The beginning was faint.
He felt warmth.
It felt like body heat passing from the palm pressed against his back, and it began to split finely and spread through his blood vessels.
[By nature, martial arts can surpass the limits innately set for the living thing called a human only if one contemplates and controls oneself from a time when the body is not yet turbid. In that context, a body already past twenty is good for nothing. Those who enter late usually learn evil martial arts and demonic arts to solve the problem of years, but a method with clear limits will one day become a stumbling block on the Savior's path.]
FSSSH.
The warmth spread.
From two branches to four.
From four branches to eight.
As the eight branches of energy spread to sixteen, Kim Tae-seong felt warmth sweeping through his entire body.
[I will burn my own qi to rid your whole body of impure qi.]
"Khup."
He swallowed a groan.
Suddenly his whole body burned hot.
[The process of burning and expelling impure qi comes with considerable pain. But if you overcome all of this pain and achieve what you seek, though it will not match the blessing of receiving Marrow Cleansing at a young age, it can create a body sufficient to learn and receive martial arts.]
WHOOOOSH.
The heat gradually boiled up.
The more Namgung Cheol explained, the more intense the pain grew.
[Remember this moment. Do not merely endure; cram the flow of my qi as it passes into your mind. The flow of qi will show you the direction ahead, and waves repeated by your own will rather than another's will create a 'great sea' in the Savior's qi center.]
It was fierce.
It was no longer warmth.
Scorching lava shook his whole body as it rushed through.
And then.
KABOOM-!
"Kheuk."
Tremendous pain struck his head.
It was the shock of the impure qi piled layer upon layer in his vessels being toppled and burned, and Kim Tae-seong, eyes glaring wide, barely swallowed his groan. Do not let out any breath beyond a groan. At the warning that otherwise the tower being built could come crashing down, he tried somehow to endure this moment even as his body trembled.
Namgung Cheol's plan went that far.
Just this much pain.
Just this much result.
But at what came after toppling the impure qi, his eyes changed.
'His insides are sturdy.'
Kim Tae-seong was D-Grade.
By murim's standard, he was not even second-rate.
With such a feeble physical condition, the body failing to endure would be normal, but by chance he had acquired Platinum-grade Body Enhancement just before coming over here. Thanks to that, his body held up even against the intense shock. It hardly wavered, and as though a breakwater had been raised along the inner walls of his vessels, it doggedly held back the fierce waves of lava.
It was ironic.
A body this strong.
Normally, it should have been exposed to mana.
Kim Tae-seong was unusual.
Drifting around D-Grade with meager talent, his exposure had been low, and having just used Body Enhancement, his whole body was 'still' in an unstable state not yet adjusted to it. That very instability led directly to an opportunity. Before the foundation was set, there was room for Namgung Cheol to intervene directly.
[Normally, this is where it would end, but.]
Namgung Cheol conveyed his firm resolve.
[Just ten minutes. Endure for ten more minutes.]
Namgung Cheol's words.
There was no way to answer.
And no time to answer.
The instant he registered the words.
KABOOM-!
KRA-KA-KA-KA-KAK!
A tremendous shock surged from within.
Beyond glaring wide, the blood vessels in his eyes popped one after another, and Kim Tae-seong, face trembling, clenched both fists tight.
'......Fuuuuck.'
This situation.
He roughly understood it.
He had heard that martial arts skill users had special methods of growth.
With Namgung Cheol, who had learned true martial arts, granting him a miraculous encounter, he swallowed the pain through gritted teeth, driven by sheer spite.
His late father.
It had not been an ordinary death.
That moment, which had become taboo in the household, Kim Tae-seong and his family could not forget.
He had been killed by a monster.
The pained groans of his father, who had stepped forward to protect the family, were vivid, and because of that he could not give up the hunter's path despite his meager talent. No matter how great one's wealth and power, the moment one faced a monster, one was still a mere, feeble human.
This was a chance.
His reddened eyes looked reality in the face.
'He says you'll get stronger. Fuck, Tae-seong. He says you can get stronger.'
He bit into the inside of his mouth.
With blood flowing from the cheek flesh crunching between his teeth, he forcibly controlled his madly trembling body.
The relationship with the murim martial artists.
It was a clear deal.
The shopping?
Thinking of the baby?
Individualism dressed up as goodwill.
Because they benefited him, he had recognized for himself the need to look after them and put it into action.
Bluntly, if they had been of no use?
Kim Tae-seong would not have shown such care.
He did not consider that cold.
He knew that Namgung Cheol's attentiveness toward him also came from the same mind as his own.
Because he put himself first.
He did not want to sacrifice.
He did not want to take risks.
But paradoxically, that was exactly why he could not let go of this absurd straw of a miraculous encounter.
GRIP.
He seized the straw.
In his head.
He replayed the image of Namgung Cheol.
Namgung Cheol's might, overwhelming a tower he himself had never dared attempt, told him every moment why he had to bear this sickening, painful moment.
KABOOM-!
His head shook.
Blood trickled down from his nose.
BOOM BOOM, the pain repeated.
He could not tell how much time had passed.
Around the time his tenacious will had been whittled and whittled down until its gaunt skeleton showed, a feeble will popped out.
It was pain beyond imagining.
Pain with no telling when it would end.
He felt he could not hold out any longer.
His lips quivered.
Just as the will holding up his body was about to collapse.
[You have done well.]
KABOOM-!
CRUMBLE.
Something fell.
At the same time, Kim Tae-seong's mind was swept up in a wave and drawn somewhere.
His last memory of that moment was.
[The name of the cultivation method you learned today is the Namgung Clan's Azure Firmament Grand Expansion Method.]
