NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 10 - The Beginning of Training (2)
Chapter 10. The Beginning of Training (2)
On a hill so steep that even grown men were rumored to rest at least once while climbing it.
At the summit, two middle-aged men had unpacked their bags and were enjoying the breeze.
“Ugh… I can’t do this anymore. After this trip, I need to retire for good.”
“Retire? With that new baby of yours, you need to earn every penny you can! Considering you had a kid at your age, you’re still pretty spry!”
They exchanged trivial jokes, resting their weary bodies from a strenuous journey.
While continuing their idle chatter, one of the men suddenly stopped and turned his head.
“…Hey, don’t you hear something strange?”
“Sound? What sound?”
His companion’s head naturally turned at the unexpected remark.
At first, he was uncertain, but soon he too heard the ‘strange sound’ his companion mentioned.
Squeak- squeak-.
A distinctly annoying noise that grated on their nerves.
The merchants’ eyebrows furrowed in unison.
“What’s that sound?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
As they tried to figure out the source of the noise, they realized one thing.
That was…
Squeak- squeak-.
The bizarre sound was gradually getting louder.
“Is it coming this way?”
“Quick, pack up!”
The fact that the sound was getting clearer meant that something unknown was approaching.
Having wandered the continent for many years, their first instinct was to pack up and stand.
Ready to flee at a moment’s notice.
Just as they hurriedly shouldered their packs, another sound mixed in with the regular noise.
Squeak- groan!
Squeak- moan!
A strange groan following the eerie noise caught their attention.
This sound halted their steps just as they were about to leave.
And soon, the source of the bizarre sound peeked over the hill.
Squeak- groan!
At the summit.
The first thing to appear was a round head with striking black hair.
Squeak-.
Once again, the unpleasant noise sounded.
“Ugh!”
With a painful exclamation, a boy’s face, full of suffering, appeared over the hill as if the sun were rising over the horizon.
He looked so strained that just watching him made the peddlers feel his agony.
Soon, the source of the boy’s struggle became clear.
The merchants blinked in disbelief.
‘Is that… a cart?’
But it wasn’t just any cart.
An old man with a loud and irritable voice was sitting in it.
Squeak-.
“Groan.”
“Complaining so much while pulling just one cart, are you trying to sound like you’re dying?”
“Gasp.”
“You’re going to wet yourself, aren’t you?”
“D-damn… old man.”
“Cluck cluck, haven’t you already wet yourself?”
“D-damn you… old geezer!”
Yuri, a boy with black hair and golden eyes, shouted in frustration, gritting his teeth as he pulled the cart, finally stepping onto the summit of the hill.
Squeak-.
The cart stopped right in front of the two dumbfounded peddlers.
And then,
Thud-.
Yuri collapsed like a corpse.
“Ugh, gasp….”
He lay there, sprawled out, gasping for breath, reaching out pitifully towards the merchants.
“W-w-waterrrr….”
Despite being strangers, the merchants couldn’t ignore Yuri’s trembling hand.
Out of kindness, they quickly approached Yuri and gave him a leather water bottle.
Sluuuurp-.
Yuri drank the water so urgently that the leather bottle shriveled in an instant.
“Ahh!”
After finishing the water in no time, Yuri let out a burp and grabbed the merchant’s hand with teary eyes.
“May… may you be blessed.”
“Hey, are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine. More importantly… how long will it take to get to Chrome Port from here?”
“Chrome? If you walk, it should take about four days.”
“Four days…”
Yuri’s face stiffened slightly at the mention of the four-day journey.
Seeing this, Johan snickered.
“Why? Do you think you can’t make it? Giving up here wouldn’t be so bad.”
“……”
“Tsk tsk, I must have misjudged you. If you can’t even endure this much, what’s the point of living?”
“……”
“Oh dear, how am I ever going to make a useful person out of you?”
“Grr!”
“Just give up and die already. It’d be easier for both of us. If you’re going to quit, do it now. I don’t want to waste any more time.”
Watching Johan squat in the cart, laughing, veins bulged on Yuri’s forehead.
“You damn…”
Yuri gritted his teeth and stood up, trembling.
“Thank you for the water.”
After a brief thanks to the merchants, Yuri grabbed the cart’s handle.
Squeak-.
The cart, which had stopped, began to move forward again with a creak.
Staggering, slowly.
Yuri carefully led the cart down the steep hill.
After the commotion had settled.
“…What on earth just happened?”
“Yeah, I’m wondering the same.”
The two peddlers could only stare blankly at Yuri’s receding figure.
Meanwhile.
Huff- huff-.
Descending the hill, breathing heavily, Yuri ground his teeth.
‘Damn it…’
This didn’t feel right.
No matter how many times he thought about it, it felt wrong.
But he couldn’t complain to anyone.
This was all his own doing.
“Damn it!”
As he spat out a curse, memories of the past three weeks flashed through Yuri’s mind.
Running, walking while pulling the cart, even resting while hanging on the cart.
He even ate and drank while pulling the cart.
Sleep?
He could only close his eyes when he passed out from exhaustion.
To anyone watching, this wasn’t about building stamina; it was madness that would destroy his body.
And indeed, it was true.
Yuri’s body was deteriorating due to his immense soul.
In such a situation, excessive physical training was more harmful than helpful.
But strangely enough.
‘Damn… it’s working?’
Although it seemed like he could collapse and die any moment, Yuri’s stamina was increasing day by day.
On the first day, he couldn’t last two hours before vomiting and passing out, and then he’d drag the cart while retching.
That was his routine for the first few days.
But gradually, as time passed, the frequency of his fainting decreased and the time he spent pulling the cart increased.
By today, climbing the hill had become somewhat manageable.
‘Damn… if only it wasn’t effective…’
Despite feeling like he could die each day, he felt his stamina and health improving.
