for the near future.

For anybody's information, the routine is as follows..

At dawn, everybody must get themselves ready for the day which led to them waking up early and partaking in their breakfast.

From 6am to 7am in the morning, there will be physical exercise like humans would normally do at a gym.

Running around the large island is possible yet tiring, lifting rocks that are twice the weight of the one who lifted it, doing 100 pushups, climbing up a medium sized mountain, etc.

Of course, no matter how merciless JoonChul was, he wouldn't be so cruel as to let Mya, Noel and Noelle take on such heartless exercises..

As a matter of fact, clone JoonChul informed them to partake in half of the exercises or end the exercises themselves if they were to exhaust themselves.

And as natural as it may seem, everybody agreed to it since Mya, Noel and Noelle were children who were still growing which meant any rough movements now could potentially or probably prevent further growth in the future.

Aside from that, every single exercise must strictly be completed by the time 7am arrives, if not, there will be an appropriate punishment for that.

"This is not punishment! This is torture!! How could you do this to me just because I failed to complete my exercise!?" Alaine exclaimed before being dumped into extreme cold water. "C-cold!!!"

Louis also failed on the first day. "T-This.. c-c-cold.."

Anyhow..

During 7am to 10am, any hidden skills and skills must be used to their limits to perfect the mastery of the skills. If mana points were to run out, they must either rest or drink the MP potion.

The reason why there's a choice to pick between resting and continuing the training by drinking MP potion, is because MP potions can be essential in the near future and there are only a limited amount of them.

Whether to spend money to get MP potions or waste the MP potions now that were awarded to them from stages, it's a loss for coins and potions.

But it's also a win as well if they could resume their training. To clone JoonChul's and his comrades' surprise, everybody did exactly that to make do with their training in perfecting skills.

Except for clone HwanGi since there's no way clone JoonChul would waste his own MP potions and coins just to keep his disguise of HwanGi safe.

"Ahjussi, why are you saving up your potions? Doesn't Ahjussi also want to be stronger too?" Mya asked clone HwanGi.

He didn't respond and just did his thing.

Luckily, Alaine misunderstood that. "Ah ha, you're being quiet so that you can focus more on the task at hand! Genius! Guess I won't be talking anytime soon!"

‘That's the greatest thing that Alaine has ever done.’ Clone HwanGi thought.

Along with that thought, Clone JoonChul dramatically mused, wiping his imaginary tears. ‘Indeed, it is. Almost makes me want to shred a tear of happiness from the short moment of peace that Alaine will bring us.’

Ahem..

In any case, let's go back to the training routine..

When noon comes, it is time for a moment of relaxation and catching their breaths from having done the exercises. Once they have their sweet yet short break, they will have a fulfilling lunch to refuel their stomach after consuming a lot of calories for the exercises.

As soon as that ends, the afternoon starts off with a constant non-stop weapon training where there will be a practice as well as a small match with everyone's tutors.

JoonChul, Frostina, Raiden, Mirai and Behemoth. The tutors who acted as a supervisor, had kept an eye on everyone's training this whole time.

From assisting with the exercises to advising some tricks and hints during the morning's skill training to giving small matches with their students and handling their students' weapon mastery.

To prevent anyone from injuring themselves or slacking off, the tutors would remain by their students' side all the time, except when the students go do their personal needs.

In fact, the tutors were quite the fundamental people who raised their students in any way possible.

Without them, training would have been slower by how clueless the students would be when they undergo skill training and weapon training by themselves.

Moving on..

When evening arrived, everyone had a casual dinner in the night, except there was an annoying storm outside which was getting pretty out of hand with the continuous earthquakes.

Once dinner was done, it was time for everybody to sleep through the night..

..Or so everyone thought.

Considering everyone was tired after a long day of torture, they went to bed very early to get ready for tomorrow.

But what they didn't know was that clone JoonChul instructed Mya, Noel and Noelle to be awake during their bedtimes.

Why? Because they were having a special training where they needed to borrow the powers that weren't theirs.

The amulet that sealed the Nature Dragon, Amaranth, was now being used by Mya slowly but surely to understand and control the Dragon's power.

