Chương 63: The Maddening Bouncing Ball

The training remained as brutal as it could be with the exchange "fighting", where one attacks the other defends and then on reverse continuously until one gives in. Galer already followed Hwan Songge's ideal of the defensive Animo style. He let me start by beating on him first, testing his more knowledgeable approach to the task. I targeted his forehead with my fist in motion. He responded quickly, anticipating the exact place I would strike.

He protected his mouth and chin by going in deeper into the neck already a solid approach of anticipation. Then he returned the favor with his own punch, aimed straight at my liver as it was open. I completely misjudged it and blocked my forehead in vain. He landed a heavy hit on me, clearly showcasing the starting difference between us. Once again we were not on equal terms. I did not like it at all that he was going "ahead". And so the exchange fighting... it continued for more days.

Galer stayed and moved clearly ahead of me in defense. Every exchange showed how much sharper his reactions had become with the defensive idea firmly in mind. While I still swung with raw reckless power and little else behind it, he moved like a battle-seasoned warrior, turning my own strength against me, blocking more effectively each day, and slipping in with perfect timing for a counter. One more day passed, and we reached the thirtieth of December.

That was the day I finally achieved my own breakthrough in this training. In the beginning i followed Master and Galer, as I first tried the defensive way and failed completely on the first days. I was far too late to defend against each of his hits. That style simply did not suit my strength. The pure aggressive style first proved on the attacking side against Galer strong but in the end also proved bad in defense, since i never worked the style in conviction to defense.

I abused my attacks without much thought when to switch and became to much open for ambush attacks on equal Animo. I had become so accustomed to using my Heart Flame that I could only control the overwhelming force, but nothing else. Something was clearly missing on the style. The balanced style felt neither here nor there for me. Trying to use fifty percent at the right moments left me completely out of my depth.

It was something I could only manage while relying on Heart Flame, which made me realize that for all those days I had depended too heavily on my "pseudo Vestuto" as a compensation tool instead of treating it as a true part of my body. But today the thirtieth of December was different. As I finally understood the missing piece and chose the only style that was true to the reckless life I always lived after. My style had always been aggressive…

but I needed to use more of my brain and fight smart with especially on the defensive side now that i tested all three. Just because it was aggressive did not mean it had to be stupid or rely only on greater physical power. That was what Master had been trying to tell me that the missing part in my way of fighting. When Galer's turn came, he had become even more sophisticated in his defensive style.

Every evening while we bathed he would annoy me by talking about how much better he was in the training session and how his superior blocking and smarter hits on my vitals, trying to hurt me more while using less energy had come out well, while i only am good offensively but have nothing on the counter. But today I showed him that I had reached my epiphany. I dodged him cleanly for the first time.

Not blocked but dodged the attack completely as it was in my thoughts, if i cant block with my style on equal settings than dodging is the only way to counter. Hwan Songge danced in place while clapping.

"Finally you understood, Erumes. I thought I would need to do it myself and was about to be mad and would have beaten you silly, but you finally understood your style approach," he said, clearly harboring evil thoughts of unimaginable pain in his mind.

"Each style has ways to improve one's Animo, which in turn improves Vestuto symbiosis. Galer already knew this and applied it to himself well enough. Now stop, both of you. I will hand each of you different ordeals to accomplish further improvements." Each of us received a new task. With a villainous smile and light laughter, he first told me to follow him toward a hidden door in that very training place. He opened it using his own pressure.

The mighty door slid sideways, revealing pure darkness unlike anything I had ever seen before. It stank. The air was steamy and barely accessible with fresh oxygen.

"This is the perfect training chamber for aggressive users," he said.

"It has not been opened in a long time… many years ago, in fact." His smile turned to sadness for a brief second. I could feel a clear shift in his tone. Then he returned to his usual manner.

"Get in there. No dilly-dallying around here." Once I was inside, he said simply,"Dodge the ball, if you can."

"What… ball?" With that bare scrap of information he closed the door right in front of my eyes. I heard a bouncing sound inside the dark isolation chamber. Its dimensions measured only four by four meters. The walls were made of seamless black stone that later turned out to be black opal, a material that seemed to swallow every trace of light. The air was thick, humid, and heavy with the scent of old sweat, iron, and something almost metallic. I could see nothing.

I could only hear the constant, maddening bounce echoing endlessly through the perfect darkness. The humidity clung to my skin like a second layer. Every breath felt wet and stale. As I moved closer to the bouncing sound, it intensified. The bounce suddenly tripled in volume. The ball connected with the ground in a sharp "boing" and then— Woosh! It smashed into my unprepared face with heavy impact. It felt like being struck by a dense stone I had never experienced before.

Blood gushed from my nose and dripped into the seamless darkness. My anger rose immediately. So Master had said to dodge it…? How about catching it and crushing this B-A-L-L to smithereens instead? With that goal in mind I went after the sound. Every time I stepped closer, the ball returned with the same intensity, slamming into my face at around 920 kilometers per hour. I could only get hit. I never once managed to catch it or even see it fully.

The strange part was that it always targeted my nose at the beginning. On the third impact it finally broke. I grew even madder. I wanted to unleash my Heart Flame so badly, but I knew exactly what Master would do if he discovered I had "cheated" by using one of my attributes to finish the ordeal. So I forced myself to calm down out of pure fear of his disapproval. Funny enough, every time the ball struck my nose or another body part, I came closer to releasing my Heart Flame…

yet I had to throttle those thoughts every single time.

