The Author's POV

"Kh...Huuu...huuu..."

My chest burned with every breath I took. The pain was unbearable. It almost felt as though I was breathing fire, but...

"Keep breathing."

The familiar voice and hand pressing against my back prompted me to keep breathing in the same manner as before.

It was hard.

Very hard.

In the process of dropping the boulders into the hole, I almost passed out from overexertion.

It would have been catastrophic if Han Yufei hadn't dragged me away and hidden me in a corner to help me. Fortunately, as this seemed to be a common scene, none of the demons took particular notice of me.

"...You're almost there."

Han Yufei's voice echoed out once more. Clenching my teeth, sweat dripped down from the side of my face as it sizzled on the steaming hot ground.

"Ugh."

Despite the pain, I persisted through the pain as I felt myself progressing. A slow but steady increase in strength and recovery was occurring in my muscles.

In spite of the fact that I had no mana inside my body, my body was slowly recovering.

It was nothing short of miraculous.

"Don't lose focus."

Han Yufei's voice once again echoed inside of my head as he helped me master the first stage of his family martial manual.

[Body Hardening.]

Compared to the other two sections, it sounded like the most lack-luster stage of his martial manual, but I begged to differ.

At the moment, I find it to be the most effective method.

There was a simple reason for this.

'With it, I might be able to increase the power and time of my last skill.'

Limit Breaker.

The most ominous skill that I had, but also my biggest reassurance.

With every use, I knew that I would have to follow my other self's arrangements, but I also knew that I would be able to live longer through this skill.

Especially since I was still quite weak compared to my enemies, and I ended up facing enemies that tended to be way above my rank nowadays.

"There are four phases to the [Body Hardening] method. Bronze body, Silver body, Gold body, and Diamond body. You've currently achieved the Bronze body, and you're close to achieving the Silver body. If you keep practicing as I told you, then you won't have any problems breaking through to the next level any time soon."

I slowly turned around as I felt Han Yufei's hand leave my body.

The sensation of cooling that was coursing through my body vanished at that moment.

'A pity...'

I thought as I slowly stood up and stretched my body.

"How's his condition?"

Crouching down next to Jin and Emma who were sitting not so far from where we were, I carefully examined Smallsnake's condition.

"He seems to be fine."

Emma replied as she examined his body carefully. Placing her finger over his wrist, she closed her eyes for several seconds.

"His heartbeat is a bit weak, and his complexion is a bit pale, but for now, he isn't in any danger. He is just exhausted."

"That's good."

once I heard

I've said before, it was my responsibility to keep Smallsnake

forgive myself if anything

"Let's get going."

he stood up and looked toward

are coming. They won't like

"...You're right."

distance, I saw several demons approaching in our general direction and picked up Smallsnake's body. I

least they're not

Yufei commented as he stretched

I

"Yeah."

a labor camp, the demons were rather lax. Or rather, they weren't stupid to the point

to recover our stamina. This was so that they could ensure maximum performance from

breaks weren't long, about ten minutes long, but

races were also taking short breaks and quietly eating some

over

I stepped over the

stomach churn, but I simply endured it and headed for the far end where the

been a lot easier if my

as I

faster and more efficiently, but apparently, the ores inside of

bullshit, but it wasn't as though I could

"Haaa..."

deeply, I walked toward the rocks in the distance with

to

***

placed their

impatiently looked at the others and checked whether they had placed their hands on Kevin. It was the necessary condition in order for

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Ready."

that everyone had placed their hands on Kevin,

"Alright, do your thing."

twitched as he felt

soft

I, a

"Yes."

nodded, clearly overhearing

Kevin in the head again, she turned to look at the pyramid in the distance

hurry up. We don't have

"Fine, fine."

the air. His actions caused the others to look at each other with a weird look on their faces. However, it didn't last for

into particles,

***

Clank

the all too familiar rock grating sound was complete darkness as I

"Haaa...Haaa.."

was dwindling as I breathed deeply. My body was completely exhausted and I barely felt

"Shit."

curse while covering my face with

is not the time

I sat cross-legged on the floor. Then I started breathing rhythmically, recalling Han Yufei's previous

now was not the time for me

body will continue to improve, and I will soon be able

much stronger I would be after learning the skill

"Just you w—"

a bright light flashed across the room, forcing me to add more strength to my eyelids that were keeping my eyes

"Are we here?"

is it so

the lights are

"Where is my cigarette?"

voices echoed after the bright light as

"Huh?!"

up in shock as I

the world is