Early in the morning before the sun rose, Eshnunna woke up. She looked lost—like someone who had floundered in deep water for long and barely managed to keep her head above water. Her pajamas were soaked, and her entire body was wet with sweat. Rough breaths came out of her nose and mouth, and for some reason, she was trembling regardless of her own will. It was as if she had seen something truly frightening. She thought to herself what she should do.
‘Should I just close my eyes?’ she wondered. After contemplating a bit, Eshnunna turned to see that she was in her bedroom. Her agitated breathing soon settled, and after double-checking and triple-checking that yes, this was indeed her room, she plopped back down on her pillow. Her eyes still looked weary with sleepiness. There was a sense of relief, but fear hadn’t completely disappeared from them.
‘It’s been a while, but the nightmares are starting again,’ Eshnunna thought. The problem was that she couldn’t remember what she had dreamed about at all. That was even scarier. If she at least knew the reason, she wouldn’t be feeling this unsettled. An anxiety that couldn’t be explained tormented a person even more.
‘But on second thought…’ She couldn’t remember it too well, but she faintly recalled hearing a voice. Her eyes drifted closed again.
‘I hope that this time I will fall deep asleep without dreaming…’ she wished and shut her eyes.
—….
Not long afterward, Eshnunna’s eyes burst open again. She looked around in confusion. She was relieved to see that she was still in her room when a strange sense of déjà vu hit her. She felt like she had experienced the exact same thing just before. Was that a dream? Or perhaps she was still in a dream? All sorts of thoughts passed through her head. But at the same time, she still had a strange feeling that somebody had called her from far away.
‘Why…?’ Unable to differentiate reality from a dream, Eshnunna lay confused.
—….
Then she suddenly heard a noise. Eshnunna stopped turning her head and thought, ‘Just now…’
She heard it just then. It wasn’t clear, but there was a faint echo. She put all her focus on her hearing, but for a long time, there was only silence. She was about to relax again when—
—Quickly…me.
Eshnunna flinched. She was sure of it this time. It wasn’t her imagination, and when she realized this fact, a strong sense of fear enveloped her.
“W-Who are you? Who’s there?” she mustered enough courage to ask.
—Quickly…me.
But only the barely audible echo circled back. Eshnunna sat up and turned sideways. There was no one in the room but her, and she felt her vision slowly darken. No, it was no mere feeling. The room was becoming darker, which was strange despite it being the middle of the night. Eshnunna hunched unconsciously, and her face blanked. She saw a large, dark mass swarming from the ceiling, dyeing it black as it cascaded down like blood trickling from an open wound.
“Ah…” Eshnunna’s lips gaped open as she looked above her.
“Ah…Ah…” She needed to scream, but her voice remained stuck inside her throat.
—Quickly…me.
All the while, the voice continued to say things she couldn’t understand. Instinctively, Eshnunna kicked away the sheet and scrambled back.
“Ah!” Only after her back collided with the wall did she regain her senses. She clutched her lowered head and straightened her back. She shuddered for a moment seeing the sticky black mass fall from the wall to her shoulders, and after a deep breath, she jumped off the bed and ran. The distance between her bed and the door felt so long, and after some fumbling, her hand finally found the door handle. She was about to fling it open and rush outside, but what she saw on the other side stopped her dead and made her eyes widen.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” The bed shook as a piercing scream burst out of her mouth. Eshnunna spasmed like an electrified fish before lying flat on the bed. She barely managed to open her eyes again after such a shock.
“Ha—! Haaaa—!” Rough heaving noises came out of her mouth, and even after Eshnunna rolled off her bed, she wriggled in place for a while. She only stopped moving after she looked up to find the room bright with light streaming through her windows. Her breathing slowly calmed, and Eshnunna quickly got to her feet. She rushed to open the window, letting the warm sunlight and everyday hubbub outside wash over her. Her stiff expression relaxed a little after seeing people wander around the streets.
Eshnunna tried pinching her cheek. It hurt.
“Ha...Haaaa…” She lowered her head and fell into deep contemplation. She tended to not remember her dreams after she woke up, but this time, she clearly remembered what had happened at the end. Darkness swept over her bedroom, and when she opened the door to get out… Eshnunna bit on her lower lip and looked behind her.
She saw it then. The door she was sure she had shut was open.
“…” And when she looked down at the threshold of her door, her legs gave out. She sat on the ground… She had thought it was a dream.
With a devastated expression, Eshnunna stayed there, unable to take her eyes away from what lay there.
* * *
“Thank you for the clothes. It was very useful.” Noel went to see Eshnunna that afternoon. After Chi-Hyun left, Noel had paid special attention to her clothing when she went to visit Chi-Woo alone. Since it’d be her first official meeting with Chi-Woo after his identity was revealed, and she had done him wrong in the past, she thought it’d be best if she dressed with care. Unfortunately, there weren’t many clothes to choose from in a ruined world. Thus, after much thought, Noel had gone to Eshnunna for help.