A tale from a dimension beyond, unfamiliar to Kim Tae-seong.
How much time had passed?
When he opened his eyes with a grimace, a refreshing feeling wrapped his whole body, so much that the painful memory seemed unbelievable.
"Nngh."
"Are you all right?"
"......What happened?"
"You fainted and remained unconscious for five straight hours. As you can see, I have been at your side all that time."
It was Namgung Cheol.
He was dazed.
He could not quite take in the present situation yet.
Regardless, Namgung Cheol added.
"Because you endured ten more minutes, I was able to expel the impure qi from your whole body completely. It did not achieve the likes of Body Reformation, but you should be free to some extent from the physical constraints a latecomer must suffer. Do you remember the name of the cultivation method?"
"I heard it was the Azure Firmament Grand Expansion Method."
"Yes. It is the cultivation method that forms the root of our clan, a martial art so stable that, like the wide sky, it does not lose its clear color even while holding countless constraints and problems. I have written down a simple way to circulate it, so recalling the sensations you experienced today, you must circulate your qi twice a day, morning and evening. It will be difficult and time-consuming at first, but if you do not ceaselessly hone the channels you barely secured, then, as late as you began, the vessels of your whole body will soon turn turbid again."
"......Got it."
He received the booklet.
Having decided to learn martial arts.
He had no intention of letting Namgung Cheol's advice go in one ear and out the other.
"Savior. Do you know how long it took our world to challenge the fiftieth floor?"
"I'm not sure."
"Fifteen years."
"!?"
He was surprised.
The first calamity was in 2020.
Years had passed since, and it was now 2038.
Which meant that present humanity had barely reached the twentieth floor over about eighteen years, while the monsters of the E-031 dimension had reached the fiftieth in less time than that. It was effectively an absurd pace, and he could feel in numbers what the regret Namgung Cheol spoke of meant.
"The reason we could climb the tower so quickly was not thanks to the rewards the tower granted. We were strong in ourselves alone. The martial arts I have taught you are that kind of power. So."
Their eyes met.
Namgung Cheol's eyes showed earnest feeling.
"Drive and train yourself without rest. This power that led us to the fiftieth floor will show the Savior a clear path ahead."
THUD.
CREAK, CRK.
When he collapsed onto the mattress, the mattress's distinctive spring noise rang loudly in his ears.
"......I'm going to croak."
He let out a groan.
A little while ago.
Kim Tae-seong's link time had ended.
Sprawled on the mattress, he held a few booklets up before his eyes.
The 'Azure Firmament Grand Expansion Method' was not all he had received from Namgung Cheol.
Boundless Azure Firmament Sword Technique.
Heavenly Thunder Footwork.
Exploding Thunder Divine Fist.
He had taught him three martial arts.
Time was short so he could not explain them in detail, but he had advised him to hone them with the cultivation method as the foundation.
"The Savior's opportunities to come to our world are limited. So when we go over there, if there is no special purpose, we will teach you martial arts. Whether it is me or anyone of the Namgung Clan. Any member who has learned the Namgung Clan's martial arts will help the Savior's progress with all sincerity."
Martial arts training.
It did not have to be in the E-031 dimension.
Namgung Cheol had laid the groundwork, so he could receive teaching through means like Summon.
At this moment.
Kim Tae-seong's chest swelled.
Not only because he had learned the cultivation method.
Of the four booklets, one captured his gaze.
[Boundless Azure Firmament Sword Technique]
The climb with Namgung Cheol.
Namgung Cheol had unleashed the Boundless Azure Firmament Sword Technique.
Whenever he recalled that intense moment, a thrill could not help but run through his whole body.
It meant that power would become his own.
A thought also struck him.
'But I heard that among martial arts skill holders there are people who learned the Namgung Clan's martial arts. They're different dimensions, so could the roots be the same? If the roots are the same and they use martial arts of the same form, what difference would there be between martial arts learned through a skill and martial arts passed down directly?'
There was no knowing.
Martial arts skills were on the rare side in Korea, so there was no particular way to look into it either.
He sorted his thoughts.
Five minutes before the link ended.
Kim Tae-seong had used the leveled-up Salvation skill.
As a result, the Green Field doubled from roughly sixteen hundred square meters to roughly thirty-three hundred.
And he gave Sama Pung the mana cigarettes.
Whereupon.
"Kyaa-. How fine."
"My moneybags. That was a fine deal."
"I shall tell our old monsters that you are a reasonable friend."
With the sight of him drawing hard on a mana cigarette, his time in the E-031 dimension came to a close.
Every day was truly different.
A few days ago.
Back when he was still a member of A Squad, he had lived through repetitive days, struggling desperately to break out of D-Grade. But now every day was a big event. He was toppling towers he had never dared attempt, growing stronger fast with rewards won like a jackpot, and that singularity let him dream of a bright future.
A memory he had tried hard to turn away from.
If only so as never to repeat the moment he lost his father, Kim Tae-seong had no intention of throwing this chance away.
So there was much to do.
Martial arts training was daily routine.
And he had to climb the tower.
The cooldowns of Summon and Conscription had been reset, so there was no time to sit still.
He packed his things.
He planned to continue with the Floor 11 climb from a climb point he had set up separately.
It was then.
BZZZZ.
His phone rang.
An unsaved number.
He ignored it and put it in his pocket, but the call cut off and then it gave a short buzz.
'A text? Who is it?'
Suspicion rose.
Just in case, he took out his phone and checked.
[This is Park Gi-cheol of the Intelligence Agency. Could I meet with you briefly on a matter concerning national security? Simply sparing a moment of your time will be well rewarded.]
"......The Intelligence Agency?"
The deeply bewildering message stopped Kim Tae-seong in his tracks.