Carving the Hardship into Bones
***
The middle-aged man paid no mind to Han Yu-jin's reaction.
When he raised his hand and waved it, a cluster of silvery-white light sparkled strangely. Immediately after, a tremendous gust of wind raged and sent Han Yu-jin flying into the air.
The scream that tried to escape was blocked by a sensation that seemed to crush his entire body.
The noise of the raging gale was as immense as a thunderclap, making his mind go hazy.
Even in the midst of that, Han Yu-jin realized he was crossing above the forest at a terrifying speed.
He also caught a glimpse of the middle-aged man standing beside him with his hands clasped behind his back.
To be able to send a person flying like this while also flying through the air himself!
While he was in shock, he thought he suddenly saw a large, splendid palace up ahead.
But before he could get another look, he collided with the rapidly approaching ground and went tumbling head over heels.
"Huuuk…"
It was truly one of the most painful moments of his life.
It was a miracle he hadn't died after falling at such a speed. It was surely because the middle-aged man had provided some minimal protective measures.
"Stop whining and get up."
At the cold tone of voice, Han Yu-jin forgot his groaning and instinctively got to his feet.
After being handled so ruthlessly once, the fear of the man made his body move on its own.
He knew that even if he died, he would just wake up in reality, but he couldn't calm down at all.
The middle-aged man, who seemed to have seen right through Han Yu-jin's state of mind, let out a slight sneer and began to walk ahead.
After a moment's hesitation, Han Yu-jin scrambled to follow him.
The large, wide halls and corridors of the palace were decorated in all sorts of ways and were very eye-catching. But Han Yu-jin couldn't properly admire them.
It was because the lingering pain in his body, the fear resulting from it, and the shame and anger that were slowly beginning to bloom were churning all around in his head.
'This son of a bitch…'
He couldn't dare to say it out loud, but all kinds of curses swirled within him.
Just the pain he was feeling in his body right now was enough to make his ill feelings explode.
If he had his way, he wanted to beat the man to a pulp so he would suffer just as much.
No, it felt like his heart would only be at ease if he beat him more than twice as much.
'If I just get power, I will definitely…'
How long had he walked, buried in his own emotions?
The place they arrived at was a corridor that felt a bit desolate, not splendid like the previous places.
The huge, grayish-white door at the end of the corridor gave off an oppressive feeling and looked as if it couldn't be opened or closed easily.
Just as Han Yu-jin hesitated with an instinctive sense of foreboding, the middle-aged man moved without hesitation and opened the door.
The scene revealed inside was certainly dark and filthy.
The moment he realized there were about forty people there, a foul stench wafted out, making Han Yu-jin instinctively step back.
It felt like even a gathering of homeless people wouldn't produce a stench like this.
The smell of feces and urine was also mixed in, making it seem like he would get sick just by breathing.
"Get in."
"…You want me to go in here?"
As Han Yu-jin asked back, his tone full of refusal, he looked inside again. To be precise, he looked at the state of the people inside.
Almost all of them were wearing clothes like rags, and even their sitting or lying postures were not normal.
Even those who seemed relatively normal all had gloomy expressions, exuding the feeling of people at the end of their rope.
"It's dirty, but try to bear it for a little while. There are only a few days left until the initiation."
Suddenly, Han Yu-jin realized that the middle-aged man's response was abnormally kind.
Just as he turned his head, wondering what kind of scheme the man had.
The vision of those bright red insects squirming unfolded in the eyes he met. And this time, it didn't just stop there.
His vision distorted strangely, and it seemed as if the middle-aged man's eyes were growing infinitely large. In tandem, the squirming illusion within them also grew larger and thus clearer.
Immediately after, before he could even feel a sense of crisis, they burrowed into Han Yu-jin's 'mind'.
He screamed as he fell and rolled on the ground.
Every time he tried to think or make a judgment about something, the bright red insects would appear and devour his brain, his thoughts, his soul, silencing them.
No matter what action he tried to take, his mind was completely filled with those insects.
Looking down at the struggling Han Yu-jin, the middle-aged man let out a sneer mixed with contempt.
"Consider yourself lucky. If you achieve a good result in the initiation, that will become your power."
Then, a wind blew and threw Han Yu-jin into the stench-filled space.
As the door closed and the gazes of the people inside flew and landed on him, he couldn't perceive his surroundings at all.
Time passed after that.
Having stopped even struggling, Han Yu-jin, who had become almost an imbecile, only trembled intermittently according to the agitation of the insects that filled his mind.
Fortunately, the people who were already there did not touch Han Yu-jin at all, clearly being cautious as he was someone the middle-aged man had brought in personally.
Of course, Han Yu-jin was in no state to infer such a fact.
Time continued to flow, and finally.
The day of the initiation the middle-aged man had spoken of arrived.
The door, which had always been firmly shut except when a newcomer arrived, opened, and people wearing robes that looked like a wizard's entered.
They were similar to the middle-aged man's but felt much more simplified.
They frowned and spat curses at the foul stench, but they led the waiting people somewhere.
Those who couldn't move properly, like Han Yu-jin, were levitated into the air with magic and transported directly.
The place they arrived at after walking for about half an hour was a vast hall, and a huge object visible in the center of the hall captured everyone's attention.
It was a murky, dark brown overall, but it was surrounded by a faint, dark purple glow, making it feel very mysterious.
