Chapter 78

Rain (1)

I had briefly forgotten that this place was a forest.

What kind of place was a forest?

A place filled with dense trees and grass, along with all kinds of animals.

A treasure trove of an ecosystem where countless plants and animals lived together in balance.

Naturally, rain falling in a place like that was nothing unusual.

The problem was that sometimes it rained far more heavily than expected.

SHWAAAAAAA!

The torrential downpour currently hammering the area outside the cave was exactly that kind of rain.

I had spent the entire dawn circulating my energy, slept for a short while, and then woken up.

In that brief span of time, rain had started pouring down as though a hole had opened in the sky.

“....Wait, wait, wait, wait!”

I stared blankly at the rain for a moment since it had been a while since I’d seen any.

Then I belatedly realized I had a serious problem.

First, there was the smoked food.

Then there was the charcoal.

And finally, all the laundry I had left out to dry.

I had worked hard to gather that charcoal. I couldn’t afford to lose all of it to a single rainstorm.

The smoked food was the same.

If the rain washed away all the salt, I’d be in trouble.

“Ugh.”

Somehow, I managed to retrieve the container of charcoal, the smoked food, and the laundry.

It must not have been raining for very long because none of them were soaked too badly.

Guess I’ll have smoked food for breakfast.

I could eat fish inside the cave, but cleaning up afterward would be a hassle.

And outside activity was impossible anyway.

Even after the rain stopped, moving around would still be difficult.

The soil would obviously turn into mud, and the river would swell.

The rising river was especially troublesome.

I might have to change my plans.

Title) Forced closed-door training begins

Wild Grylls

(Video of the rain pouring outside the cave)

Woke up this morning and it’s raining like fucking crazy, so I’m starting forced closed-door training.

Anyone know how closed-door training actually works?

Honestly, I just heard the term somewhere before, so I don’t really know much about it.

└ Heavenly Demon) Closed-door training.... That is a familiar phrase.

└ Wild Grylls) Do you have any useful tips?

└ Heavenly Demon) One severs all means of communication—even the Gallery—and devotes oneself solely to martial arts.

└ Wild Grylls) That doesn’t sound easy. How long did you do it for?

└ Heavenly Demon) One month. I fell into qi deviation partway through and found myself in grave danger, but thanks to your grace, I survived.

└ Wild Grylls) Cutting myself off from the Gallery might be a little difficult, though;;

└ Heavenly Demon) There is nothing one cannot do with sufficient concentration.

└ SwordMaster) Closed-door training isn’t a bad idea. The problem is that, like the Heavenly Demon said, you’d have to stay off the Gallery.

└ Wild Grylls) Have you ever done it, SwordMaster?

└ SwordMaster) Nope? Except back when I was a Sword User, I’ve never really hit a bottleneck or anything. I just broke through every stage without much trouble.

└ Wild Grylls) ;;

└ Heavenly Demon) What an amusing claim. Then what realm are you at now?

└ SwordMaster) It’s pretty high, but I don’t really feel any need to break through to the next stage.

└ Heavenly Demon) Tsk, tsk. Arrogant fool. You will regret that one day.

└ SwordMaster) I don’t think I’ll have anything to regret. There’s nobody stronger than me anyway, lol.

└ Heavenly Demon) You know neither the height of the heavens nor the terror of nature. Even this lady, though she stands beneath the heavens themselves, still reveres nature.

└ SwordMaster) You really are a martial-arts boomer. I have no idea what you’re even saying.

└ Heavenly Demon) It means you will remain unmarried for the rest of your life.

└ SwordMaster) What the fu— Are you done talking?!

└ Wild Grylls) Teachers;;

└ Damn, she just hit him with the cold hard truth, lol.

└ That’s the verbal skill that comes from years of experience;;

└ So did the Heavenly Demon ever get married?

└ Heavenly Demon) I have never taken a companion. Nor do I have any particular intention of doing so.

└ SwordMaster) How old are you, anyway?

└ Heavenly Demon) I entered my blooming years one year ago.

└ What does “blooming years” mean?

└ “Weak crown” refers to a man at twenty, and “blooming years” refers to a woman at twenty.

└ Bullshit, LOL. You expect me to believe she’s twenty with the way she talks? LOL.

└ She’s obviously just saying that to mess with SwordMaster, lol.

└ At that age and already in the Profound Realm? Give me a break. Even geniuses only enter the Transformation Realm in their mid-thirties.

└ Heavenly Demon) That is because this lady possesses talent bestowed by the heavens.

└ SwordMaster) It’s not impossible. I became a SwordMaster in my early twenties too.

└ Seriously, both of you need to stop bullshitting;;

The comments suddenly became chaotic.

SwordMaster must have gotten genuinely irritated, because he started yelling through the replies.

At this rate, things were going to get weird.

I needed to stop them quickly.