"Thank you… Master," I muttered under my damaged breath, voice dripping with pure venom and sarcasm.

"I really appreciate the broken nose and the wonderful life lessons you have given me. Couldn't have asked for a better teacher." After ten hours inside the chamber I finally began to acclimate. I discovered it contained a potty where one could release fluids or heavier business. Whatever was deposited flushed down the mountain through a thin tunnel just wide enough for the purpose. Food was also pre-stocked.

I could not see it at first, but I eventually found it on a small table: a jar filled with stale bread that later turned out to be rusk. At the very least it filled the stomach and delivered a sharp awakening kick. It was extremely spicy, as it was around 50, 000 on the heat scale. The capsaicin burned the mouth but also helped free the stuck blood in my broken nose. The day ended with twenty-nine attempts.

Results: A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Zero successes. One broken nose. One broken rib. One sprained leg. On the final eleven tries the ball focused only on my legs. Those impacts hurt the most. I could not stop it from attacking me. All I could do was curse Master. I did not want to be here. Growing stronger than before felt awesome… but going through this ordeal was hell on the Orbis Terrarum... in the most literal sense for me.

No normal human would have enjoyed this. The intensity of that stupid rock-hard stone ball remained impossible to measure for now. It was far too difficult, like throwing an adult who was only well-versed in knitting into the mines to pick diamonds. An impossible task in itself, for he would only hammer aimlessly without knowing the right nodes to strike. The following days continued the same for me. I tried hopelessly to combat that monstrous hellish ball.

After two weeks of getting obliterated and making almost no real progress toward handling the damned thing, while still refusing to "cheat" as I wanted to leave so badly this tight dark space. I punched the reinforced door plenty of times, but no sound reached the other side. It had been designed as a pure isolation room, completely cut off from the world. So I took a two-day break… if one could even call it that. That constant bouncing "boing" sound never stopped.

Sleeping had become a real problem since the moment I entered. My mind stayed locked on the stupid ball and its annoying, endless boing-boinging tune. My head rang, as if I myself were turning into a madman. Both of my eyes had developed hyposphagma, burst blood vessels, that had long since settled in. They looked like twin crimson moons floating in pure darkness. I stared at the ominous dark ground that my eyes could never adjust to. Many days passed. My concentration remained fixed on that thing.

Finally I adopted a smart-crazed style, determined to catch it and violate its existence. I had begun to see myself as a prisoner with every passing day. I listened to the millionth-plus bouncing "boing" and rushed with everything I had from the far wall. The ball followed the exact measured rhythm I had heard so many times that it had dulled my brain. It moved as I expected. One… two… three… and woosh! Its direction aimed straight for my right eye socket.

This time, however, I anticipated the cursed tool and dodged with all my might, shifting my full body sideways. I was so surprised by my successful deed that I let out a great roar of pure accomplishment. I failed to comprehend that the ball had bounced off the wall, kept its momentum, and flew even faster straight into my forehead, knocking me to the ground. Even so, I felt happy overall, despite the blood dripping down both sides of my face from the newly opened wound.

I had finally taken a real step forward out of that damned cell. Two months and a few days later, it was now the year 1024, the ninth of February. On that day I finally caught the annoying item. I wanted nothing more than to crush it in my palms. I looked like a maniacal beggar wearing only a stinking loincloth. Master opened the door the exact moment I tried to crush the stupid thing. In the pitch black I stood with super-red eyes and deep black circles under them. He let me loose… a free man at last.

The light blinded me. I tried to block the incoming brightness, looking like a lost child of the light. My ability to see had been taken away; everything appeared only as a blur. I had been inside for so long… Master pinched his nose, not wanting to smell me any further. Then his Benison, Entita Volonta, grabbed me like a stinking bag by the skin of my back and threw me into the bath so quickly that I did not even realize where I was until I opened my eyes.

After the forced washing I received a new loincloth and, finally, a gi that matched Master's color. On the upper right chest of the dark gi was a sign in his native language: 계한파 — "Gyehanpa." The Gye Han Pa emblem was proudly displayed as a large circular martial arts symbol. The stylized Gongeryo characters "계한파" were dynamically arranged inside a clean white circle bordered by a thin black ring, with "계" positioned top-right, "한" dominating the center, and "파" anchored at the bottom-left.

The text glowed in a striking dark electric blue with sharp, powerful strokes, giving the entire emblem a prestigious, mystical, high-ranking presence against the black fabric. Once I put it on, he told me I needed rest, for rest was also important after a great training session. I used that time to check on Galer. While I had been imprisoned, he had been sitting atop a boulder, watching moving stones that each carried different signs.

They moved so fast that he had to call them correctly the moment they stopped for a split second, or else he would be slapped by the wrongly judged rock. I could see that Galer had made great strides in his vision. Yet in my mind, while I had been locked away, I felt I had improved the most. I believed I had reached a new state of power with my own strength and my Heart Flame. Not wanting to annoy him right after my release, I went to my bed and slept as I had not slept in years.

I reminisced about the past, specifically about Rhertia with Father working in the mines, memories filled smiles and grew drowsy within mere seconds. I slept safely, like the little lad I had once been under a warm embrace.