She thought Eshnunna would have at least one or two decent clothes even in this fallen world considering her status, and she was right. Noel got to borrow some better clothes although she was peeved to find the chest area a little loose for her. But anyways, Noel came to return the clothes after washing them. Then she noticed that Eshnunna didn’t look all that great.
“…Yes…” Eshnunna answered her. Worries filled her eyes, and her face looked pale and hollow.
Truthfully, Noel didn’t care much about Eshnunna. Nobles and royalties meant nothing given the circumstances. Noel only treated Eshnunna with respect because the princess was surprisingly down-to-earth and quite influential to the natives. Besides, there was no need to antagonize a princess of a fallen kingdom even if she no longer had much use. Thus, Noel asked after her out of courtesy.
“Did something happen? You don’t look too well, Lady Eshnunna.”
Eshnunna slowly nodded. “I…” Her lips trembled as she hesitated.
“Yes? If you wouldn’t mind confiding in me, please tell me what’s wrong,” Noel said with a soft smile.
Eshnunna began carefully, “Do you perhaps…”
* * *
After Chi-Hyun left, Chi-Woo kept his promise to his brother. He trained and trained some more. However, the task his brother left him with proved to be too difficult. It was noon by the time Chi-Woo completed the basic course. And from then on, outside mealtime, he focused on only one task until it was time to sleep: to crush the boulder as big as a house. As he expected, it wasn’t an easy job.
First of all, since he used mana every time he swung his club, his body quickly became tired. And the fact that he made no progress day by day made him incredibly frustrated. When Chi-Woo first swung with all his mana, he ended up screaming at the top of his lungs because of the sheer counterforce hitting him at contact. His palm felt like it was splitting, while his whole body rang like a gong. Of course, the boulder didn’t budge, nor did Chi-Woo even manage to make the slightest dent.
Chi-Woo wondered if the boulder was a special metal rather than an ordinary rock. He felt gloomy and hopeless, but Chi-Woo continued to swing his club while believing that his efforts would all be worth it someday.
—No. If you practice like that, you’ll never be successful no matter how hard you try.
…Until Philip told him otherwise. Chi-Woo, who had swung his club until the sun set, shifted his gaze to Philip and wiped his sweat. Philip was looking down at him with his arms folded.
‘Why are you being so pessimistic?’
–I’m not trying to hinder you, but telling you the reality.
Philip said calmly.
–Even if you swing hundreds or thousands of times like that, you’ll never be able to even leave a scratch on that rock.
In fact, the rock was entirely unscathed even though he had swung his club more than 10,000 times. There was not even a nail-sized scratch on it.
‘Why do you think that?’ Chi-Woo was a little agitated, but he decided to hear Philip out first.
–You remember what I emphasized to you many times before, right? To think.
Philip readily continued as if he had been waiting for Chi-Woo to ask.
‘Is there anything to think about? I just have to do what I’m told.’
–This training isn’t basic training.
Philip continued calmly.
–It’s two steps after the basic training. Can’t call it basic anymore.
It was okay for Chi-Woo to just do as he was told for the basics, but the situation changed when he went beyond that.
–But most of all, didn’t your brother tell you the same? That you need to be able to think for yourself from now on.
‘That’s…’ Chi-Woo couldn’t say anything because it was true as well.
–Let’s think about the most fundamental aspects first.
Philip cleared his throat.
–Why did your brother tell you to break a big rock of all things?
‘To prevent me from leaving.’
–Correct. However, he also told you that he’ll feel a little more at ease if you can break this rock. Your brother wants you to be safe in this dangerous world, so he wants to build your strength.
Philip was right. Chi-Hyun had told him he should know how to protect himself in case of an unknown danger.
–Then what do you think is that unknown danger?
In Philip’s perspective, Chi-Woo had made significant achievements while staying here. Just the fact that his physical abilities were now rank C was enough to make him one of the strongest heroes on Liber. However, it wasn’t enough to ensure his survival, since there was no shortage of stronger individuals among the four forces ruling Liber.
–In short, your brother is worried about you, and he wants you to get stronger. What do you do if you encounter an enemy stronger than yourself? There’s no one around. You can’t switch with me, and you can’t run away either. You have to deal with them alone no matter what. Then what’s your only choice?
‘…All I can do is kill my enemy.’
–Right. So how do you kill someone stronger than you?
‘…’
–Think harder. Your brother already told you the answer.
Only then did Chi-Woo remember what his brother told him. ‘A single hit.’ Chi-Hyun had told him to break this rock with a single blow.
–Yep. A one-hit special attack.
Philip affirmed softly.
–It’s the only way to flip the odds when fighting a stronger opponent.
Leisure was the privilege of the strong. However, their hubris could lead to carelessness. What if Chi-Woo could use that opportunity to finish his opponent with a single hit?