└ Wild Grylls) That’s enough. Anyway, short-term closed-door training is basically pointless, right?

└ Heavenly Demon) It requires at least two weeks before it can truly be called closed-door training. But before that, allow me to ask you one thing.

└ Wild Grylls) Go ahead.

└ Heavenly Demon) Even if you entered closed-door training, are you confident you could refrain from accessing the Gallery?

That part required some thought.

For about three seconds.

└ Wild Grylls) Nope.

└ Heavenly Demon) That was quick.

└ Of course, lol. No way he can give up the Gallery.

└ Forget “three visits to the thatched cottage,” this was “three seconds of consideration,” LOL.

└ Anyone who manages closed-door training while still using the Gallery is the real monster, lol.

If closed-door training meant cutting myself off from the Gallery, then I’d rather just train normally.

I was already starting to miss being around people.

And now I was supposed to give up the Gallery too?

That would be like taking an oxygen mask away from a critical patient.

From the sound of things, closed-door training was something you only did when you had plenty of both time and resources.

I might have had time, but I definitely didn’t have resources to spare.

So it was better not to bother.

I don’t even know when this rain is going to stop.

The rain continued pouring endlessly.

The drops were so heavy that it didn’t look like it would stop anytime soon.

I might end up losing the entire morning to it.

“Wonmo, you’re eating this today.”

“Kyuu!”

Wonmo’s breakfast was monster meat I had bought from the auction house.

Since Wonmo would eat just about anything, he happily dug in.

I ate smoked food for breakfast, while Treefast’s staple food was fasting pills.

As I ate, I stared blankly out of the cave.

It gave me a strangely nostalgic feeling.

I used to like rainy days in the military.

Morning roll call would be held indoors, and most work would also be done inside.

Even if there was training, most of the time we would just watch instructional videos.

Well, there were occasional times when we trained while wearing poncho raincoats.

That had felt absolutely miserable.

I’d even caught a cold once.

Fortunately, our battalion commander had been a generous man and gave me a one-day leave pass.

I still remembered how happy I had been when I got it.

He really had been a good man.

I wonder if the military here is all that different.

This was a world where people fought with swords and magic instead of guns and artillery shells.

A system where a nation’s military strength could rise or fall depending on the power of individual people.

But what I wanted to know wasn’t how strong each country’s military was.

I was curious about how soldiers actually lived.

Since it’s the Gallery, there should be soldiers here too, right?

There was nothing else to do until the rain stopped.

After finishing my internal energy cultivation as well, I logged into the Gallery.

Title) There are soldiers here too, right?

Wild Grylls

What do soldiers do when it rains? Just do roll call indoors and nothing else?

└ Usually you train indoors, but what do you mean by “work”? Why would soldiers be doing labor?

└ Wild Grylls) You don’t clear snow?

└ Ah. You mean cleaning up the garbage that falls from the sky? Yeah, we do that. Clearing leaves out of drainage ditches too.

└ Usually civilians are called in, but if it gets bad enough, soldiers get mobilized too.

└ But why are you asking about soldiers?

└ Wild Grylls) It’s raining, so I can’t do anything. Made me think of my time in the military.

└ ??? You were a soldier?

└ SwordMaster) I knew there was something unusual about you. What unit were you with?

└ Wild Grylls) The Republic of Korea.

└ SwordMaster) Never heard of that name. Is it some remote knight order?

└ Wild Grylls) That’s the name of my country. And I wasn’t a knight. I enlisted, served, and got discharged.

└ SwordMaster) You’re saying weird things again. Still, I’ll believe you.

└ Wild Grylls) I’m serious.

└ Grylls, then tell us the single shittiest thing that happened to you in the military.

└ Wild Grylls) An incident broke out the day before I was supposed to go on leave, so my leave got canceled immediately.

└ Understandable.

└ Yeah, that’d piss anyone off, lol.

└ SwordMaster) But why did you enlist? Was your country at war?

└ Wild Grylls) No. We were under an armistice. It was a divided country.

└ SwordMaster) Damn;; Were you forcibly conscripted?

└ Wait a fucking second. Didn’t you say you were an orphan? Why would they conscript you?

└ That is weird. Why would the military draft an orphan...?

└ Did you come here while your country was at war? If they’re drafting orphans too, things must be pretty serious.

What kind of misunderstanding were these people having?

Our military was pretty damn crazy in its own way, but I had enlisted voluntarily.

Normally, someone in my circumstances would have been exempt, but the military was so short on manpower at the time that they more or less let me through.

I wasn’t going to university either, and I had been drifting around without much direction, so I hadn’t particularly minded enlisting.

└ Wild Grylls) I just enlisted for active duty on my own. Looking back, maybe I should’ve stayed in permanently.

└ Don’tAbandonTheHero) Um... hang in there!