While on the other hand, Noelle had a snowflake bow (accessory) that imprisoned the Ice Dragon, Bianca after the glitches had occurred.

With this, Clone JoonChul had been training these three to utilize the powers of the dragon, including Frostina and Mirai who had come to assist the training as well.

And from then on, the entirety of the training routine mentioned above has been going on for about 27 days without a single break, leaving the next four days to be..

..Something very enthusiastic and competitive to look forward to on the last four days before the end of Stage #21.

One would wonder what those four days had in store for them, including Louis, Mya, Alaine, Noel, Noelle and Crystal..

———

Whoosh~

On the eight day of Stage #21 with 531 hours remaining until it ends its completion..

In the night, there was a different island somewhere in the middle of the sea, not only crowded by a vast jungle and plenty of animals, there was a group of people within the island.

It was the players from the guild, ‘Fatal Savages’ where the guildmaster was Zeon, along with Asher.

"Hey, Reaper. Not going to eat?" Zeon asked while walking up to an enormous tree.

Asher, who was up on the branches of that humongous tree, was laying down on the thick branch casually without a shred of fear in heights.

She didn't respond to Zeon, either she refused to reply or she didn't hear him, Zeon wouldn't know.

And that's why..

[Player ‘666’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Solidify’ Lv. 2.]

Zeon's hidden skill that had helped in being a platform for members of the ‘Fatal Savages’ to stay on in the past, was now being used as stairs to take steps higher toward Asher.

"It's hard to figure out where not to step on when it's invisible to the naked eye." Zeon uttered as he furrowed with each reluctant step he took.

Shortly after, Asher commented with a scoff. "You're an idiot for picking the difficult part when you could just climb up."

"Is it stupid if I'm using this skill to get used to it?"

"Then is it dumb to use it now where you're getting higher and higher to the point where a drop from there will be deadly?"

"It's really sad that my rival underestimates my ability in surviving from this height."

"Well, duh. Who else can survive that except those guys in ‘The Rebels’ Guild and me?"

"You really think lowly of me, Reaper."

"Damn right, I do. Ain't gonna address you as an equal until you annoy me or win against me."

"Even when we had a draw each time we had a rematch, along with my other wins?"

"What about it? A little draw can be changed into something else. And you know I ain't going to back down until I win against you. I only need one more win after all."

"Win? No way, I'm taking that victory from you first before you could do it."

"Haha! Funny, you said that! You're just being plain hilarious, idiot! Hahaha!"

Watching Asher laugh while Zeon was stepping on a branch, he allowed her to take her sweet time in chuckling.

Before eventually, Zeon shrugged it off and stood beside Asher, leaning on the tree behind her.

When silence came and the moon was shining beautifully while ignoring the destructive hurricane surrounding the island, Zeon uttered. "Fighting you is fun, Reaper."

Fluttering~

And in that moment, Asher grew goosebumps when she heard that line coming from Zeon, disgusting her in the process.

She responded with a grunt. "..Ew, did you just say that? Hell no! Nah, nah, nah man! Don't even come close to me."

"What? I only said it's a fun match whenever it's you."

"That just sounds like you're about to develop feelings for me, and I ain't shitting around with that love bullshit."

At that point, Zeon snapped at the thought of Asher assuming he would have a crush on her. "Fuck you, Reaper."

"No, fuck you."

"No, you."

"Nope, you."

"Stop being childish, Reaper."

"Oh yeah? Eat a shit on your way down this tree." Asher cursed before immediately kicking Zeon off the tree.

Unfortunately for Asher, Zeon was able to save himself with his hidden skill, ‘Solidify’ and stood there, glancing at Asher with a teasing look.

"..You. I'm killing you the second I get the chance." Asher declared.

Teasingly, Zeon crossed his arms and said the following line. "Said the lady who couldn't even kill me a moment ago."

"Tch." Asher turned her head to somewhere else so that she didn't have to see Zeon's face.

Rustling~

At that moment, there was a short period of time where Asher and Zeon were minding their business, watching the night sky and the luminous moon.

When out of the blue..

CRASSSSHHH!!

..This sudden and unprecedented quake wasn't just the earthquake caused by the disastrous hurricane outside the safe zone.

..It was more than that.