‘Yes, you’re right.’ Chi-Woo agreed. When Philip borrowed Chi-Woo’s body in the past, he had lowered his opponent’s guard with deception before landing a single explosive blow to secure the upper hand. He did it when he fought Andras as well as Vepar.
–You couldn’t kill Andras or Vepar with one hit because you didn’t have enough power, but it’s different now.
Chi-Woo had grown much stronger, and his exorcism mana was slowly reaching the peak of its current rank, right at the doorstep of rank B. Under the right circumstances, Chi-Woo might now be able to kill enemies like them with one decisive blow.
–Now, how does this rock look to you?
Chi-Woo looked up. ‘An enemy stronger and more dangerous than me that I have to beat with one hit.’
–Yeah, that’s exactly right.
Philip smiled with satisfaction.
–That’s the reason why you have to crush this rock with all your might. The first step of training is to understand exactly why you’re doing it.
…It wasn’t the first time Chi-Woo felt this way, but Philip did give surprisingly good advice, which was very unlike his usual self. Chi-Woo committed his words to heart. ‘But…I can’t crush it even with all my strength.’
–It’s because your method is wrong.
Philip smirked and spun around Chi-Woo.
–All right. It’s time to learn through real-life experience. Turn over your body.
‘?’
–Come on, quickly. You still have your eyesight and hearing when I take over. It’s better to see and hear with your own eyes and ears than hearing about it a hundred times.
Chi-Woo felt reluctant, but he trusted Philip and handed over his reign.
“Hmm. It’s been a while. Wait a minute.’ Philip warmed up and picked up a rock at his feet with his left hand. “Look at this first.” Then he threw the rock into the air.
Whoosh! He swung the club, which spun in his hand. The rock flew far away with a bang. “One more time.” Philip picked up another rock. “Now look at this. Focus.” Philip threw the rock in the air and swung the club again.
Smack! It made a different sound. The rock not only crumbled, but turned into powder and scattered in the air.
‘What?’ Chi-Woo was shocked. Philip had swung the club in the same way, but the results were completely different.
“How is it?” Philip asked with a smile. “Can you tell what’s different?”
Chi-Woo stared out of the eyesight he shared with Philip. He tried hard to think and then realized, ‘I get it!’ For the first swing, the club spun after hitting the stone, but for the second swing, the club hit the stone and then stopped. To be more exact, the club stopped as soon as it hit the stone.
Chi-Woo thought, ‘The club stopped. You pulled it back at almost the same time.’
“That’s right!” Philip whistled. “The answer is timing! And that is what you call a snap punch!”
‘A snap punch?’
“Yeah. Listen. When I swing this club, energy will obviously be generated, right?”
‘Yes.’
“And the moment energy collides, friction causes a loss of momentum.”
‘Yeah.’
“If you’re any legit martial artist, a thought would be popping into your head now—the power that is lost due to friction is so wasteful. How can I deliver my hits with the least amount of momentum lost?”
If one continued to swing their club even after hitting the target, the collision would be prolonged. But what if one pulled back the club as soon as it hit the target? Philip continued, “Then the amount of energy you generate will be fully transmitted to your opponent, which will then lead to higher damage than the case of the first swing.”
Suppose one was swinging a bat with the same force. If the first swing took 0.1 seconds to reach the target, and the second swing took 0.5 seconds, the impact of the former would be five times as powerful as that of the latter. “The bottom line is that the shorter the time it takes for you to reach the target, the greater the impact you can get with the same amount of energy.”
‘Ah…’ Chi-Woo felt like he was kind of grasping the idea, but also not. ‘…It’s hard.’
“What, you’re already having a hard time? What determines impulse is mass, speed, and time. Among them, I’ve only touched on time.” Philip chuckled. “Well, I gave you a clue, so try your best. You have to learn how to do this freely so that you can learn about recoil and elasticity.”
‘Is that so?’
“Yeah. You didn’t understand anything that your friend, Ru Amuh, told you before, right?”
‘When was that?’
“When you used my advice to help him train.” Philip continued, “If you fully understand this concept and implement it, you can probably grasp about 30% of what I said then…” Philip, who had been explaining with excitement, suddenly trailed off and turned around; he felt a presence approaching him.
“What the? She came here again.” It was Noel. “Wasn’t she supposed to visit only once a week?”
Noel, who used to stop by all the time, decided to come once a week after Chi-Woo got angry. It had only been a day since her last visit.
“Uh…wait.” However, as Noel got closer, Philip’s and Chi-Woo’s annoyance subsided; Noel had not come alone. A woman was following her, and Chi-Woo soon recognized her.
“She’s one of your people."
‘Yes, you’re right.’ A question immediately popped up in Chi-Woo’s head, ‘Why is Ms. Eshnunna here all of a sudden?’