└ Wild Grylls) Why all of a sudden?;;

└ How miserable does your life have to be for even the Mod to say that?

└ No parents. Joins the military. And now he’s stuck in the Forest of Four Seasons.

└ That’s like the complete collection of a hard-mode life, lol.

└ If you think about it, didn’t every single one of those involve risking your life?

Suddenly, a lot of people started feeling sorry for me.

I wasn’t sure exactly what misunderstanding they were under, but whatever.

Still, I guess people live pretty similarly everywhere.

Apparently, the military being shitty was universal.

I chatted with them about various things for a while before looking outside the cave.

The rain seemed to have weakened slightly, but it was still pouring.

It’s getting cold.

Maybe because of the rain, the weather had gone past cool and become downright chilly.

I brought over some suitable firewood and lit a campfire.

Warmth spread through the cave, and a pleasant drowsiness began settling over me.

Wonmo and Treefast also slowly crept closer to the fire and enjoyed the heat.

I might as well train until the rain stops.

Just sitting around doing nothing wasn’t good.

I got to my feet.

If I wanted to handle a sword and shield more smoothly, training was essential.

So I picked up the freshly oiled Heavenly Demon’s Sword and the adamant-something shield—

Patter-patter-patter.

Something small came into my cave.

At first I thought it was a rat, but no.

Its tail was too thick.

“Kiwoong.”

“....”

A raccoon.

For some reason, a raccoon had walked into my cave on two legs.

And once it came in, the first thing it did was hold its paws out toward the campfire.

The whole thing was so absurd that not only I, but even Wonmo and Treefast stared at it blankly.

“...Wonmo. No.”

I quietly stopped Wonmo.

He had started inching toward it.

Judging by the curious look on his face, he seemed ready to hunt it if the chance arose.

But raccoons were one animal I had to be especially careful around.

If I got rabies, it could be the end of me.

I had no idea whether the elixir could cure diseases too, and I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

Treefast will stop him if necessary.

I figured I should just focus on training.

If Wonmo showed signs of trying to hunt it, I’d stop him right away.

Still, what kind of nerve did that raccoon have to just stroll into this cave?

It had even seen all of us, yet it sat there comfortably warming itself by the fire.

Wonder how long it’ll stay.

I occasionally glanced at the raccoon while focusing on my training.

Learning by carefully reading SwordMaster’s posts was both easy and difficult.

His explanations were clear enough, but...

There were obvious limits to learning through text alone.

It might have been different if I had a master standing beside me, but that wasn’t possible.

Still better than nothing.

SwordMaster’s posts were highly regarded, after all.

Just following them properly should give me significant results.

More importantly, since I had decided to go down the sword-and-shield warrior route, I only needed to concentrate on the fundamentals.

The advanced section... no. Just stick to the basics.

I practiced swordsmanship and shield techniques simultaneously through image training.

At the same time, I accelerated the circulation of mana inside my body.

My breathing gradually grew heavier.

I need to make it so breathing automatically absorbs mana.

Absorbing mana simply by breathing.

That was the level I wanted to reach.

If I could do that, then as long as I was still breathing, I would theoretically be able to use mana endlessly.

Of course, it was only a theory.

But the uniquely mana-rich environment of the Forest of Four Seasons might make it possible.

“Haa.”

Even though the cave was cold enough to go beyond chilly, sweat was pouring off me.

I wiped it away with my clothes and looked toward the campfire.

“Hm? Where’d it go?”

The raccoon wasn’t near the fire anymore.

Thinking it might have moved somewhere else, I turned my head.

And then I saw something rather amusing.

“Kihihing.”

“....”

A fasting pill had been wedged between Treefast’s claws.

The raccoon neatly pulled it free—

then scampered away with a gleeful expression.

Treefast had been robbed right under his nose.

Literally.

Tatata!

The raccoon bolted outside at incredible speed.

At some point, the rain had stopped, making it the perfect time to escape.

If things continued like this, I would lose a fasting pill for nothing.

But—

Shhk!

Who was Treefast?

A creature who took food very seriously.

Treefast appeared directly behind the raccoon as though he had teleported.

Stab!

And with the claws I had personally maintained yesterday, he pierced straight through the raccoon’s back.

“Kueeeek!”

That’s what you get for stealing someone else’s food.

I snorted inwardly.

It should have been grateful we let it warm itself by the fire.

I hadn’t expected it to go as far as stealing from us.

Shrrrk-shrrrk-shrrrk!

Treefast must have been seriously pissed.

Piercing it with his claws apparently wasn’t enough.

He tore it to pieces.

The result was a raccoon corpse reduced to scraps and scattered chunks.

The funniest part was that even after all that, the fasting pill remained completely intact.

“Nom nom nom.”

Wonmo happily ate the remains of the raccoon.

It was the very definition of the law of the wild.

I shook my head and muttered to myself.

You reap what you sow.