"I was wondering when someone would show up, but I gotta give them props for making a big entrance." Enlivened, Asher snickered.

Whoosh!

Whilst whistling at the sight Asher witnessed, she took a step off the tree branch to freely fall into the portal beneath her, rising up from the second portal to discover that in front of Asher was a shipwreck.

"Not even waiting for me?" Zeon said, running on top of a path made of solid air platforms toward Asher's direction.

..Thud!!

Once Zeon arrived at the scene, he had already noticed that a pirate ship of all ships had crashed into this island.

From the looks of it, it seemed to have been launched into this place because of the hurricane.

Judging by the fish bites and damages, it could only be explained if it were caused by the hurricane outside.

"Hey, Reaper. What do you think?" Zeon asked Asher who was staring at the pirate ship.

By then, Asher shifted her gaze back at him, and uttered. "This is sus."

"Yeah, I agreed."

"For a goddamn pirate ship, this looks like it was abandoned by the pirates."

"Makes sense for it to crash if there isn't anyone abroad."

"Or is there? Neither mobs or vehicles can enter the island."

"Unless there is a player in there?"

Observing for a second, Asher shook her head. "Ha, what am I fucking saying? This is a pirate ship, there gotta be treasure inside, right?"

"You're more interested in that?"

"Hell yeah, I am. When there's a pirate, there's a treasure. No damn way I'm going to let anyone touch those treasures though, they're mine."

"I can feel your greed and eagerness leaving your mask."

"Shut up, dude."

SLAM!!

During their conversation, someone intruded on them with a crash landing to the ground right next to them, causing Zeon and Asher to shift their glances at the intruder in an instant.

In that moment, Asher sneered with murderous intention while she wielded her scythe. "Oh ho ho. Look what we got here, a player. Who knew a chance to get more ‘Numbers’ had arrived."

Asher's homicidal intent was aimed at a man who had red hair and was staring at everyone on the island with an obvious objective of seizing the island for himself.

That guy's eyes that were black, were gazing at each and every one of the people within this island before averting his glance back at Asher.

Sooner or later, as Zeon put his hands into his light brown coat's pocket, he sneered with the same intention as Asher. "Doesn't seem like he's an easy prey, Reaper. Let's say we team up on this one, how about it?"

"I'm a person who does things solo. And you have a much needed job then fighting that guy in front of us."

When Asher said that, she had pointed her thumb at what was behind her, showing Zeon that the members of his guild, ‘Fatal Savages’ were getting power hungry..

And they were having expressions that clearly translated to assassination or interruption if both Zeon and Asher take on the intruder by themselves.

Mumbling quietly to Asher, Zeon scorned while furrowing eyebrows. "These guys really don't act like you at all."

"Don't compare me to those goddamn morons who can't seem to control themselves with greed. Oh, and.."

When her sentence wasn't finished, what Asher did later was the act of creating six portals in front of her face before something pernicious could happen.

Like say..

SWISSSH!!!

..A halberd that was thrown by the intruder, was about to get pierced into Asher's face, but failed because of Asher's instinct and portals.

"Oi, oi oi. Can't even spare us some time to talk? But I get your feeling. I too wanna beat the crap outta you." Asher smirked with her ferocious tone of voice.

"You fight him, I'll take care of the rest. So don't die by that guy before our next rematch, Reaper."

"You betcha."

Not long after, Asher immediately flung herself forward with a leap, grasping her scythe with one of her skills, ‘Wither’, coating the blade in black.

"Let's have fun, shall we?" Asher spoke with pleasure.

The halberd that crushed Asher's 6 portal defenses into 3, was sent right back at the intruder through a portal behind him.

..CLASSSH!!!

"Hao ba."

* ( "hao ba." Chinese → English "Alright." )

At long last, the intruder who was silent all this time, had heaved out a response to Asher's words after effortlessly dodging Asher's attack.

In a blink of an eye, the intruder grabbed hold of the halberd after dodging it, it was as if he knew it was coming without even checking what was behind him.

Thrilled as heck, Asher smirked. "Well, I knew you were a tough guy from first glance. But.."

CLINGGG!!!!

"You ain't as strong as me." She declared.