It was a bizarre phenomenon.
‘I don’t know what the old man did, but this absurd cart-pulling is definitely helping me.’
Given the circumstances, there was no other choice.
He had to pull the cart as instructed.
Of course, Yuri’s determination to pull the cart wasn’t just about the training’s effectiveness; it was also about his pride, his refusal to give up in the face of adversity.
For that reason, despite the old man’s constant nagging from behind, Yuri silently pulled the cart.
“Hey! There’s a bridge ahead! Can’t you move faster? At this rate, when will we ever get to Chrome?”
“……”
“The balance of the body starts from a strong lower half! A strong lower half is crucial for a man! Hrmph!”
“Struggling here, dying… and you’re dirtying my ears with useless talk?”
“Hey! Useless talk? This is valuable advice that will become your strength later! Remember it!”
…Actually, Yuri didn’t just silently pull the cart.
He had tried to destroy the cart several times.
‘Physical pain… I can endure as long as it makes me stronger! That’s my choice.’
But!
‘I can’t stand that damn old man just sitting comfortably while I suffer! I’d rather carry a boulder than let him relax!’
So he decided.
He would destroy the cart.
At least then, the old man would have to walk until they found a new one.
With that in mind, he had tried various ways to destroy the cart.
He took rough paths on purpose.
Threw the cart around without making it obvious.
Even secretly threw big stones at it.
But…
‘Damn! Is this cart made of solid steel?! Why is it so sturdy?!’
Even a cart made of solid steel wouldn’t have withstood such rough treatment for long.
Yet, this old, rotten cart didn’t even get a scratch.
Was this even possible?
‘It must be the old man’s trickery. That’s it!’
Otherwise, there was no way an old wooden cart could last this long.
Gritting his teeth, Yuri thought.
“What are you doing? Did the cart-puller die? Even a crawling worm would be faster than this!”
He vented his frustration at the nagging from behind.
“Aaaah!”
His legs moved faster in response to his shout.
Johan, delighted, cheered from the cart.
“Oh! You finally caught up with a crawling worm! Faster! More!”
“Damn you, old geezer!”
“Back at you, you brat! You take that curse for yourself!”
“Aaaagh!”
With a scream of agony, the old cart sped down the hill.
Heading south towards the Cradle.
* * *
Yuri opened his eyes.
The clear sky filled his vision.
‘I fainted again.’
After three weeks of this, he was used to passing out and waking up.
‘Since it’s still daylight… I must not have been out for long.’
Lately, the time he spent unconscious had been decreasing.
Recently, he had woken up after only an hour.
Common sense said that a body exhausted to such an extent couldn’t recover with just an hour of rest.
But strangely, when Yuri woke up after passing out, his body felt renewed.
Even now.
Before fainting, his limbs had felt like they were weighted down with iron, but now they felt as light as feathers.
“Ahh!”
Stretching widely, Yuri looked at Johan, who was fiddling with his feet while lying in the cart.
‘He must be doing something to my body while I’m unconscious.’
Otherwise, this unnatural recovery was inexplicable.
As he stared at Johan, his eyes half-closed.
“If you’re awake, get moving. What are you doing, just lying there?”
Nagging flew at him as usual, and Yuri quickly began pulling the cart.
He flinched at his reflexive response.
‘Ah… I’ve been brainwashed.’
After three weeks of this, his body moved automatically.
The reality made Yuri feel a surge of sadness.
Of course, that was that.
Despite the sadness, his body continued to pull the cart steadily.
After walking for a while.
“What do you know about the Magic Body Technique?”
For the first time, Johan, who usually only nagged while lying in the cart, brought up a different topic.
A very constructive topic at that.
Slightly surprised, Yuri stammered a response.
“Well… let’s see? I think I know about as much as anyone else?”
“So, what do you know?”
“Well, it developed rapidly when the ancient Easterners settled in this land… The knowledge they passed down mixed with the ancient Magic Body Technique to form the foundation of the technique we use today?”
“Looks like you picked up something from somewhere?”
“Yeah, I heard it from a retired mercenary I met once. I was kind of interested in the Magic Body Technique back then.”
“Oh, really? What else did you learn?”
“That’s about it.”
“……”
“I stopped listening when he asked for money to tell me more.”
“Tsk.”
“Oh! He did say it’s a technique that uses mana, so it’s hard to learn, but if you can master it, you can live off it. Then he told me to hurry and get the money.”
“…You don’t know much, do you?”
“Is that wrong?”
“Well, it’s not entirely wrong. But it’s not entirely right either.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Magic Body Technique is a process of training the body by accumulating mana, rooted in proper martial arts theory, and all acts of exerting magic through the body fall under this term.”
“…Magic?”
“Magic is the measure of the strength that 1 unit of mana can produce. Usually, 1 unit of magic means producing 1 unit of strength with 1 unit of mana.”
“So 100 units of magic means producing 100 units of strength with 1 unit of mana?”
“Oh, you got it?”
“…Who are you calling dumb? Anyway, the higher the magic, the stronger you are?”
“Strength isn’t measured only by magic, but it’s true that magic is a common standard. It’s widely used, including in the Cradle and official tests.”
Johan’s explanation continued.
Even an ordinary person, without any training, could occasionally produce the strength of 1 unit of magic using their innate mana.
With 100 units of magic, one could exert twice the strength of an average adult man.
Only those with over 1,000 units of magic were eligible to take the official 1st-grade test.
Also, measuring magic was expensive, but those from the Cradle could measure it for free as many times as they wanted.
Hearing this basic theory of mana and magic for the first time, Yuri focused intently.
Then, a sudden burst of curiosity.
“So…”
With a straightforward question that anyone might have at least once, Yuri spoke directly.
“What’s your magic level, old man?”