A month passed in an instant, and the masochistic training continued. Day in and day out, Arthur returned home with severe injuries. The bruises were healed using [Recovery], but the severe injuries needed time and mana to heal.
Anna was furious, while Lily and Magnus were worried beyond bound. They urged for Arthur to halt his inhumane training, but he assured them it wasn’t too much trouble. He assured them Melzer was a great guy.
He would never let something happen to him.
But that wasn’t the truth, as on a particular day, he brought the crimson-eyed man to the same cliff from which the latter attempted to jump one month ago.
The chilly breeze poked Arthur’s skin, and it felt like a thousand needles were piercing it. Although [Recovery] had grown during his training, he wasn’t certain whether it could heal his injuries before certain death.
However, his body was incomparably powerful when compared to the start of the month.
As he fell, Arthur shattered his bones and muscle fibers. Sometimes, he even tore muscles. However, using mana, recovery was incredibly fast, which caused the broken parts of his body to strengthen when recovering.
Although the pain was unbearable, Arthur never had trouble with it. It was simply a warning the body sent out. Physical pain was simply an illusory effect the mind cast on the body to warn it, but when the entire objective was to destroy the boy, the effect didn’t matter.
It was simply an obstacle to Arthur’s goal at that point.
With no purpose, physical pain was simply an annoyance. Of course, Arthur gritted his teeth or bit his lip in pain sometimes, but they were simply coping mechanisms. To numb the pain, he needed to dispose of his pain receptors.
Then, he would only be vulnerable to mental pain or soul damage.
But he couldn’t dispose of them just yet. He required pain receptors to forge his physical constitutions for now. Pain was an excellent ingredient to establish something amazing the body could use.
Like building muscle. Although it depended on mechanical tension, pain was an added bonus that alerted you when to continue and when to stop.
“Jump,” ordered Melzer. The voice resounded in Arthur’s head, echoing uncontrollably as it attempted to shake the crimson-eyed man to the core. The voice in which Melzer spoke contained mana, which caused it to sound more authoritative than usual.
It seemed the man was attempting to make Arthur fear his next moments.
“It’s not always good to be fearless,” explained Melzer to Arthur, who stood before the cliff with an emotionless expression. “Fearless people are the first to die. It’s because they ignore warnings and signals. It makes them ignorant or arrogant.”
It was laughable. To Arthur, the concept of fear was laughable! Him, the Lord of Sins, feeling fear? He was perfect in his past life, and he only needed a few power boosts to contend with the Demons and Angels.
His mindset was perfect… right?
Arrogance were a display of your confidence. Confidence usually meant you had faith in yourself, which meant you were capable. If one was capable, there wasn’t a need to be fearful of anything.
Arrogance was a byproduct of strength, and the latter couldn’t be refuted by those who were weak.
That was Asgard’s dynamic, too. So why was a mere Elite Ranker lecturing him, one who conquered the 98th floor, about a certain mindset? He felt like laughing, and he eventually did. Arthur let out a chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Melzer asked calmly. “You’re about to jump into an eternal abyss that might or might not kill you.”
“So what if it kills me?” Arthur responded viciously. “If it does, I was too weak. If it does, I didn’t deserve to live in the first place.”
“Regression isn’t something that happens everyday,” Melzer refuted Arthur’s overly courageous words. They weren’t courageous, however, as they were plain stupid in his eyes. Dying was fine if it makes him look strong?
“If I can’t go through the extremes, I have no chance of achieving my goal,” replied Arthur. His viciousness had faded, and there lay a man driven by desperation to achieve a certain goal. But it wasn’t desperation.
‘It’s not possible…’ Arthur thought. ‘Do I… fear… those goons at the top…?’
It would be a laughable thought to his past self, who conquered adversities like they were air. But now, in a body with such meager strength, Arthur doubted his fearlessness.
“What’s your goal?” Melzer asked blatantly, uncaring of Arthur’s supposed secrecy about the subject.
Arthur took a long, deep breath before staring at Melzer. His crimson eyes shone in a deep, blood-like color. Fear corroded Melzer’s mind, and that’s when Arthur spoke. “To drag the Demons and Angels from the throne. Vengeance. And to conquer the 99th floor.”
A moment of silence descended upon the area. Then, boisterous laughter resounded as Melzer clutched his belly, struggling to suppress his laughs. “The Demons and Angels… the Transcendents? The ones Divine Rankers couldn’t bring down?”
“Divine Rankers…” Arthur muttered. “Are you talking about my floormats?”
“You might be the only one stupid enough to call Divine Rankers your floormats,” Melzer muttered, wiping a tear from his eye. “Don’t say this shit in the tower, though, otherwise you might get smited on your first day.”
Arthur sighed in disbelief before walking off the cliff.
Melzer’s eyes widened, and he considered jumping, too. However, he quickly gave up and descended from the back of the mountain.
“Crazy bastard.”
*
‘Fuck,’ thought Arthur as he shot down to the ground at terminal velocity. His skin felt loose, as if it would rip off at any seconds. His teeth were able to shatter, but the crimson-eyed man could only worry about the collision.
Although his body was powerful, would it be able to withstand the landing?
Arthur’s eyes turned bloodshot, and he forced his body to land flat on the ground. He couldn’t risk imbalances.
‘Would I have to go through this twice to strength my rear, too?’ Arthur thought, and within seconds, his body collided with the ground.
It was like an explosion.
Boom!