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."

relief once I heard her

before, it was

forgive myself if anything happened to

"Let's get going."

he stood up and looked

like it if they see us

"...You're right."

demons approaching in our general

they're

Yufei commented as he stretched

slightly as I

"Yeah."

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

to have short breaks in order to recover our stamina. This was so that they could ensure maximum

breaks weren't long, about ten minutes

other races

the deaths over here

stepped over the corpses

still made my stomach churn, but I simply endured it and headed for the far end

been a lot easier if my

muttered as I

my task faster and more efficiently, but apparently, the ores inside of the boulders reacted negatively to any form of energy and hence why

bullshit, but it wasn't as

"Haaa..."

I walked toward the rocks in the distance with

want to get out of

***

placed their hands

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

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Ready."

their hands on Kevin, she patted

"Alright, do your thing."

twitched as he felt Melissa's

soft

am I, a

"Yes."

clearly

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

hurry up. We don't

"Fine, fine."

pressed 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 long as their vision soon

slowly disintegrated into particles, and they vanished

***

Clank

followed after the all too familiar rock grating sound was complete darkness as I found myself

"Haaa...Haaa.."

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

"Shit."

out a curse while covering my face

is not the time to

the shirt off my body, I sat cross-legged on the floor. Then I started

a time for everything, and now was not the

the exhaustion and pain, as Han Yufei said, my body will continue to improve,

much stronger I would be after learning the skill excited me to no end

"Just you w—"

flashed across the room, forcing me to add more strength to my

"Are we here?"

is it so

the lights

"Where is my cigarette?"

after the

"Huh?!"

jumped up in shock as I recognized

the world is going on