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 her

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

if anything

"Let's get going."

he stood up and looked

coming. They won't like

"...You're right."

approaching in our general direction

they're not

Yufei commented as

I

"Yeah."

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

were allowed to have short breaks in order to recover our stamina. This was so that they

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

from the other races were also taking short breaks and quietly eating some of the strange

guess all the deaths over here are mostly from

I stepped over the corpses beneath

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

easier if

as I

sealed, I would've been able to finish my task faster and more efficiently, but apparently, the ores inside of the boulders reacted negatively to any form of energy and

as though I

"Haaa..."

toward the rocks in the distance with Smallsnake on

really want to get

***

their hands

on Kevin. It was

"Yes."

"Yup."

"Ready."

had placed their hands on Kevin, she

"Alright, do your thing."

twitched as

a soft voice,

am I,

"Yes."

clearly overhearing

she turned to look at the pyramid in the distance

up. We don't have much

"Fine, fine."

to face the pyramid and pressed the air. His actions caused the others to look at each other with a weird

slowly disintegrated into particles, and

***

Clank

all too familiar rock grating sound was complete

"Haaa...Haaa.."

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

"Shit."

a curse while covering my face

is not the time to

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

was not the time for me to relax. I had

Han Yufei said, my body will continue to improve, and I will soon be able to progress

after learning the skill excited me to no end as my eyes

"Just you w—"

flashed across the room, forcing me to add more strength

"Are we here?"

it

lights are

"Where is my cigarette?"

after the bright light as

"Huh?!"

jumped up in shock as

world is going on