It was to the point that even Han Yu-jin, who was in a state no different from an imbecile, couldn't take his eyes off the sphere.
The middle-aged man, who had appeared from who knows where, began to take charge and control the hall.
Then, he suddenly stopped in front of Han Yu-jin, who was staring blankly at the sphere, and clicked his tongue.
"Let's start with this one."
Soon.
Han Yu-jin was made to walk with creaking steps towards the dark brown sphere in the center of the hall by a magical force.
As his hand, lifted powerlessly by an instinctive sense of foreboding, touched the surface of the sphere, it rippled and sparkled with all sorts of bizarre colors.
Immediately after, a tremendous suction force pulled him into the sphere.
An enormous pain crushed and destroyed even the illusion of the insects that had filled his mind.
He instinctively let out a scream-filled wail and struggled purely out of survival instinct.
But the next moment.
A transcendentally overwhelming 'gaze' that made him stop all resistance was felt.
It was watching.
It was watching him.
That which was so massive, so colossal that he couldn't even perceive a fraction of a fraction of it, was looking down on him.
It felt as if his soul was not just being crushed and pulverized, but was crumbling into dust.
At the same time, all the spiritual structures that made up the person known as Han Yu-jin crumbled along with it.
Only the gaze.
That was all that remained, pressing down on Han Yu-jin, pressing and pressing until it made him into a tiny dot, and it felt as if even that dot was continuously being pressed until it completely disappeared.
"Tsk."
At that moment, someone clicked their tongue and looked down at Han Yu-jin, who had been left as nothing but an empty shell.
Sometime during the ordeal, he had been flung out of the sphere and was now sprawled on the floor, and the middle-aged man standing next to him wore a very displeased expression.
"I had high hopes because he was a rare, pure soul with an attitude that seemed to be hiding something… but he was just pure trash."
After lamenting, he commanded a subordinate standing beside him.
"Take him and use him as a blood provider. Still, it's a body that has completed the initiation, so make sure to keep it alive as long as possible."
"Yes, Bishop-nim."
As he was dragged away by an unseen force, Han Yu-jin's dead eyes captured the sight of the middle-aged man turning his back as his last image.
And then.
[You have been completely neutralized.]
Mysterious silver letters floated up, and his surroundings were rapidly plunged into a hollow darkness.
Please select your reward.
<><><>
"Aaaaaaaargh…!!"
Letting out a scream like a cry of agony, Han Yu-jin came to his senses.
It was that very space, filled with darkness all around, where he could select his reward.
Sitting up with only his upper body, he breathed heavily, then unable to hold back a sudden surge of nausea, he bent over and retched with enough force to empty his stomach.
But surprisingly, that state of panic did not last long.
It was thanks to the series of memories, more than enough to leave a trauma, quickly fading to a level that was just barely endurable.
Of course.
Nevertheless, they were such horrific experiences that it was impossible to completely regain his composure.
He was merely at a point where he could barely grasp the situation and console himself.
"Kugh…!"
Suddenly, anger and hatred towards the middle-aged man who had inflicted such immense pain upon him rose up like boiling lava from the depths of his chest.
He was so angry that no curse or shout could escape his lips.
He had never even imagined that he would experience such atrocious pain in his life. And he hadn't even committed any sin deserving of it!
If he didn't repay this debt, it would surely remain as a bitter grudge in his heart for the rest of his life.
Someday, I will definitely return today's pain twofold.
He made a vow, repeating it over and over while gritting his teeth so hard they could break.
Only after lying hunched over for a long time could he barely calm down.
"Hoo…"
With one last deep breath, he slowly raised his body and stared blankly at the reward floating in the air.
Even though he had just been helplessly beaten down, there was something that could be called a reward.
It was the illusion of the bright red insects, which made him flinch just by looking at them.
'I was lucky.'
Even while looking at the illusion that gave him a horrific feeling, he forced himself not to turn his head away.
'It's a good thing my awakened ability is so outstanding; if it weren't, I would have…'
His soul would have been shattered, and he would have been used as a 'blood provider' for many years, his lifespan greatly reduced. Or even if that wasn't the case, he might have been left with a tremendous trauma and become a wreck of a person.
He was once again grateful for the level of his ability and scolded himself for his own complacency.
That was the reason he forced himself to stare at the illusion of the blood-red insects that gave him such a horrific feeling.
He had to carve this lesson into his bones.
He should no longer hope for a fluke, and even if he could be perfectly safe, he must be careful and then be careful again every time he used his ability.
He truly never wanted to go through something like this again. If he experienced it repeatedly, some negative influence might remain despite the effect of the memories fading.
He whipped himself for a long time while looking at the insect illusion.
How much time had passed?
Utterly exhausted, he came to want to return to his old but very safe one-room apartment.
The moment he wished for it, he was once again able to open his eyes and wake up in his bed in reality.
"..."
After staring blankly for a moment, he checked the time on his smartphone. It was a little past noon, so about six hours had passed.
Though his mind and body were both tired as if he had fought a fierce battle, he got up and prepared lunch as faithfully as he could.
It was because he really, really wanted to eat this lunch.
His plan was to think carefully while eating slowly.
What kind of wish he should have to successfully visit a safe and promising world, and in what way he could thoroughly eliminate dangers like the one he just faced.
'As expected, they say there's nothing easy in the world.'
He couldn't stop the sigh that suddenly escaped.
It really wasn't easy.
---
[read the full novel on - noveldex.io]