Chapter 7 : The Purgatory Emperor

“Huf.. Huf.. Haah...”.

The sound of someone panting could be heard inside the temple. His brown hair was already disheveled to the point of unrecognizable. He laid his body down on the cold floor of the temple. It seemed that the boy had ran until he lost all his breath. Of course, it was Raka.

‘That damn golem!’

Right after Raka got the skill, he once again challenged the golem. He was very confident in himself until….

-3

-2

The damage to the golem was still laughable! Raka thought that after he got the skill, everything would go according to what he expected. Unfortunately, he forgot that the amplification was only about 10%.

Even after calculating the increase in damage, there was still an insurmountable wall that separates Raka and the Golems.

Though, it was already fortunate enough that the system didn’t just add the 10% from the previous -1 damage. There must be some sort of complicated calculation that involved other aspects.

After running for his life, he found out that the golem didn’t chase him until the part of the temple where Raka entered. It must be the golems’ aggro range, or what the temple’s predecessor had programmed them to do.

Raka looked at the wall, it seemed that there was only one thing left that he could do tonight.

…

The next morning, a young man could be seen sneaking inside a Martial Arts Dojo. He was peeking from a small hole beside a window. The young man must’ve known the hole beforehand, as it didn’t really stand out.

Then, he could feel someone grabbing his shoulder from behind. The hand was hard and rough. It was a product of years of training.

“Raka… What are you doing here? Peeking like that” asked the mysterious person behind him.

“Ah… Um… I was wondering if Uncle is present. I’m sorry for peeking, Senior Brother”, Raka turned around to face the mysterious man. It was Banu, his senior brother back when he was still in the Dojo. While answering him, he also looked around anxiously as if he didn’t want to meet someone.

“Ah, you’re looking for Mr. Romi. Ok, stay here I’ll find him for you” Just when Banu was about to turn his body, Raka hurriedly stopped him.

“No! I’m not looking for him. The truth is I’m looking for you. Do you have a moment?”

Banu stared at Raka with a puzzled look, nevertheless, he still followed him to the Dojo’s training ground.

…

The training ground was located outdoor, right behind the dojo. It had all sorts of tools which could help training. There were dummies and even weaponry available. It also had a koi pond situated right in the center. The combination of the pond and the trees gave the disciples a sense of relaxation.

Raka stopped in a corner of the ground. There were many rocks with about a meter high scattered everywhere. It was a place to train a person’s agility and focus as they need to jump from one rock to another.

Then Raka pointed to one of the biggest rock. It was never stepped on because of its size.

“Teach me how to break this”

“Huh?”

“I need to learn how to destroy a rock, just by using my fist”

Banu was stunned. This young master in front of him had never visited the dojo since years ago. Then, he suddenly came back saying that he wanted to learn to destroy a rock? Is this the new trend?

“Uhh…” He didn’t know what to answer.

“You don’t know how to?” asked Raka disbelievingly.

“I know.. Of course, I know.. But why do you even want to be able to destroy a rock?”

“Um.. I can’t tell you this. Of course, it won’t be for a bad thing”

Banu hesitated for a while. In the end, he chose to accept Raka’s request. He had known Raka since they were small.

He knew that the word ‘evil’ would never suit him.

Banu gave Raka one of the training suits. The design was very simple and it had the color of white. There were only two colors inside the dojo, white for the students and black for the coaches.

Inside the Dojo, everyone had to adhere to the rules. Even though Raka was the young master, he still had to follow them.

…

Back to the training ground, Banu pointed at the rock which Raka had designated earlier.

“To destroy the rock, you need to control the energy flow inside your punch. You need to create a violent type of energy and then inject it to the object you want to destroy. It would exponentially increase the amount of destructive power inside your fist”

“I’m sure that you’ve learned about how to control your energy flow. Now, the important thing is to learn how to create the violent type of energy. Watch this”

Banu’s usual carefree face turned solemn. He took a deep breath. Then he positioned his fist to the same height as his waist. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then released his punch into the air in front of him.

Whoosh!

That punch generated an abnormal amount of air pressure. It would be obvious that if the punch hit someone, that person would be blasted away like a broken kite.

Raka closely watched his senior’s every movement. He knew that his senior brother was strong to the point of able to destroy a group of armed thug singlehandedly.

Banu performed the move a few times. Then he turned to Raka.

“You got it?”

Raka nodded. The hard part was to force the energy flow into a turbulence. To a violent yet still controllable type of energy. Therefore, there was no problem for him to imitate the movement.

Raka took a deep breath. His eyes turned sharp. He repeated every movement that his senior brother had shown him.

Ssshhh…

Even though the movement was perfect, the power clearly was far inferior. Nevertheless, it still made Banu quite astonished.

‘No wonder master liked him very much, he’s very talented!’, Banu thought.

“Mm.. The power is still not enough. So, what should I do?” Raka’s voice brought Banu back from his thought.

Just when Banu was going to ponder about it, they suddenly heard a loud cough from right behind them.

“Why did no one tell me about this” His hoarse voice, combined with his big muscular body made both of them felt a chill down their spine.

Raka and Banu looked at each other. This old man was the gentlest person in the world, but when he wore his red training suit, he became a demon.

“Uhh… Master.. This.. I can explain” Banu was trembling.

“Silence. Banu, you are dismissed. I believe this was a request from my son”

Banu heaved a sigh of relief, he quickly left after bowing to his master.

Then, Romi stared at Raka. His eyes radiating a ferocious glint. He had a stern look on his face, but if one looked closely they could saw a rare smile coming from his lips.

“Well, Raka, it slightly disappointed me that you didn’t tell me first when you wanted to study martial arts. It’s been years since you last practicing. I don’t know what the reason is, but it must be important”

It was Raka’s turn to tremble. He knew where this conversation would go.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. It must be something embarrassing so I could understand that. Starting from today, I’m your master. No, I won’t accept any excuse”

Raka was left with no choice. He could only blame his naivety for believing that his uncle wouldn't notice.

Thus his fate was sealed to become his uncle’s personal disciple. Of course, there was a reason why he was very reluctant.

In Indonesia, there was a legend. For each big city, there was a Dojo that served as a representative for it. They were nicknamed as Hell’s Dojo because of their harsh training. Naturally, they produced many strong fighters as a result.

One of them was located in Bandung, nicknamed Purgatory. It was exactly the Dojo where Raka was.

Aside from the white and black colored suit, there was also the red one. Raka’s uncle was the only one qualified to wear the red training suit inside the Dojo. It represented the strongest of each Dojo. Because of it, his uncle was known as Romi Sanjaya, The Purgatory Emperor.

And Raka had officially become his personal disciple.